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EC funding for the ‘Development of Knowledge Alliances’

The general objective of the call for proposals is to support the implementation of Knowledge Alliances which should ensure stronger societal and economic relevance, and outreach in higher education, by strengthening the role of higher education institutions as engines of innovation and increasing the employability, creativity and innovative potential of graduates, professors and company staff.Through this pilot project, the grant from the European Commission will support the implementation of Knowledge Alliances, helping the partner organisations implement structured partnerships which should lead to innovative and collaborative approaches in their field beyond the lifetime of the project.

Knowledge Alliances are structured partnerships aimed at stimulating innovation by bringing together businesses and higher education institutions. Knowledge Alliances should foster the role of Higher Education institutions as engines of innovation, through the flow and active exchange of knowledge between higher education and business, in turn leading to the development of long-term strategic partnerships between Higher Education Institutions and companies. These partnerships should support companies in providing new approaches to the professional development of their staff. Knowledge Alliances should also provide incentives to try out new and innovative teaching methods, to promote entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial mindsets, to foster the generation of new ideas and interdisciplinarity through co-operation. The deadline is June 28th.

UKRO have also released an article giving further detail on the call and the application process which you can access here.

EC electronic system to be replaced!

A new online proposal submission system is currently being piloted on the FP7 ICT 9 Call for Proposals. The new system works directly in the Participant Portal.

 
While overall the system is very similar to the current submission system EPSS (Electronic Proposal Submission System), the main novelty is that the submission is now being done directly via the Participant Portal, and no longer in a separate system.

The Participant Portal Submission Service (PPSS) will be used for almost all calls from summer 2012 onwards, which may include the Marie Curie calls, but the EC will specify which system is to be used in each individual Call for Proposals and Guide for Applicants.  There is also a PPSS guide to take a look at.

Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme: Daily Life Activities of Older Adults at Home funding

The Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Joint Programme has launched its fifth Call for Proposals: “ICT-based Solutions for (Self-) Management of Daily Life Activities of Older Adults at Home”, which encompasses important dimensions of the broad topic of Home Care. The deadline for proposals is 31 May 2012. This call aims to develop ICT-based solutions which enable and sustain older adults to continue managing their daily activities in their home. The call also aims to identfiy ICT-based solutions which support informal carers in their assistance. Successful projects are expected to target systemic solutions addressing the users’ wishes and needs, or to provide a contribution which is meant to be integrated into a systemic solution, including some kind of support service. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is providing up to EUR 1.2 million in funding for UK academic partners, while the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is also providing up to EUR 1.2 million in funding for UK non-academic partners.  

 

 

Grants Academy applications – what to do about signatures

Guidance

On the Grants Academy application form there is a section at the end where your DD R&E (or equivalent) is required to sign, to show that they support your application.

Applicants can either:

  • submit a hard copy, with signature, to the RDU
  • submit via email a scanned version of your application (with signature)
  • or, if you are submitting a version without a signature, we will need an accompanying email from your DD R&E (or equivalent), confirming that they are in support of your application.

Please note: An individual can scan their own signature, using the Ricoh printers, then save this signature as a bmp or gif file.  This can then be inserted into the document.

 Any questions?  Please contact Caroline O’Kane

The Grants Academy launches today!

Guidance

The application process is officially open!

Last week on the blog we outlined what the Grants Academy is all about.  Clicking on the   tag is a good way to refresh yourself of the relevant information.

Here are the things you need to know if you are thinking of applying:

First two-day training

The first two day training programme (Strand One) is scheduled for the 9th and 10th May.  This training is taking place off-site, at a Lansdowne Hotel.  There will be homework (!) to do on the 9th May, so you will need a clear evening too.

Further dates

There will be further Strand One training sessions scheduled for later in year (between August 2012 and July 2013).  The dates of these sessions are not yet fixed, and will be advertised in due course.  

Application process

  • In the first instance, we are interested in applicants who are available to attend the first two-day session on 9th and 10th May.  Please make sure you state your availability to attend the first session on your application.     There will be an opportunity to apply for membership and future Strand One training sessions (and Strand Two sessions), later on in the year.  

 

  • We are looking for no more than 12 participants at any one Strand One training session

 

  • The criteria for assessing applications will broadly include: 
    • potential for generating research and KE income in future
    • scope of future research plans
    • ambition, motivation and engagement
    • experience of bidding and success to date

 

  • Applicants will complete an application form, and send this to the RDU

 

  • The deadline for applications is midnight, Tuesday 17th April

 

  • All applications will be forwarded to the assessment panel, which is made up of the PVC and  four senior academics

 

  • All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application on Monday 30th April

 

  • The application form is below.

