Strategic Initiative Fund (SIF)

Game Changers: The Michigan Center for Innovation in Women's Sports

Game Changers: The Michigan Center for Innovation in Women's Sports is a pioneering hub at the School of Kinesiology dedicated to advancing the health, performance, and holistic well-being of female athletes across all ages, sports, and ability levels. By translating innovative research into actionable solutions through strategic partnerships, the center will establish a new global standard for integrated excellence and lifelong well-being that maximizes societal impact far beyond the field of play.

The initiative responds to a major gap between the rapid growth of women's sports and the limited infrastructure supporting female athletes — women remain significantly underrepresented in sports and exercise research, and only a small portion of published research focuses exclusively on them. The center will establish a governance structure and advisory network, identify priority opportunities with athletes and external partners, synthesize existing evidence using human and AI-assisted methods, and conduct both discovery and implementation research, converting findings into recommendations tailored to particular sports, ages, organizations, and athlete populations. The interdisciplinary team brings expertise in movement science, exercise design, orthopaedic medicine, athletic training, sport management, social psychology, economics, and philanthropy, supported by U-M's established clinical, athletic, and research networks.