Centre of Excellence Fund

The Centre of Excellence Fund (the Fund) is a key sporting initiative of the Budget, aimed at improving talent pathways and community engagement for all sporting codes.

Centres of Excellence will feature multi-purpose facilities, enabling sports to bridge the gap between elite sport and the general community and expand their community programs and outcomes. The Fund will assist eligible organisations to develop integrated facilities that include high-performance training and administration areas to assist talent identification and development opportunities. The Fund focuses on infrastructure that delivers the best outcomes for the community and ensures that the best possible value for money is achieved.

The primary objectives of the Fund are to:

• Provide elite performance sport infrastructure
• Support talent identification and development pathways (i.e. athletes moving from pre-elite to elite)  
• Support the enhancement of dedicated female programs and facilities to improve pathways for women and girls, in line with the NSW Government’s women in sport strategy Her Sport Her Way
• Improve the level of community engagement e.g. an increase in the number of community health and wellbeing education workshops held at a Centre of Excellence

Secondary objectives of the Fund are to:

• Create multi-purpose and multi-use facility components
• Create inclusive facilities that meet the needs of females, people with disability, First Nations peoples and people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities   
• Establish a diversified funding model
• Improve operational sustainability  
• Promote and incorporate environmental sustainability and climate resiliency into design, construction and operation
• Promote innovation in sports science, sports medicine and technology  
• Promote partnerships that maximise outcomes