OHI and Scottish Handball Association Launch Joint Injury Surveillance Project

Olympic Handball Ireland is proud to announce a new joint injury surveillance project, delivered in partnership with the Scottish Handball Association, marking the next step forward in handball research and player welfare across Ireland and Scotland.

The project is led by the OHI Research Working Group, supported by Sport Ireland's Research and Innovation Unit, and developed in collaboration with the Institute for Sport and Health at University College Dublin. At its centre is a redesigned injury report form, now hosted online through the Cognito Forms platform, making it faster and easier for coaches to record injuries as they happen.

Why this matters:
Handball is a sport defined by its pace, contact, and intensity, and with that comes injury risk. By recording how, when, and to whom injuries occur, the project aims to build the evidence base needed to reduce that risk. Bringing Irish and Scottish handball together widens the dataset and strengthens the picture for both nations.

"The goal is simple, to improve player safety," says Sport Scientist Peter Higgins, who leads the project. "Working alongside the Scottish Handball Association means we can learn from a larger pool of players and act on what the data tells us."

One Form, Two Nations

The new form moves the entire process online. Coaches complete the incident, injury, and exposure details soon after an event, sign as the reporter, and submit. About four weeks later, an automatic email invites them to complete a short follow-up on the athlete's recovery. There is no longer any need to print, scan, or email a document.

The project covers senior players aged 18 and over, and all data is anonymised and handled in line with GDPR, Sport Ireland's Privacy Policy, and Sport Scotland's General Privacy Notice.

Get Involved

Coaches and club representatives in both Ireland and Scotland are encouraged to report every injury that occurs in training or matches. The more consistently we all report, the stronger and safer the sport becomes.

To access the form visit: 

https://www.olympichandball.org/20260206195619-injury-prevention-form

How to:

Together, by building this shared knowledge base, we can help make handball safer, smarter, and stronger across Ireland and Scotland.