FIND ME project: University Dual Career Opportunities

Logroño, La Rioja, Spain. 8 May 2024

In the last years, the interest in dual career topics increased enormously in the European Union (EU), leading to several initiatives in different countries aimed to develop dual career programs. According to European Union (EU)’s lexicon, the term dual career describes “an athlete that combine, without unreasonable personal effort, their sporting career with education and/or work in a flexible way through high-quality training in order to protect their moral, health, educational and professional interests without compromising either objective, with a particular focus on the continued formal education of young athletes (European Commission, 2012)”. Thus, dual career programs aim to allow student-athletes (SAs) to combine education and high-performance sport. A dual career program is needed since both activities are time and energy demanding and often require travelling or living abroad for long periods. Without support, athletes may find themselves in the situation of having to choose between study and sport, thus compromising his right to an education. To date, each country in the EU is addressing the issue with their own methods.

The primary aim of the FIND ME project is to structure an evidence-based European platform specifically tailored for dual career at university level, in line with the recommendations of the EU Guidelines on Dual Careers of Athletes (European Commission, 2012). The partners of the FIND ME consortium will bring together a solid experience in dual career networks at national, European, and International networks, the involvement in the European Minimum Study on the minimum quality requirements for dual career services and in the Research for cult committee qualifications/dual careers in sports, the participation in the More Then Gold guidelines as well as in several European dual career projects, and the Italian dual career university platform.

The impact of FIND ME is related to the enhancement of the number of sportspersons pursuing a higher degree and the reduction of their academic and/or sport dropouts as a consequence of an informed and conscious choice.

FIND ME Project will also impact on:

  • Advancing the European cooperation, which is considered a best practice and to be exploited in light of the educational mission of the participating organizations.
  • Increasing the competences for sharing experiences and knowledge to improve online services for students.
  • Increasing the understanding of different dual career approaches and systems in different countries, and cultural and academic contexts.
  • Sharing knowledge, principles, methods, and best practices for online dual career information, which will contribute to enhance the capability to reach out the sportspersons as prospective students through making dual career actions visible.
  • Raising the awareness of the scientific community on the principles and methods for online dual career information, which could contribute to the advancement of future methodological approaches in dual career implementation.
  • Providing the information relative to the dual career activities performed and the relative outputs, which will represent a valuable resource to monitor the quality of the work accomplished and to envisage further implementations for the future years.

The total grant for this project is 400.000 euros.

Coordinator: Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, University of Nis (Serbia)

Partners: Collective Innovation As (Norway), Okkam Srl (Italy), The European Athlete As Student (Malta), Universidad Internacional De La Rioja (Spain), Universita Degli Studi Gabriele D’annunzio Di Chieti-Pescara (Italy), Universitatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza Din Iasi (Romania), Univerza V Ljubljani (Slovenia)

Web: https://findmeproject.net/

Reference: ERASMUS-SPORT-2023-SCP-101134043

Time span: 2023-2026

Funding type: European public