Understanding and promoting WhIstleblowing oN DOPing irregularities in the EU

Doping undermines the key principles of sport: open and fair competition. Furthermore, doping can cause serious physical and mental health problems to the EU citizens that dope. Although between 1-2% of athletes fail doping tests each year, some studies reveal that over 50% of athletes admit to doping. Therefore, other approaches are required to detect doping offenses. One method is to encourage fellow athletes, coaches, or sporting personnel to blow the whistle on doping. Indeed, whistle-blowing has the potential to result in the detection, investigation, and even prosecution of anti-doping rule violations, which may have otherwise gone undetected.Despite whistle-blowing being a very effective mechanism of detecting corruption, such as doping in sport, whistle-blowing in sports is not a common practice. This might be because whistle-blowers may face retaliation, which can act as a deterrent, and may explain why many athletes do not report doping violations. Further, understanding the reasons why athletes decide to engage in this practice is of vital importance for the promotion of this practice as a mean to tackle doping use.In order to promote whistle-blowing, The overreaching aim of Win-Dop is to understand more about whistle-blowing and doping, such as: (a) the extent to which European National Anti-Doping Organisations (NADOs) engage in good practices on whistle-blowing and (b) the factors that influence whistle-blowing behaviours. Further, Win-Dop aims to promote whistle-blowing across European member states by improving how EU NADOs manage whistle-blowing and developing pedagogical material to enhance the awareness of doping offences, and promote whistle-blowing across EU member states.The Win-Dop consortium contains 9 highly experienced and recognised organisations from 7 countries, which will ensure a high-quality and impactful project, which will be disseminated regionally in Europe and internationally.