{"id":15,"date":"2026-10-27T10:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T14:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/?p=15"},"modified":"2026-10-27T10:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T14:44:15","slug":"thilo-kunkel-joins-scientific-council-of-benfica-institute-for-sport-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/2026\/10\/27\/thilo-kunkel-joins-scientific-council-of-benfica-institute-for-sport-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"Thilo Kunkel joins scientific council of Benfica Institute for Sport Excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Temple professor will contribute to an initiative designed to share SL Benfica\u2019s expertise and connect academic research with sport practice.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thilo Kunkel, a professor at Temple University\u2019s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM) and a member of Temple University\u2019s Sport Industry Research Center (SIRC), has joined the scientific council of the Benfica Institute for Sport Excellence. The initiative brings together SL Benfica\u2019s experience in sport with academic research to share knowledge and inform practice beyond the club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The institute launched on July 21, 2026, at Est\u00e1dio da Luz in Lisbon. Kunkel joined Benfica President Rui Costa and Institute Dean Elizabete Cardoso in presenting a vision for connecting the club\u2019s methods and expertise with researchers and sport professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benfica\u2019s approach places education and applied research within the same initiative. Its institute is designed to turn knowledge developed through sport practice into opportunities for professional learning, while giving researchers access to organizational questions and settings in which ideas can be examined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat particularly excites me about the Institute is its ambition to connect sport practice, education, research, and innovation,\u201d Kunkel wrote in a public post announcing his appointment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The institute\u2019s research opportunities extend across health, performance analysis and technology. Through Benfica Xplore R&D Collaborations, researchers can propose projects involving real-world data, facilities and specialist expertise. A separate pathway, Benfica Xpert Innovation Partnerships, invites companies to propose products or solutions for testing in the club\u2019s environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The education side includes online, hybrid and in-person learning in coaching and development, analytics and technology, and sports business. The introductory Foundations of the Benfica Methodology course addresses the club\u2019s approach to player development and is intended for coaches and other professionals seeking to understand its principles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, these activities connect practical experience with opportunities to study it and share what is learned. For researchers, the value lies in examining questions within an operating sport organization. For practitioners, the institute aims to make knowledge accessible through training and collaboration, with potential applications across sport settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That exchange is consistent with SIRC\u2019s mission to generate and translate evidence-based insight for the sport industry. Kunkel\u2019s appointment provides another setting for the applied work reflected in the center\u2019s research and consulting, where academic expertise is connected with the needs of organizations and the people they serve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kunkel\u2019s work at Temple examines strategic management and marketing, including athlete branding, consumer engagement in digital environments and the relationships between brands. His research on athlete brand development has informed Name, Image and Likeness policy discussions and he has consulted sport teams, sponsors, athletes and technology developers on brand positioning, fan engagement and sponsorship activation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Temple professor will contribute to an initiative designed to share SL Benfica\u2019s expertise and connect academic research with sport practice. Thilo Kunkel, a professor at Temple University\u2019s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM) and a member of Temple University\u2019s Sport Industry Research Center (SIRC), has joined the scientific council of the Benfica […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35766,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-sirc"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35766"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.temple.edu\/sirc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}