Launch of the SAMEurope project under the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union

From 20 to 22 June, INSA Lyon welcomed representatives of international relations and sport from Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (Germany), Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), University of Jyväskylä (Finland), and Universitat Jaume I (Spain) to celebrate the launch of the project SAMEurope - Student-Athletes Erasmus+ Mobility in Europe - which is scheduled to run for 3 years and supported by the Erasmus+ program of the European Commission.

As academic partners, the five institutions will join forces to address a European issue: the international mobility of high-level sportsmen and women for whom an Erasmus+ stay is a difficult project to combine with their sporting and academic obligations.

SAMEurope's ambition is to help these students to gain international experience in order to strengthen their dual sporting and professional project, and do so by creating the following tools:

• a European platform allowing students to map the best universities according to their sports practices;
• a best practice guide for all European higher education institutions to improve the reception of sportspeople;
• a sociological study on the advantages of mobility for sports students, particularly in terms of soft skills useful for their future careers.

At the launch event, the SAMEurope initiative was welcomed and recognized by Campus France and the National Sports Agency of the Ministry of Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games as the first project in this field that will benefit all European institutions. The partners of the Tony Parker Adéquat Academy and Boccard Life Solutions were also present to express their views and provide input as a training center and employer.

Diane Marie-Hardy, an INSA graduate and also a top athlete in athletics and rugby, represented the students by sharing her experience of exchange at Loughborough University (England) and the benefits she gained from it for her career. The next meeting of the consortium of five institutions is scheduled to take place at Chalmers University in autumn 2022, where the first milestones of the project will be set for the creation of tools but also for the communication of SAMEurope through institutional and sports events.