The increasing importance and profile of sport tourism, Olympic tourism and sporting events as valuable fields of research has been recognised in the United Kingdom by the Economic and Social Research Council (ERSC), with the provision of grant funding for an international sport tourism and sporting events project. This is part of the ESRC’s ‘Training and Networking Opportunities’ Programme. The project is very much linked to the planning and preparation involved with the 2012 Games, and delivering a series of research legacies associated with the emerging tourism benefits that the Games can potentially deliver. A condition of the funding for the project outlined below is that the bursary scheme is open only to UK-based early career researchers (including doctoral students and researchers within five years of completing their PhD).

The Sport Tourism Opportunities for Research, Mobility and International Networking Group (STORMING) Initiative seeks to act as a catalyst for larger research projects within the context of sport and society, the 2012 Games, and internationalisation – all identified as important to the future research agenda of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

At this stage, the following travel and conference bursaries are available, and applications are welcomed from researchers with an interest in this area:

• Five travel and conference bursaries of up to £1500 each to Australia in February 2010
• Five travel and conference bursaries of up to £750 each to North America in May 2010
• Five travel and conference bursaries of up to £750 each to Korea in August 2010

The vision for the project is to leave a tangible legacy in the form of fifteen UK-based early career researchers with established research profiles in sport tourism studies. They will then be well positioned to benefit from the increasing economic importance of the tourism industry and the enhanced profile of sport as an agent of positive social change in society.

The deadline for applications is Friday September 18th. Anyone interested in finding out more about the project or further information on the application process should contact the project manager, Richard Shipway on +44 1202 965692 or by email at rshipway@bournemouth.ac.uk.

In addition to this, further details of the scheme and the application procedures can be found at http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/cesr/esrc/index.html