Tagged / funding

Santander PGR Grants – Round Two is now open

PG research

APPLY NOW!

This is an excellent opportunity for you to apply for funds to travel to at least one university from either the UK Santander Universities Network or to one of the Overseas Santander Partner Universities, to undertake a specific piece of work and build or develop links with international Researchers.  For this round, Santander are offering 10 x £2,000 grants for BU Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs).

Successful applicants will be expected to participate in general PR activities about their research. This may involve attending events and promoting the benefits of the funding.  

For further information, please read the GS Santander Travel Grants – Policy.

To apply, please complete the GS Santander Travel Grants – Application Form and submit it by email to the Graduate School (email: graduateschool@bournemouth.ac.uk) by 5 pm, Friday 8th March 2013.

PhD Studentship Competition 2013 – 2nd Call for Matched Funded Studentships

BU research

Following the successful allocation of 39 PhD Studentships (fully and matched funded) under the 1st call, we are delighted to announce a 2nd call of the competition in which there are 5 matched funded studentships available for candidates starting in September 2013 as outlined below:

Matched-funding (50% equivalent to £24k over three years) may come from:

  • Industry/business partners,
  • Government and non-government organizations,
  • Academic Schools,
  • NHS,
  • Research Councils, or
  • Other external bodies.

Priority may be given to applications that involve supervisors from two or more Schools and/or those from early career researchers.

All proposals should match clearly to one of the eight BU Research Challenges:

  • Creative & Digital Economies
  • Culture & Society
  • Entrepreneurship & Economic Growth
  • Environmental Change & Biodiversity
  • Green Economy & Sustainability
  • Health, Wellbeing & Aging
  • Leisure & Recreation
  • Technology & Design.

Applicants are encouraged to discuss potential applications to this funding strand with their Deputy Dean Research or equivalent within their School.

As with the 1st call, the PhD Studentships will be awarded to Supervisory Teams on the basis of a competitive process across the whole of BU led by Professor Matthew Bennett (PVC Research, Enterprise & Internationalization) and managed by the Graduate School.

Applications will be assessed and awards made by a cross University Panel. In selecting proposals for funding, emphasis will be placed on the excellence of the research and quality of proposal in the first instance.  Strategic fit with the REF and Societal Impact will also be assessed. The panel will individually score each proposal and meet formally to select the successful projects.

Only the best projects will be funded and proceed to advert. Full details and criteria are set out in the BU-Studentship-Competition-2013-Final-Policy (Rd2).  Staff are asked to check the eligibility criteria carefully before applying.

Proposals should be submitted on the Studentship-Project-Proposal-2013 (Matched Funding) to the Graduate School (phdstudentshipcompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk) no later than 5pm on Monday 18th March 2013.

All proposals must be completed fully, include all appropriate signatures and be accompanied by a supporting document from the matched funder (letter, email, etc).

Good luck!

 

Fusion supports new PR research collaboration in Asia

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Featured, Featured academics, Fusion, REF Subjects, Research news, Research themes, Uncategorized

Prof Tom Watson teaching at Chulalongkorn University

For several years, the Media School (TMS) has been developing a relationship with Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. Chula, as it is known, is rated as the No.1 university in the kingdom.

The SMN award allows the development of a collaborative project between TMS and the Faculty of Communication Arts at Chula to organise an academic conference on public relations in Asia in Bangkok on November 18-19.
The conference will provide a platform for academic research on public relations history, current theory and practice, and future trends. In particular, it will investigate Asian (i.e. non Anglo-American) perspectives of public relations and will be the first dedicated conference to do so.

Prof Tom Watson, who is a co-chair of the conference, says the SMN funding “will lead to the development of a sustainable academic and research partnership between the two universities. It will enable BU staff participation in cross-cultural research with Thai colleagues. The conference will also place BU in a leadership role on research into cross-cultural communications and international public relations.”

Dr Ana Adi is working with Prof Watson on the project. She taught at Chula in mid-2012 on a staff exchange. She and at least one other TMS academic will be attending the conference and presenting papers.

The conference collaboration started with attendance by Chula’s Dr Napawan Tantivejakul at the International History of Public Relations Conference 2011 at BU, which began a dialogue about a joint conference with an Asian focus. This was cemented when Prof Watson visited Chula in November last year as a visiting professor and negotiated the arrangements. It is hoped that there will be 16 speakers, plus two keynotes, and 50 delegates at the November event.

