Homepage

We use cookies to track and analyse visitors to our website

These cookies help make the website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation. They are necessary for our website to function and cannot be switched off.
These cookies gather information to understand how visitors interact with the website, such as how many people are using our website of which pages are popular to help us improve user experience. Switching off these cookies will mean that we cannot gather information to improve the user experience.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by a third party provider whose services we have added to our website. Switching off these cookies mean that areas of our website cannot work properly.

Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user's experience more efficient.

The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site.

For all other types of cookies we need your permission.

This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.

You can at any time change or withdraw your consent from the Cookie Declaration on our website.

Learn more about who we are, how you can contact us and how we process personal data in our Privacy Policy.

Skip navigation
  • About us
    • Our Directors team
    • Our Board and panels
    • Strategic plan 2021-31
    • Annual reports
    • Our funders
    • Who we work with
    • Tenders
    • Contact us
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Learning and development
    • Protecting and Transforming Olympic and Paralympic sport
    • Leadership and governance
    • Coaching
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Aquatics
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Baseball
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Climbing
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Para performance strategic framework
    • Board minutes
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • Transparency and open data
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports and research
    • The Whyte Review
  • Jobs in sport
    • Working at UK Sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Find jobs in sport
    • Advertise sport jobs
  • About us
    • Our Directors team
    • Our Board and panels
    • Strategic plan 2021-31
    • Annual reports
    • Our funders
    • Who we work with
    • Tenders
    • Contact us
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Learning and development
    • Protecting and Transforming Olympic and Paralympic sport
    • Leadership and governance
    • Coaching
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Aquatics
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Baseball
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Climbing
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Para performance strategic framework
    • Board minutes
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • Transparency and open data
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports and research
    • The Whyte Review
  • Jobs in sport
    • Working at UK Sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Find jobs in sport
    • Advertise sport jobs
Popular content on our site
Prepare to “Find Your Greatness” as search for UK's future athletes gets underway The National Lottery operator Allwyn launches ChangeMakers fund for athletes as they make a difference back home Breadth of success targeted as British Olympic and Paralympic performance aspirations confirmed for Paris Investing in sport Strategic plan 2021-31
News

Ideas4Innovation discovers untapped talent to aid gold medal hunt

Published 25 August 2010

UK Sport is delighted to announce the three winners of this year’s Ideas4Innovation competition. For the first time since the competition began in 2008, the three winners were all entrants in the ‘Garage Innovators’ category and the £25,000 in research funding has been split between them.

The aim of UK Sport's Ideas4Innovation 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. The Garage Innovators Award is open to any sports enthusiast with creative ideas and expertise that may have the potential to enhance the performance of British Olympic or Paralympic athletes.

Also for the first time in the three year history of Ideas4Innovation, a group of inventors has been awarded a prize in the Garage Innovators category. Four engineering and design specialists from London, who meet as a group regularly in their spare time to come up with new inventions, were inspired to apply their knowledge to sport when they heard about the Ideas4Innovation Awards.

The group – self named ‘The Imagination Factory’ - came up with over 40 ideas that were narrowed down to their top four which they submitted to UK Sport for consideration. Two of these made the final stages and were presented to an expert panel at UK Sport HQ, before one, an idea that could benefit several sports (including triathlon, modern pentathlon and swimming) was given a Garage Innovators Award, to allow further investigation towards 2012. The four inventors are Charlie Ashworth, Mark Hester, Julian Swan and Stuart Pallant. Charlie said: “The Imagination Factory is overjoyed to be selected as a winner of this year's competition and cannot wait to get started on developing our idea for the British team ahead of 2012."

Also awarded research funding is Dr Dick Thijssen, a Research Fellow at Liverpool John Moores University, for his idea for a novel warm up method. His Garage Innovators Award will be used to further his research immediately in the field, with access to Britain’s elite athletes as a testing pool. He said: “I'm really happy that UK Sport is providing me with the opportunity to be part of their highly committed team that strives to get the best out of British athletes.

“With this novel method that can be applied during the warm-up phase, I expect athletes to make an additional step forward and optimise their performance level.”

The third 2010 winner is Dave Richards, Group Leader for the Mechanical Design Group at Frazer-Nash Consultancy. He said: “I'm really happy to have won the Garage Innovators Award this year. I feel that my idea, which is a mix of cutting edge engineering technology and good practical engineering can have a positive impact on British athletes in time for London. 

“The idea draws from Frazer-Nash's experience of working in the field of high quality Aerospace Engineering and hopefully will be one of the elements that turns some of our world class athletes into gold medal winners."

Head of Research and Innovation at UK Sport, Dr Scott Drawer, said: “We have been really impressed by the quality of applications for Ideas4Innovation this year, as the concepts presented to us have shown a real grasp of the need for rapid and direct performance impact. The need for this was particularly pertinent this year, as 2010 is likely to be the last Ideas4Innnovation Award that can have an impact on performances in 2012.  

“We are very excited to be working with these winners in the build up to the London Games, particularly in the case of The Imagination Factory where we feel we have uncovered some talented individuals who were previously untapped in terms of elite sport, and that is what Ideas4Innovation is all about.”

Those interested in applying in 2011, where the focus will shift to finding performance gains for Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016, can get more information and register their interest in the Ideas4Innovation Award.

Please note: despite a high standard of applications and finalists for this year’s New Researchers Award, none of the projects selected to present to the judges were deemed able to make a significant impact on the performances of British athletes in 2012 and therefore the £25,000 research grant has not been awarded.

Share
  • X
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

News

Participants of the UK Sport Athlete To Coach programme taking part in a fireside conversation
UK Sport launches new programmes to support coaching across the high-performance community
21 May 2025
Headshot of Professor Nick Webborn CBE
Professor Nick Webborn CBE appointed new Chair of UK Sport
19 May 2025
Decoration image with the logos of UK Sport and Weirdo
Transforming fan experience: UK Sport introduces new engagement strategies for Olympic and Paralympic sports
15 May 2025
Looking to work in sport?
Find or advertise sports jobs in the UK
Search now
Our funders
  • Funded by UK Government
  • TNL partners
Who we work with
  • British Olympic Association
  • Paralympics GB
  • Logo of the UK Sports Institute
  • Sport England
  • Sport Northern Ireland
  • Sport Wales
  • Sport Scotland
  • Logo of the British Elite Athletes Association
  • Logo for UK Coaching
  • Logo of Sport Resolutions
Sitelogo
Sitemap
  • Homepage
  • About us
  • Our work
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
  • Resources
  • Jobs in sport
  • Website terms and privacy policy
  • Editorial policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility
  • Freedom of Information
  • Welsh language scheme
  • FAQs
Contact
UK Sport
6th Floor
10 South Colonnade
London
E14 4PU
E: info@uksport.gov.uk
T: +44 (0) 20 7211 5100
Follow us
Twitter Youtube Instagram LinkedIn

© Copyright UK Sport 2025