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On the 13 June last year (2025), Ulster University hosted a seminar titled ‘Advancing Sport Coaching and Development’. The event considered current research, policy and practice challenges facing coaching and coaches in Northern Ireland. The opening session on the day focused on identifying the current coaching policy and research context locally, before keynote addresses by Professors Julian North and Leanne Norman. In his session Julian shared an ecological perspective on challenges facing sport coaching and possible solutions to advance these on a system level, while Leanne focused on reimagining how we do things to create equitable sport workforce.
Stakeholders who attended this session expressed a strong passion and willingness to collaborate, though identified significant constraints, including funding shortfalls, a fragmented system, and a general undervaluation of the sport coaching profession.
Therefore to develop this area further Ulster University, in partnership with SNI and NISF, will host an event on Friday 29 May 2026 to continue the conversation, consolidate the knowledge gained, and co-create solutions to address the four key objectives that have been generated from the 2025 event insights.
Key Objectives
These objectives are to:
- Elevate the prominence of coaching within sport and physical activity policies and strategies.
- Research and promote the impact and value of sport coaches and coaching.
- Advocate for equitable entry into the sport coaching workforce.
- Advocate for positive operating conditions for sport coaches.
Through the event on 29 May, we hope to offer those in attendance an opportunity to co-create what the next steps might be. This will give those who are central to the development of sport/activity an opportunity to discuss, debate, and develop ideas for collaborative and individual action.
Two actions which we at Ulster are keen to float on the day are, the creation of an ‘Elevating Coaching Coalition’ as a forum for longer-term engagement and focus on the proposed objectives, and the establishment of an ‘Elevating Coaches Pledge’ as a conduit for sport organizations to commit to positive action in relation to equitable entry to the coaching workforce, recognition and valuing of coaches, and conditions for coach wellbeing and retention.
Upcoming Event
We encourage you to bring your thoughts and ideas, on how the objectives outlined above can be advanced, to the table on Friday 29 May.
On the day there will also be a keynote address from Ciaran Ward 'Head of High-Performance Coaching at Sport Ireland', who has a wealth of experience in the field of coaching, sports development, coach development and research across the whole lifespan from grassroots to elite. We will also give a short overview of the key learning points from our last event.
Please note: This event is sponsored by Connected NI and Ulster University's School of Sport and Exercise Science and we hope to work post the event with Connected to develop a funding application to support future developments over the next 3-5 years. Further details in relation to the schedule for this event will be forwarded to all delegates closer to the event.
Register your interest today and help shape the future of sport coaching in Northern Ireland!
Belfast Campus
2-24 York Street, Belfast, BT15 1AP
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Event Info
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