Reminder – Santander Travel Grants – Deadline for applications: Monday 14 January 2013

PG research

The Graduate School and the Development Office are pleased to announce the launch of a number of Santander Grants.

BU works closely with Santander, who are committed to supporting higher education and as such, are offering 25 x £1,000 grants for BU Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs).  These grants are specifically designed to allow PGRs to travel to at least one university from either the UK Santander Universities Network or to one of the Overseas Santander Partner Universities, to undertake a specific piece of work and build or develop links with international Researchers.

Successful applicants will be expected to participate in general PR activities about their research. This may involve attending events and promoting the benefits of the funding.  *Unsuccessful submissions from the last round of the Santander Scholarship funding (run by the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO)) cannot be resubmitted to this round. Previous unsuccessful applicants can submit new projects/ideas to this round.

For further information, please read the GS Santander Travel Grants – Policy

To apply, please complete the GS Santander Travel Grants – Application Form and submit it by email to the Graduate School (email: graduateschool@bournemouth.ac.uk) by 5 pm, Monday 14 January 2013.

PGR Development Scheme – Round 2 Applications for Funding now open!

PG research

The Graduate School is pleased to announce that applications are now invited for Round 2 of the competition.

PGRs eligible to apply must submit an application form (below)  to the Graduate School by:

  • 28 February 2013 – for activity taking place between March 2013 and July 2013 (and exceptionally up to and including September 2013)

PGRs awarded funding under Round 1 will not be eligible to apply for further funding in Round 2.

The PGR Development Scheme is open to BU postgraduate researchers (PGRs) irrespective of the mode of study (full-time/part-time) or funding status (BU studentships/externally funded/self funded).

Individual awards will provide financial support of normally up to £2,000 (and exceptionally £5,000) for research activities related to an individual PGR’s research project or personal development.  It is envisaged that this year approximately 15 awards will be made.

Examples of research activities covered by the Scheme include:

  • Research Activities
    • Conference attendance
    • Additional fieldwork
    • Other activities required to advance research e.g. visiting major libraries, museums, other research institutions (UK, EU or International)
    • Preparation of specialist material or data
    • In exceptional circumstances, research consumables and equipment (providing it is clear these would not normally be purchased by the School as part of the research degree)
  • Developmental Activities
    • Research development e.g. attending external training events specific to research activity
    • Personal development e.g. attending external personal development training events
  • Networking
    • Organisation of an academic conference at BU with external participants
    • Attendance at external networking events leading to advance of the research
    • Publications or dissemination of research

You should also map the proposed activity onto the relevant sub-domains of the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF):

Knowledge & Intellectual Abilities A1 – Knowledge base A2 – Cognitive abilities A3 – Creativity
Personal Effectiveness B1 – Personal qualities B2 – Self-management B3 – Professional & career development
Research Governance C1 – Professional conduct C2 – Research management C3 – Finance, funding & resources
Engagement, Influence & Impact D1 – Working with others D2 – Communication & dissemination D3 – Engagement & impact

 Awards will only cover direct costs including travel, subsistence, training or development costs and all applications will need to include a precise breakdown of costs.  Applications should be supported by the Supervisory Team and the relevant Deputy Dean (Research & Enterprise) of the relevant Academic School.

PGRs wishing to apply must submit a completed GS PGR Development Fund Scheme – Application Form to the Graduate School (graduateschool@bournemouth.ac.uk) by Thursday 28th February 2013

Applications to the Scheme will be reviewed independently and all decisions on funding will be made by the Graduate School.

For further information please read the GS Researcher Scholarships Scheme – Policy (2)

Notes from ESRC ARMA WORKSHOP 2012 on challenges and opportunities for the social sciences in the current economic climate

BU research, Funding opportunities, Guidance, Research news

BU’s Teresa Coffin and Eva Papadopoulou (Research and Knowledge Exchange Operations) attended a training day hosted by the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) aimed at discussing the challenges and opportunities for the social sciences in the current climate. The focus of the event included presentations from the main Department Heads who outlined their internal workings, grant application framework and advice for successful applications. They also discussed their amended research agenda, funding opportunities, various partnerships and current strategic priorities. Notes from the day can be found here:

ARMA Notes

Fusion Investment Fund to award £11,736 to Business School / ApSci project

BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Uncategorized

Mapping the socioeconomic drivers of human disease emergence: Implications for AIDS and tuberculosis.

