Funding sources for World Cup and Olympics projects in Brazil continue to sprout up with the latest injection coming from the federal government´s Studies and Projects Financing department (FINEP), part of the Ministry of Science and Technology, which has committed R$120 million to projects involving technological innovation in the area of sport.
Available primarily for World Cup 2014 projects, but also applicable to Rio 2016 preparations, the funding program is known as 2014 BIS and aims to develop a set of practices and investments that will demonstrate Brazil´s “creativity, innovation, culture and sustainability”, while also preparing the country for the two mega-events.
One of the initial projects is the Olympic Laboratory, which will use R$11.5 of the funding and will aim to be the main reference for sport sciences in Latin America upon opening during the first half of 2011.
A further important aspect of the program will be the launch of venture capital fund for sport technology projects to be launched later in 2011.