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How difficult is getting FP7 funding? Not too hard for some UK and EU fraudsters!

Nature has reported that the European Anti-Fraud Office are currently in the process of prosecuting project consortia who received EU grants for fake research projects. The fraud was committed by a number of beneficiaries who appear to have made up entire research projects, including whole research teams, fictitious companies and subcontractors, and won EU grants for these projects. It appears that the projects were designed solely to obtain the funds and that no actual research activity was carried out.

Four collaborative projects under in the ICT area were terminated by the European Commission, and several individuals were charged for the fraud. Further projects are currently being investigated in the UK, France, Greece, Austria, Sweden, Slovenia and Poland.

It should be stressed that this is a very rare and unusual example of fraud in EU grants, especially when it comes to research grants, and it seems it is never possible to completely prevent fraud, even with the already very strict and robust systems in place for the Framework Programme. Overall, there continues to be a lot of support for simplification of the EU funding programmes including for greater acceptance of own (nationally approved) accounting systems, clarity and consistency.

How to find partners for EU Projects

European Commission projects usually require partners, with the number and geographical location varying for each call. A useful tip to remember when considering your partner options is that a consortium should include a good balance of sectors industry, academia, user groups etc) and that all partners should be well-matched to the activities in the proposal.

You can find partners through your existing contacts, by reviewing previously awarded FP6 and FP7 projects, by searching/ advertising on the UKRO website ,

by seeking the assistance of the relevant UK National Contact Point and by attending EU conferences and project evaluations, by scanning the CORDIS website.

The best and most effective way to become involved in FP7 consortia however, is to join European Technology Platforms (ETPs). These are groups of industry-led stakeholder forums who explore Europe’s key challenges. ETPs define the EU Strategic research agenda and then bid for European Commission funds (through FP7 etc) to address these. The biggest players in the field across Europe belong to these groups and obviously as they set the research agenda, they are increduibly successful at winning FP7 funds for research. Joining these groups will not only open you to a plethora of partners but also will allow you to contribute in shaping the research agenda of Europe (which you can then address through funding). Some of the major ETPs are listed below with hyperlinks to their webpages:
Advanced Engineering Materials and Technologies
Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe
Embedded Computing Systems
European Biofuels Technology Platform
European Construction Technology Platform
European Nanoelectronics Initiative Advisory Council
European Rail Research Advisory Council
European Road Transport Research Advisory Council
European Space Technology Platform
European Steel Technology Platform
European Technology Platform for the Electricity Networks of the Future
European Technology Platform for Wind Energy
European Technology Platform on Smart Systems Integration  
European Technology Platform on Sustainable Mineral Resources
Farm Animal Breeding and Reproduction Technology Platform
Food for Life
Forest based sector Technology Platform
Future Manufacturing Technologies
Future Textiles and Clothing
Global Animal Health
Industrial Safety ETP
Integral Satcom Initiative
Mobile and Wireless Communications
Nanotechnologies for Medical Applications
Networked and Electronic Media
Networked European Software and Services Initiative
Photonics21
Photovoltaics
Plants for the Future
Robotics
Sustainable Nuclear Technology Platform
Sustainable Chemistry
Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform
Waterborne ETP
Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants

ESRC Update – Demand Management, Restructuring & Collaboration

Funding opportunities

With reduced budgets and the resulting increase in competition, times are tough in the search for RCUK funding.  Dr Richard Shipway attended a number of ESRC events recently and highlighted some key messages from the Council.

There was a 12% cut in real terms to the ESRC’s programme budget and a 23% cut to their administration budget.

The ESRC has indicated they will have 3 priority areas for funding:

  1. Global economic performance and sustainable growth
  2. Influencing behaviour and informing interventions
  3. Vibrant and fair society.

Demand Management

The ESRC aren’t introducing strict demand management measures at this stage but they are monitoring the situation closely.  At the moment they are encouraging universities to regulate internally so there are fewer applications but of a higher quality reaching the Council.  More information on the introduction of their intial measures is available on the ESRC’s website.

The ESRC has a useful section on their website providing grant writing advice to applicants.

BU also has our own internal peer review service to help you with applications.

Restructuring of Schemes

The Council have integrated the post-doc fellowships and first grants sheme to create the new Future Leaders Scheme which is aimed at outstanding early career researchers.  The call has recently been announced and closes on 15th Sept 2011.

International Partnership and Networking Scheme 2011 has been launched.  This is aimed at fostering the development of long-term relationships with overseas social scientists in areas of interest that are of direct relevance to ESRC’s current strategic priorities.  The closing date is 12th Oct 2011.

They will be streamlining their funding with fewer but more flexible research competitions.  Small grants are phased out and standard grant thesholds are increased.  Resources will be focused on larger and longer grants – ambitious social science.

Economic and Societal Impact

Creating, assessing and communicating impact are central to all of the ESRC’s activities.  It is very important to consider this when putting together a proposal to the ESRC.

International Collaboration

The ESRC is very keen to promote international collaboration.  They have a ‘Rising Powers’ programme to encourage collaboration with China, India and Brazil (deadline of 8 Sept 2011).  The Council also allow international academics to be listed as co-investigators on the grants of UK universities, more info can be found here.

EU Intellectual Property/ technology transfer funding

EIB-universities proposal for three new research action sponsorships: projects should cover European intellectual property regimes and their impact on technology transfer/IP finance; analysis of investment needs in infrastructure sectors; the rising of credit risk in microcredit: origins, warning signals, current state and future prospects. Funding of up to €100,000 per year is available for a period of three years. Deadline 16.09.11

FP7 Cooperation Theme: what subjects are covered?

