International evaluation of sport sciences in the Nordic countries

The Academy of Finland carried out, in cooperation with the Nordic research funding agencies (Research Council of Norway [Norway], Icelandic Centre for Research, RANNIS [Iceland], Swedish National Centre for Research in Sports [CIF, Sweden], Swedish Research Council [Sweden], and  Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation [Denmark] an international evaluation of sport sciences  in the Nordic countries in 2010‒2011. The evaluation covered the whole discipline of sport sciences, and the aim was to assess aspects such as the focus and status of sport science research in different countries, the standard of research, funding systems, the strategy, and the impact of research. The evaluation was funded by NordForsk.

In Finland, the evaluation was commissioned by the Research Council for Health of the Academy of Finland. The evaluation was steered by a steering group chaired by Professor Michael Kjær (Copenhagen, Denmark). A project group, chaired by Director Mikael Fogelholm from the Academy of Finland, was responsible for the practical implementation of the evaluation. The evaluation was coordinated by Riikka Pellinen.

Steering group:

• Professor Michael Kjær (Denmark, chair),
  Professor Erlingur Sigurður Jóhannsson (Iceland),
  Professor Nina Vøllestad (Norway), Research Director Sarianne Sipilä (Finland),
  Per Nilsson (Sweden) and
  Mats Ulfendahl (Sweden)

The evaluation panel consists of the following specialists:

• Prof. Stuart Biddle, Loughborough University, UK
  Prof. Peter Bärtsch, Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany
  Prof. Karyn Esser, University of Kentucky, USA
  Prof. Jennifer Hargreaves, University of Brighton, UK
  Prof. Ron Maughan, Loughborough University, UK
  Prof. Bart Vanreusel, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

Evaluation report (01/12)