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ESRC Training Bursaries

Funding opportunities

Each year ESRC provides 50 bursaries for up to £1,000 each to enable staff in the UK social science community engaged in research, teaching research methods or supervising research to update their research skills. Those training courses must not be provided at the own institution. Contract researchers working in HEIs are also eligible for the bursaries.

I have obtained a number of bursaries from this source. It is not a complicated process to apply. Quite simple and straightforward. Search for suitable courses for your own need on NCRM Training and Events website. Then go to ESRC Training Bursaries website to fill in a short form.

Good luck.

Health Related Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

There are a large number of calls that have been announced in the Medical and Healthcare remit.  A brief description of each of them is given below, together with a link to the call.

Medical Research Council:Joint Global Health trials scheme – this funds global health trials to generate new knowledge about interventions that will contribute to the improvement of health in low- and middle-income countries. The budget for the scheme is up to £12 million per year for three years.

Medical Research Council: Early Career Fellowship in economics of health – the scheme enables individuals to undertake challenging projects in excellent research and training environments. The fellowship is for a period of up to three years.

Medical Research Council: Methodology research fellowship – the scheme is aimed at researchers with a grounding in health research who wish to undertake a period of specialist training in the development and investigation of innovative research methods. The fellowship lasts up to four years and covers salary, training, consumables, and travel costs, capital equipment, and all other relevant costs under FEC.

Medical Research Council: New Investigator research grants – molecular and cellular medicine – these provide support for clinical and non-clinical researchers while they are establishing themselves as independent principal investigators. Grants are worth up to £600,000 and normally last three years. MRC will usually meet up to 80 per cent of the full economic cost.

Medical Research Council: Confidence in concept scheme – this provides awards to institutions to be used to support the earliest stages of multiple translational research projects. Grants will be between £300,000 and £1 million.

Cancer Research UK: Senior cancer research fellowships – this enables senior researchers to establish or to further develop an independent research group. Fellowships will last for six years and fund salaries for the fellow, up to two postdoctoral researchers, a technician and a PhD student. They also cover research expenses, consumables and equipment costs.

Cancer Research UK: Career Development Fellowships – these support non-clinical scientists who have shown promise in their initial studies in a cancer relevant research field, but may not yet have sufficient experience to obtain a more senior fellowship. Grants have a duration of six years and fund: salaries for the fellow, a postdoctoral researcher and a technician; consumables costs; equipment.

British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy: Research grants support research efforts in the following areas: mechanisms of antibacterial action; mechanisms of antibacterial resistance; antiviral resistance; antivirals; antifungals; antibiotic methods; antibiotic prescribing; antibiotic therapy; antiparisitics; evidence based medicine/ systematic reviews. Grants are worth up to £50,000 for projects of one year’s duration.

British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy: Project grants may be used for the following purposes: pump priming projects; supporting the completion of an existing project; introducing a novel technique for existing work; funding for trainees for projects/training (maximum value £5,000). Up to £10,000 is available for projects of one year ‘s duration.

Anatomical Society: Research Studentships provide basic maintenance and fees for postgraduate students working towards the award of a higher degree in the anatomical and related sciences. Studentships are tenable for a maximum of three years and must be held in a British or Irish university.

British Pharmacology Society: AstraZeneca prize for women in Pharmacology: This recognises women whose career achievements have contributed significantly to the understanding of a particular field in pharmacology through excellence in research. The prize is worth £1,000.

 The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

EPSRC Sandpit: More with Less: Engineering Solutions for Resource Efficiency

Funding opportunities

The EPSRC has announced a call for Expressions of Interest for attendance at their Sandpit for ‘More with Less: Engineering Solutions for Resource Efficiency’.

The UK is a small nation with limited resources that has a high material dependency. With the ever growing concern of material and resource scarcity we look to the ingenuity of the research base to find long-term sustainable solutions.

The Engineering theme will lead a sandpit in response to the challenges raised by the research community in the Resource Efficiency Scoping Workshop in April 2012 and in line with EPSRC strategy. The primary aim is to invest in ambitious, engineering-led, cross-disciplinary research with the potential for long-term transformation across many and diverse sectors, especially among those that have yet to embrace these concepts.

EPSRC are looking for enthusiastic participants from a wide range of disciplines who will bring their expertise to explore the challenges of:

  • Dematerialisation (eg lightweighting, novel materials functionality, novel materials from waste products, materials security and efficiency);
  • Designing for resource sustainability (eg energy, water and materials efficiency, considerations for engineering processes, whole systems and resource flow modelling);
  • Reuseability at any scale (closed and open loop recycling, remanufacturing, extended product life).

