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Cancer Research UK – New Calls Announced!

Funding opportunities

Cancer Research UK has announced two new funding schemes. These awards have been developed to bring together experts from previously untapped research fields to bring a fresh approach to what they do, and help them accelerate progress.

The new Multidisciplinary Project Award will support collaborations between cancer researchers and scientists from engineering and physical science disciplines, to provide new insight and develop creative technologies and methodologies to better understand, detect, diagnose and treat cancer. Cancer Research UK are offering up to £500,000 to cover costs of equipment, salaries for PDRA’s, PhD’s, technical staff and associated running expenses and the funding period is for up to 4 years. The first deadline for applications is 17/11/2014 and decisions will be made in April 2015.

The new Cancer Immunology Project Award supports immunologists in non-cancer fields to bring their expertise and insight to cancer research, to deepen their understanding of the role of the immune system and its interaction with tumours. Cancer Research UK are offering up to £300,000 to fund salaries for researchers and technical staff, running expenses, and equipment costs for a period of up to 36 months. The first deadline for applications is the 16/11/2014; decisions will be made in April 2015.

To find out more about these schemes, please do visit the Cancer Research UK blog.

Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic, which includes forthcoming training dates up to November 2014.

If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on ResearchProfessional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

 

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

The following funding opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

The Academy of Medical Sciences is inviting applications to the Starter Grants for Clinical Lecturers scheme.  They are offering funding of up to £30,000 to cover the cost of research consumables. The grants allow research-active Clinical Lecturers to gather data to strengthen their bids for longer-term fellowships and funding. An application form can be downloaded. The deadline for applications is 5pm, 01/09/2014.

The BBSRC in collaboration with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), announce a call to support fundamental bioscience that will address key gaps in the knowledge of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) biology. The total amount of funding available for the call is £6 million (BBSRC are contributing £5M, and Defra, £1 million). A letter of intent must be submitted before 4pm, 04/11/2014, and it is expected that the full application deadline will be at the end of February 2015.

The British Academy will soon be inviting applications to the BA Skills Acquisition Awards.  Quantitative Skills Acquisition Awards are available to support career development of early career scholars (within 10 years of the award of the doctorate) who are in established academic posts. These awards aim to develop and enhance their quantitative skills by providing an award to enable early career researchers to spend some time with a mentor at a specialist centre in the field.

The British Academy is inviting applications to the Elisabeth Barker Fund.  The Fund was established in memory of Elisabeth Barker (1910-1986), diplomatic correspondent and historian of modern Europe. It is intended to support studies in recent European history, particularly the history of Central and Eastern Europe. Grants may be made for individual, or collaborative projects and may support British scholars, or scholars from other European countries. The maximum award amount is £1,000 and the closing date for applications if 15/10/2014.

The British Academy is also inviting applications to their Elie Kedourie Memorial Fund. The fund, established by the family of Elie Kedourie, FBA, is to promote the study of Middle Eastern and Modern European History, and the History of Political Thought by recent postdoctoral scholars of any nationality. Awards are offered to support any aspect of research, including travel and publication. The maximum award amount is £1,000 and the closing date for applications is 15/10/2014.

The British Academy has announced that they will soon be accepting applications to the Stein-Arnold Exploration Fund. The Fund was established according to the terms of the Will of Sir Aurel Stein, FBA, to commemorate his friendship with Sir Thomas Arnold, FBA, for ‘the encouragement of research on the antiquities or historical geography or early history or arts of those parts of Asia which come within the sphere of the ancient civilisations of India, China, and Iran, including Central Asia. Research should be ‘so far as possible by means of exploratory work’, and applicants must be British or Hungarian subjects. Awards do not exceed £2,500. Application forms are being made available from 22/10/2014 and the deadline for applications is 03/12/2014.