The tropical air was charged with hope and despair as the world’s leaders descended on Rio de Janeiro in 1992[1]. Twenty years later, the situation has not changed significantly and key targets for the reduction of biodiversity loss have not been met[1]. With the world’s population expected to grow from 6.8 billion today to 9.1 billion by 2050, how will all these extra mouths be fed at an acceptable cost to the planet? The world’s population more than doubled from 3 billion between 1961 and 2007, yet agricultural output kept pace — and current projections suggest it will continue to do so. However, Colin Chartres, director of the International Water Management Institute, has stated that “agriculture is the biggest user of fresh water, making up 70–90% of the annual water demand for many countries”[2]. The worldwide pattern of river threats offers the most comprehensive explanation so far of why freshwater biodiversity is considered to be in a state of crisis. Estimates suggest that at least 10,000–20,000 freshwater species are extinct or at risk, with loss rates rivalling those of previous transitions between geological epochs like the Pleistocene-to-Holocene.  

Along with the change of freshwater biodiversity expected as a result of environmental change and increased demand on ecosystem services, change in disease risk is also expected. It is forecasted that complex interactions between host type diversity and community of pathogens will be modified along with change of community structures. However, our current understanding of how change in biodiversity affects transmission and emergence of disease has been overlooked.

A group of researchers from different BU departments aim to characterise the socio-economic drivers underpinning change in freshwater host biodiversity that lead to the emergence of immuno-suppressant related human disease.  Specifically they are going to

1-to establish the worldwide distribution of microsporidian parasites and their fish hosts

2-to establish levels of host extinction risk

3-to model the links between freshwater biodiversity threats and a range of socio-economic parameters

4-to develop a set of risk maps of freshwater immuno-suppressant human disease emergence.

5-to relate our risk maps to current global distribution of AIDS and tuberculosis cases.

6- To establish a dynamical stochastic forecasting system based on a learning technique as a predictive epidemiology technique. The technique represents the state-of-the-art in epidemiology, linking socio-economic drivers and emerging infectious diseases.

The project would be conducting mostly based at the Business school but with regular meeting between the three supervisor, including skype meeting for the day to day supervision.

The outcomes of the on-going research will be of great interest to the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Development Programme  and public health NGOs (e.g. Project Hope, Oxfam).

 The FIF has been used to recruit a research assistant for a period of six months to help us with the meta-data collection, modelling and data analysis. This was key in initiating the first phase of the cross school collaboration.

Researchers: Dr Hossein Hassani (Business School), Dr Demetra Andreou (Applied Sciences) and Prof. Rudy Gozlan (Applied Science).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Editorial. Return toRio: Second chance for the planet Nature 486, 19 (07 June 2012) doi:10.1038/486019a

[2] http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101004/full/news.2010.490.html

Fusion Investment Funding/Fund

BU research, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Guidance

Within the new Fusion Funding prospect here at Bournemouth University, I have just had success for a project examining  teaching practice and the use of media in the classroom.  The specific focus relates bullying, and name calling in school, and how media may be used to educate young learners.  I am very excited about this project, as it extends my foundational research in media representation and sexual diversity, allowing me to consider how teachers might relate issues of minority social identity.  Its very early days, as the project does not officially start until the 1st of October, and to be honest I have never done a blog before, and I (deliberately) have no presence on Facebook, Twitter etc, so the purpose of the blog is to reflect back on my progress for myself, as much as anything else, and if anyone reading this finds some interest, that’s great!

With this in mind, I thought I might share the background for the project.  A few years back in the late 198os, a secondary school teacher friend of mine often told me of instances when he used to play educational dramas about gay and lesbian youth identity issues.  I remember one time, he told me that he had played the television drama ‘The Two of  Us’ (Roger Tongue, 1988), which features a ‘kind of’ teen romance. This was quite daring, as at the time there was the backdrop of Clause 28, and the prohibition of educating school audiences about gay and lesbian identity.  Wind forward, many years later, and referencing an entirely different country, the work of Debra Chasnoff and her production company Groundspark, offered great insight.  Educational documentaries such as ‘Thats a Family’ (2000), and ‘Straighlaced’ (2009) produced by Groundspark offered insight into the diversity of families (adopted, single parent, same sex parents, diverse ethnicity etc) and the problem of stereotyping gender norms for teens.  Also Groundspark produced ‘Lets Get Real’ talking about issues of name calling in school.  At Bournemouth I had discussed the merits of these documentaries to students in the year 2 Media and Diversity option that I held.  I was inspired how students engaged with the subject area, and how they related these issues to their own productions.

