Niki Koutrou

I joined the University of Sunderland in London in February 2022 with a teaching focus on tourism and events.

I hold a PhD in Sport Policy from Loughborough University funded by the Hellenic State Scholarships Foundation and the Alexander Onassis Public Benefit Foundation and am a qualified teacher and fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

In previous roles, I have been the Programme Leader for the BSC Sport Management and BA/MA Sport Management at the Universities of Bournemouth and Kent respectively.

My research focuses on events management and Olympic studies, alongside mega-sport event volunteering, participation legacies, volunteer management, sports programme evaluation and sustainability, supervising PhD projects in these areas.

Over the years, I’ve been engaged in various research and knowledge exchange activities aimed at bridging the gap between academia and the wider society.

Most recently, I have become a Project and Research Manager at PlayGreen, an Erasmus+ Sport-funded and EUFA endorsed pan European collaborative project on behalf of the European Sports NGO which aims to enhance the environmental sustainability of sport by developing volunteer capacities.

My work on volunteer legacies has also been featured in Geographical, the Royal Geographical Society Journal, and I have acted as the Workshop Facilitator and Coordinator at the European Sports Platform, European Youth Sport Forum and International Olympic Academy among others.