Closing Date: 13.00 on 11 June 2012

Documents to Download:

Resource efficiency sandpit call document

Resource efficiency workshop challenge outcomes

Ideas Factory Sandpit expression of interest form: Return form to sandpit@epsrc.ac.uk

Equal Opportunities Form

A Sandpit for Ideas: The concept of the IDEAS Factory is to organise interactive workshops (sandpits) on particular topics, involving 20-25 participants. The focus for this sandpit is MORE WITH LESS: Engineering solutions for resource efficiency. Anyone eligible to apply for funding from Research Councils UK can apply.

The Sandpit Event: The sandpit will run over five days starting mid-morning on day one and finishing mid-afternoon on day five.

As the sandpit progresses, participants will build up thoughts on how the identified ‘challenges’ may be addressed and develop their innovative ideas and activities into research projects. Projects will contain genuinely novel and speculative investigations that address new approaches to resource efficiency. The sandpit will include inputs from a variety of sources.

Location and Date

The date for this sandpit is 23rd – 27th July 2012. Location to be confirmed.

LIFE+ 2012 Call now open!

The sixth LIFE+ call opened recently and closes on the 26th September 2012. LIFE+ funds projects that implement, update and develop Community environmental policy and legislation. There are three strands:

There is a significant change to the application process this year as this must be done using a new eProposal online tool. There are user guides available on the LIFE+ website. In addition applicants submitting a Nature & Biodiversity project or an Information & Communication project related to Forest Fire Prevention will also need to submit an A8 form, signed by the relevant competent authority.

Beta Technology can review your project idea before you start taking time to fill in the application form, simply complete the project concept form and send it to Catherine Holt or Jane Watkins . You can also take a look at the Tips and Advice section of the Beta website for some great hints when completing an application.

There is also an Info Day for this call being held in London on May 29th  -povisional plans for the day include presentations from Stefan Welin, Technical Desk Officer at the EU LIFE Unit, Catherine Holt from BETA Technology and previous project funding recipients. Attendance is free but must be registered in advance, places are limited and will initially be allocated at one per organisation on a first come, first served basis; you can register here.

 

ISRF Mid-Career Research Fellowship Call announced

Funding opportunities

The Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF) wishes to support independent-minded researchers to do interdisciplinary work which is unlikely to be funded by existing funding bodies. It is interested in original research ideas which take new approaches, and suggest new solutions, to real world social problems.

The Foundation intends to make a small number of awards to support original interdisciplinary research, across the range of the social sciences, to be held from a start date during the academic year 2013-4. Scholars from within Europe are eligible to apply.

The award is intended to enable a scholar at the mid career stage to pursue his/her research full-time, normally for 12 months. The amount will be offered to buy out the costs of replacing all teaching and associated administration in the applicant’s home institution, and will be considered to a maximum of £60,000 per successful applicant. Within that sum, reasonable support for research expenses may be considered on a matched-funding basis with the host institution.

The applicant should normally hold a salaried position at an institution of higher education and research, and be 10 years or more from the year of their PhD award. However, a shorter time from PhD award may exceptionally be considered, if the candidate has other qualifications to be considered as mid-career.

Applicants should consult the Criteria as set out in the Further Particulars and show that they meet them. Applicants should follow the Application procedure and should present their Proposal in the format specified there.

Closing date for applications is 4pm on June 21st 2012.

Application Queries: Telephone +44 (0) 20 7262 0196 or email applications2012@isrf.org

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

DEC Post Graduate Researcher Poster Competition

PG research

The School of Design, Engineering and Computing is holding its 5th Annual Post Graduate Research Student Poster Competition Conference on Wednesday 23rd May 2012 in the Thomas Hardy Suite.  This event showcases the School’s current PhD research.  Judging will take place in the morning and then the display will be open to all at 14:00 hours. Bournemouth University Board Member, Dr Peter Barnwell MBE will officially open the conference at 14:30 p.m. and will be awarding the prizes for the best posters at approximately 15:00 pm. Students will be there to discuss their research until 16:00 hours.  All staff are welcome.

The AHRC is coming to BU

Funding opportunities

On 27th June Professor Mark Llewellyn, Director of Research from the AHRC is coming to BU. 

Professor Llewellyn began his secondment to the AHRC as Director of Research in January and his responsibilities cover all areas of research activity, postgraduate funding, peer review, and international and Knowledge Exchange issues.

