BU Research Blog

Read on if you want to take advantage of a brilliant opportunity to network and horizon scan, ensuring you are aware of the funding opportunities coming up…

Following the successful 2013 Global Grand Challenges London Summit (see here for a great overview written by participants), organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering, EPSRC set out to identify Engineering Grand Challenges. In order to start this process, EPSRC organised a two-day retreat, bringing together 25 academic, industry and government experts in facilitated discussions. Prior to the event, EPSRC University and Business Strategic Partners were invited to provide suggestions for the Grand Challenges.

The outputs of the retreat are included in the report below. Seven areas have thus far been identified as potential Engineering Grand Challenges:

• Risk and Resilience in a Connected World
• Controlling Cell Behaviour
• Engineering from Atoms to Applications
• Bespoke Engineering
• Big Data for Engineering Futures
• Suprastructures – integrating resource infrastructures under constraint
• Engineers at the Heart of Public Decision Making.

Following the retreat, EPSRC approached 23 experts from across the engineering disciplines to ask their views about the themes identified as well as input from the EPSRC Engineering Strategic Advisory Team; their comments are included in the report. As a first stage EPSRC will convene a small high-level group to reflect further on the outcomes of the retreat, where necessary refining the number of challenges and their content.

Following this and in order to build momentum around the Engineering Grand Challenges, EPSRC intend to run three workshops in the Autumn so as to:

1. Engage the research and user community to identify clear targets or milestones for each of the selected Grand Challenges areas
2. Start the process of building collaborations and/or consortia as appropriate and
3. Build advocacy for the Engineering Grand Challenges, particularly as EPSRC, working with its partners in academia, industry and government, is looking to build the case for Engineering and Physical Sciences ahead of the next spending review.

If you wish to attend one of these workshops EPSRC ask you to complete the survey (at the bottom of this page: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/engineeringgrandchallenge/) by 15 September 2014. If you have any queries please email engineeringgrandchallenges@epsrc.ac.uk