On 19 May 2025, Collective Innovation (Oslo, NO) co‑hosted the 16th EAS Café webinar “Sport Innovation: Promoting Employability of Student‑Athletes and Sport Professionals” together with the European Athlete as Student (EAS) network and the ERASMUS+ Sport COMPATH project (Grant #101050955). The online session attracted ≈ 70 participants from across Europe – including student‑athletes, academics, coaches and sport‑tech entrepreneurs – eager to explore how emerging technologies are reshaping career pathways in sport.
Highlights & Key Take‑aways
The discussion was opened by Håkon Ege of Collective Innovation, who set the scene by outlining the goals and early outcomes of the COMPATH Competence Hub – an online resource designed to match the skills of young athletes with emerging roles in the sport‑tech economy. He then handed the virtual floor to three expert panellists, each illustrating a different facet of technology‑driven practice.
First, Eleni Mageirou (NYSA Sweden) demonstrated how wearable GPS and inertial‑measurement sensors are now embedded in field‑sport evaluation. By helping athletes collect and interpret their own performance data, such devices foster a culture of evidence‑based decision‑making that is highly prized by prospective employers.
She was followed by Dr Christopher James Keating (UCAM, Spain), who offered an inside look at the rapidly expanding world of eSport. Spanish universities, he explained, have begun to treat eSport competitors as bona‑fide student‑athletes, providing structured dual‑career pathways that combine academic study with professional gaming schedules.
Finally, Dr Mauro Mandorino (Parma Calcio, Italy) showed how Smart Science underpins daily operations at a professional football club. From GPS‑tracked training loads to match‑day analytics, Parma Calcio’s data pipeline is designed to optimise performance while opening specialist employment routes for analysts and sport‑science graduates.
A ninety‑minute question‑and‑answer session kept the chat lively long after the formal presentations had ended, confirming a strong appetite for peer‑to‑peer learning around technology and dual careers.
“Participants were very impressed by the thoughtful insights you provided for the further advancement of dual careers through innovative sport.” — Prof Laura Capranica, EAS President
Attendees received early calls for:
Bengt Nybelius Scholarship 2025 (deadline 1 July 2025)
EAS Annual Conference, Riga – 6‑8 Oct 2025.
Useful Links
Zoom recording & slides ➡️ Available on request
COMPATH project: https://sportsinnovationshub.com
Register for the free learning platform and take 12 modules about sports technologies: https://portal.sportsinnovationshub.com
Disclaimer: This activity was carried out within the EU‑funded COMPATH – Promoting Employability of Young Student‑Athletes through “Competence Hub” on Sport Innovation project. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA.
