Contact

Sports4All Innovation Summit 2025: Europe Is Setting the Direction for Social Sport Innovation

ISG 08 December 2025
social sport innovation

On 1 December 2025, representatives of the Institute for Sport Governance took part in the Sports4All Innovation Summit 2025, one of Europe’s most important events dedicated to social innovation in sport. The meeting was held at the Room with a Zoo conference centre in Antwerp and gathered nearly 150 participants in the international track, as well as around 500 participants across the entire event organised by Sport Vlaanderen.

The Summit confirmed that Europe—especially Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom—is dynamically developing solutions that use sport as a tool for enhancing equality, strengthening local communities and building social capital. For ISG, participation in the event offered an opportunity to exchange knowledge, observe the latest trends and reflect on the direction in which the sport sector in Poland should evolve.

Innovative Social Projects: Practical Responses to Real Needs

During the event, around 20 projects were presented, each offering a novel approach to challenges related to limited access to physical activity, social integration or youth development.

Among the initiatives showcased were:

  • Fútbol Más – an international organisation operating in over 11 countries, using sport to improve the well-being of children and families living in vulnerable communities. The project applies a values-based methodology and focuses on building local leadership.
  • Swimwise – innovative, mobile swimming pools that increase access to swimming lessons without costly infrastructure investment.
  • Sport2Be – a programme that uses sport to support young people at risk of exclusion and help them enter the labour market.
  • Go Jauntly – a mobile app that promotes physical activity and connection with nature through local walking routes, designed with accessibility and inclusiveness in mind.

All of these projects share a common foundation: sport as a tool for social change. In many cases, activities extend beyond physical exercise and include developmental, educational and community-based support.

Expert Insights and Knowledge Exchange

In the plenary sessions, participants attended two inspiring keynote presentations:

1. Social impact & impact measurement – Brian Godor

Brian Godor emphasised the importance of rigorous social impact measurement in sport-based projects—both for evaluation and for building trust among partners and funding institutions. He presented concrete models and tools that help improve transparency and scalability.

2. Social entrepreneurship – Arnoud Raskin

The second session was led by Arnoud Raskin—a social entrepreneur, founder of MobileSchool.org, Ashoka Fellow, lecturer and business mentor whose work for over two decades has bridged social innovation, education and leadership development.

Active Participation of ISG in Workshops

The Institute for Sport Governance team took part in two key workshops:

  • Scaling strategies for social innovations, led by Sociale Innovatiefabriek,
  • Measuring What Matters: Designing and Measuring Social Impact With a Theory of Change, led by Brian Godor.

Both sessions provided practical knowledge on scaling social innovations and designing measurable outcomes—areas that are essential for the professionalisation of sport governance in Poland.

Technology and Sport: A Look into the Future

The event concluded with a keynote speech by Lieven Scheire, who explored the development of artificial intelligence and its growing impact on the sport sector—from management processes and training practices to accessibility and personalised user experiences.

Conclusions for Poland: Time to Leverage European Experience

Participation in the Sports4All Innovation Summit 2025 confirmed that social innovation in sport is becoming a key component of public policy and development strategies across Europe. Notable trends include:

  • effective cooperation between public institutions, NGOs, startups and local governments;
  • a bold approach to testing prototypes and scaling successful solutions;
  • policymakers’ openness to dialogue with innovators;
  • strong emphasis on measuring social outcomes.

In Poland, there is enormous potential to expand similar practices. Sport can become one of the most effective tools for building social capital, fostering inclusion and strengthening local communities, provided that it is supported by innovation and cross-sector collaboration.

Read also!