The British Academy has also announced that they will soon be accepting applications to the Neil Ker Memorial Fund. The object of this fund is to promote the study of Western medieval manuscripts, in particular those of British interest. Applications are invited from scholars of any nationality, engaged on original research intended for publication. Applicants should be of postdoctoral status, or have comparable experience. Awards do not normally exceed £2,000. Application forms will be made available from 22/10/2014 and the deadline for applications is 03/12/2014.

The British Academy will soon make applications for the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants scheme available. Grants are available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences. The first recourse for funding should be to your own institution (where applicable). Applications will not be considered for less than £500. The maximum grant is £10,000 over two years. Applications for collaborative or individual projects are equally welcome under this scheme. Applications forms will be made available from 03/09/2014 and the closing date for applications is 15/10/2014.

Dstl and BAE Systems are seeking proposals for the Autonomous Systems Underpinning Research – ASUR 2014 programme. This competition is seeking research proposals in a set of specific areas relating to technologies that are potentially applicable to enhancing the development and operation of future autonomous systems that will enable the UK Armed Forces to successfully meet the operational challenges that they will encounter over the next decade and beyond. Up to £2.4 million of funding is available for this competition. The deadline for applications is 13/10/2014.

The ELRHA (enhancing learning & research for humanitarian assistance) have now launched their Ebola Health Research call. The aim of the call is both to produce robust research findings that could contribute to the effectiveness of the response to the current outbreak, and help to draw lessons for future outbreaks of Ebola and other communicable diseases. Funding is being made available through the existing £6.5 million R2HC programme. Given the urgency of this situation, qualified researchers are invited to submit a preliminary Expression of Interest application to ELRHA by 11am, 08/09/2014.

The ESRC have made a pre-call announcement for the Transformative Research call. The aim of this call is to provide a stimulus for genuinely transformative research ideas at the frontiers of the social sciences, enabling research which challenges current thinking to be supported and developed. Successful applicants will receive a grant of up to £250,000 (at 100 per cent full economic cost (fEC)). ESRC will meet 80 per cent of the full economic costs on proposals submitted. Only two applications can be accepted from each eligible Research Organisation. Proposals should be pre-selected by the Research Organisation and will need to be submitted to the ESRC at the beginning of January 2015. The full call specification will be released in September 2014.

The Medical Research Council has mentioned on their website that they will soon be taking applications for the Biomedical Informatics Fellowship. The fellowship supports outstanding post-doctoral researchers who are seeking to move into the application of mathematical, statistical and computational methods to biomedical and health research problems. Applications are being made available from 05/05/2015 and the deadline for applications will be 16/06/2015.

The Medical Research Council has announced that they will soon be inviting applications to the Career Development Award (CDA) in Biostatistics.  This CDA in Biostatistics encourages broad training programmes in biostatistics to support talented early-career researchers who have recently completed their PhDs and who are working in – or seeking to move into – statistically based, health-related research. The CDA provides full personal salary costs together with support for consumables expenses, travel costs and capital equipment appropriate for the research project. The opening date for applications is 17/03/2015 and the closing date is 28/04/2015.

The Medical Research Council has also announced that they will soon be inviting applications to their Early Career Fellowship in Economics of Health. The fellowship provides early-career support to help individuals begin to establish a research track record in the field and to undertake further training. The EoH provides full personal salary costs, together with support for consumables expenses, travel costs and capital equipment appropriate for the research project. The opening date for applications is 05/05/2015 and the deadline for applications is 16/06/2015.

The Medical Research Council has also announced details of the Methodology Research Fellowship.  The fellowship supports post-doctoral researchers with a grounding in health research, not necessarily in a methodological discipline, who will advance the development and application of innovative methodologies in the context of challenging biomedical and health research problems. It will provide a significant career development opportunity for these researchers to become independent researchers in their chosen fields. Full personal salary costs will be provided, with support for research staff, consumables expenses, travel costs and capital equipment appropriate for the research project. The opening date for applications is 05/05/2015 and the deadline is 16/06/2015.

