WADA launches Call for Contributions for Unintentional Doping Research Project 

Deadline to submit contributions: 23 June 2025

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is pleased to launch a Call for Contributions for its Unintentional Doping Research Project.  

WADA’s Taskforce on Unintentional Doping invites everyone, including athletes, athlete support personnel (e.g., coaches, physicians, parents), anti-doping practitioners, academics, and policymakers to share their personal experiences, professional opinions, research evidence, and examples of emerging practices regarding unintentional doping. Our aim is to better understand the causes and consequences of unintentional doping so we can develop preventative strategies for athletes, athlete support personnel and anti-doping organizations.  

Unintentional Doping

Unintentional doping occurs when an athlete or athlete support personnel unknowingly breaks an anti-doping rule. These cases can have wide-ranging and at times life-changing consequences, making this topic crucial to understand. Unintentional doping is particularly distressing for athletes and their support personnel/entourage.  

The goal of the Call for Contributions is to get a deeper understanding of the nature of unintentional doping, which involves determining the scale of the problem and understanding the scenarios that could lead to unintentional doping. For more details, please visit the Unintentional Doping page on our website. 

Professor Susan Backhouse, Chair of the Taskforce, said: “Unintentional doping is a complex behavioral problem, which, at its core, means it cannot be resolved by any one organization or in isolation. This is why engaging the whole community on this issue is so important. It was encouraging to see the importance of the work of the Taskforce highlighted at WADA’s Annual Symposium, as well as the common theme of collaboration, which will be crucial for addressing this issue. The Call for Contributions is a key component of the Taskforce’s commitment to developing a better understanding of unintentional doping and ultimately, how we can work towards preventing it.” 

WADA’s Director of Education, Amanda Hudson, shared: “WADA is pleased to announce the next steps of this crucial social science research project. This Call for Contributions underlines WADA’s commitment to seek input from athletes and the wider anti-doping community to help inform the work we do. Our goal is simple—we aim to reduce the incidence of unintentional doping in order to better protect clean athletes. I encourage everyone who has experience with or constructive thoughts about unintentional doping to contribute to this research project to better inform the work of this Taskforce. WADA wishes to thank the Fonds de recherche du Québec for supporting the social science research that is fundamental to anti-doping efforts and making this project a reality.” 

Make a submission

To participate in the Call for Contributions, please fill in the form by clicking on the link below.  

• Submissions are open to everyone. 
• Submissions can be made anonymously. 
• Submissions can be made in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian.