A mind in sport team for sport psychology

For many years, sport psychology in Italy has not received any attention from academic institutions and, as a result, the field has suffered from a lack of scholarly research that could validly inform teaching and professional activities in various sport contexts. When, at the end of the '90s, the Italian university system formally contemplated institutions devoted to sport sciences, conditions were set for establishing a dialogue between sport psychology and sport sciences and for setting the terms of new academic relationships between the two fields. The inter-university Center Mind in Sport Team (MiST) departed from these premises and it was founded at the end of 2006 with the primary scope of promoting scholarly research in and giving academic visibility to the field of Sport Psychology and its relations to movement sciences. Initially the Center, which has financial autonomy, was established upon a formal agreement among five different universities across the country and their relevant research units (University of Rome Foro Italico, University of Rome La Sapienza, University of Trieste, University of Cagliari, University of Catania) and, more recently, two other universities (University of Verona, University of Firenze) have joined the Center. The Center MiST focuses on both research and teaching activities, with a general attention to both theoretical and applicative aspects of the discipline and with a particular focus on the professional implications of scientific knowledge acquired through empirical research. Within this framework, the Center's seek to understand many topics, ranging from social, cognitive, affective and physiological aspects of sport practice and performance to physical exercise in different age groups. The Center's scholars assign particular importance to developing inter-disciplinary relationships both nationally and internationally to pursue and achieve the Center's goals.