The Medical Research Council has announced details of the Molecular Pathology Nodes scheme. MRC and EPSRC invite proposals to establish high-quality molecular pathology nodes. Each node will be a multidisciplinary centre of innovative molecular diagnostic test discovery and development bringing together the research base, pathology/genetic services and industry. The call will have four phases, 1) Call workshop, 2) Expression of interest, 3) Proposal, 4) Monitoring. A workshop will be hosted on 01/10/2014 in London – the workshop registration form needs to be completed by 15/09/2014. The deadline for expression of interest is 10/11/2014 and for the proposal is 10/02/2015.

The Medical Research Council will soon be inviting applications to their Population Health Scientist Fellowship.  The fellowship supports outstanding early-career researchers to conduct research and develop the skills required to underpin a career in the population health sciences. The award provides a competitive personal salary and a research training support grant of up to £20,000 per year. The opening date for applications is 05/05/2015 and the closing date for applications is 16/06/2015.

The Medical Research Council is now inviting applications to their Senior Clinical Fellowship. The purpose of the scheme is to support outstanding medically and other clinically qualified professionals in their development to become research leaders. The fellowship will provide full personal salary costs, together with support for research staff, consumables expenses, travel costs and capital equipment appropriate for the research project. The opening date for applications will be the 25/02/2015 and the closing date for applications is the 08/04/2015.

NERC, in collaboration with Communicate 2014 (British Natural History Consortium) are inviting applications to the NERC bursary scheme. The scheme is open to NERC funded postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and NERC fellows only. Applications from students and researchers who have not previously attended Communicate will be prioritised. The deadline for applications is 9am, 06/10/2014.

The Agri-Tech Catalyst, run by the Technology Strategy Board and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, offers funding to innovative businesses and researchers to develop solutions to global agricultural challenges – this is the late-stage awards. There are two types of late-stage awards that projects may be eligible for: pre-experimental feasibility study awards and experimental development awards. Funding through the Agri-Tech Catalyst is available to UK businesses of any size, as well as researchers. The deadline for applications is 07/01/2015.

The Technology Strategy Board and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council are also inviting applications to the Industrial research awards. Industrial research awards enable applicants to evaluate the technical feasibility of an idea and establish proof-of-concept and potential routes to exploitation. Such proposals will embrace longer-term studies in all relevant disciplines that demonstrate the potential to advance the sustainable intensification of agriculture and have an economic impact. Registration for expressions of interest closes on 01/10/2014 with a submission deadline of 08/10/2014.

The Technology Strategy Board is inviting applications to their Adapting cutting-edge technologies project. They will be investing up to £7m in collaborative R&D projects to encourage technologies for road-vehicles that will deliver significant reductions in CO2 emissions and they expect projects to range in size from total costs of £500k to £2m, although they may consider projects outside this range. The competition opens for applications on 08/09/2014. The deadline for registration is noon, 22/10/2014 and the deadline for applications is noon, 29/10/2014.

The Technology Strategy Board and the Environment Agency are now inviting applications to the Non-intrusive river flow measurement competition. This competition is focused on the Environment Agency’s need to measure river flows in challenging locations where existing standard instrumentation cannot be used. However, a solution that could also be deployed in less demanding/normal river conditions would be ideal. In order to enter this competition, registration is required. Registration closes on 15/10/2014 and applications are due in by 22/10/2014. The award is still to be confirmed.

The Welcome Trust is inviting applications to the Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science Initiative. The vision of DELTAS Africa is to support the African-led development of world-class researchers and research leaders in Africa. This new generation of scientists will play a major part in shaping and driving a locally relevant health research agenda in Africa, contributing to improved health and development in the continent. Some funding is available. A preliminary application should be completed by 5pm, 02/10/2014.

The Welcome Trust is now inviting applications to their Engagement Fellowships scheme. Engagement Fellowships champion the leaders of tomorrow by fostering the most promising developing talent. They are looking for individuals with a strong track record of engaging the public with ideas around biomedical science and/or medical humanities, who want to make a step-change in their careers. The deadline for applications is 13/02/2015.

Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic, which includes forthcoming training dates up to November 2014.