Professor Llewellyn will be addressing an open meeting at BU, aimed at arts and humanities researchers and anyone else who is interested in the development of the AHRC’s strategy.

The meeting with start with a presentation, and then be followed by discussion. 

There is limited space available, please book your place to avoid disappointment.

Click here to book your place.

Day: Wednesday, 27th June

Time: 1.30pm – 2.15pm

Place: Talbot Campus – PG16

In the meantime, if you have any questions please email Caroline O’Kane

International placements deemed priceless

Bournemouth University’s Professor Jonathan Parker and Dr Sara Crabtree have been examining the true benefits an international placement has on a student’s learning experience, employability and future career.

The study, conducted alongside Parker and Crabtree’s BU colleague Clare Cutler, examined a range of aspects of inter-cultural learning arising from placements. Current students and graduates were questioned about their confidence, cultural attitudes, employer feedback and other factors arising from the international placement experience.

Professor Parker explained: “This research has shown how working in totally different and sometimes physically inhospitable cultural environments, develops students’ confidence to practice in varied, challenging and unknown situations. This is so important when they come back to work in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country like the UK.”

While the study has primarily focused on international placements in Parker’s own research area of social work, it is already being applied to other disciplines. “We are now surveying students taking international placements in our School of Tourism and these research findings are equally positive,” he explained. “But the concept can be much more widely applied to encompass any career working with the general public.”

But there’s one big problem holding many UK students back: “As a general rule, UK students are very poor at languages, which are so important in so many aspects of life.”

This apparent ‘failing’ of the school system, whereby languages are not compulsory at GCSE level, needs to be addressed if students are going to reap the rewards of international placement schemes such as Erasmus. “Students need a basic degree of language skill,” Parker concluded. “It should be compulsory”.

This international placements research project is supported through BU’s Fusion fund, promoting projects which create a unique academic experience through the powerful fusion of research, education and professional practice.

More information about Professor Jonathan Parker’s and Dr Sara Crabtree’s research can be viewed on BURO.

Digital Economy Strategic Partnerships Proposals

At the Strategic Partnership workshop for the Connected Digital Economy Catapult last month the Technology Strategy Board presented the nature of strategic partnerships and other models of engagement, the process to develop strategic partnerships, guidelines and next steps. The presentations can be found on the _connect webpage 

The next step in the process involves interested companies/organisations preparing 2-3 page strategic partnership proposals, which need to be submitted to the Technology Strategy Board by 25th May 2012. You can read more on this, on the _connect website.

Remember, if you aren’t already signed up to _connect, you can read the benefits of creating an account here.

Good luck and Congratulations!

Awarded & submitted bids

Congratulations to Tania Humphries-Smith (DEC) for securing funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering for an industry visiting professor, Zulfiqar Khan (DEC) for winning a contract with My Floodmate Ltd to research a revised flood barrier and for a contract with IT & Engineering Services Ltd, Richard Stillman (ApSci) for securing funding from Cefas for phase 2 of the Bridgewater Bay Project and for a contract with HR Wallingford, Roger Herbert (ApSci) for a contract with Natural England to research marine food webs, Tim Darvill and Bronwen Russell (ApSci) for securing further funding from English Heritage for the AIP project, Carol Bond and Marilyn Cash (HSC) for a contract with NHS Bournemouth and Poole, and to Adam Blake and Nicky Pretty (ST) for winning funds from UK Music 2009 Ltd to research the potential impact of the live music bill legislation.

Congratulations are also due to Martin Smith (ApSci) for running the BABAO Conference in Bournemouth later this year, Bronwen Russell (Bournemouth Archaeology, ApSci) for securing a contract with Wardall Armstrong, Stephanie Farmer (RedBalloon, MS) for securing a contract with Poole Tidal Energy Project and another contract with Mobile Media, Mike Molesworth (CEB, MS) for winning two contracts – one with JC Decaux Airport Advertising and one with ITV Cross Media Communication and Partnership, and to Vanessa Edwards (MS) for running the Journalism 4G Conference later this year and for running the Media Mash Up short courses.

