Montreal, August 22, 2024
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is pleased to release details of the research projects approved for total funding of 334.743 USD under the Social Sciences Research Fellowship (RSS) Program 2024 of the Agency.
SSR grants totaling USD 184.743 have been approved to fund six autonomous projects (in English), who will undertake research in more than 60 countries around the world. The six projects are led by researchers based in Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
The remaining $150.000 of the approved grant was allocated to a multinational project that was originally submitted as five separate research proposals. The project, which will take place on four continents, will question athletes about their perception of doping in sport in order to identify global trends.
The majority of research funds have been allocated to traditionally under-represented regions, in line with one of the main priorities of the Social Sciences Research Strategy 2020-2024.
The approval of these projects followed a rigorous review process led by the RSS Expert Advisory Group of the AMA, which included a technical analysis of each project and recommendations from an external peer review process. The analysis and funding recommendations were then presented to the Education Committee of the Agency, which then made final recommendations to the Executive Committee at its March meeting. Following the approval of the Executive Committee and the completion of the ethical reviews, the agreements have progressed and the Agency is now able to provide additional details on projects (in English).
The AMA Social Science Research Fellowship Program builds on the Social sciences research strategy 2020-2024 of the Agency, which aims to advance the development of research in the social sciences. The funded projects are aligned with our social science research priorities for 2024, presented below:
- Athlete’s background and experience
- Clean sports behaviors
- Role and influence of the athlete’s support staff
- Experience of athlete support staff in the clean sport community
- Effectiveness of the fight against doping / for clean sport
- WADA Doping Prevention Model
- Non-sporting influences
- Policies in sport
- Impact of anti-doping policy
The WADA website has a page dedicated to RSS projects funded by WADA, which is being updated to allow stakeholders to better search by theme for current and completed research projects. For more information on WADA's Social Science Research Strategy or the Social Science Research Fellowship Program, please see Social science research from the WADA website or contact the WADA Education Department at the following email address: social.scienceresearch@wada-ama.org.
Please note that WADA's call for applications for its HSS 2025 Fellowship Program will be launched during the week of September 16, 2024, and a webinar will be organized on October 2 at 8:00 a.m. (EST) (in English) with the aim of helping potential candidates complete the application process.
Registration details will be communicated in the coming weeks.
