Funding
The UK Sports Institute’s (UKSI) vision is to be the world-leading high-performance institute. Our mission as the UKSI is to deliver outstanding support that enables sports and athletes to excel.
Striving to be the best in the world is an expensive business. However, the Institute set-up means that Olympic and Paralympic sports have access to the knowledge of experts working across sports, to share and spread the latest thinking among sports and to ensure efficiencies of delivery. Through this structure, the UKSI maximises the resources it has available to it, to benefit as many Olympic and Paralympic sports as possible.
The UKSI takes its obligation to provide an efficient and effective delivery to Olympic and Paralympic sports very seriously. While maintaining a requirement to be agile in an often-changing performance environment, the UKSI also must deliver its annual budgets correct and accurate to the last pound, and all expenditure is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is supporting the right activities.
2022 Olympic & Paralympic Cycle
Paris
The UKSI was awarded £67.9m in total for the Paris Cycle by UK Sport. The final figure was established in December 2021, following the postponed Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. Of the final agreement, £11.5m is set aside specifically for Performance Innovation. As in previous agreements, the UKSI’s funding covers a proposed volume of UKSI services, delivered to sports and to athletes in Olympic and Paralympic sports through practitioners, as well as covering the costs of running all the UKSI sites across England and the costs of central services such as Athlete Health, which support all funded Olympic and Paralympic sports.
In addition to the core funding, £4m was awarded to Performance Data and £1.9m to the provision of Mental Health.
An infographic of investment
2020 Olympic & Paralympic Cycle
Tokyo
The UKSI was awarded £67.4m in total for the Tokyo cycle by UK Sport, of which £13.75 was for Innovation. The UKSI’s funding covers a set quantity of UKSI services to athletes in Olympic and Paralympic sports, as well as covering the costs of running all the UKSI sites across England and the costs of central services such as Athlete Health, which support all funded Olympic and Paralympic sports.
Separate to the core funding, in recognition of data as a newly emerging area, the UKSI received £3.1m in specific and additional funding for provision of data support to sports, as well as separate funding for Managed Sports and Pathways which are not included in the £67.4m figure.
Core Investment
£67.4m
Data
£3.1m
Pathways
£2.65m
Performance Innovation
£13.75m
Mental Health
£0.9m
2016 Olympic & Paralympic Cycle
Rio
In the Rio cycle, UK Sport decided to transfer responsibility for its Research & Development team to the UKSI, and the associated funding was also transferred. This team was subsequently renamed Performance Innovation. As a result, the UKSI received a total core investment of £59.6m, of which £10.8m was for the Innovation team.
In addition the UKSI received a sum of £2.65m for more comprehensive offering for Pathways.
Core Investment
£46.15m
Pathways
£26.5m* funding identified specifically for this purpose
Performance Innovation
£10.8m
2012 Olympic & Paralympic Cycle
London
For the London cycle, the UKSI received a lower funding level that it received for the four years previously. The reason for this was because it was the first time the UKSI charged for its services, having previously provided services free of charge through UK Sport funding. The total sum of funding received was £40.75m, comprising a core grant of £39.75m, as well as an additional sum to provide more substantial support to sports for Pathways.
Core Investment
£39.7m
Pathways
£1m* funding identified specifically for this purpose
2008 Olympic & Paralympic Cycle
Bejing
The first occasion for which the UKSI was funded for four years. For the Beijing cycle the UKSI received £42.9m in total, which was a £42.8m core grant with an additional sum of £0.1m to provide Pathways support to Olympic and Paralympic sports.
Core Investment
£42.8m
Pathways
£0.1m* funding identified specifically for this purpose
2004 Olympic & Paralympic Cycle
Athens
The UKSI was founded in 2002 and received for the Athens cycle a total of £21.9m to deliver sports science and medicine support. This was the first time the UKSI was funded and was for a three year cycle.
Core Investment
£21.9m