Ismael ABEL VALLÉS – Alias Group
Oct. 26 – Sport is moving from competing better to caring better. Turning that shift into real projects is where many organisations get stuck — and where AI agents can make a difference.
Plenty of ideas, too few projects
Europe’s sport ecosystem has never had more ideas. Clubs want to use their facilities for active ageing programmes. Federations look for data-driven talent pathways. Municipalities see physical activity as a tool for public health, inclusion and territorial attractiveness. Sportstech startups bring wearables, platforms and analytics.
Yet a good idea is not a project. Between a challenge and a funded, well-built consortium there is a long road: reframing the problem, finding the right technology, matching partners, checking maturity, and fitting it all into the right call. Most of that road is walked by a small group of people — innovation agents, innovation managers and project officers — who are often stretched thin.
The real bottleneck: the people who build projects
Ask any innovation manager where their week goes. Much of it is not spent on strategy, but on repetitive groundwork:
- Rewriting a vague “pain” into a clear, shared problem statement
- Benchmarking what other sectors have done with similar challenges
- Searching for technologies, solution providers and research groups
- Assessing how mature a solution really is before committing to it
- Scanning regional, national and European calls, and checking eligibility
- Writing up meeting notes, action points and project fiches
This work matters. But when it eats most of the calendar, fewer projects get built, and the ones that do often start late, with weaker partnerships and thinner evidence.
A team of AI agents, coordinated around one project
At Alias Group we are developing an AI system built specifically for this work. It does not replace the innovation manager. Instead, an orchestrating agent coordinates a set of specialised assistants, each handling one part of the journey and passing its results to the next.
Projects can start from two places. Some begin with a challenge (pull): a club that loses members after age 50, or a city that wants more people walking to school. Others begin with a capability (push): a university lab with a new motion-analysis algorithm, or a startup with a smart textile looking for a market. Both paths meet in co-creation, and then move towards results.
Along that path, the agents support five steps:
- Reframe the challenge: who suffers it, how many, whether others share it, and what trends and regulation drive it.
- Benchmark solutions from sport and other sectors, map technologies and identify potential solution providers and partners.
- Co-create. Prepare and document co-creation sessions, with smart meeting support that captures decisions and next steps.
- Track the project with readiness levels, not only technology readiness (TRL) but also market, partnership and funding readiness.
- Fund and measure. Match the project with regional, national and EU calls, such as Erasmus+ Sport or Horizon Europe, and define the KPIs that will show impact.
The result is a structured project file that grows step by step, rather than scattered documents and emails.
What it could mean for the sport ecosystem
| Who | Typical starting point | How the AI agents help |
| Clubs | Facilities and members, little time for R&D | Turn a local need (retention, active ageing, inclusion) into a fundable project with the right partners |
| Federations and leagues | Strategic goals spread across many stakeholders | Build a portfolio of prioritised challenges and a dynamic innovation roadmap |
| Municipalities and regions | Health, inclusion and territorial goals | Link physical activity programmes with technology providers and public funding |
| Sportstech startups and SMEs | A technology looking for a market | Find real challenges, pilot sites and consortium partners for their solution |
| Universities and technology centres | Research results with untapped potential | Check maturity, spot applications in sport and wellbeing, and build transfer projects |
The common thread is speed and quality: less time on groundwork, more time on the conversations that make a project work.
Human expertise stays at the centre
Innovation in sport is a people business. Trust between a club and a research centre, or between a city and a startup, is not built by an algorithm. That is why we design the system around the innovation professional, not instead of them.
The agents prepare, suggest and document. People decide, facilitate and build relationships. Every proposal the system makes can be traced back to its sources and reviewed. And the methodology behind it comes from more than two decades of hands-on work supporting innovation projects and European funding applications, now captured in a form that AI can apply consistently.
We believe this is how AI should enter the sport sector: as a reliable co-pilot that multiplies the capacity of the people already driving change.
Let’s build the next sport innovation projects together
We are now looking for EPSI members who want to be part of this journey: clubs, federations, cities, companies and research centres ready to test the AI agents on real challenges in sport, physical activity and quality of life.
There are three ways we can work together. If you want to turn an idea or a challenge into a solid innovation project, our team can support you from diagnosis to funding, with the AI agents speeding up every step. If you are preparing a European proposal, under Erasmus+ Sport, Horizon Europe or other programmes, we can join your consortium as a partner, bringing methodology, project management and innovation support. And if you see room for a longer-term alliance or collaboration, whether in research, training or new services for the sport ecosystem, we want to hear about it. Whatever your starting point, the first conversation is the most valuable step: contact us and let’s explore it together.
If you have a challenge waiting to become a project, or a technology looking for its place in sport, we would be glad to talk. Find us at the next EPSI events or get in touch through innovation4sports.es.
About Aliasgroup and Innovation4Sports
Aliasgroup is a Valencia-based consultancy boutique. For more than 20 years it has supported companies, public bodies and research organisations with innovation strategy, innovation ecosystems and access to national and European funding.
Innovation4Sports is its initiative dedicated to sport and quality of life. It helps public administrations, clubs, federations, companies and foundations turn sport into a lever for health, inclusion and territorial development, through strategic diagnosis, innovation roadmaps, fundraising and long-term alliances.
Contact: info@innovation4sports.es, Ismael.abel@aliasgroup.com
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