WIPS is an iKT centre that is a joint endeavour between university academics, Sport Wales (the national organisation responsible for developing and promoting sport and physical activity in Wales) and other industry partners (e.g. businesses and other national sporting organisations such as Football Association Wales; see Table 1) [16, 17].

WIPS was developed in 2014 as a previous knowledge transfer project, the Welsh Elite Performance Sport Innovation Network (WEPSIN), was ending. WEPSIN was a Welsh Government-funded project that sought to generate a knowledge transfer network between Welsh businesses, sport scientists and academics, and high-performance sports organisations. For instance, recognising that heat maintenance (i.e. the maintenance of body temperature for performance during competition where athletes may be inactive and unable to repeat a warm-up) could be an issue for athletes, WEPSIN approached Blizzard Protection Systems, a Welsh-based business specialising in passive heat maintenance, to enquire into their interest in producing heat-maintenance clothing for athletes. Subsequently, sport scientists associated with WEPSIN tested the efficacy of the products produced by Blizzard. These products have subsequently featured at numerous Olympic and Commonwealth Games [18,19,20].

Recognising the success of WEPSIN and keen to expand upon it, staff at Sport Wales and WEPSIN academics engaged in conversations to discuss an enhanced variation of the project, specifically at the request of Sport Wales, a project that further harnessed the research insights of academics across Wales. Subsequently, WIPS was proposed by the WEPSIN academics to Welsh Government and Sport Wales to “further [develop] sport science in Wales, train future sport scientists, enhance the application of science in Welsh sports and increase collaboration between Welsh sport, academia and business” [17]. Following numerous meetings, presentations and partner discussions, Sport Wales began to provide financial support for WIPS in 2015, as a three-way partnership between Sport Wales, leading academic sport scientists based in Wales, and relevant industry partners.

The funding for WIPS is provided to the two Universities (Swansea University and University of South Wales) to hire research assistants to conduct research and support the work of the Sport Wales Institute, the arm of Sport Wales focused on performance (in contrast to the majority focus on grassroots/community sport within the Sport Wales remit). The Sport Wales Institute is “a team of professionals, from across lots of disciplines, working together to help Welsh athletes achieve success on the world stage—as well as in their lives outside sport” [21, para. 1]. The Sport Wales Institute comprises practitioners from across sport science and medicine, as well as performance advisors who work with national sports organisations (of Commonwealth and Olympic Sports) to assist with their work developing elite athletes. The Sport Wales Institute team also supports British athletes on UK Sport World Class Programmes based in Wales, or when they return to Wales, to deliver at Olympic and Paralympic Games. The WIPS research assistants are university employees but are an integral part of the Sport Wales Institute and have access to Sport Wales offices and systems. There is no financial compensation provided to any other academics engaged in WIPS and there are no other employees of WIPS. Consequently, WIPS functions as an independent research body which can support, upskill, and where needed, challenge the Sport Wales Institute team.

Prior to the establishment of WIPS, the Sport Wales Institute had funded or supported one-off research projects or PhD projects to explore specific research questions. Some previous projects conducted with academics had encountered issues including, (a) academics shifting focus away from the original proposal to serve their own research interests, (b) overly theoretical rather than applied outputs, and (c) projects taking too long and not providing performance solutions in time for major competitions. Consequently, outputs from these projects had not been as beneficial to the Sport Wales Institute team as anticipated and some in the team were hesitant to work with academics who may not understand the pressures that sport organisations are under to deliver on the international stage. Additionally, the ad-hoc funding for individual projects lacked a strategic focus and consequently projects were not always targeted at the most pertinent or pressing performance issues. Sport Wales does have an in-house research and insights team, but their focus is on collecting and managing data on sporting activity in Wales, rather than maximising the performance of athletes.

WIPS sought to enhance the capacity of the Sport Wales Institute by embedding research assistants within the Sport Wales Institute and engaging academics from across Wales to conduct multi-disciplinary, world-leading applied performance science projects that directly addressed the needs of the Sport Wales Institute. WIPS was designed with the intent of producing insights that could be implemented with athletes and wider support teams for immediate performance impact. In developing WIPS, meetings were held with Sport Wales Institute staff, as well as performance directors and coaches from various sport organisations to identify their preferred approach for WIPS to identify, prioritise, and address research questions and performance problems. Through these discussions, five approaches were identified:

(1) Performance-driven questions, science-driven answers. In this situation, athletes, coaches, practitioners or performance advisors will raise questions that are brought to WIPS and subsequently answered based on the existing literature or new research is conducted. This was deemed to be the most common and important role of WIPS for practitioners and performance advisors.

(2) Performance-driven questions, industry-driven answers. As with the above, questions are raised from within the Sport Wales Institute, but answers are sought from business or industry (for instance, data management solutions).

