In April 2012, The Australian Federal Government acknowledged the role of the Australian Sports Technology Network (ASTN) in driving the commercialisation of sports technologies in Australia and provided seed funding to support its establishment . Federal Minister for Sport, Hon. Kate Lundy officially launched the ASTN in Geelong on 26 April 2012 - a big win for my home town!.
The outcomes of this initiative were reported to parliamentarians by Dr Helmer as part of a breakfast brief on 20th of June 2012. The collaboration also directly supported the establishment of the Australian Sports Technology Network (ASTN). Multi-level government support was critical to success and a continuous engagement campaign of was maintained.
Impetus, Aims & Organisation
In February 2007 the CSIRO Chief Executive Officers of the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) and Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) agreed to establish a collaboration with a view to aligning a dynamic research capability with sport for broad national benefit. Dr Helmer led the CSIRO Advancing Human Performance theme for this collaboration between 2008 and 2009 and served on the research steering committee throughout the engagement whilst actively contributing to research and innovation activities. The jointly agreed aims of the collaboration being as follows:
1. Continuation and enhancement of Australian success in international sport
(ASC Number 1 Priority).
2. Establishment of a ‘path to impact’ for broad-based technologies being developed in other CSIRO programs.
3. Application of research outcomes to provide products and services for the wider Australian community and to generate exports.
4. Facilitation of a nationally integrated approach to sport science and technology research
Under Dr Helmer’s leadership the collaboration adopted methods similar to those applied to CSIRO Flagships (but at a tenth of the scale). The combined mutual investment reflected a balance of institutional budgets with wider societal trends and was of the order of $3million AUD per annum (including cash and inkind).
Innovation is a people process and aligning the people is critical. The athlete centred performance driven model of the AIS was extended to include pairing of AIS sports scientists with CSIRO specialists within a framework provided by a mutually agreed Collaborative Research Umbrella Deed. Through a series of workshops and meetings CSIRO’s diverse research capability was engaged with leaders in sport and sports research to address needs and opportunities identified as part of an ongoing dialogue including facilitated encounters. The responsibility for monitoring and ensuring effective connectivity between the research capability and sport was supported through the steering committee and institutional relationship managers who additionally co-ordinated deeper interaction with National Sporting Organisations, universities, commercial interests, and the media.
Sport science is increasingly embracing new and diverse research interests and converging these in the pursuit of performance excellence. The research strategy included the maturation of both sport specific and generic strategic technologies that required different levels of engagement with sport. The AIS-CSIRO collaboration drew together research capability including environmental analysis, smart materials, wearable technologies, mechatronics and specialised devices, computer simulation and modelling, software and interface development (including mobile devices), and data management with sport to form dynamic multidisciplinary research teams.
The research capability was deployed to contribute to basic sports knowledge and higher level concepts. For example, applying research to further develop knowledge of environments {e.g. weather conditions in sailing} , individuals {e.g. movement and forces in swimming pools} , equipment {e.g. seats in kayak and rowing}, teams {e.g. patterns of play in team sports like wheelchair basketball}, and to use new and existing knowledge in the natural performance environment to inform faster {e.g. mobilising analysis of power in cycling}, directly influence performance technique {e.g. limb movement in running} and promote objectivity {e.g. objective scoring in boxing}
Impact & Achievement of Aims
1. Contributing to Australian Success in International Sport
Over 20 technologies were rapidly deployed to more than 17 sports to explore their potential to contribute to Australia’s international sporting success and realise impact during the course of the collaboration. The uptake into sport includes use in controlled laboratory settings for knowledge generation, athletes’ daily training environments, international competition, and the community. Figure AHP1 provides a snapshot of where the technologies have been applied as part of Australia’s London Olympics campaign.
Figure AHP1. Technology use in sport as part of Australia’s London Olympics campaign.
Of note, Technologies developed through the collaboration were used by Australian athletes at the Olympic Games and other international competitions. A belief that certain technologies had contributed to their success was indicated by some athletes and coaches, including public statements by gold medallists. Whilst technology can usefully assist performance development, the technology often needs to be available in a form suited to particular sports needs, and presented in a manner that clearly demonstrates its advantages.
2. Path to impact for CSIRO technologies
Sport represents a relatively low risk but demanding performance environment for technology maturation, promotion and refinement. Consistent with the methods of CSIRO flagships, the collaborative research effort has seen many technologies progress to the stage of producing ‘outputs’ such as working prototypes, over 35 scientific papers and/or conference presentations related to sport. A number have progressed to the ‘adoption’ stage in that their outputs have found regular use in sport settings. And more than three (including those employed at the Beijing and London Olympics) have produced demonstrable ‘impact’ in sport based on testimonies from coaches and athletes.
A pipeline of ‘innovation’, both invention and exploitation, saw technologies appear and progress through various stages of technological maturation and deployment as numerous technological examples (n), i.e. proof of concept (n=1), field trials (n = 10 -100) and technology transfer (n > 100). Certain technologies and aspects of some technologies had allied and serendipitous impacts in other sectors including health, education and defence. A snap shot of the innovation pipeline in sport depicting technologies and applications, impact and maturity, and contributions to sports knowledge is shown in Figure AHP2.
Figure AHP2. Innovation pipeline and technological maturation in sport.
3. Products and services for the general Australian community and for export
The use of technology in international sport has provided case studies that assist in the promotion and explanation of existing and emerging platform technologies and research capability whilst also providing a path to commercial adoption in sport. Connecting sport, industry, and the wider Australian community has assisted technology maturation and enabled benefits to be shared more broadly.
For example, a technology developed through the collaboration has been instrumental in the emergence of a modified sport that is achieving progressively increasing community uptake and has recently been adopted by the relevant National Sporting Organisation as its official ‘participation program’. Commercial production of the technology is being explored as part of an extended field trial in the modified sport. Similarly, another technology maturing in sport has been used in a community-based field study examining the effects of augmented feedback on motor skill acquisition whilst simultaneously establishing its efficacy for use as a more general teaching aid in Australian schools. These technologies are shown in Figure AHP3. Other technologies have had embodiments that have been more generally released with usage from across the globe in many levels of sport and recreation and two technologies have been licensed and transferred to Australian SMEs.
Figure AHP3. Applying elite technologies in the community.
4. Facilitation of nationally integrated research effort
The expertise of various third parties has been recruited to assist with specific projects and address capability gaps. The third parties included eleven different Australian universities, two state institutes/academies of sport, and more than ten small to medium-sized Australian companies as part of a concerted drive to foster a co-ordinated national collaborative spirit. In almost every case, each party contributed some of their own resources to the joint work with commitments deeply felt, as evident in the establishment of a joint CSIRO-AIS-UNSW perpetual PhD scholarship in memory of CSIRO researcher Dr Tony Collings who had strong links with academia and the national sporting community and served on the steering committee. The collaboration also directly supported the establishment of the Australian Sports Technology Network (ASTN), see https://astn.com.au and a continuous engagement campaign for government support was critical to success, see Figure AHP4.
Figure AHP4. Dr Helmer’s Continuous Engagement with Australian Federal Government over 5 years.