The role of sport in research and development in Switzerland - An overview

Abstract

Introduction

In Switzerland, around CHF 24.6 billion will be spent on research, development and innovation in 2021. Much of this will be financed by the private sector. The federal government and the cantons will contribute 21.5% in 2021 and finance research at universities with CHF 5.6 billion (see Körsgen et al., 2023). Sport is negligible in these statistics. This is at odds with the pressure to innovate in competitive sport and the economic and social importance of sport. Is there really almost no research in and on sport in Switzerland, a centre of research and innovation ?

Methods

This question was investigated using a mixed research method according to Creswell and Clark (2011). In a first step, the data from the 2019 Swiss Performance Sport Study (Kempf et. all 2021) were updated using desk research. In a second step, targeted searches were conducted in various databases (SNSF and ARAMIS) with a semantic keyword-based search for sport. In addition, a patent search was conducted in the database of the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property using terms related to sport. The results obtained were discussed with experts.

Results

Research and development in and with sport plays a minor role in Switzerland. Sport is barely visible institutionally at universities, universities of applied sciences or teacher training colleges. Sport hardly benefits from federal funding. With acquired funds of CHF 5 million from the SNSF funding pools and CHF 2 million from Innosuisse, sport benefits only marginally. Research and development seem to play a subordinate role in the private sector; only patents indicate that research and development play a certain level of activity.

For sport, the possibilities remain in departmental research. With the EHSM, the Confederation has its own research institution. The Confederation also distributes means for sport specific purposes. CHF 2 million are available each year. The associations receive the lion's share of these funds (CHF 1.5 million). The "Sport Innovations Hub" of Swiss Olympic now has CHF 1 million at its disposal for association projects. This fund is financed by lottery money.

Discussion/Conclusion

Research, development and innovation are important success factors for sport. As sports federations play an important rule, it is necessary firstly to strengthen the sports federations as important supporters of research and development themes.

Secondly, the Swiss Federal Institute of Sports (SFISM) should be developed as a leading institution in the field of sports science in order to support networking among federations and to strengthen them in their preparation for the submission of projects to funding bodies in terms of content and cooperation with partners from research institutions and industry.

References

Creswell, J. W., & Clark, V. L. (2011). Designing and conducting mixed methods research (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications Inc.

Körsgen, A., Chardon, S. P., & Sollberger, P. (2023). Forschung und Entwicklung in der Schweiz 2021. Bundesamt für Statistik (BFS).

Kempf, H., Weber, A., Zurmühle, C., Bosshard, B., Mrkonjić, M., Weber, A., Pillet, F., & Sutter, S. (2021). Leistungssport Schweiz – Momentaufnahme SPLISS-CH 2019.