Good luck to Emma Jenkins (ApSci) for submitting an early career researcher grant to the AHRC, Genoveva Esteban (ApSci) with a bid to SempCorp, Eileen Wilkes (ApSci) for a bid to the British Academy to continue her research at Mount Folly in Devon, Adrian Newton (ApSci) for a bid to the STFC, Rudy Gozlan, Anita Diaz and the CEES Group (ApSci) for submitting three bids to the European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus scheme, Anita Diaz (Raian Ali (DEC) for an FP7 bid to the European Commission, a large bid to the EPSRC and a bid to Google, Venky Dubey (DEC) for a bid to UKIERI, Christos Gatzidis (DEC) for a bid to hold the 5th IEEE VS-Games 2013 Conference in Bournemouth, Hamid Bouchachia (DEC) for a large bid to the European Commission, Jian Jun Zhang (MS) for submitting a bid to the Leverhulme Trust’s Research Leadership Scheme, Stuart Allan (MS) for a bid to Humanities in the European Research Area, Venora Hundley and Edwin van Teijlingen (HSC) for a bid to the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation to research women’s self-help groups and empowerment, Jonathan Parker (HSC) for a bid to the ESRC Festival of Social Sciences, Kip Jones (HSC) for a bid to the ESRC Festival of Social Sciences, Peter Thomas (HSC) for a large collaborative bid to the NIHR, and to Khurshid Djalilov (BS) for two bids – one to the ESRC and the other to the Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Good luck also to Jan Wiener (DEC) for submitting a bid to Army of Angels, Jacqui Taylor (DEC) for two bids to the HEA, Joanna Hawkes (ST) with a bid to the National Osteoporosis Society, and to Steve Calver and the MRG team (ST) for a bid to work with Dorset Police.

Thanks

Matthew

 

New user friendly ESRC Research Funding Guide

Guidance

A new version of the ESRC Research Funding Guide is now available to download on their web site.

It has been thoroughly reviewed and substantial changes made to the layout and content.  The contents page now includes hyperlinks so that you do not need to scroll through the document to find what you need; relevant links to current Funding Opportunities and assessment information are included; as are guidance in chronological order from beginning to end of the grants process; annexes have been removed and where appropriate the information is now included within the document; and a revision to the OJEU threshold has also been included.

The new streamlined version is much more user friendly and easier to keep up to date. This document will now only be updated on a bi-annual basis – in April and October – where changes are required (unless exceptional circumstances require immediate revision). Where possible amendments will be implemented at the point at which the guide is updated. Any changes which occur during the interim period will be captured as amendments on the web page so that they are easy to find and will be communicated as appropriate (this may be via RCUK or the normal ESRC channels).

BU REF Code of Practice available now!

Research assessment

As I mentioned in my previous post about the forthcoming outputs mock REF exercise, we have recently submitted our final draft REF Code of Practice document to the REF Team for their approval. We produced this document to help inform staff about the policies and processes around submitting to the REF in November 2013, as well as to meet the four UK higher education funding bodies’ request that each institution making a submission to the REF must develop and apply such a code when selecting staff to include in their submission.

The BU REF Code of Practice is the culmination of months of drafting and approval, and sets out the approach that will be, and has already been, taken by BU in preparing its REF2014 submission. It therefore includes important information about the schedule of mock REF exercises that you are able to take part in (Chapter 3), and about declaring any circumstances that may have affected your ability to produce the four outputs required (Chapter 5), along with other equality and diversity aspects. Staff eligibility and selection are also covered.

Throughout the document there are references to the relevant paragraphs within the key publications published by the REF Team, which are: Assessment Framework and Guidance on Submissions and Panel Criteria and Working Methods.

Because this document is still subject to the approval of the REF Team’s Equality and Diversity Advisory Panel (EDAP), the Code is currently available to BU staff via the new Staff Intranet under ‘Policies, Forms and Procedures/Research’. We will make it fully available here on the Blog once we’ve received the EDAP feedback, so watch this space!

European Innovation Partnerships Updated Website and FAQs

You may remember I recently  published a blog post on Partnering in Research and Innovation which laid out the EC’s plans for how to improve partnering across Europe for research in Horizon 2020. This was particularly relevant for BU as topics included are Active and Healthy Ageing. The EC has recently updated its European Innovation Partnerships website and has added a FAQ section. The website now has a separate section on each of the three EIPs:

  1. Active and Healthy Ageing;
  2. Raw Materials;
  3. Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability.

The EIP on Active and Healthy Ageing was the first Partnership to be set up, and there are several pilot calls currently open under different programmes for projects in support of its Strategic Implementation Plan (please see the “Funding” section of the EIP Active and Healthy Ageing part of the website).