More recently, specifically September 2010, I was invited to speak at the Westminster Media Forum.  The conference subject area was LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) representation in mainstream media.  I was thrilled to present a very brief paper to quite a diverse audience, including media professionals, broadcasters, and government representatives. My paper had been related to a need for more diverse representations.   The day after the conference, I read in the Guardian about the suicide of Tyler Clementi, a first year student at Rutgers university in the US.  He had killed himself, as his roommate had secretly filmed Tytler with a same sex partner.  The alleged shame appeared too much to bear for Tyler.  This high profile case made me investigate this further online.  I then discovered the ‘It Gets better Project’, a web site that was produced to offer support for youth contemplating suicide, due to oppression for sexual diversity.  What I did not know was that in the month of September 2010, a number of other gay male youth committed suicide also, stimulating video contribution to the ‘It Gets better Project’. I have done some papers on this area, considering the use of the site, but increasingly I am interested in how name calling is a real issue for young learners, and how words such as ‘gay’, ‘dyke’, ‘queer’ and ‘faggot’, are often unchallenged within diverse social environments.

So this is the very basic background to my research project.  Some great research has already taken place looking at LGBT identity issues in school, such as the No Outsiders Project (funded by the ESRC) a few years back relative to primary schools, but I am looking to extend these ideas, looking at how media is used in the secondary school classroom.

As a precursor to this project, I recently presented a paper at the Screen Conference in Glasgow, considering how children may read representations.  I was particularly interested in how young learners may read irony, which enables youth to make complex judgments about ‘earnest’ or ‘hyper-real’ representations.

So this is my starting point. I’ll add to this blog, as it all progresses.  Thanks again, supporters of this bid.

EU tenders announced for tourism, mental health, digital agenda and globalisation

EU

Transnational Tourism Products Based on Cultural and Industrial Heritage: DG Enterprise and Industry, has launched a call for proposals with a deadline of 28.09.12 for the provision of co-operation projects to create transnational tourism products based on cultural and industrial heritage. The final goal of the present call for proposals is to complement regional and national policies by supporting transnational cooperation and joint initiatives aiming at designing innovative transnational products in the fields of cultural and/or industrial tourism, with a view to:

  • Contributing to differentiate the European tourism offer by capitalising on and giving value to the shared cultural heritage; and
  • Contributing to economic regeneration and job creation in declining (post) industrial regions through interregional and transnational cooperation projects in the field of tourism.

Mental Health in the Workplace: DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, has published a call for tenders for the provision of a study on mental health in the workplace with a deadline of 24.08.12. The study envisaged under this call for tenders has three main objectives:

  • To provide the European Commission with information on the situation in the EU and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries of Mental Health in the workplace. This will require an in depth checking of the current EU legal framework on workers health and safety protection;
  • To develop a range of scenarios, and identify the pros and cons of each with the ultimate objective of providing a robust information base on which the Commission may rely in order to consider policy options aiming to ensure that workers are effectively protected from risks to their mental health arising from workplace related conditions and/or factors; and
  • Produce a guidance document to help employers and workers alike fulfil their obligations and to include mental health considerations in occupational safety and health implementation.

Digital Agenda for Europe – Engagement for Growth and Jobs: DG Information and Society, has published a call for tenders regarding the Digital Agenda for Europe and the engagement for growth and jobs. The overall purpose of this call for tenders is to mobilise efforts and stimulate commitment around the use of ICT to deliver growth and jobs in Europe and to promote the digital single market. Deadline 19.08.12

International Dimension and Impact of Globalisation: DG Enterprise and Industry, has published a call for tenders regarding the international dimension and the impact of globalisation. The objective of this service contract is to study the international dimension of the e-skills strategy (especially the efforts to promote ICT professionalism) and to assess the impact of globalisation on high-level e-skills requirements (ICT practitioners’ skills and e-leadership skills), as well as to analyse major policy initiatives and best practices in the world. This should help to understand better the international dimension of e-skills in order to better anticipate change, envisage possible future co-operation and improve efforts to develop e-skills for Europe. Deadline 28.09.12

ESRC Future Research Leaders scheme 2012/2013 – how to apply

Funding opportunities

The ESRC’s Future Research Leaders call is currently open with a closing date of 4th October 2012.

