SPLISS digest. Successful elite sport policies: an international comparison in 15 nations (SPLISS 2.0).

SPLISS (Sports Policy factors Leading to International Sporting Success) is an international network of research cooperation that coordinates, develops and shares expertise in innovative high performance sport policy research in cooperation with policy makers, National Olympic Committees (NOCs), international (sport) organisations, and researchers worldwide. Since 2002, it has developed a widely recognised international network in over 20 countries, involving more than 50 local researchers and over 30 policy makers in every country.
SPLISS deals with the strategic policy planning process that underpins the development of successful national elite sport development systems. Drawing on various international competitiveness studies, it examines how nations develop and implement policies that are based on the critical success factors that may lead to success and to a competitive advantage in elite sport. In addition SPLISS also deals with the impact of elite sport in order to answer the so called “so what” question: why should nations (not) invest in elite sport?

The uniqueness of the SPLISS research lies in the specific methods to measure and evaluate effectiveness of elite sport policies of countries in a mixed quantitative and qualitative way, by involving over 3000 elite athletes, over 1300 elite coaches and more than 240 Performance directors in the policy evaluation.