Sport Ireland Research Strategy 2021-2027

The story of sport is about challenge, curiosity, belief and potential in life and competition. Sports research condenses these stories into insights that support

informed action in policy and practice. The National Sports Policy tasks Sport Ireland with the development of a research strategy, which identifies how, as a sector, we can generate, capture and share insights to better understand the key policy questions around sport and to develop better solutions to the challenges we seek to address. This Strategy has adopted the use of the Council of Europe’s Definition of Sport, where in sport means “all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels”.

The Sport Ireland Statement of Strategy 2018 – 2022 sets the vision of “a world-class sports sector operating to the highest standards of governance and accountability

and contributing towards the National Policy objectives for sport.” This research strategy aims to elucidate the role of research in supporting Sport Ireland to achieve its organisational objectives. Through this research strategy, the Sport Ireland Research and Innovation Unit will lead, grow, actively share and champion credible research undertaken by Sport Ireland and the Irish sports sector. The term research in this strategy includes evaluation.