2019/2020 Advanced Olympic Research Grants awarded

The 2019/2020 Advanced Olympic Research Grant winners and their projects are:

1. Laura BROWN (Northumbria University – Great Britain)
   The urban and architectural legacies of the European Winter Olympic Games 1964-2006
2. Hee Jung HONG (main coordinator) and Guy WILKINSON (University of Stirling – Great Britain)
   Organizational support on mental health and physical activity for Esport players in South Korea
3. Yuhei INOUE (main coordinator) (University of Minnesota, USA), Steve SWANSON (Loughborough University – Great Britain) and Masayuki YOSHIDA (Hosei University, Japan)
   Promoting universal attitude toward diversity and inclusion through the Olympics: Multinational comparisons of young adults between London 2012 and Tokyo 2020
4. Millicent A. KENNELLY (main coordinator), Kristine TOOHEY and Alana THOMSON (Griffith University – Australia)
   Developing an inventory to improve evidence-based planning and monitoring of intangible legacies
5. Andrew SPALDING (University of Richmond School of Law – USA)
   France's Implementation of the Host City Contract's New Anti-Corruption and Human Rights    Provisions:  Implications for Development and Legacy in France and Beyond
6. Steve SWANSON (main coordinator), Holly COLLISON and James SKINNER (Loughborough University – Great Britain) as well as Cora BURNETT (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)
   Sport for Development and Olympic Movement Stakeholders: A Social Network Analysis
7. Paul WYLLEMAN (Vrije Universiteit Brussel – Belgium)
   How should athletes be supported before, during and after athletic retirement? Moving from an athlete-centred needs analysis to practical guidelines for career support stakeholders

The selected researchers will receive a financial grant, which will allow them to carry out their research project, benefit from exchanges with the IOC administration and, if relevant, consult the OSC’s resources in Lausanne (Switzerland) (including the IOC’s archives and library collections). The results of their research must be submitted to the OSC in June 2020. 

82 researchers from 21 countries and 5 continents applied

For this sixth edition of the programme, 37 individual and collective applications were submitted by 82 researchers from 21 countries.

Background of the programme

The main objective of the Advanced Olympic Research Grant Programme is to promote advanced research by established researchers with a humanities or social sciences perspective in priority fields of research, which are identified annually by the IOC. University professors, lecturers and research fellows who have completed their doctorate and who currently hold an academic/research appointment covering the period of the grant are eligible to apply. For more information on the priority fields of research and the rules and guidelines in general, click here.

What is the selection process?

In order to perform a thorough analysis of all the projects, and taking into account both the academic quality and the importance of the proposed research in at least one of the priority fields of research, the files were evaluated by university peers and experts from the IOC departments. Following these evaluations, the OSC Research Grant Selection Committee, which is composed of academic experts, recommended a list of projects to the OSC. It was on these final recommendations that the OSC, in cooperation with the IOC departments, validated the seven files, which were awarded grants. The full description of the evaluation and selection process for this programme can be found here.

When is the next edition?

The 2020/2021 edition of the Advanced Olympic Research Grant Programme will be launched in October 2019. The relevant documents will be available on our website.

To see all former grant reports or discover the full OSC’s collections including 35,000 publications and 1.5km of IOC historical archives, visit the Olympic World Library.

For more information on The Olympic Studies Centre, its resources, services and research grant programmes, visit our website or contact studies.centre@olympic.org.