The sport research department of IRIS has become a leading authority in the EU on the analysis of the position and role of sport within international affairs. The area of research covers sport diplomacies, sports economy, governance and integrity, as well as the societal impacts linked to sport competition and activities. IRIS cooperates with organisations such as UNESCO (IRIS is a member of the Permanent Consultative Council of the Intergovernmental Committee for Physical Education and Sport (CIGEPS)), the Council of Europe or the European Commission. With regards to the subject of sports integrity, IRIS has notably led a landmark European program “What national networks to fight against match-fixing?” (2012-2014) and is currently coordinating a program for the European Commission: “Preventing criminal risks linked to the sports betting market” (2016-2017) . IRIS is also taking part in the European project “Fix the Fixing” (2016-2017 ; led by the University of Thessaloniki).

In France, IRIS has been assisting the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs on the formulation and implementation of a specific French sports diplomacy since 2012. In this framework, IRIS has analyzed in detail several examples of sport diplomacies (United States of America, Qatar, United Kingdom, Brazil, China) and proposed recommendations to the French state for its own sport diplomacy (Program “Diplosport” – 2012).