 

Any questions?  Please contact Caroline O’Kane

Application Form

What is the Grants Academy?

 

Turkish SME seeks Partners for Project on LED Lighting System

Ale Technologies, a Turkish SME, is seeking partners for a research project for the design and development of a smart, integrated, and high-tech LED lighting system. The project seeks to create a concept for indoor lighting applications to create a safer, cleaner and a more energy-efficient environment. If this sounds up your street, don’t be shy and get in touch with the PI; details on the hyperlink above.

How ‘ethical’ are you? Test your knowledge and win a prize!

Research Ethics

Research Ethics Quiz

Time to toss out the dunce cap and proudly adorn your thinking cap – if you get all of the answers correct, you will win a prize.  Good luck and happy ethics!

    ACROSS

    6. Outputs, impact, environment – we’re all looking forward to the submission date in 2013

    7. The main focus of this blog

    8. The team that is responsible for all operational aspects of the pre- and post-award administration of research and knowledge exchange bids and awards

    13. Stream of funding that exists to support a range of practical initiatives and pump prime activity around Fusion

    14. Describes the myriad of ways in which the activity and benefits of higher education and research can be shared with the public, involving interation and listening, with the goal of generating mutual benefit

    DOWN

    1. The moral principles guiding research including inception, aims, completion, publication or results and beyond

    2. Will replace EU's FP7

    3. This initiative forms part of the Fusion Investment Fund and by becoming a member this will provide staff with access to a range of support services and advice not available to non-members and is open to staff of all grades with a range of experiences, not just junior colleagues

    4. The new Publications Management System

    5. BU’s database that tracks all pre- and post-award bids and projects

    9. The best university in the UK!

    10. The creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments, and society

    11. England's primary funding body

    12. The team that is responsible for all strategic, policy, process and quality aspects of research and knowledge exchange activity across BU, and particularly those which help to develop, enhance and stregthen our research culture

    Your Name (required)

    Your Email (required)

    Your Office Number (so I know where to send the prize)

     

     

    The Grants Academy – Strand Three: Post-award training

    Guidance

    Strand Three – post-award training

    • The third strand of the Grants Academy will focus on post-award project management for Principal Investigators new to managing a grant.

     

    • The administrative specifics of managing a grant at BU will be covered in the awards information pack sent by RKE Operations to the PI prior to the start of the award, and for larger and/or more complex projects this will be discussed at the project kick-off meeting, led by the Research Development Officer (Research Conduct).

     

    • Strand Three is based on Vitae’s Leadership Development for Principal Investigators Framework and focuses on the skills required to successfully manage the grant, including:
      • What is expected of a principal investigator
      • Research environment and legal requirements
      • Impact and public engagement
      • Managing people
      • Project management
      • Network
      • Publishing outputs

     

    • Strand Three will offer new PIs with limited experience the opportunity to be mentored by a PI with significant experience who can advise and guide them on all aspects of research and project management.

     

    • Support will be provided to the mentor and mentee by the Research Development Officer (Research Conduct).

     

    • As part of Strand Three, the mentees will be required to complete the Vitae online resource for new PIs and their progress will be discussed during their meetings with their mentor, who will also advise where they might benefit from additional training to obtain the skills required to be a successful PI.

    How to apply

    The Grants Academy will officially launch on Monday, 2nd April.  Details about how to apply will be posted on the Research Blog on Monday.  Watch this space if you’re interested in joining the Academy.

    Want to find out more?

    If you would like to find out more please contact Caroline O’Kane

    Frustrated with the EC Science in Society Programme? Now’s your chance to have your say and change it for Horizon 2020!

    The European Commission has initiated a survey to evaluate and assess the future of the Science in Society Actions Programme.

    The study aims to find out what kind of achievements the programme has made so far, and which direction it should take in the future. Science and Society Actions promotes public awareness of science, gender equality and ethical discourse about research. The survey can be taken until 9 April, and the results will be made available in August this year.

    The impact of sustainable tribology

    I authored a paper with colleagues from the General Engineering (Unit of Assessment 15), including Prof. M. Hadfield, Dr. B. Thomas, S. Martinez Noya, and our research sponsors Mr. I. Hensaw (Energetix Group PLC) and Mr. S. Austen (RNLI). The publication is titled “Future Perspectives on Sustainable Tribology” and was submitted to Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Journal. It has recently been accepted (22 Feb 2012) for publication. The article is the result of a two-month support for impact (REF) exercise which took place last summer (June-July 2011) and was sponsored by the Research Development Unit (R&KEO) of Bournemouth University.

