Applications are open until 26 March 2021 for the leadership program, which meets the demands of Australia’s high performance sporting system to increase the depth of diversity of its workforce.

The program also complements the Australian Government’s Advancing Women in STEM strategy that aims to increase education and career opportunities for women in these specialist fields.

The AIS will manage the program, funded by the Australian Government, in partnership with Sport Australia and the Office for Women.

AIS CEO Peter Conde said: “Our aim is to be a world-leading sport system and that includes being at the cutting-edge of sport science, technology and medicine. A 21^st century sporting system needs a modern, diverse and highly-skilled workforce that continues to break new ground and challenge the status quo.

“This AIS Talent Program is about supporting women leaders in STEMM to further progress their careers and it’s also an incentive for young aspiring women to know that we’re strongly committed to creating greater career opportunities like this in Australian sport.

“The type of roles this program will appeal to include sports medicine, physiotherapy, psychology, nutrition, strength and conditioning, physiology, biomechanics, skill acquisition, performance analysis, performance data analytics and engineering, just to name a few.

“The AIS is anticipating up to 18 places on this program and I encourage women currently in these roles at National Sporting Organisations and within the National Institute Network to apply.”

The AIS, Sport Australia and the Office for Women are partnering on a suite of programs to enhance opportunities for women in sport across all roles. The Women Leaders in Sport grants program is currently open for applications until 17 March 2021.

The AIS continues to address the under-representation of women in areas such as high performance coaching. The National High Performance Coach Development Taskforce, launched late last year, is looking at action plans to increase diversity in coaching.

Conde said: “Another area the AIS is looking at very closely is how to give women athletes more incentive and opportunity to pursue professional career options in sport beyond their athletic career. An important part of having more diversity in the sporting workforce is about retaining and developing women who are already part of our industry.”

Applications are available at www.ais.gov.au/people-development/talent-programs