If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on ResearchProfessional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

Royal Academy of Engineering’s Pathways to Growth SME training scheme

Funding opportunities

Pathways to Growth is a scheme operated by the Royal Academy of Engineering to encourage and support capacity building for engineering and technology SMEs in the UK.  This year, they are intending to offer funding to around 20 SMEs, depending on the grant amount requested (which can be  one of £10,000, £15,000 or £20,000).

Ideally looking for SMEs in engineering and technology with a high growth potential.  The training doesn’t have to be focused on engineering, it can be on whatever best suits the needs of the company to support its growth .  In addition, a number of the successful applicants will also be offered membership of the Enterprise Hub and mentoring from a relevant Fellow to further support their growth potential.

If you are working with a, or have worked with a company that best fit the following criteria they could be considered for this scheme.

 

  • Engineering and technology SMEs, and
  • Have high growth potential if they had some additional training/mentoring support, and
  • Where they would not be able to fund this level of training themselves

 

The scheme is in its first year of operation, which means there may be limited awareness out there this year, so applicants could stand a good chance of success! The closing date for applications is 4 p.m. on 23rd September.

In the first instance please contact Jayne Codling in R&KEO  – email jcodling@bournemouth.ac.uk or phone ext 61215 to register your interest and to receive more information.

 

 

 

Synthetic Biology Applications in Defence – Multi-million pound competition

Funding opportunities

MOD’s Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) is launching a multi-million pound competition for research proposals for highly innovative synthetic biology approaches applicable to the defence and security sectors.

 Synthetic biology has the potential to address several difficult challenges facing UK defence and security. It could provide new ways to protect both the armed forces and civilian populations.

The purpose of this CDE themed competition for short-term, proof-of-concept research proposals is to reach out to all sectors for cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research through the application of existing synthetic biology tools and techniques, but using novel research approaches.

The scope of this competition is deliberately broad and non-prescriptive to encourage novel ideas applicable to land, air or maritime environments.  Areas where synthetic biology could contribute to defence and security include, but are not limited to:

  • protection of personnel or equipment
  • sensor technologies to detect chemicals, such as explosives, forces, such as gravity, or to indicate physical status, such as integrity
  • materials exhibiting unique properties or added functionality
  • decontamination approaches
  • camouflage solutions including noise and emission reduction.

For further details visit the website.

 

Last week’s HE news…

 

Please find last week’s policy digest below. I will be on leave now for two weeks, so you will get a bumper edition on 8 Sept.

 

Monday 18 August

Graduate opportunities

An extensive piece in The Times looks at the need for more realistic and accurate career guidance in law. More than 17,500 graduates are pursuing about 5,000 training contracts at law firms and some 400 pupillages in barristers’ chambers.

The worsening odds for today’s student lawyers (The Times)

 

Tuesday 19 August 

Clearing update 

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) said the number of applicants accepted by their insurance choice of university was 33,240, an increase of 14 per cent. This increase is thought to have been caused because of the dip in A-level grades awarded last week. Some universities have lowered entry requirements but others refused to accept near-miss candidates in the hope of snapping up better qualified teenagers who have been rejected by higher tariff universities. 

Students forced to settle for second choice university (The Times)

Clearing: an unedifying spectacle of unis going cap-in-hand to students (The Guardian – Higher Education Network blog)

 

Wednesday 20 August

Student fees 

A survey by Saga said the ‘Bank of Nan and Grandad’ will hand out around £16.7 billion for their grandchildren’s academic studies. The survey of nearly 10,000 people over the age of 50 revealed how the amount of financial assistance provided by the country’s devoted grandparents has increased sharply. Five years ago, a similar investigation found Grandparents typically handing over around £1000 for university education. Today, this averages £4000.

