There are ten days left to submit sports based projects for consideration as part of the Arthur Guinness Projects – a major initiative which will see the investment of €3 million into people and projects in four key areas of sport, art, music and food over the next three years.
Projects to tackle obesity, to introduce life long sport, to bring sport into the workplace and to build facilities like skate parks have been rolling in to the site off the back of a substantial advertising campaign promoting the philanthropic initiative.
A project to find Ireland’s Gaelic Football Chieftain will be up against others from swimming badminton, rugby, rowing, physiotherapy, fantasy games and an international eSports tournament all bidding to engage public sport and the eye of the judges once voting on the submissions has concluded on August 23rd.
They need to be in though by August 9th and can be submitted online at Arthur Guinness Projects.
All the projects will be voted on by the general public and four panels of judges will determine four winners from among those who secure the top 10% in each sector from the vote. In addition they will be free to choose one wild card entry so that 20 projects in total will receive the funding.
The judges will also provide advice and mentoring to the projects that are chosen.
The panel of judges in the sports category will be chaired by Donegal GAA Manager, Jim McGuinness. He will be backed by TodayFM and TV3 presenter Matt Cooper, Sarah O’Connor, CEO of the Federation of Irish Sports and Rob Hartnett, founder and CEO of Sport for Business.
“This is a great initiative which will give hope and backing to people that have the passion, the energy and the creative spark to make a real difference to Ireland but who may just need the support that we can provide through knowledge, experience, profile and investment,” said McGuinness at the launch of the initiative last month.
“It is a mark of the importance of sport within Ireland that it is such a key part of this exciting project,” added Rob Hartnett. “We will see and support the best and the brightest ideas from across the spectrum of the sports business sector. We will help them to fly with the support that the Arthur Guinness Projects will provide.”
“Ireland is a place where there is an abundance of character, talent and creativity,” said Guinness Marketing Director Stephen O’Kelly. “Arthur Guinness was a true visionary, one of the original innovators and who, along with generations of his family have been behind some of the most important philanthropic gestures we have seen in Ireland.”
“Arthur Guinness Projects is all about championing the wealth of creative potential we have in Ireland. Our aim is to help people unlock their dreams and ideas and set them alight.”
Sports Tourism Seminar at Croke Park (September 19th)
Sport for Business 20/20 at Ulster Bank HQ (October 8th)
The Business of Youth Sport Seminar (November 28th)
