The SONAR project’s primary objective is to enhance grassroots sports coaches educational & training skills on monitoring and preventing sports injuries in children and adolescents, with a particular focus on female athletes.

Research proves that many injuries treated in the EU hospitals relate to children aged between 10 to 21 years old and are caused by sports activities. Although sports practice has many health benefits associated, stakeholders acknowledge that the education of coaches, athletes, and families about the best practices and habits to prevent injuries is still insufficient.

To address this problem, the partnership proposes the development of the SONAR Umbrella Tool, a holistic approach encompassing:

• A web-based Injury Surveillance System (ISS).
• An online educational program for sports coaches.
• Awareness-raising content on injury prevention for athletes & parents.

Up to 350 coaches from different sports disciplines will be educated & trained on the most efficient injury prevention protocols and the appropriate ways to enforce them, and 400 of these coaches will start using the ISS; this means that approximately 4,000 athletes will be under the radar of this surveillance tool. Also, 2,500 athletes and parents of them will be positively impacted by awareness-raising audio-visual content (comic books & videos on social media).

SONAR will assess the pilot test to capture feedback and data from the target groups, and from here, draw policy conclusions and recommendations to be published in top specialized journals.

SONAR is a transnational partnership covering 7 European countries led by the University of Vic – University of Central Catalunya and combining solid academic organisations in the field of injury prevention with European multi-sport clubs.