Rationale

The ISSS is an Association of technical experts involved in the investigation, development and testing sports surfaces. Members of the Association may be individuals, scientific institutes, testing laboratories, sports federations or public authorities.

All Members are independent of the industries involved in the manufacture, supply and installation of these surfaces. However technical experts from these companies are invited to support and join the working groups of ISSS.

What are the aims of ISSS?

Sports surfaces comprise all surface constructions and layers, on which the different sports are performed (from athletics to sports games to gymnastics).

The sports surface is often the main element of a sports facility and certainly the most important component for the effective performance of the athletes.

Scientists and engineers working in the field of sports surfaces have in the past often worked in isolation. Thus the importance of research in some countries may have been underestimated and therefore not applied efficiently to the sport concerned.

 One important function of ISSS is to co-ordinate the activities of different disciplines and countries in the field of sports surfaces. This will be assisted by international communication, regular conferences and the exchange of research results.

If this can be achieved, unnecessary duplication of effort may be avoided, and testing methods and requirements standardised.

The ISSS sees itself as a forum of discussion and information between sports researchers, testing laboratories, sports medicine, bio-mechanics and facility proprietors.

History

The ISSS was founded in 1985 and was then registered as an Association under Swiss law in Zurich, Switzerland.

The Association was constituted with an Executive Board that effectively runs the Association between Annual General Meetings, at which times a new Board is elected.

The first Executive Board comprised three persons - Mr. Cay Hegerman (chairman) of the Norwegian Building Research Institute (Norway), Mr. Hans Jorg Kolitzus (treasurer) of the Institut fur Sportbodentechnik (Switzerland) and Mr. Vic Watson (secretary) of the Centre for Sports Technology (England).

To separate special grants or funding, which may be variously donated for specific tasks, from the financial affairs of the Association, the ISSS Trust Fund (TSSS) was founded in 1987.

The TSSS is controlled by three trustees elected at each AGM.  The first three trustees elected were Mr. Werner Krems (Austria), Mr. Martin Henriksen (Norway) and Mr. Rudolf Meuli (Switzeland).