Loughborough University in the UK has teamed up with Vitality to launch a Women in Sport Research and Innovation Hub.

Headed up by Professor Jo Maher, the vice-chancellor of sport at Loughborough University, the hub will aim to lead research and innovation across a range of key areas, bringing together academics, industry partners, national governing bodies and elite athletes to drive meaningful change at every level of women’s sport.

Maher says: “Women’s sport is growing and professionalising at a rapid pace, yet research has not kept up. We're committed to leveraging our world-leading expertise to directly address the challenges women face in sport.”

Vitality – which recently published its own research on women’s participation in physical activity – will be sponsoring a group of PhDs to find out the barriers to women engaging in sport, what are the benefits and how access can be improved to bring about sustainable engagement in the long term.

Minister for Sport, Stephanie Peacock, spoke at the launch, saying: “As Sports Minister I’m really passionate about getting women and girls involved in sports and one of the things that’s holding it back at the moment is research. This is a really important part of improving sport for women.”

Key areas for research will be:

Health: including menstrual health, nutrition, concussion and ACL injuries.

Life course: supporting transitions through life including puberty, pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause.

Technologies: such as innovation in the design of women’s sportswear, facilities and wearables.

Workforce: developing research into enhancing the delivery of sporting experiences, including coaching, leadership and safeguarding.

Environments: working with partners to advance research on gendered sporting environments.

Currently only around 6 per cent of sports science is conducted exclusively on female athletes. Co-founder of The Well HQ, Baz Moffat, has been campaigning on this issue and recently addressed the Council of Europe’s International Women’s Day roundtable on the danger to female athletes who have to work in system designed for men.

In our current issue of HCM we discuss what more the fitness industry can do to remove barriers for women to be active. Sign up here for a free digital subscription.