Universities are expected to consider applications very carefully prior to submitting them to the ESRC through this call, and all applications need to be supported with a letter from the PVC (Research, Enterprise and Internationalisation).

With this in mind BU has established a process for submissions to this call. All proposals must be submitted to a special version of our internal peer review scheme (the RPRS) first and must be signed off by Matthew Bennett as PVC (Research, Enterprise and Internationalisation) prior to submission.

For applicants interested in the scheme, the key internal dates are as follows:

28th Aug Proposals to be submitted to the RPRS and sent for review.
10th Sept Proposal feedback to be returned to applicants.
10th Sept – 21st Sept Applicants to finalise proposals based on reviewer feedback.
21st Sept Final proposals to be sent to Matthew Bennett (via RKE Ops).
  Matthew Bennett to review and approve final proposals (and write the PVC letter of support). Once reviewed, CRE Operations will let applicants know when to submit via Je-S.
26th Sept Final decision from Matthew Bennett re: proposals to submit
26th – 1st Oct Selected applicants finalise proposals
1st Oct Final proposals submitted via Je-S
4th October ESRC deadline
   

If you are considering applying to the scheme but have not yet confirmed this with the RKE Ops team please could you do so as soon as possible.

Please take the time to read through the call documentation available on the ESRC website – it contains a lot of important information about assessment criteria and what the ESRC are looking for in a proposal.

If you have any questions about this call or the Resarch Proposal Review Service please contact Caroline O’Kane

Current EU tenders open for applications

EU

Europe’s Capacity to Tackle Demographic and Societal Change: The purpose of this call is to support a partnership of not-for-profit research bodies, public institutions and civil society organisations, to focus on collection and dissemination of key facts, figures, trends and policy analysis regarding demographic change across the EU. The ultimate aim of the partnership’s work will be to reach a wide non-specialist audience and to promote a well-informed public debate on its implications and appropriate policy responses among the general public in all Member States and at all levels of government. Deadline 11.09.12

A Profile of Current and Future Audiovisual Consumers: The study should aim at understanding the behaviour, preferences and orientations of audiences for films in general and, in particular, of young audiences. To that end, it should include in-depth interviews with, in particular, 10–15 and 15–25 year olds to learn more about their consumption patterns and their perception of current ways of marketing European films, series, etc.; i.e. could different or earlier marketing change their behaviour? The study should investigate the impact of different marketing tools including the use of social media. Furthermore it should analyse some of the existing film literacy initiatives and their impact on the future consumption patterns. The role of social networks for audiovisual consumption should be analysed. The study should be implemented by experts/consultants, who have in-depth experience with market research. Deadline 13.08.12

Economic Impact of Social Enterprises: The main objective of this call for proposals is to contribute to the availability of reliable statistics on social enterprises at national and European levels and to identify countries interested in collecting this information.  The aim is to provide policy makers and stakeholders with credible, comparable and systematic information and indicators on the role of social enterprises in national economies and to offer usable and practical information to support decision making. The Commission wishes to encourage national statistical offices in Member States to collect this information, so although other organisations dealing with the promotion of social enterprises (including universities and research organisations) are eligible applicants for the call, all proposals must involve national statistical offices. Deadline 07.09.12

Prevention of and Fight Against Crime Programme: Of most interest to BU under this scheme are action grants for transnational and national projects, for which there will be a budget of €78m in 2012. A series of targeted calls for proposals for action grants to support projects concerned with five specific policy areas were recently announced. Each has a deadline for submission of applications in August 2012  In the main, opportunities exist for HEIs to apply for support to undertake studies and analyses in specific areas and to establish networks of expertise. There are also limited opportunities to develop and deliver training courses for law enforcement professionals, prosecutors and judges and to identify and disseminate best practices in relevant fields.

LifeLong Learning Programme- Implementation of the European strategic objectives in Education and Training (ET2020): This call for proposals is for projects to fulfil the objectives for 2012-2014 in two separate parts:-  Part A: Support for raising awareness around and the national implementation of European cooperation in education and training. Part B: Support for the implementation of innovative learning environments using ICT (called ‘creative class-rooms’) in the development and implementation of transversal education and training policy issues linked to the priorities set out in Europe 2020 and ET 2020. Deadline 01.10.12

Pilot project Economy of cultural diversity: In the Communication ‘A Digital Agenda for Europe’ the Commission identified the need to push ahead with the creation, production and distribution of all platforms of digital content. To this end the European Parliament voted a budget line in the 2012 budget for a ‘Pilot project on the economy of cultural diversity’ which ‘would aim to create an open laboratory to test innovative approaches to deal with content for innovation and digital sharing and distribution. It would be therefore a way to explore new business models respecting diversity in the production and distribution chain’.  The aim of this pilot is to highlight and promote 10 to 15 ideas which make innovative use of ICT based technologies to finance, produce, make available, disseminate and/or extract value from cultural contents. Projects should facilitate access to culture (including cultural heritage) and cultural literacy via online devices and promote cultural diversity in the digital environment.