More than a third of grandparents admit helping to pay for their grandchildren to go through university  (The Daily Mail)

 

Thursday 21 August

Graduate opportunities

The Independent looks at how graduates are finding it difficult to get a job after leaving universities because they don’t have the right skills or experience. It suggests the demands from recruiters for experienced entry-level graduates seems unrealistically high: it can be challenging to juggle work experience and study and not all degrees provide the option of a placement year to gain industry experience. However, the graduate labour market is showing signs of improvement. At the end of July the Association of Graduate Recruiters released a report that predicts a 17 per cent rise in graduate job vacancies this year. The Telegraph piece suggests graduates are rushing into the wrong roles for fear of having a hole in their CV after university. 

Got the degree – now for the job (The Independent)

Graduates take wrong job just to be employed(Telegraph)

STEM subjects

A HEFCE study of student numbers has shown that STEM subjects have emerged well from the tripling of maximum tuition fees in 2012-2013 suggesting the government has had some success in protecting the disciplines during a period of radical change. But languages have continued to decline with HEFCE warning numbers in 2013-14 could be at their lowest level for a decade.

Demand for STEM subjects holds up in wake of fees hike, (THE)

 

Friday 22 August

Participation age

An extensive piece from BBC News online which examines the impact of raising the leaving age to 17 last September (which will rise to 18 in September 2016).  It looks particularly at GCSEs with Prof Alison Wolf, a specialist in the relationship between education and the labour market at King’s College London and who authored the 2011 review of vocational education, arguing that GCSEs remain an important benchmark as the results determine students’ progress into their next stage of education, training or employment. However Prof Alan Smithers, director of Buckingham University’s Centre for Education and Employment Research, would prefer to see GCSEs replaced with exams at 14 or 15.

Do GCSEs still matter with a school leaving age of 17? (BBC News)

Developing Research Outputs

Well the summer is drawing to a close and you may, or may not, have had done what you planned in way of research this summer, but if nothing else I hope you have had some fun and enjoyed your leave.  I have chosen not to post on our research blog since stepping down as PVC at Christmas, but am breaking my silence to draw your attention to a couple of things – this is the first of two posts.  The second will follow in due course and is a request for some help with a piece of research.

I have put together for the autumn a seven week programme of seminars that deal with research practice drawing on my own experience.  The programme is independent of any official development programme, but forms a natural complement to other things running at BU, such as the Grants and Writing Academies.  The course caters for all types of research not just those based in the sciences and the weekly sessions will consist of a seminar with an opportunity for discussion, as well as time in which participants can discuss their current projects, papers and bids.

The programme is free and open to all members of academic and professional/support staff at BU.  A certificate of attendance and completion will be issued and registration is via Organisational Development: staffdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk

The only pre-requisite is that participant’s make a commitment via a ‘learning contract’ to attend each of the sessions, unless absent due to unforeseen circumstances outside work.  The programme will run on Tuesday lunchtimes (12.15 to 13.45) and starts on the 21nd October 2014.  Participants are welcome to bring their lunch if they wish.  The minimum cohort size is 8 and confirmation that the programme will run will be given by 1st October 2014.  If there is sufficient interest a second cohort may run in the spring term.  You will find further details at Staff Intranet including an outline programme.

Yawning In Paris – Dr Simon Thompson

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Grants Academy, Post-award, REF Subjects, Research assessment, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, Research themes

I have taught at Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense on a number of occasions but I continue to be impressed by the enthusiasm and challenging questions the Master’s level students pose. Paris is rich with culture and the education system has many benefits. I am privileged to be part of a growing French research culture that respects skills and knowledge with cutting edge technology in neuroscience.

Sacre Coeur, roof-top; Gare du Nord, r.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eiffel Tower, roof-top.

This complements my experience at Bournemouth University and has enabled me to collaborate on projects that face difficult challenges with respect to ethics and use of expensive technology, namely fMRI scanning. Functional Magnetic Resonance Scanning is notoriously expensive yet the benefits to clinical research are potentially huge.

Modernism - or the Aliens have landed!

 

My study on yawning and cortisol at Bournemouth University [1] has now includes collaboration with three prestigious centres in France: Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, Amiens University Hospital, University of Picardy Jules Verne.

