Led by the International Sport and Culture Association, the Erasmus+ funded ‘Fit for the Digital Age’ (Digifit) (2023 – 2025) examines how digital transformation and innovation are harnessed to build resilience and capacity in the grassroots sports sector to make it #DigiFit by creating an international partnership across innovation, business and sport. The five partner countries Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, and Portugal addressed Erasmus+ priorities of digital transformation through development of digital readiness, resilience, and capacity and to promote skills development of sport staff.

Ten grassroots clubs from eight European countries participated in a three stage innovation journey, which began by ascertaining their ‘problem’ This problem was gleaned from an initial online survey to investigate the digital fitness of grassroots clubs, which was analysed using descriptive statistics. It revealed five areas of focus: 1: Infrastructure management: 2: Flexible memberships 3: Recruiting new members and/or volunteers: 4: Digital gadgets use in sports activity 5: Servicing members. Each grassroots club selected a relevant problem from this list. They then entered a pod comprising a sports technology expert mentor, a design thinking ally and were matched with a sports technology solution provider (depending on their identified ‘problem’). Each pod navigated a full 9-month data-informed, iterative innovation journey, with seed funding, to test and scale a digital solution to their identified problem. This 9-month journey began with a UCC-led three-day design thinking boot camp, and into incubation comprising: (i) a feasibility phase using agile, and (ii) a viability phase using lean business model canvases. The journey was overseen by both UCC and DGI Denmark and punctuated by UCC-designed webinars, and the constant support of the expert mentors. Qualitative data was gathered from the full innovative journey through the (a) bootcamp evaluation report and (b) grassroot club self-reports. These were analysed using thematic analysis.

The analysis revealed a number of issues: (a) the need for high-quality and engaged mentors to help grassroots clubs to succeed in the innovation journey; (b) distraction and disruption from day-to-day work of the grassroots club which hampered progress, and (c) the technology readiness levels of the digital solutions. It also called out the digital skills gained during the project and remaining deficits. Being digitally fit is critical for the survival of grassroots clubs. There are several factors that can contribute to success. i.e., the cumulative impact of the quality of the expert mentor, the match of the sports technology solution provider and the injection of timely innovation education support. In spite of this support, it appears difficult for busy grassroots clubs to juggle much-needed digitisation projects with such significant demands on their time (Merten et al, 2024; Wise et al, 2021).

Merten, S., Schmidt, S.L. and Winand, M. (2024), "Organisational capabilities for successful digital transformation: A global analysis of national football associations in the digital age", Journal of Strategy and Management, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 408-426. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSMA-02-2022-0039 Wise, N., Kohe, G. Z., & Koutrou, N. (2021). Editorial: sport volunteering, educational leadership and social transformation. Sport, Education and Society, 26(9), 945–951. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2021.1946028