Preparatory Action Culture in external relations: The specific objective of this contract is to formulate recommendations for a strategy on culture in European external relations which will build on synergies with existing processes and will involve a high number of stakeholders in Europe and representatives of third countries, including cultural institutes and NGOs. Deadline 17.08.12

Regional Innovation Monitor 2013-2014 – RIM Plus: The EU’s Regional Innovation Monitor (RIM http://www.rim-europa.eu/) serves over 200 EU regions in 20 different countries. Under this call for tenders the Commission wishes to establish a service that will provide regional administrators with a reference framework for the development of more efficient innovation strategies. An inventory innovation strategies at regional level in Europe will be kept updated and made available to those actors involved in developing policy measures in support of innovation.  The service contract will provide users (regional authorities and stakeholders, Member States’ central administrations, the Committee of the Regions, various services of the Commission, experts, businesses and universities) with an overview of the state of development of regional policies and strategies on innovation and on the difficulties and successes of their implementation in the regions. Deadline 31.08.12

Business Innovation Observatory: The European Commission wishes to tender for a service contract to develop a Business Innovation Observatory. The Business Innovation Observatory is a three-year project with the aim to provide European policy makers with analysis and intelligence on latest novel business and industrial innovation trends, activities and models on a regular basis. The emphasis will be placed on the business micro-perspective and how it relates to the wider institutional, political, socio-economic, legal and policy contexts. The analysis will be complemented by the development of appropriate policy recommendations at European and national levels. The tool should be seen as complementary to quantitative analytical instruments, most notably the Commission’s European Innovation Scoreboards. Deadline 10.09.12

 

An Introduction to Research Administration & Management

Awarded & submitted bids, BU research, Guidance, Post-award, R & KE Operations, Training

The Research & Knowledge Exchange Operations (RKE Ops) team will be hosting a lunchtime staff development session on ‘An Introduction to Research Administration and Management’ geared towards professional and support staff on the 11th July 2012 at 12.30pm.

The session will explore the basics around research administration and management, including an overview of full Economic Costing (fEC), the prominent research funders and general good practice in research project management.

Further details can be found below:

  • What? Introduction to Research Administration & Management
  • When? Wednesday 11th July, 12.30 to 13.30pm
  • Where? The Octagon, Library, Talbot Campus
  • Who? Professional and support staff interested in research administration.
  • How?  To book a place please click here

Tapping into US and Canadian Funding Streams

Funding opportunities, Uncategorized

I currently work in the research field exploring interprofessional collaboration and training.
Whilst a hot topic in the early 2000s in the UK and Europe, there is a dearth of funding for this topic currently and a lack of recognition in funding streams (including European funding) of its importance in the patient safety and safeguarding agendas. The opposite is true in US and Canada as exemplified by the multimillion support by CIHR in Canada for this area over the past 5 years and the recent commitment this month of $8.6 million by the US Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and The John A. Hartford Foundation to accelerate team work and collaboration amongst health professionals and break down the traditional silo-approach to health professions education.
There is a need for BU to tap into these US and Canadian funding streams. We have recently had some success in this.
A team lead by BU recently submitted a bid for an international research network area to the ESRC with colleagues from the University of Western Cape, South Africa, Rhode Island, US, University of New Brunswick and British Colombia, Canada and Universities of Southampton, Huddersfield, Nottingham here in the UK. Not unexpectedly, this was blown out the water. We subsequently submitted the same application, to run ¼ of the same activity to the Canadian Research Council equivalent (CIHR) and have been notified today of its success.
Moral of the story: go to the funding streams interested in your area of research even if these are in other countries. US and the Canada have Interprofessional collaboration and education very high on their agendas. Through our international networks, BU is able to tap into these funding streams effectively and get the same work done. Result! Interested to hear others experiences of US and Canadian funders.

