Sport Ireland Research and Innovation Unit

In January 2021, Sport Ireland’s Evaluation and Innovation teams (earlier under the Directorate of Sport Ireland Participation) were integrated into the Research Unit to form a new Sport Ireland Research & Innovation Unit.

The Unit conducts research to generate meaningful insights across participation, performance and high performance, which inspire new thinking and drive action in the sporting ecosystem in Ireland. We generate knowledge by accurately defining the problems we seek to resolve through measurement, questioning, and learning. Our research aims to listen, understand and empathise with the experiences of people involved with sport and the context within which these experiences occur. Our formative evaluation work underpins our engagement with the sector to generate innovative solutions for identified problems which best meet the needs and readiness of our partners. The unit aims to rapidly prototype solutions in partnership with the sector and uses robust methodologies to pragmatically evaluate new and existing concepts at systems, project and local level.

Research within Sport Ireland is realised through a blend of direct research, partnered research projects, commissioned research and research delivered through the various internal Sport Ireland Units. Our research programme has made an important contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of sport in Ireland. This knowledge informs the policy agenda, the actions and investments of Government and feeds directly into the delivery of effective sports services by sporting bodies and individuals. While Sport Ireland’s research has historically tended to focus on cross-population sports and physical activity participation, this strategy commits to an increased focus on answering pertinent research questions linked to performance and high performance sport.