Brand Value Alignment through Dual Career - BRAVA

The objective of the BRAVA - Brand Value Alignment through Dual Career – Project is to enhance the European workplace environment so the circumstances and challenges of dual career (DC) athletes and coaches can be recognised and effectively accommodated. 



The aim of the three-year project is to build evidence-based knowledge based on dual career employee athletes as well as define and implement new European guidelines that support dual careers in the workplace, which facilitate appropriate brand alignment strategies and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies that value dual careers. The project intends to produce publications, guidelines, and strategies on the working experiences, perceptions, opinions, and needs of DC employee-athletes and coaches, as well as brand alignment strategies and corporate social responsibilities.

The BRAVA project convened online for the official kick-off meeting on March 3, 2021. Partners gathered again online in September to discuss ideas and showcase the work done and the steps to come, with a focus on the workshop’s participants: former and current athletes, coaches, and business executives. So far, an examination of scientific literature has been completed, as have interviews with employees and athletes, as well as focus groups with corporate social responsibility and human resources managers. 50 important criteria have been established in the form of statements, and currently, the dual-career specialists are being asked to group these claims and assess their importance and practicality.

The information gathered throughout the research will be utilised to create a guidebook with recommendations for improving the working environment of dual-career athletes and coaches. The project’s communication and distribution were also explored, so that both the targeted public and the mainstream audience may follow the initiative and participate in the essential issues of dual career and corporate social responsibilities.

By the end of the three-year project, partners hope to create a European conceptual framework illustrating relevant DC workplace factors and factor structures; European DC workplace guidelines for DC support, brand alignment strategies and CSR policies; a scientific manuscript providing the project’s summary, impact analysis and conclusions.

Partners of this transnational project include: University of Limerick (IRL – project coordinators), European Platform for Sports and Innovation (BEL), Roma Tre University (ITA), Faculty of Sport and Physical Education University of Nis (SRB), University of Ljubljana (SLO), the European Athlete as Student (MLT), Fondazione Human Age Institute (ITA) and the EUSA Institute (SLO).
The project is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.

For more information on the BRAVA project, please see https://www.bravadualcareer.eu