I hope to continue my Anglo-French meetings with the assistance of the Erasmus Travel Scholarship scheme in the future, as well as with funding from the French Embassy and the French Multiple Sclerosis Society.

 

[1] Thompson, S.B.N., 2014. Yawning, fatigue and cortisol: expanding the Thompson Cortisol Hypothesis. Medical Hypotheses. Doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2014.08.009.

Why read? FUSION funding to provide literature with an economics-based understanding of reading

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Publishing

The project Private Gains and Retailed Literature: pathways to an economics-based account of reading has just won FUSION funding for the coming semester. The project will ask why people consistently spend time and money on literature. What do they hope to gain? Since the opportunity costs are considerable, historically in terms of money and now in terms of time, readers must hope to gain something. On- and offline literature provides unique gains that have otherwise escaped investigation by English studies, which instead has preferred to think of meanings and literary achievement, rather than use.

In terms of finding a discourse to investigate this, it should be remembered that the publishing industry and its delivery of fiction is by necessity predicated on commerce, while the markets for published fiction make up part of commodity culture. The language of private gain, of benefit and loss, which is the heart of commodity culture, is well suited for thinking about general-market reading. And if we can get passed the hijacking of economics by neo-liberalism, or get past neo-liberal reductionism that converts everything to financial indices, we may admit that economics has something to say about the mechanisms of gain, and about a specific type of reading in that commodity-cultural context.

Headed by BU Senior lecturer in English, Dr Simon Frost, and in partnership with UNESCO Chair in New Media Forms of the Book, Prof. Alexis Weedon (University of Bedfordshire) and Prof. Claire Squires, Director of the Stirling Centre for International Publishing and Communication (University of Stirling), the project will be working with the JS Group/John Smith’s books to articulate in the language of cultural and media studies the role that books play in that international retail chain’s larger delivery of private gains. In addition, the project will conduct a student-led survey of the perceived benefits of retailed literature, across a number of UK book shops. Together, the student survey and JS study will greatly refine the project’s understanding of the qualities signified in book retail. It will help the project understand why people think books are important.

Theories of literary value based solely on intrinsic value are under extreme pressure these days. How can one argue for investment in the best literature in the face of severe cuts to essential public services? And who is to decide what is ‘best’ – that debate being trapped in the notion of cultural hierarchy. This project instead aims at an explanation based not on l’art pour l’art, nor on the education of readers towards a supposedly more-culturally discerning state, but on the benefits readers obtain from the books they currently have in hand; on the books they currently value.

Enquires should be directed in the first instance to
Dr Simon Frost, sfrost@bournemouth.ac.uk

Going to America? Open Access Conference Funding for ECRs & Students

Publishing

On the 15-17 November the Right to Research Coalition and SPARC will launch OpenCon, a new conference to support, connect, and catalyze student and early career researcher-led projects across Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data in Washington, DC.

The full cost of attendance for the majority of participants will be covered by travel scholarships provided through the generous support of sponsor organizations. However, application deadline is midnight PDT on Monday, August 25th.

All students and early career researchers with an interest in Open Access, Open Education and Open Data are encouraged to apply at www.opencon2014.org/apply. The application includes the ability to apply for a travel scholarship.

Further information on the conference can be found here – http://www.opencon2014.org/

If anyone is interested in applying, please liaise with me (Shelly Anne Stringer) by 9am Thursday (20th).

Non-intrusive river flow measurement – funding available

Funding opportunities

This SBRI competition is focused on the Environment Agency’s need to measure river flows in challenging locations where existing standard instrumentation cannot be used. However, a solution that could also be deployed in less demanding/normal river conditions would be ideal.