The FAQs contain questions and answers on topics such as:

  • the role of the Strategic Implementation Plan for an EIP;
  • how funding will be provided for Strategic Implementation Plans;
  • the timing for possible new EIPs;
  • the role of the Steering Group and Action Groups for the Active and Healthy Ageing EIP; and
  • the role envisaged for EIPs in implementing Horizon

I would recommend taking 10 mins out of your day to check out oen of the EIP websites if the areas are relevant for you.

NERC announce first round of the 2012/13 Follow-on Fund

Funding opportunities

Applications are invited to NERC’s first round of the 2012/13 Follow-on Fund.

The aim of this scheme is to develop outcomes from previous funding to a stage where commercial opportunities are possible.  The fund is open to researchers in UK universities and research council institutes with current or past research council funding.

Funds are typically requested to further develop the scientific or technical aspects of an idea.  This may be to strengthen the intellectual property position, carry out further market research or investigate possible licensees.

Applications must be made through the JeS system (https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk/).

The closing date for applications is 4pm, 6 June 2012.

NERC also funds a Follow-on Fund ‘Pathfinder’ scheme to support small-scale, specific activities that can help develop a better understanding of future work needs and may be beneficial when submitting a full Follow-on Fund application.

For more information and contact details go to http://www.nerc.ac.uk/using/schemes/followonfund.asp

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

Useful documents

To find out more, please download the documents you need from the list below.

Guidance to applicants

Eligibility and assessment criteria

Specific guidance – ‘Full’ Follow-on Fund

Specific guidance – Follow-on Fund Pathfinder

Moderating panel membership

Guidance for writing supporting letters

EPSRC announce call: Working together in ICT

Funding opportunities

Summary

EPSRC’s ICT Theme intends to commit around £5M of funding for research projects which will directly address its Working Together priority.

Projects submitted in response to this call should comprise two or more ‘streams’ of research which run concurrently and show significant mutual benefit. These streams may include ICT researchers working with researchers in areas outside ICT, as long as the potential benefit to ICT research is the main driver for the project.

Full call document including background, funding available, aims and scope of call, eligibilty, how to apply and assessment can be found here.

Closing date: 16:00 on 10 July 2012

Submitting application

You should prepare and submit your proposal using the Research Councils’ Joint electronic Submission (Je-S) System (https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk/).

When adding a new proposal, you should select: Council ‘EPSRC’; Document type ‘Standard Proposal’; Scheme ‘Standard Research’; On the Project Details page you should select the ‘Working Together in ICT’ call.

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

Master the art of using Twitter to enhance your research profile, impact and visibility!

Those of you who are regular visitors to the Blog will be aware that we regularly promote the benefits to academics of using social media channels, such as Twitter (read our previous Twitter posts here).

The Training Gateway are hosting a ‘Twitter Made Simple’ workshop in London on 14 June to help those new to Twitter to master the art!

The course will cover:
• An Introduction to Twitter – what it is and how it can be used
• Profile – How to set up your profile
• Twitter Terms – e.g. hash tags and how to set up your bio
• Setting a plan / strategy for content and networking
• Interacting with other Twitter users – who and how to follow, what to say and managing the noise
• The Do’s and Don’ts of Twitter – Twitter etiquette

The Research Development Unit has funding available if you would like to attend. Please contact Julie Northam if you are interested.

Alcohol Research UK announces Small Grants Scheme

Funding opportunities

Alcohol Research UK have reopened the Small Grants Scheme.

Competition is always tough for a small grant award, so please check the criteria before applying:

Criteria for Funding Projects:

Small grants could fund small research projects, pilot research studies or demonstration projects with a strong evaluation component, up to £5,000 in total. The following criteria are used to judge all applications for small grants:

  • Does the project have the potential to make a significant new contribution to the alcohol evidence base, either in its own right or as a precursor to a larger project?
  • Are the aims well defined and achievable?
  • Is there a sound evaluation component to check whether aims have been achieved?

Preference will be given to projects that will have a demonstrable impact.

Alcohol Research UK is unable to contribute to the running and general costs of organisations, make donations or fund ongoing service provision.

Download a copy of the Small Grant Project application form

Conferences and Conference Attendance:

Applications may be made for a contribution towards running a suitable conference of up to £3,000 subject to the following criteria:

  • The conference would help to disseminate important new evidence or theories;
  • It has clear and identifiable aims; and
  • There would be some post event evaluation regarding the influence on policy and practice and Alcohol Research UK would be provided with a conference report.

Applications for conference attendance to present a paper will only be accepted from Alcohol Research UK funded individuals.

Download a copy of the Small Grant Conference application form

Download a copy of the Small Grant Conference attendance application form

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.