The DoctorAl Training Network in Sport Ethics and Integrity (DAiSI) has established an interdisciplinary network of research institutions and non-governmental organisations in the field of sport ethics and integrity. It will produce a cohort of doctoral candidates (DCs) that are capable of understanding, developing, and critiquing the complex ethico-legal challenges in sporting contexts around the globe. The DAiSI Doctoral Training Network (DTN) will form a new generation of experts and sport officials equipped with the necessary theoretical and methodological skills to identify, prevent, and manage current and future threats to sport integrity in both sport ruling and sport-related government bodies. The DTN will contribute to the development of the European dimension of sport, taking into account the specific characteristics of sport and the importance of sport integrity. In so doing, it will directly respond to objective 3, 6 and 9 of the EU Work Plan, to: “Support a sustainable and evidence-based sport policy”; “Strengthen the international dimension of EU sport policy, especially through exchanges and collaboration with governments and stakeholders outside the EU,”; and to “Intensify the dialogue and cooperation at EU level with the sport movement and other relevant stakeholders…”

The research objectives of the EU-funded MSCA DAiSI DTN are to:

  1. Conceptualise sports integrity in a coherent and complex model, drawing from multiple disciplines and stakeholders’ standpoints, identifying and classifying specific threats to sport integrity to be adopted across the DN and establishing a “paradigm” for the field;
  2. Investigate 17 specific threats to sports integrity and their causes at macro (Organisational integrity: national and international), meso (Competition integrity), and individual (Personal integrity) level, laying the argumentative and evidentiary bases for public policy makers and sports organisations to deal more consistently and effectively with these and related threats; 
  3. Develop, justify, and disseminate a holistic and strategic interdisciplinary methodology drawing together disciplinary traditions, theories, and research findings to form a paradigm for all future integrity research; and
  4. Develop evidence-based policy recommendations for governmental and sport ruling bodies governance development and reform, helping them deal more effectively with the scandals and other threats to the integrity and values of sport that undermine its societal function and legitimacy.

Each of the 17 research projects is an interdisciplinary combination of ethical, legal, and social dimensions in which there are some projects related to para-sport.

 

More information about applications and projects in the link: https://www.kuleuven.be/iceris/daisi