UK Sport Ideas 4 Innovation

UK Sport is pleased to announce that applications for the Ideas 4 Innovation: New Researchers Award for 2009 are now open. 

The aim of UK Sport’s Ideas 4 Innovation programme is to acknowledge and harness outstanding research and innovation concepts for elite sport, generated by the UK’s research community, to support the mission to London 2012 and beyond.

As part of the Ideas 4 Innovation programme, the New Researchers Award has been established to harness and reward outstanding student research that may have the potential to impact on performance in Olympic and Paralympic sport, and to encourage talented students to investigate their projects further through postgraduate study. Students from the disciplines of engineering, science, medicine, technology or the arts are encouraged to apply.

In its pilot year, the New Researchers Award was endorsed by 19 UK universities, eight of whom submitted 21 projects to UK Sport, approved by each university’s New Researchers Coordinator. Eight finalists were awarded a £500 prize and invited to present their projects to an expert panel at UK Sport’s headquarters in London.

The overall winner was Chris West from Brunel University whose project on the development of a novel device for performance enhancement in spinal cord injured athletes was recognized as having the potential to make a huge impact on British athletes. Chris is now engaging in a further year of study to investigate this project, with the help of a £25,000 grant provided by UK Sport.

There are currently 30 UK universities working UK Sport’s Research and Innovation team to encourage their students to apply for the New Researchers Award 2009. However, if you are a member of staff or a student at a university without a New Researchers Coordinator, there is still time to get involved in 2009.

For more information or to request a New Researchers Coordinator information pack for your university, please email [email protected]    

Applications for the 2009 New Researchers Award open 2nd March 2009 – and will close on 5th June 2009. To download an application form and full terms and conditions please visit www.uksport.gov.uk/ideas4innovation