The Cooperation theme is divided into 11 different topics; clicking on the hyperlink below will display the focus of the calls covered under each of these.
Health
Food, Agriculture, Fisheries and Biotechnology
Energy
ICT (Computing)
NMP(Nanosciences)
Socio-Economic Sciences & Humanities
Transport
Security
Space
Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI)
Public-Private Partnerships

FP7 Security 2012 Call update and slides from Info Day available!

The  FP7 Security Call will be published on 20 July 2011 and new features to be included in the 2012 Work Programme are:

  • a new aspect of the 2012 Security Work Programme is the inclusion of pilot funding for Pre Operational Validation;
  • an open topic for SMEs has been included in the 2012 Work Programme: SEC.2012.7.2-1 “Advancing contemporary laboratory forensic methods & equipment”. Under this topic at least 50% of the EC funding needs to go to SMEs;
  • assistance in finding partners for FP7 Security proposals will be available on-line at the Partnering Platform website, operated (and quality controlled) by the German National Contact Point.

Slides are available from an ICT Security Info Day which was held at Aston University Business School last week.

EU funding: not as hard as you might think to win

The UK as a whole does pretty well when it comes to obtaining EU funding. We  receive the second largest share of FP7 funding; €2.28 billion (equivalent to 14.4% of the total FP7 funding) and we are involved in more successful projects than France and Germany (41.0% of all grant agreements in FP7). As you can see from this table, the UK has obtained a great deal of funding from the FP7 Cooperation fund.

Over the next few months, I will be posting tips on how to find funding, how to write proposals, find partners etc. to help you to begin to explore the EU as a good source of funding.

EU energy related funding available

EU Eco-innovation projects funding: to support the market penetration of an environmental product, service, management practice or process with a proven track record, but which has not yet been fully marketed. The indicative budget for this call is €36 million and funding will provide up to 50 per cent of a project’s costs over a period of 36 months. Deadline 08.09.11

EUROGIA+ funding call: projects should develop innovative energy technologies that will reduce the carbon footprint of energy production and use, with a focus on solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and energy efficiency. Deadline 14.09.11

Design options for sectoral carbon market mechanisms and their implication for the EU ETS: projects should help to improve understanding of different options for key design elements of the sector-wide carbon market mechanisms, as well as assessing the implications of recognising credits from such pilots for use under the EU ETS. Funding is worth between €180,000 and €200,000 over nine months. Deadline 16.08.11

Integration of renewable energy in Europe: project should provide quantitative and qualitative analysis of the electricity market, the transmission network and the distribution network in its ability to adapt to higher penetration of electricity from renewable energy. Funding covers approximately 500 person-days. Deadline 23.08.11

HEFCE funding of £10 million to cut carbon emissions

Funding opportunities

The Revolving Green Fund (RGF) is open for proposals to reduce carbon emissions. There are two strands of funding both with a deadline of October 17th.
Strand 1 targets small-scale projects to improve energy efficiency and will aim to reach a broad range of institutions.
Strand 2 will make up to £3 million available for exemplary retrofit projects. These flagship initiatives will inform research, promote skills development and market growth in the relevant technologies – they must also demonstrate potential to capture and disseminate learning that will be of benefit across the higher education sector.
FAQs about the fund are available online.

Bedtimes and Pensions: Conference showcases the wealth of longitudinal research

The Understanding Society BHPS Conference 2011 was held at the University of Essex by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER). Over two days, the conference brought together researchers from all over the world to present and discuss a variety of research, using data primarily from two of Britain’s most comprehensive household longitudinal studies.

AHRC survey on International Collaboration

The AHRC is currently carrying out a survey to gather vital information about International collaborations in order gain a greater understanding. The 10 minute survey provides an opportunity to inform the AHRC of your experience in International collaboration and feed into the on-going development of the AHRC’s international activities- including  FP7 participation.  The deadline for submission is 10th July 2011.

King’s and Bristol join open IP movement

KCL and the University of Bristol have joined the University of Glasgow in making their intellectual property available to UK businesses under an “easy access” scheme.
The Easy Access Innovation Partnership launched by the University of Glasgow in last year enables universities to release IP that might benefit from early development to companies for free, using simplified agreements.
In March 2011, King’s, Glasgow and Bristol received an £80,000 award from the Intellectual Property Office to fund a collaborative project to create a “consortium of open-innovation universities and collectively promote free IP opportunities to industry”.

Call for bids: UK-India Education and Research Initiative Phase Two

The first call for bids for Phase Two of UKIERI has been launched and has confirmed funding from the UK and Indian Governments of £5 million annually over the next three years.
Phase two of the programme concentrates on four key areas: leadership from school to universities; innovation partnerships between higher and further education institutions in UK and India; skills development; and the mobility of students and qualifications. The first round closes on 5 August 2011.

First BU Research Blog Poll Results

Are journal impact factors a good indicator of quality?

Following the launch of the first BU Research Blog Poll, we received 28 responses to the above question which were split as follows:

Yes – always 2
Yes – but in STEM disciplines only 1
Sometimes 22
No, never 2

The majority of responses indicate that there may be some doubt about the usefulness of impact factors when used as a proxy for journal quality. This is perhaps because there are a number of factors that could affect a journal’s perceived quality that cannot be demonstrated through metrics alone. Also, the use of journal metrics like impact factors are not necessarily perceived as being robust enough yet to give an accurate indication of journal or article quality, hence HEFCE’s decision not to rely solely on metrics in the Research Excellence Framework (REF).

To continue the debate on this, do feel free to post a reply below, or suggest a topic for a future poll by responding to Julie’s original post. For more information about journal impact factors, have a look at the previous blog post on this subject.

In the meantime, why not get involved in the current poll which can be accessed from the top right-hand side of the blog homepage – it will take just seconds to complete and will help shape the support offered to BU academics in the future.