The dsj Research Network helps dsj to enhance the quality of organised children’s and youth sport and positions itself and its members, under the dsj umbrella, in the public science-policy arena in order to make the potential of children and youth sport, for example, visible. The members of the dsj Research Network conduct partly interdisciplinary and practice-oriented research into the educational potential of children’s and youth work in sport. dsj can harness their findings for organised children’s and youth sport.

Within the dsj Research Network, dialogue and transfer between research/academia and practice are lived out and refined. The identification of gaps in the research, action in response to current social requirements and issues, an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, and networking with one another and with other networks make topics relating to children’s and youth sport more visible in academia and organised sport, but also in politics and society.

Finally, the dsj Research Network helps dsj to position itself in the political and public arena, e.g. by preparing arguments and processing the results of the research.

The jointly developed “Conceptual framework of the dsj Research Network – educational potential of children’s and youth work in sport“ from 2012 provides a basis for the work of the dsj Research Network.