 Over 5.5 million, or one in six, properties are at risk of flooding from all types of floods across England and Wales. The latest UKCP09 climate change projections indicate rising sea levels and increasingly severe and frequent rainstorms mean the risk of floods will increase.
The Environment Agency requires a non intrusive method of river flow measurement which is capable of measuring river flows to “bank full” in rivers with variable backwater, weed growth and with a mobile bed load.
Priority requirements
  • a cost-effective solution
  • minimise the need for in-channel civil engineering works
  • the solution must provide data outputs that can be ported into Environment Agency telemetry systems
  • the solution should be low maintenance
  • it should be able to be supported and maintained by non-specialist staff with moderate technical skills
  • to be able to measure flows in channels that are affected by in channel weed growth and mobile beds
  • to be able to measure flows to local bank full level
  • the solution should measure flows to an accuracy of 6 to 15% or better in the range of flows of interest
  • not affect fish migration, both upstream and downstream
  • have a minimal impact on river fauna and flora and sediment transport
  • meet as many of the aspirational specifications as possible for the proposed new technology (highlighted in the competition brief)
Further details of the challenge are included in the competition brief.
Register for the networking and  briefing event – to be held in London on  Monday 15 September 2014.
Key dates for this call can be found here.

Call for research proposals – Defence Medical Sciences

Funding opportunities

New SBRI call – Up to £500k of funding is available for this Phase 1 competition.

MOD’s Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) are launching a call for research proposals to identify new and innovative science and technology to enhance the level of military medical care and support to service personnel.

This CDE competition aims to promote military resilience and preparedness through:

Challenge 1. Technologies for health surveillance

Predicting injury, infection or disease in a military population on operations helps maintain fighting ability. This challenge seeks to identify areas of physiology and biochemical pathways that, with new surveillance and analysis technology, can provide novel ways of assessing health and wellbeing.

Challenge 2.  Advanced medical systems for field care

Post-Afghanistan, operational medicine will evolve. Future medical capability will rely on smart, innovative, less logistically intense ways of diagnosing and treating medical emergencies. This challenge seeks innovative technologies that can be used routinely by non-specialists in an operational setting to diagnose the cause and severity of injury or illness and assist in providing care.

A free briefing event will take place at the CDE Tuesday 30 September 2014 in Scotland.

Further details can be accessed via the website.

 

 

 

Join us for today’s cyber security seminar…

 

‘Pattern- and Security-Requirements-Engineering-based Establishment of Security Standards’

Tuesday, 19th August

Coyne Lecture Theatre, Talbot Campus

4pm -5pm.

Security standards such as Common Criteria or ISO 27001 are ambiguous on purpose, because these standards shall be usable for a large set of different scenarios. The establishment of a security standard requires removing all ambiguities, eliciting concrete security requirements and selecting appropriate security measures.

Dr Kristian Beckers is a security requirements engineering researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen. He investigates how security requirements engineering methods can be used to support the development and documentation of security standards. In this seminar Dr Beckers will introduce you to the methods and systems which have been created to fit a specific security scenario. In particular, you will find out about the Information Security Management System (ISMS) which was built in compliance with the ISO 27001 standard.

If you would like to join us for this seminar, please book your place via EventBrite.

We will look forward to seeing you!

Last week’s Policy Summary

 

Saturday

Increasing marketisation of HE

In the weekend before clearing, there was coverage over what appears to be increased competition between universities to attract students and the methods they are employing. 

·         Universities lure best students with cash prizes, (FT)

·         Universities spend to entice more students (Guardian)

 

Sunday

Student applications

The Sutton Trust has published a study showing that more than 4-in-10 state school teachers ‘rarely or never’ advise academically-gifted children to apply for Oxford or Cambridge places. The charity is planning to stage a series of summer schools for teachers. Meanwhile universities will accept applicants ‘with rock-bottom’ A-level grades as the government relaxes the cap on student numbers, internal documents obtained by the Sunday Times (from three universities) have warned – only Exeter University is named in the piece as one of those universities. 

·         State pupils told to shun Oxbridge (Sunday Telegraph)

·         Universities will accept ‘anyone’ to fill extra places (Sunday Times)

 

Monday

Value/cost of degrees

Daily Mail ran a piece on how firms like PwC, KPMG, GSK and the National Grid are taking on more school leavers this year and ‘tempting them away from universities with training salaries of more than £30,000’.  Meanwhile the Independent featured a survey of more than 2000 students by Endsleigh which revealed 13% had a full-time job – either in the holidays, term time or both. 59% at working part-time to see them through their studies. 

