History

One of the key objectives of the ECSS is the promotion of junior scientists and the fostering of state-of-the-art research. For this purpose, the ECSS established the Young Investigators Award (YIA). Since the inauguration of the ECSS and its first annual congress in Nice, France in 1996, the YIA is an integral part of the ECSS annual congress. In normal circumstances, young scientists have the opportunity of entering this prestigious competition for scientific excellence, where their outstanding work can be presented at the annual congress. A jury consisting of the ECSS Scientific Board and ECSS Scientific Committee grants the awards based upon an oral and conventional poster presentation for the top ten presentations respectively. Usually, the annual ‘YIA Cocktail’ reunites all former YIA winners at the ECSS annual congress – an ECSS-based network, uniting generations of sport scientists, but unfortunately this will not be possible during this year’s virtual congress. Today many former YIA winners are still closely connected to the ECSS and even support the ECSS in its boards and committees. The award has functioned for previous YIA winners as a starting point of their scientific career.

This year, due to the unforeseen circumstances caused by COVID-19, the YIA oral presentations will be live streamed as part of our virtual congress. Further information on this can be found under our Presentation formats page.