Professor Vassil Girginov
Professor - Sport Sciences

Research area(s)

My main research areas include policy analysis and governance, management of sports development, and the relationship between culture and management.

Research Interests

Over the past several years I have developed a focused research and knowledge transfer programme that uses the Olympic Games as a vehicle for studying a range of social phenomena. In particular, I have pursued two interrelated research strands concerned with culture and sport management, and management of sports development. The former line of research is fundamental for understanding everything we do in sport business including leadership, organisational behaviour, marketing and communications. The latter research concerns the relationship between visions of sports development, personal and organisational change, and delivery of programmes in various contexts including the Olympics.

Project details

• Brunel University (2017) - The role of wearable technology in promoting physical activity - Research Seminars Series grant;
• International Olympic Committee (2014): UK and Russian NGBs leveraging of the London 2012 and Sochi 2014 Olympic Games for building organizational capacity – (with Professor N. Peshin, RIOU, PI);
• Daiwa Foundation (2014): UK Higher Education sector leveraging of the London Olympic Games for building research capacity - (with Professor Nao Masumoto, Tokyo Metropolitan University, PI);
• Bolashak Foundation Kazakhstan (2014): Increasing sport participation in Kazakhstan (funded research fellow)  (PI);
• Hillingdon Community Trust (2015): Design and delivery of a community sport event for local school children by Brunel sport students - (PI);
• 2013 Russian International Olympic University – Knowledge Transfer within the Sochi 2014 Olympics
• 2013 Higher Education Academy – Olympic Resource Guides on the Governance of the Olympic Games and Social Impact of the Olympics
• 2012 Sport England – Running Programme evaluation (with Ecorys)
• 2012 Sport England – National Governing Bodies of Sport leveraging of the London Olympic Games for organizational capacity building
• 2011 Podium: Knowledge Transfer within the London 2012 Olympic Games
• 2010 JISC - Open Olympic Education Resource
• 2006 The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, The Culture of National Sport Organisation and Participation in Sport (Principle Investigator)