    The interesting fact about the article is that the particular journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews has an impact factor of 5.367 (last five years) and is 9th out of 2009 Engineering Journals Worldwide (according to 2011 impact factor rankings) while its overall Ranking Worldwide among any Journal Indexed on Scopus is 268 out of 18854 Journals.

    I would like to post this success on the Research Blog in order to show that support for impact at least in my case was worthwhile as it triggered my interest to write this “impact” paper with colleagues from Sustainable Design Research Centre (SDRC). The paper highlights the future perspectives of Sustainable Tribology by examining the economic, environmental and social impact of three tribological case studies worldwide. Each case study highlights one aspect of a number of ongoing interlinking research strands developed by the SDRC at Bournemouth University. The importance of Environmental Engineering through Sustainable Tribology solutions in our epoch is emphasized, showing that sustainability can be achieved to a significant extent through effective sustainable and environmental friendly engineering solutions, stimulating sustainable development and providing stability to our world embracing an anthropocentric and viable growth to our societies through effective sustainable solutions (figure 1).

    To conclude, I would like to thank all the co-authors for their valuable help and contribution to the specific article while I would also like to express my regards to Prof. Mark Hadfield for the position he offered to me as a research assistant for REF support during that period and for his valuable guidance. I strongly believe it was a really beneficial project for myself as well as for Bournemouth University.

     

     

    Funding available from the MEDIA programme

    Support to Video on Demand and Digital Cinema Distribution:The Video on Demand and Digital Cinema Distribution scheme constitutes one of the ways in which the MEDIA 2007 programme ensures that the latest technologies and trends are incorporated into the business practices of beneficiaries of the programme.The main objective of this scheme is to support the creation and exploitation of catalogues of European works to be distributed digitally across borders to a wider audience and/or to cinema exhibitors through advanced distribution services, integrating where necessary digital security systems in order to protect online content. The deadline is June 25th.

    Support for the implementation of Pilot Projects: The programme may support Pilot Projects to ensure that it adapts to market developments, with a particular emphasis on the introduction and utilisation of information and communication technologies. The deadline is June 18th.

    One of the three pillars – Social Sustainability: hardest to implement, easy to neglect

    Interesting and insightful blogpost on the three dimensions (pillars) of sustainability, challenging the simplicity of the model and highlighting how little attention is given to social sustianability. Makes a lot of sense: the ‘economy’ is after all a social construction which benefits humankind; the environment is made better or worse for/by human beings.  And yet the ‘social’ is so often given little attention in the discourse.

    http://ssppjournal.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/recovering-social-is-sustainability.html?goback=.gde_1917135_member_104059828

     

    The Grants Academy – Strand Two: Bespoke training

    Todays post will tell you all about Strand Two of the Grants Academy.  

    Strand Two: Bespoke training and development programme

    • In essence Strand Two of the Grants Academy will follow the same format as Strand One.  

     

    • Strand Two will be a bespoke programme tailored to a specific group of academics (Research Centres, research themes, etc).  For example, the BU-wide scheme would offer advice and training on general research funding bodies whereas the bespoke scheme would offer advice on funding bodies that fund research in that particular field.

     

    • More importantly it is directed towards groups of staff who would be working together on a bid and subsequently ‘hunting as a pack’.

     

    • The provision of Strand Two could be requested by senior academic managers (e.g. UOA Leaders, Heads of Academic Group, Deans, etc.) and could also be initiated by the Pro Vice Chancellor for example, where a Research Centre has had limited success in attracting external research funds. 

     

    • Completion of Strand Two will entitle the group to all of the resources listed for Strand One, and will also entitle the group to dedicated support from the Research Development Unit for a period of three months to prepare bids for external funding. This support will depend on the specific skills requirement of the group, but may include support with EU funding, collaborative grants support, or support with bids for fellowship / early career funds.

     

    •  Strand Two of the Grants Academy will run as and when required, and it is anticipated this will be twice during 2012-13. The number of attendees per session would be discussed with the academic lead as part of the bespoke design of each Strand Two programme. As with Strand One, all attendees  will be required to work on a proposal after the session and to submit this proposal for external funding within six months of completing the training programme. They may remain part of the Academy for a maximum of 18 months during which time they will be expected to have submitted a minimum of three external bids.

    Want to find out more?

    If you would like to find out more please contact Caroline O’Kane

    Tomorrow: learn about Strand Three (post-award training).

    Happy 1st Birthday BU Research Blog!

    It is exactly one year today since the Research Blog was launched at Bournemouth University!

    Our first post was on the excellent RNLI slipways research undertaken in DEC by Prof Mark Hadfield and Dr Ben Thomas (read the story here). Since then there have been 957 posts added to the Blog, many of which were posted by academic colleagues from across BU. The Blog currently has 366 subscribers to the Daily Digest email.

