STUDENTS ENCOURAGED TO CONSIDER SPORT

STUDENTS ENCOURAGED TO CONSIDER SPORT

UK Sport Press Release - 25.09.08

As students across the country return to university this week, UK Sport are encouraging final year and masters students to consider the Ideas 4 Innovation: New Researchers Award 2009 when deciding on their project titles.

The aim of UK Sport's Ideas 4 Innovation programme is to develop an award scheme 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 both 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 by entering into 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 in total 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 a the potential to make a huge performance 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.

Due to the high standard of applications, a second award was also given to Jose Esteve of Sheffield Hallam University for his project on the novel use of sensors for elite sport application, who has also been able to extend his studies as a result of a £12,500 award from UK Sport.

Alison Neall, UK Sport’s Ideas 4 Innovation coordinator said: “This is a fantastic opportunity for students to extend their research beyond their final year and apply their knowledge to help us achieve British sporting success. Successful applicants would also have access to our extensive network of contacts in world class research and innovation.”

Applications for the 2009 New Researchers Award open on 2 March 2009. Anyone wanting more information on the New Researchers Award in the meantime should visit www.uksport.gov.uk/ideas4innovation