Project aim

This project aims to create an innovation-friendly environment for the sport industry throughout the EU, and to encourage technological innovation. Ultimately, the aim is to see the growth of innovative, technology-based businesses. This objective will be achieved through the effective coordination of national and EU research projects and a strong emphasis on networking that will bring together the needs of sports with knowledge organisations. This should create business opportunities throughout Europe. The project will focus on business creation and business acceleration based on intelligent and functional sports products. The project will target a group of SMEs comprising both existing and new enterprises in the EU. These are likely to be drawn from the more traditional industries (e.g. shoes and clothing) as well as from the more innovative sectors as the electronics industry (sensor, MST). The project starts on February 1st 2006 and ends on January 31 2008.

The project will address the following issues:

1. The fragmentation of research (technology and human factors) and the insufficiency of targeted research;
2. Limited research and innovative power;
3. The 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.