The Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) has announced €200,000 of funding grants to its member federations. The grants are being made available to member national governing bodies to support Olympic projects across the current cycle. The allocation marks year one of a campaign to support specific Olympic-based projects and programmes.
It also backs scholarship programmes and funding that the OCI provides to help athletes and teams to compete in Olympic events. The discretionary funding is aimed at projects across three areas – the national federation Olympic development support, performance coach support and a series of what the OCI call ‘make a difference projects’.
Each application was reviewed and marked in line with weighted criterion, with direct correlation from scoring to funding. A five-person review panel chaired by the OCI’s chief executive Peter Sherrard with independent and Sport Ireland members, assessed and scored the applications before referring them to a four-person sub-group from the OCI.
The OCI received 34 applications from 22 sports, 10 for performance coach support, 15 for make a difference projects, and nine for Olympic development support, for a combined total funding request of €800,000. 19 of the 34 applications were supported with grants from €5,000 to €20,000 per national governing body.
Contact was made with the 22 national governing bodies which applied to give feedback and discuss project implementation and planning. Due to a youth Olympic Games focus, the OCI will also support Gymnastics Ireland and Tennis Ireland with funding. The background to some of the specific projects will featured in the OCI’s web and social channels.
Pictured is OCI president Sarah Keane speaking at a seminar organised by Onside
