Sports Technology

17 projects benefiting 15 sporting organisations have received a share of $2.4 million of Competitive Innovation Fund allocations announced this week.

Australian Sports Commission (ASC) Chief Executive Simon Hollingsworth said sailing, swimming, athletics, canoeing, diving, rowing, golf, hockey, winter sports, equestrian, badminton, rugby 7s, basketball, cycling and boxing would benefit from the fund's inaugural round of allocations.

Hollingsworth stated "the Competitive Innovation Fund is a significant investment in the future of high performance sport.

"It promotes Australia's Winning Edge 2012-2022 outcomes, provides opportunities in coaching related work, sport specific projects and technological innovation across numerous sports.

"A key goal of the fund is to make sports think differently about the way they pursue success, including how they could possibly work with other sports to improve performance.

"The fund projects provide a diverse range of initiatives from advancing technology in rowing to computational analysis for canoeing and diving to help Australia's high performance athletes and coaches perform at an even higher level on the world stage."

Rowing Australia, which has received $295,000 under the fund, and Swimming Australia, which has received $230,000, will both look to development advancements in data analysis.

A panel appointed by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) had assessed applications based on the project's capacity to provide a performance return on the investment, the level of collaboration within the sport, and ability of the initiatives to contribute to the performance of coaches and athletes.

AIS Director Matt Favier said "The Competitive Innovation Fund is a powerful tool to drive fresh thinking and new approaches across a range of themes in high performance sport. It endeavours to encourage fresh ideas in high performance coaching and leadership, as well drive the development of technological advances in Australian sport as athletes and coaches prepare for the Commonwealth Games next year and then on towards Rio 2016."

"The investment is a crucial plank in the Australia's Winning Edge strategy with the AIS supporting sports to deliver international success."

The ASC is also backing next week's the Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) having reached a two-year agreement to become a sponsor of the ASTN's Annual Conference.

Hollingsworth said as part of the agreement all national sporting organisations (NSOs) will be offered complimentary membership of the ASTN and free entry to its conference, being held in Melbourne on 14th and 15th October.

Hollingsworth added "it is important the sports sector understands trends in sports technology innovation as it applies to both high performance, and participation.

"The ASTN's inaugural conference last year provided a valuable education and networking resource for NSOs to develop plans for innovation and we would like to see all sports benefit from the opportunity this year."

The partnership also provides an opportunity for NSOs to work more closely with the ASTN and its members to investigate technologies to meet the needs of their sports.

Welcoming the backing, ASTN Executive Director Craig Hill stated "the ASTN can help individual sports identify and initiate projects involving technology innovation.

"Projects may relate to high performance, game development, sports participation or sports management."

Under the agreement, ASTN will deliver a workshop titled 'Digital Innovation and Sport' which is designed to help NSOs build an understanding of the opportunities digital platforms present for their sport.

The ASTN will also work closely with the ASC Clearinghouse to build on its sports technology resource repository to ensure the sports community has up-to-date knowledge of developments in the industry.

17th June 2013 - AUSTRALIAN SPORT TECHNOLOGIES NETWORK TO HOST NSW EVENT, ANNOUNCES 2013 CONFERENCE DETAILS 

8th November 2012 - SPORT TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT FUND LOOKS TO KICK GOALS 

25th September 2012 - AUSTRALIAN SPORTS TECHNOLOGIES NETWORK TO HOST INAUGURAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE

12th May 2012 - ENCOURAGING TOP-CLASS INNOVATION TO FIND AUSTRALIA’S WINNING EDGE

26th April 2012 - AUSTRALIA GOVERNMENT PLAN TO LEAD THE WORLD IN SPORTS TECHNOLOGY 

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