STEPS - Advancing Sustainable Youth Performance Sport: an interdisciplinary research collaboration network

Purpose and aim of STEPS

The scientific purpose of this research collaboration is to advance the current state of knowledge on sustainable development of performance in and through organized youth sport by integrating multi-disciplinary, multi-paradigmatic, and practitioner perspectives in this research field. 

To reach our aim, we will:

• establish a multi-disciplinary collaboration network with researchers who hold the expertise of relevance for the development of sustainable youth performance sport,
• discuss the integration of multi-disciplinary and multi-paradigmatic knowledge on youth performance sport to create a common ground for joint research,
• develop a research plan for sustainable development interventions in youth performance sport to prepare for joint research grant applications, and
• establish a network with clubs and federations to collaboratively develop sustainable development interventions in selected sports.  

Past activities

• 2023-09-27  Conference: Sport Coaching for Sustainable Youth Sports
  Collaboration network meeting #2 for coaches, leaders, athletes and researchers. The conference is hosted at Gothenburg university. Ulrika Sandmark, CEO Swedish Swimming Federation, Karin Torneklint, CEO Swedish Bandy Association, and Associate professor PhD. Shane Pill (Flinders University, Australia) are the guest speakers who will inspire and share research within the topic of the conference.
• 2023-01-27  Conference: Sustainable Youth Performance Sport 
  Collaboration network for coaches, leaders, athletes and researchers
• 2022-12-14  Hybrid workshop 4: Methodologies for sustainable youth sport research
  A critical viewpoint on injury prevention: what works best for whom under which circumstances
  Rasmus Østergaard Nielsen, Assoc. Professor Aarhus University, Denmark
  Research collaboration with practitioners 
  Stefan Grau, Professor, Gothenburg University
• 2022-11-24  Hybrid workshop 3: Learning Environments and Coaching
  Conceptualising sustainability: a socio-ecological/educational perspective
  Arjen Wals, Professor of Transformative Learning for Socio-Ecological Sustainability, Wageningen UR UNESCO Chair Social Learning for Sustainability
• Towards sustainable sporting cultures: Some reflections
  Natalie Barker-Ruchti, Assoc. Professor Örebro universitet
• Coaching and sustainable athlete development 
  Christian Thue Bjørndal, Associate professor at Norwegian School of Sport Science 
• 2022-10-28  Hybrid workshop 2: Injury prevention
  Protecting athletes' health - a multi-level task. Swedish Athletics
  Dr. Jenny Jacobsson Guest researcher at the Athletics Research Center, Linköping University
• 2022-09-30  Hybrid workshop 1: Sustainability and youth sport
  Health for performance: why we must flip the focus
  Dr. Boris Gojanovic, Medical director at Swiss Olympic Medical Centre, Geneva, CH
• Youth sport and sustainable development: conceptualisations, policies and practices 
  Dr. Iain Lindsey, Associate professor in sport policy, and development with focus on youth sport policy, at Durham University, UK
• 2022-09-29  SDG workshop
  Sustainability officer at Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development 
  Eddi Omrcen, Göteborgs universitet 
• 2022-05-06  Workshop: Conceptualising sustainability
• 2022-03-25  Kick-off workshop: Conceptualising Sustainability: An interdisciplinary perspective on Youth Performance Sport

Read more about past activities (gu.se) (in swedish)