·         Firms offer teens £30k jobs to poach them from university courses: Companies receiving up to 100 applications for every post as school leavers shun £9,000-a-year courses (Daily Mail)

·         One in seven students have full-time jobs during degree course (Independent)

 

Tuesday

Student satisfaction

The National Student Survey was published today. Coverage mostly focused on how undergraduates show a higher degree of satisfaction.Students are most satisfied with teaching, least happy with assessment and feedback.

·         Undergraduates show a higher degree of satisfaction, (The Times) 

·         Quarter of students at low-ranking universities ‘not satisfied‘ (Daily Telegraph)

·         Open University ‘top for students’ in Northern Ireland (BBC News)

·         Is the National Student Survey fit for purpose? (Guardian Higher Education Network)

·         National Student Survey shows record levels of satisfaction (THE)

·         Current students are much more worried by university life than older graduates, survey finds (The Independent)

 

Wednesday

Access to universities

Teenagers from wealthy backgrounds are still around 10 times more likely to get into top universities than those from poorer homes.

Will Hutton, who chairs the Independent Commission on Fees, said the findings showed “serious gaps in access to university remain”. The commission was set up by education charity the Sutton Trust to monitor the impact of increased university fees. In addition to Mr Hutton, principal of Hertford College, Oxford, its members include Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, and Libby Purves, the writer and radio broadcaster. THE focused more on how the commission revealed support from the public for cheaper fees for poorer students and the Guardian wrote that raising of tuition fees to £9,000 has not put off students from disadvantaged backgrounds from applying to university – although the gap in applications between those from wealthy and poor backgrounds remains wide. 

·         Wealthiest students still dominate top universities (Independent)

·         ‘Wealthy students should pay higher university fees’ (Telegraph)

·         Higher university fees not discouraging applications from the poorest students (Guardian)

·         Rich teenagers still dominate top universities (Independent)

·         Cut fees for the poorest, public says (THE)

 

Thursday

A-Level Results Day

UCAS figures showed that more students were accepted than ever before – 396,990 – anincrease of 3%. That said, the grades that students received had fallen overall with the number of those receiving grades at C or above falling by around 0.5%, despite an increase in A*s.

·         Record numbers get into university but pass rate falls (Guardian)

·         A-level grades edge down, as university places rise (BBC)

 

Friday

A-Level Results

A record number of disadvantaged teenagers will be heading to university this year due to the relaxing of student number controls.

·         Exams end class divide as record number take up university place (The Times)

New Home Office SBRI Competition – Forensics

Funding opportunities

 

Funding of £250k is available for this Phase 1 competition from the Home Office’s Centre for Applied Science and Technology (CAST). CAST exists to protect the public using science and technology by providing high quality, impartial advice, innovative solutions and frontline support to the Home Office and its partners, including the Police.

Across the UK last year, more than 500,000 crime scenes were examined for the recovery of forensic related material, principally, fingerprints and biological material. The challenge facing CAST is how to achieve step-change improvements to forensic processes used in crime investigation in the UK in order to increase the amount of material identified, reduce the time taken to process evidence, manage contamination and lessen disruptive interventions.

 The call for proposals will therefore focus on proof of concepts for technologies and processes which aid the rapid location and recovery of forensic material at crime scenes. The key requirement is to have the capability to quickly screen scenes or articles for the presence of fingerprints or other biological material that can be used in evidence. This may be achieved by a single technology which can locate both fingerprints and biological material, or separate technologies that can be deployed by investigators at a scene.

The competition will open on Monday 1st September, 2014 and close at midday on Wednesday 9 October 2014.

A briefing event is planned for 10 September in London. To register go to Eventbrite.

About SBRI.

For further information about this competition please visit the website .