WomEn LEADership in Sport: Promoting the Capacity of Sport Clubs to Increase Female Participation in Leadership Roles (WELEAD) is a capacity-building project implemented under the Erasmus+ Sport 2025 programme (Project No. 101243483), co-funded by the European Union through the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA).

The project is coordinated by Associazione Italiana Cultura Sport – AICS (Italy) and implemented by a transnational consortium composed of partners from EU Member States and Western Balkan countries:

1. Associazione Italiana Cultura Sport – AICS (Italy)
2. CSIT – International Workers and Amateurs in Sports Confederation (Austria)
3. Sarajevo Meeting of Cultures – SMOC (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
4. Olympic Committee of Bosnia and Herzegovina – NOC BIH (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
5. WBSILab – Sport Innovation Lab Western Balkans (Montenegro)
6. PASTECHL – Physical Activity and Sports Tech for Healthy Lifestyles (Montenegro)
7. University of Montenegro – UOM (Montenegro)

The project is implemented over a period of 24 months, from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027.

The general aim of WELEAD is to enhance the role of women in society by strengthening their leadership capacities through sport, with a particular focus on unemployed and inactive women. By combining education, practical engagement, and community-based sport activities, the project supports sustainable pathways for women’s participation in leadership and decision-making roles within grassroots sport structures.

Specific objectives of the project are to:

• Increase the leadership, organizational, and employability skills of women through sport-based learning.
• Strengthen the capacity of grassroots sport clubs to support and integrate women in leadership and decision-making roles.
• Develop and pilot a blended WELEAD Academy model combining online learning with supervised internships.
• Promote inclusive, values-based leadership through locally led sport initiatives.
• Foster regional cooperation and knowledge exchange between EU and Western Balkan organizations working on gender equality in sport.

Main activities of the project include:

• Training of five coaches in each pilot country to deliver inclusive leadership education within sports clubs.
• Implementation of the WELEAD Academy for 120 women through online modules hosted on the OC BiH Moodle platform and supervised internships.
• Organization of eight community sport events led by project participants to strengthen real-life leadership practice.
• Development and implementation of an awareness-raising campaign and an advocacy toolkit addressing gender gaps in sport leadership.
• Dissemination of project results through national and international events, a project website, multilingual publications, and a final conference.
• Translation of all major project outputs into the local languages of the pilot regions to ensure sustainability and wider use.

WELEAD contributes to gender equality and social inclusion by addressing structural barriers that limit women’s access to leadership roles in sport. Through capacity building, visibility actions, and international cooperation, the project generates long-term impact at both individual and institutional levels, contributing to increased female representation in grassroots sport leadership across Europe.