(3) Performance-driven questions, science- and industry-driven answers. When neither (1) nor (2) can provide a sufficient answer, WIPS will seek to combine insights from academics and industry partners.

(4) Science-driven performance applications to enhance performance. This refers to situations in which academics (from within or beyond WIPS) approach Sport Wales/the Sport Wales Institute to gain insights from athletes, coaches, practitioners or performance advisors on performance-focused questions. These questions are only considered if there is a clear benefit to the Sport Wales Institute, and this outweighs any costs to those involved.

(5) Industry-driven performance applications to enhance performance. Finally, in some situations, businesses directly approach the Sport Wales Institute to offer their services and/or test new equipment/technology on athletes/coaches/practitioners. As with academic-driven questions, business/industry needs are only addressed if there is a clear benefit to the Sport Wales Institute for engaging with them.

Priority is given to the first three approaches to research, ensuring that projects that are priorities for Sport Wales (and their athletes and associated national governing bodies) receive the most attention.

Through these initial conversations, performance areas that were perceived to benefit from specific academic insights and support were also identified. Initially, nine disciplines (biomechanics, coaching science, environmental physiology, nutrition, medicine, performance analysis, performance physiology, psychology, strength and conditioning, and youth sport) were prioritised (Fig. 2), with one academic based at a Welsh University recruited (through open call) to be the academic lead for each area. These disciplines have subsequently expanded to also include data science, disability sport, athlete health and well-being, sports physiotherapy, sports ethics, governance and integrity, and talent identification and transfer.

Original performance domains addressed by the Welsh Institute of Performance Science (WIPS) team. Reproduced from [22], with permission

Structurally, WIPS involves a strategic management board comprising pertinent individuals from Sport Wales, Welsh Government and the academic lead for WIPS. The strategic management board is responsible for providing the overall strategic steer for WIPS and ensuring it remains aligned with its overall purpose. The strategic management board meets annually to review WIPS activities and provide oversight on the Research Steering Group (RSG). The RSG comprises a Sport Wales WIPS lead who shares insights, updates and priorities from the Sport Wales Institute, the WIPS academic lead, WIPS research assistants and academic discipline leads. As noted previously, the academics are not paid for their involvement in WIPS and thus remain independent of Sport Wales/Sport Wales Institute. The benefit (and unique consequence) of this is the Sport Wales Institute has long-term and immediate access to an extensive network of academics who are in full-time academic roles. Therefore the academics have (a) the flexibility to engage in various research projects, (b) access to the latest literature, technology and laboratories required to conduct research, (c) opportunities to apply for and secure funding to support WIPS projects and (d) collaborators who can provide further insights to address performance issues.

As priorities of the Sport Wales Institute have shifted over time, the RSG composition has changed, both in terms of academics involved as well as disciplines included. However, many of the core academics and areas have remained. Of note, the RSG has expanded to include a representative from each of the UK home nations’ sport science institutes (i.e. England, Northern Ireland and Scotland) to share emergent practice and pertinent insights from projects, as well as to facilitate cross-nation working and minimise duplication. Additionally, the RSG has also expanded to include a representative from two national sports organisations outside Sport Wales' oversight (Welsh Rugby Union and Football Association Wales). The RSG meets quarterly to discuss WIPS projects and strategic priorities for each partner group moving forward, and to share pertinent university updates. Research steering group meetings are also an opportunity for key areas of concern, progress or questions to be raised by both the WIPS academic lead and Sport Wales Institute leads. As such, these quarterly meetings provide an opportunity for the priorities of the Sport Wales Institute (on behalf of athletes, coaches, practitioners and performance advisors) to be raised and considered.

Beyond attending quarterly RSG meetings, the academic members of WIPS review brief research proposals (generated by the Sport Wales Institute team and/or WIPS research assistants based on conversations with athletes, coaches, practitioners and performance advisors or submitted by external academics) and provide feedback to the proposer. Proposals are reviewed with consideration to pre-existing academic literature available on a topic, potential benefit to performance, anticipated buy-in from potential participants, time requirements and the overall need indicated by the Sport Wales Institute. This review may result in a shift in focus of a proposal (i.e. from a proposed experimental study to a rapid review of literature when an area is already well researched), an enhancement of protocols, a proposal of key academics to engage in the project and/or the academic committing to supporting and/or conducting the proposed research.

In most instances, the proposed research projects (if approved for support by WIPS) are led by the WIPS research assistants with the appropriate academic lead providing oversight, but in some instances the academic may seek funding (i.e. for an MSc or PhD student) or allocate their own research time to conduct the proposed study/studies. Additionally, academic leads respond to requests from members of the Sport Wales Institute as well as coaches and performance directors from associated sports organisations for insights into topical research areas, through written reports, presentations, infographics and more. Academic leads will also share updates from ongoing research projects at their universities that may have performance implications that would benefit the Sport Wales Institute.