Euan Gillham and Gavin McArdle, who have both caught the eye this campaign, alongside coach Robert Hawkins, have been selected to form part of the first induction.

So far 32 athletes and their coaches have been inducted into the programme which has expanded from a pilot youth academy over the past couple of years which focused only on Scotland’s elite 16 and 17-year-olds.

Gillham and McArdle will be joined by para athletes Lewis Clow and Jason McLean, as well as sprinter Cameron Tindle and record breaker Mhairi Hendry, who recently broke a Scottish under-20 800m record.

Rodger Harkins, above right, who guided Lee McConnell’s illustrious career prior to his appointment as director of coaching with scottishathletics, is excited about the National Academy project which involved athletes and coaches receiving education, physio support and competition and training camp opportunities.

Parents, as well as coaches, are being included in sessions in an effort to widen knowledge and a number of the initial intake have been at a residential camp at Tulliallan this week with training sessions at Grangemouth.

He said: “We are delighted to confirm that scottishathletics are setting up a National Academy to further help the development of potential elite athletes.

“Over the past couple of years, the Youth Academy for 16 and 17-year-olds laid the foundation for this project. It has been a really successful programme – offering advice and support to hard-working young athletes, their parents and their coaches. The education this group has received has been, and will be, invaluable as they continue to progress in the sport.

“Now we feel a broader National Academy enables us to identify others worthy of this kind of support: late developers; those who may have changed events; or indeed are new to the sport in their mid-teens.

“We don’t want the right people to miss out on this kind of learning opportunity. So that’s why we are broadening the base while not indulging in any real reduction in the high performance standards we’ve sought thus far.

“This approach is totally consistent with our Performance Foundation principles to help talented Scottish athletes develop; to ‘Perform When It Counts’; and, in the future, to merit recognition by UK Athletics.

“From the first year group, brought in during 2013, the likes of Euan Gillham and Emma Canning have won GB selection thus far at U20 level and that is great credit to them and their coaches. Others have appeared for Scotland or set age group records.

“The goal of the National Academy is to educate and prepare people – that’s athletes and coaches – for that kind of progress and we’re looking towards greater Scottish involvement at events such as the World Youths, Commonwealth Youth Games, and Euro U20s and Euro 23s.”