The European Cycling Federation's Cycling Industry Club has announced six grant recipients for 2013 as part of its Leadership Program.
The six organizations selected for grants, in Italy, Austria, Sweden, Ukraine, Ireland and the Czech Republic, are building cycling advocacy programs in their respective countries.
The Cycling Industry Club is spending about €100,000 ($130,000) this year on the grants, along with other support measures, said Kevin Mayne, the federation's development director.
The 2013 recipients are FIAB, the Federazione Italiana Amici della Bicicletta, Italy; AVK, Kyiv Cyclists' Association, Ukraine; Czech Environmental Partnership Foundation (Nadace Partnerství), Czech Republic; Radlobby ?sterreich, Austria; Cyclists.ie, Ireland; and Cyckelframjandet, The Cycling Promotion, Sweden.
The ECF underwrote pilot projects last year in Italy and Ukraine with the help of an investment from the SRAM Cycling Fund. The organization has set a goal of fostering the creating of "professional, influential and sustainable cycling organizations" in a majority of EU and neighboring countries by the year 2020.
The Cycling Industry Club was founded at the 2011 Eurobike show with the leaders of several big suppliers, and aims to tap in to billions of euros of government funding for new cycling infrastructure throughout Europe.
Ukraine's AVK, for example, is the sole advocacy voice for transport and tourism cycling in a country of 46 million, while the Radlobby ?sterreich was created from the merger of several separate cyclist groups and are looking to maximize their national impact as a unified group.
For Sweden's Cycling Promotion project, a small grant leverages "significant funds" from the Dutch Embassy to bring cycling expertise to Sweden. In Ireland, Cyclists.ie is looking to replicate their successful Dublin campaign — where cycling is booming — in other parts of the country.
