Innosport eu

European Platform for Sports and Innovation

The European Platform for Sports and Innovation (EPSI)
The European Platform for Sports and Innovation is an organisation of parties within Europe that strives for a more innovation-friendly environment for the EU’s sports industry in order to stimulate technological innovation and set up innovative technology businesses.
The EPSI’s main goal will be to stimulate networking between high-tech companies, SMEs, universities and research organisations by organising meetings, seminars, activity groups and by creating a website which includes a database for information exchange.

The platform focuses its activities on four main domains:

  1. Performance, monitoring and enhancement apparatus
  2. Sports accommodation, flooring and equipment
  3. Sports nutrition and physical activity
  4. Sporting goods and apparel

schedule ESIP

Why a European Platform for Sports and Innovation?
Sport has been gaining prominence in recent years. Not only is sport being promoted as beneficial to both health and social relationships, its economic significance is also growing. In 1999 almost 800,000 people were employed in the sports industry in Europe; that figure has risen to 1.3 million people today and is expected to reach nearly two million by 2010. Sport incorporates many industrial sectors and services and is a growing area for companies of all sizes. The European sports market is large: in 2001 it generated 37 billion euros in turnover on sports products and equipment alone. As a relatively new sector, sport is generally regarded as being an early adopter of new ideas and innovations.

To prevent separate and similar developments in different countries, a strong need has arisen to team up the initiatives on a more European level and improve trans-national visibility on research and business creation. The main bottlenecks and limits to research, development and innovation in the EU sports market are:

  1. Fragmentation of research (technology and human factors) and the insufficiency of targeted research;
  2. Limited research and innovative power;
  3. Lack of a long-term vision for innovation;
  4. Insufficient new business creation;
  5. Too great a focus on national rather than European approaches in R&D.

Who is eligible to join the European Platform for Sports and Innovation ?
Any party that delivers a contribution to innovation in the sports industry may join the platform – manufacturers, research organisations, representative organisations, business facilitators, etc.

Why should I join the European Platform for Sports and Innovation?
European Platform for Sports and Innovation will be our main instrument for exchanging information on innovation in the European sports industry, for example to generate ideas for new innovation projects. We will form working groups around topics that are important in the industry. Also new trends and news on innovation, showcases of success stories – projects, innovations and initiatives, etc – will be exchanged within the platform. We will organise seminars, brokerage events, congresses and develop innovation projects. But we will also need a critical mass to support initiatives we present to the EU commission. This is important in our lobby to create more attention and scope for projects on sports innovation in European research programmes.

How can I join the European Platform for Sports and Innovation?
You can join the European Platform for Sports and Innovation by filling in our registration form and register yourself and your organisation. For this we need to know:

  • The contact person within your organisation
  • Your organisation's profile
  • The role of your organisation in the sports industry
  • The interest of your organisation in specific topics and issues within the platform
  • The willingness of your organisation to play an active role in the platform

Who is already in the European Platform for Sports and Innovation and who will be in the near future?
At this moment already a number of important players have joined the platform and we have identified a large group of interested parties.

Current stakeholders are:

  • FESI (Federation of European Sports Goods Industries), AFYDAD, AVOZ, FGHS, Federation of Sports & Play Associations
  • Sports and Technology, JAPTI, Sporting Chance Initiative
  • ESTIA, GAIA, IBV, TNO, University of Loughborough
  • RFIS (Sport Engineering French Network), ISEA
  • NOC*NSF, Sports coaches and sports educators
  • adidas, Decathlon, Polar, SportCreber, Tecnica
  • ATOK (Association of Textile, Clothing and Leather Industry)
  • ECOSA (European consumer safety organisation)
 
Sixth framework programme EU