Notre Dame women’s basketball student-athletes train in the weight room, fit with advanced instrumentation and analytics that inform individualized training and care.Pat and Jana Eilers of Winnetka, Illinois, have made an additional $25 million gift to the University of Notre Dame to create the new Eilers Family Sports and Human Performance Institute, increasing their total investment in this area to $50 million. A first-of-its-kind partnership between Notre Dame Athletics and the University’s academic units, the institute will support cutting-edge research on physiology, neuroscience, data science, and athletic performance—integrating scholarship with one of the premier athletics programs in American higher education.
The new institute builds on existing joint efforts between Notre Dame Athletics, , and faculty in the Colleges of Engineering, Science, and Arts & Letters on research projects that impact athletes and the broader student body. These projects range from a current study on reducing the likelihood of reinjury for athletes returning from an ACL tear to a psychology study that looks at minimizing the impact of jet lag when teams travel across multiple time zones for competition.
Priority research areas for the institute will include:
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Neuroscience and mental health: Advancing research with a focus on how brains perform under stress, creating and decoding team synchronization and trust, and the neurobiology of spiritual grounding.
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Biomechanics, sensors, and equipment: Pioneering cutting-edge wearable, noninvasive sensing technology to evaluate physical stress, mechanical impacts, and autonomic responses in order to guide adaptive prosthetics, enhance athletic equipment, and understand cognitive behaviors.
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Applied data science and AI: Harnessing advanced analytical models to design predictive health simulations and digital twins, while establishing state-of-the-art research platforms that explore systemic physiology and metabolic dynamics to maximize gameday readiness, mitigate nutritional deficiencies, curb frequent athletic injuries, and foster long-term vitality across broader populations.
“The Colleges of Science, Engineering, and Arts & Letters have already made significant commitments to the research areas that will be the foundation for this new institute,” said , the Charles and Jill Fischer Provost. “This partnership is an exciting illustration of what becomes possible when we think as an institution, which is a key goal of Notre Dame’s strategic framework, and it advances Notre Dame’s mission as a leading global Catholic research university.”
A Notre Dame football student-athlete performs a hurdle jump. The Eilers Institute will translate research into practice to advance health, reduce injury risk, and improve performance.Funding from the Eilers family builds on the $25 million gift they made earlier this year to endow the , the operational home of the Fighting Irish football program. Pat Eilers, an alumnus who earned degrees in biology in 1989 and mechanical engineering in 1990 from Notre Dame, was a two-year starter for the Notre Dame football program, a member of the 1988 national championship team, and a Notre Dame baseball student-athlete.
“We are deeply grateful to Pat and Jana for their monumental gift to create the Eilers Family Sports and Human Performance Institute,” said , vice president and James E. Rohr Director of Athletics. “Building upon a strong foundation and tradition of research already present at Notre Dame, it unites experts in sports science with world-class minds in our campus faculty, creating space for collaboration that will produce a positive impact beyond the field of play.”
Pat Eilers, who received an MBA from Northwestern University in 1999, is the founder and managing partner of Transition Equity Partners LLC. Jana Eilers graduated from the University of St. Thomas in 1989 with a degree in marketing. An avid photographer, she is passionate about cooking and is dedicated to serving her family and community through volunteerism and philanthropy. The couple’s four children—Elizabeth ’15, Katherine ’17 (women’s lacrosse), Clare ’20, and Patrick ’25 (men’s lacrosse)—are all Notre Dame graduates.
“Notre Dame has shaped our family in countless ways, making this incremental gift especially meaningful to us. We are humbled to know the Eilers Family Sports and Human Performance Institute will help generations of student-athletes as well as the broader student body achieve their full physical, mental, and spiritual potential,” said Pat Eilers. “We believe the institute will also bring to life the University’s strategic framework focused on health and well-being, which pursues breakthroughs in medical research, mental health, and wellness, along with data, AI, and computing. We hope this collaboration across the University as a whole will generate many grants and amazing research that greatly benefit students, coaches, and teachers alike.”
Media contact: Erin Blasko, director of media engagement, 574-631-4127, eblasko@nd.edu