    To celebrate we’re inviting all staff at BU to get more involved with the Blog to make it more exciting, interactive, collaborative and beneficial to academic staff. There are a number of ways you can get involved:

    • To subscribe to the Blog to receive the daily digest emails; this is the best way to keep up to date with research and knowledge exchange information at BU. Find out more here: Subscribe to the Blog!
    • To comment on Blog posts to share further information, resources, and perspectives, and to make connections with your colleagues. Find out more here: Interact with the Blog!
    • To add posts to the Blog to share information, experiences, successes, advice, news, etc with colleagues, and to promote your research both internally and externally. We’re strongly encouraging all staff involved in research at BU to sign up for access to add posts to the Blog and to start blogging! Using the Blog is really easy – you need no prior knowledge of blogs or websites, just an interest in research. Contact Susan Dowdleif you’d like to be set up with access to add posts.
    • To share Blog posts, either via Facebook, Twitter or email. Find out more here: Share posts from the Blog!

    The Research Blog is unique in the sector and in its first year of existence it has been a huge success in improving research communications at BU.

    Be part of something cool and get more involved in the Blog! :)

    Happy 1 year birthday, Research Blog!

     

    The Grants Academy – Strand One: The Training Programme

    The second of our posts on the new Grants Academy is all about Strand One.  

    What is Strand One?

    This is the BU-wide development and training programme linked to grant writing support in the form of access to a pool of contracted external bid advisors. 

    Intensive training

    Strand One of the Grants Academy will be an intensive training programme run over two consecutive days, held off campus.  Academics must attend both full days in order to join the Grants Academy. The sessions will be delivered by an external facilitator with support from the Research Development Unit. 

    Attendees will be required to come to the session with a draft proposal that they consider to be ready to submit for external funding (including CV). Each attendee will swap his/her proposal with another attendee on day one and will be required to read their colleague’s proposal before the second day when there will be a mock peer review panel where attendees will be required to lead a discussion on the proposal they have reviewed, taking into account everything they have learned the day before.

    All participants of the Grants Academy will be required to work on a proposal after the session, using the resources and support listed below, and to submit this proposal for external funding within six months of completing the training programme.  They may remain part of the Academy for a maximum of 18 months during which time they will be expected to have submitted a minimum of three external bids. 

    Extra training and resources for Academy members

    Completion of Strand One will result in individuals becoming members of the Grants Academy; as members they would be able to access additional training and development resources including:

    • An internal grants mentor: This person will be assigned after the training programme and will be responsible for supporting the mentee with the writing and development of their proposal.  
    • Access to an external bid advisor: The University will contract the services of a number of sector renowned and successful bid advisors who will be available to support Grants Academy members with the development of their proposals.
    • Specific funder events: The Research Development Unit will arrange specific funder events for members of the Grants Academy to find out more about funding bodies, for example, specific schemes, priorities, bid writing hints and tips, etc.
    • Funding drop-in surgeries: These drop-in surgeries will be held fortnightly over lunch and will be facilitated by the Pro Vice Chancellor plus three experienced senior academics. They will offer members of the Grants Academy the opportunity to come along and to talk to experienced colleagues about their research, for example, getting advice on their ideas, how to strengthen their bids, etc.
    • Find a funder service: This service will be provided by the Research Development Unit and will help to match academics and their research ideas and strengths with external funding bodies and open calls. The service will also advise on how proposal ideas can be tweaked so they are more closely aligned to funder priorities, and will also support academics in identifying researchers at other institutions who are researching similar areas for future collaborations. 
    • Access to a library of successful bids: The Research Development Unit will provide access to Grants Academy members to a library of successful bids, and provide support to academics in accessing this resource.
    • Access to a small travel grant to support academic networking.  Each member of the academy will have access to up to £250 to support travel in order to talk to potential collaborators, establish/join networks, etc.

    The support listed above will only be available to those academics who have completed Strand One of the Grants Academy.

    Want to find out more?

    If you would like to find out more please contact Caroline O’Kane

    On the blog tomorrow, we’ll be telling you all about Strands Two and Three.

    The application process will be launched on Monday, 2nd April 2012.

    Notes on Creative Europe proposal event available

    A few weeks ago I attende an event to discuss the EC’s Creative Europe proposal, which could be the successor to the MEDIA Programme. which looks like it will have a whopping €1.8 billion budget for 2014-2020. Notes from the event can be found on our I drive I:\CRKT\Public\RDU\Media Programme  and feature an outline of the proposal for Creative Europe, key stats and figures, what topics will be covered and key questions raised on the day.