With now under two years to go until the London 2012 Paralympics are upon us, we are just over half way through the four-year cycle between Games and attention is turning to where sport science and medical support can be most effectively targeted in the most productive areas for sports.

I work closely with sports to ensure that the English Institute of Sport support services they invest in are delivering the most benefit.

For example, we may decide that a sport needs to prioritise the physiotherapy service to ensure that athletes remain injury free or can return to training more rapidly following injury whereas other sports may reap benefits from being more targeted in their approach to strength and conditioning. Getting this balance right is key to optimising support.

Other areas of focus are ensuring that our practitioners remain at the cutting edge of what they do. The research into areas of Paralympic sport is somewhat limited, but the expertise that we have within the EIS within Paralympic sport are vast and it’s this accumulated knowledge which proves so important when working across sports.

Many of our experts work across both Olympic and Paralympic sports and we see it as invaluable to be able to share knowledge and experience across the two groups, through a variety of tools, to ensure that we stay one step ahead.

Having grown our understanding alongside many sports for several cycles now, we’re seeing much of the support we can deliver come to fruition and also help inform what we’re doing with other sports that are maybe increasing the role that sport science and medicine has in their performance programmes.

In Paralympic sports, you’re constantly challenged by not only the unique nature of the sports but also each individual athlete. What’s really exciting to see two years out, is how the increase in day-to-day support that our support teams are involved with - this is really key to getting consistent performances at European, world and, ultimately, Paralympic level.

There have been some exciting performances on the international stage of Paralympic sport already this year, not least of all the recent success at the IPC Swimming World Championships in Eindhoven, where British Disability’s team of EIS support staff worked closely with coaches and athletes as part of their team to ensure athletes were prepared to perform - and perform they did.

With many more events on the horizon leading into the London Paralympics, athletes, coaches and EIS support staff alike will be making the most of the opportunity to gain the edge over competition and build up the invaluable experience which plays such an important part in developing current,as well as future, Paralympic champions.

Paul Davies is the Head of Sport Science & Medicine for Paralympic Sport at the English Institute of Sport