As part of the 2nd International Scientific Conference 4 Healthy Academic Society, organized by the Croatian Academic Sports Federation in the city of Porec from May 30th to June 1st, the second in-person partners’ meeting of the project Discovering university sport and supporting dual career (DiscoverU) took place.  

Representatives of all project partners met in Porec on May 30th and attended the opening ceremony of the UniSport Finals, the finals of the Croatian university championships. On the next day, Friday 31st of May, they followed the opening part of the Conference, before gathering for the project meeting at Hotel Parentium.

The project meeting was opened by greetings from the President of the Croatian Academic Sports Federation, Mr Haris Pavletic, and its Secretary General, Mr Nikola Vincetic, who welcomed all project partners and expressed their satisfaction in hosting the DiscoverU meeting in the framework of the three-day event. Representatives of the partners then introduced each others, and briefly presented the organizations taking part in the project.

Mr Simone De Luca, representing EUSA and its Institute, provided a general overview of the project, recalling its purpose and methodology and the role assigned to each partner, summarizing all the phases and activities undertaken so far and those still to be addressed. Some words were also dedicated to the visual identity of the project, in order to inform partners about the project website and the templates to be used for deliverables and presentations regarding all the official resources to be produced and disseminated. Among the project's past activities, the results of the EAS & EUSA Café webinar on the topic of Dual Careers which took place online on 22 April were presented; key information and statistics from the event report were shared with all partners, along with some of the most relevant feedback received from participants.

Following the project overview, the representative of the European Athlete as Student network (EAS), Prof. Mojca Doupona from the University of Ljubljana, took the stage to inform all partners about the communication and dissemination activities related to the project. A practical demonstration on how to manage the uploading and updating of activities records through the use of the Sigma platform in the Funding & Tenders Portal Submission System of the European Commission was given. As a result, a common need was identified to thoroughly track all communication and dissemination activities carried out by all partners, including milestones and final deliverables, according to project deadlines.

Ms Marianna Pikul from the University Sports Association of Poland (AZS) updated the partners regarding the project implementation strategy. She presented and detailed the project Quality Assurance Plan, explaining the role of the Quality Assurance Manager and how the tasks and deadlines should be kept under control accordingly. All partners finally agreed to be responsible for monitoring their own engagements and ensuring that activities are followed according to the plan in order to achieve the expected objectives.

Mr Maté Nagyistok, on behalf of the Hungarian University Sports Federation (MEFS), presented and detailed the project Evaluation Plan that will be used to monitor the partners and participants satisfaction and success, according to a set of indicators to be updated during the progress of the project. Subsequently, Mr Nagyistok gave a presentation about the progressing and last steps of the preparation of the European Universities Games 2024 in Debrecen and Miskolc, addressing all partners with the invitation to the next project meeting to be held in July during the EUG2024, and for which a detailed agenda of side activities was presented as well.

Regarding the Action Plan and coming up activities, important information were also shared. Mr Emanuele Milanese gave a short recap of the role and tasks of the University of Salerno in the project, updating the partners on the ongoing activities linked to the research part and the compilation of the National information factsheets. From MEFS side, Maté Nagyistok informed the partners regarding the data collection system to be used to prepare the Internal research reports, which will be based on the research already done and that still to be produced by the partners.

Finally, Mr Ivan Kaselj and Ms Marija Panijan the Croatian Academic Sports Federation, explained how the Collection of good practice will be approached, mentioning several examples of already existing events and projects in which CASF/HASS has taken part.

The partners agreed to meet again in person in Hungary in July during the European University Games 2024, where they will have the opportunity to participate in a wide range of side activities scheduled from 11 to 14 July.

The DiscoverU project is lead by the EUSA Institute, and brings together two NGOs; besides EUSA, also the European Athlete as Student network (EAS), national university sport bodies from Croatia (CASF/HASS), Hungary (HUSF/MEFS) and Poland (AZS), as well as the University of Salerno are also part of the project partnership. Although competitive university sport is not the priority of the project, it is worth noting that the consortium includes hosts of four European Universities Games: 2016 Zagreb-Rijeka (CRO), 2022 Lodz (POL), 2024 Debrecen-Miskolc (HUN) and 2026 Salerno (ITA).

The 3-year project, co-funded by the European Union, aim to improve sport and physical activity opportunities for students in higher education on one hand, addressing larger student population; and at the same time promote and support dual career in higher education in partnering countries. This will be achieved by gathering information, sharing good practice examples and implementing sports and educational activities.

More details about the DiscoverU project can be found on https://discoveru.eusa.eu