Alma Papić

Increasing the quality of policymaking about investments in sport in the EU

The iSport project aims to contribute to the overall goals of the Europe 2020 Strategy by promoting the principles of good governance in policy formulation on all levels – in local and regional communities, on a national and an EU level – in order to increase the quality of policies and to promote making of decisions about investments in sport based on the evidence of the potential of sport to tackle societal and economic challenges which requires a better understanding of the role of sport as a driver for economic growth and employment.

During the three-year implementation period 2018-2020, the consortium of ten organisations based in EU Member States (Croatia, Austria, Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal and UK) is going to work together on a collection, analysis and promotion of data that can contribute to policy formulation. Through cross-sectoral cooperation between academics, researchers, the sport movement and public authorities, the consortium is going to develop the guidelines on investments in sport and recommendations to policymakers in order to improve the level of knowledge on investments in sport. The aim is to promote a wider understanding of the crucial role of sport as a driver for growth and employment in the context of national and regional policymaking as well as of the Europe 2020 Strategy. To that aim, key stakeholders on national levels in participating countries will be involved in a number of activities designed specifically for those who are formulating policies on all levels of governments and in all sectors.

The dialogue on policy formulation will be opened at national conferences. Representatives of the public sector in the EU Member States will be invited to take part in a discussion about the guidelines on investments in sport. Their input will contribute to the development of the recommendations to policymakers. Planned dates of the national conferences are:

Austria, 05/03/2019

Croatia, 07/05/2019

Portugal, 02/07/2019

Lithuania, 03/09/2019

UK, 05/11/2019

Luxembourg, 28/01/2020

Cyprus, 10/03/2020

Planned date of the final conference is 02/06/2020.

The first activity that will take place is the kick-off meeting of the members of the iSport team, scheduled for mid-February.

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Improving the knowledge of experts in the field of sport economy

Researchers in the iSport project participated in the workshop organised by SportsEconAustria Institute for Sport Economy on 5 March 2018 in Vienna, Austria.

The lead researcher Guenther Grohall, supported by Anna Kleissner, presented the research methodology that was developed as the first step towards the creation of guidelines on investments in sport and recommendations to policy makers.

A day full of theoretical and practical work concluded with a discussion and adoption of the final methodology to be used in the Study on the economic effects of an investment in sport.

The study, as the next step in the implementation of the project, will be carried out in 7 participating countries: Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, United Kingdom.

By the end of the workshop, researchers agreed on the research methodology and were ready to start working on the study upon return to their countries.

We asked the lead researcher Guenther Grohall to comment on the expected impact of this research.

“All the knowledge gathered during the implementation of the project will be used to derive recommendations for policy makers. The current situation in the researched countries can be described as highly heterogeneous. Future researchers are encouraged to derive their own recommendations and compare them with the ones that will be presented in the study”, said Guenther Grohall. “Setting-up a network of researchers exchanging their recommendations, and adding, revisiting and /or adopting them seems like a good idea in order to make the situation more systematic”, he concluded.

Regardless of the complexity of the research ahead of the iSport team, the expertise and experience of people on the team are a guarantee of a highly successful outcome.

The next step is to conduct the Study on the economic impact of an investment in sport.

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Meeting of the members of the iSport team

The iSport project team met for the first time on 6-7 February 2018 in Zagreb, Croatia. The kick-off meeting was the opportunity to present the project activities and partner organisations, as well as the individual team members representing partner organisations in the project.

The iSport team consists of experts in the field of sport economy, sport science and education, public institutions. Some of the team members (e.g. Anna Kleissner, Guenther Grohall, Themis Kokolakakis, Richard Anner) were members of the EU Expert Group on Sport Statistics and Economy. Their expertise in the field of sport economy is crucial for the success of the iSport project. We have asked them what they think about the expected impact of the project on participating countries and the EU as a whole, and this is what they said.

“Sport Satellite Accounts are a valuable tool that gives us important information about the potential of sport to boost the economy on national and EU levels. We are planning to use this wealth of information to exploit it further and create a new set of information that can be applied by policy makers in participating countries”, said Guenther Grohall, the lead researcher in charge of the development of the research methodology.

“Research methodology”, Anna Kleissner added, “enables us to conduct the Study on the economic impact of an investment in sport. This study will provide the indicators for investments in sport infrastructure, but it will also indicate the economic effect of such investments on an EU level, which is a valuable information for those who make decisions about such investment in the EU institutions.”

Impact of the iSport project was discussed at the kick-off meeting, especially in relation to the policy formulation and evidence-based decision-making about investments in sport which has the potential of sport to tackle societal and economic challenges which requires a better understanding of the role of sport as a driver for economic growth and employment.

The next activity is the workshop for researchers to be organized by SportsEconAustria.

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.