Funding opportunities on Coastal Vulnerability and Freshwater Security: Belmont Forum and G8 Research Councils Initiative

Funding opportunities

The Belmont Forum and G8 Research Councils Initiatives on Multilateral Research Funding International Opportunities Fund have announced a funding call for approximately €20 million.

Specifically, the International Opportunities fund is aimed at supporting research on Coastal Vulnerability and Freshwater Security.

For full details, please click here.

Please note the key dates:

Closing date for submission of pre-proposals: 20th July 2012

Notification for submission of full-proposals: 20th September 2012

Closing date for submission of full full-proposals: 20th December 2012

EPSRC/ESRC Invitation for Outlines: Consortia for Exploratory Research in Security

Funding opportunities, Research news

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

As part of their contribution to the RCUK Global Uncertainties Programme, EPSRC and ESRC are jointly inviting proposals for research consortia (PDF 79KB) to explore current and future cyber security challenges.

CEReS consortia are encouraged to work across or between established disciplines and to draw on expertise from multiple research organisations wherever necessary. They particularly welcome proposals with significant novel mathematics and/or social science content.

Initially, outline proposals will be assessed for their novelty and fit to the aims of the call. Successful outline applicants will be invited to submit full proposals later in 2012.

EPSRC and ESRC have made available up to £4M available to fund full proposals funded through the CEReS call. They expect to support a range of projects which is broad in terms of scale (likely to be between £500k and £1M for each consortium), duration (two to four years), mix of disciplines (with single discipline proposals being the exception rather than the norm) and subject matter (although all must focus on cyber security-related challenges in the broadest sense).  Activities funded through CEReS are limited to those currently allowed on EPSRC grants. As a result they will not be able to accept applications which request funding for PhD studentships, even if they are outside EPSRC’s remit.

CEReS is a call for exploratory research. Consortia should identify ambitious goals with far-reaching impacts on future research and, potentially at least, practice in cyber security. Projects which continue or extend current work in a straightforward or obvious way will not be supported. Collaboration between disciplines is strongly encouraged. Although it is not essential that all projects include cross- or intra-disciplinary working it is likely that the assessment process will select positively for consortia which adopt this approach.

Although it is being managed by EPSRC the CEReS call is also open to researchers eligible to apply for targeted funding from ESRC. There is no quota of applications or funding based on Research Council remits. It is possible for the same researcher(s) to be associated with more than one consortium application.

For further information visit the call website: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/ceres.aspx and read the call documentation: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Calls/2012/CEReSCall.pdf. Outline proposals should be prepared and submitted using the Research Councils’ Joint electronic Submission (JeS) System (https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk/).

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

The closing date is 14 June 2012.

Welcome to our first Grants Academy members

Guidance, Research news

We are delighted to announce that the selection process is complete and the Grants Academy has its first members!

 Membership includes not only early career academics, but also professors and everyone inbetween.  This mix of skills and experience will add extra depth and interest to the Academy programme.   

Our new Academy members will be attending their Strand One training  workshop next week.  The aim is that 2 days locked away in a hotel in Bournemouth with our workshop leader Martin Pickard, will give our new members the skills and confidence to develop some really strong funding applications.   They will be supported throughout the bidding process by bid mentors, bidding clinics and all the other resources and benefits available to the Academy.

We are really pleased to be getting this new initiative up and running.   We will let you know how the first workshop goes, and what our members think of it. 

Do you want to be part of our Grants Academy?  

Don’t worry – we will be soon be letting you know about the next round of applications.  Please keep in touch with the blog to stay on top of developments – click on the Grants Academy tag to find out about the Grants Academy and what it involves.

Any questions?  Please contact Caroline O’Kane

Royal Society Research Professorship scheme now open!

Funding opportunities

The Royal Society’s Research Professorship scheme is now open for applications! This scheme is for world-class scientists who would benefit from a period of long-term support to allow them to focus on research and collaboration based at an institution in the UK. The scheme provides salary costs, a one-off start-up grant and research expenses. Appointments are usually made for 10 years.

The Professorships may be awarded in any field across the natural sciences. These prestigious posts provide long-term support for internationally recognised scientists of outstanding achievement and promise.

For further information visit the call website: http://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/research-professorship/ and read the scheme notes: http://royalsociety.org/uploadedFiles/Royal_Society_Content/grants/schemes/Research-Professorship.pdf.

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

The closing date is 26 June 2012.