Category / Funding opportunities

Research Professional – all you need to know

Funding opportunities

Research-Professional-logoEvery BU academic has a Research Professional account which delivers weekly emails detailing funding opportunities in their broad subject area. To really make the most of your Research Professional account, you should tailor it further by establishing additional alerts based on your specific area of expertise. The Funding Development Team Officers can assist you with this, if required.

Research Professional have created several guides to help introduce users to ResearchProfessional. These can be downloaded here.

Quick Start Guide: Explains to users their first steps with the website, from creating an account to searching for content and setting up email alerts, all in the space of a single page.

User Guide: More detailed information covering all the key aspects of using ResearchProfessional.

Administrator Guide: A detailed description of the administrator functionality.

In addition to the above, there are a set of 2-3 minute videos online, designed to take a user through all the key features of ResearchProfessional. To access the videos, please use the following link: http://www.youtube.com/researchprofessional

Research Professional are running a series of online training broadcasts aimed at introducing users to the basics of creating and configuring their accounts on ResearchProfessional. They are holding monthly sessions, covering everything you need to get started with ResearchProfessional. The broadcast sessions will run for no more than 60 minutes, with the opportunity to ask questions via text chat. Each session will cover:

  • Self registration and logging in
  • Building searches
  • Setting personalised alerts
  • Saving and bookmarking items
  • Subscribing to news alerts
  • Configuring your personal profile

Each session will run between 10.00am and 11.00am (UK) on the fourth Tuesday of each month. You can register here for your preferred date:

26th September 2017

24th October 2017

These are free and comprehensive training sessions and so this is a good opportunity to get to grips with how Research Professional can work for you.

Have you noticed a new box appear on the BU Research Blog homepage?

By clicking on this box, on the left of the Research Blog home page just under the text ‘Funding Opportunities‘, you access a Research Professional real-time search of the calls announced by the Major UK Funders. Use this feature to stay up to date with funding calls. Please note that you will have to be on campus or connecting to your desktop via our VPN to fully access this service.

NERC Industrial Innovation Fellowships

Funding opportunities

This call opens on Je-S 25 August 2017.  Closing on 19 September 2017

In response to the industrial strategy, Research Councils UK (RCUK) (UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)) has developed a fellowship programme to be supported through the National Productivity Investment Fund. Targeted at early career researchers (ECRs), RCUK / UKRI Industrial Innovation Fellowships will be a step change in the support provided by the research councils to the research leaders of the future, enabling some of the UK’s most talented researchers to undertake major new innovation oriented and intellectual endeavours.

For applicants within NERC’s science remit, NERC will be delivering these fellowships through Industrial Innovation Fellowships and Industrial Mobility Fellowships

RCUK (UKRI) 2017 Industrial Innovation Fellowships support the delivery of the industrial strategy by supporting early career researchers to explore interdisciplinary solutions as well as addressing focused sectoral needs to the economic benefit of the UK, both in the short term and long term. This scheme will ensure that the UK industrial sector has a supply of skilled researchers and will nurture future leaders in both industry and the research base.

Industrial Innovation Fellowships are three-and-a-half-year research fellowship awards where the award holder undertakes a programme of research clearly aligned with the objectives of the industrial strategy – and particularly the core challenge areas identified within the green paper – whilst maximising the impact of this research through working in collaboration with users of research.

It is anticipated that 24 Industrial Innovation Fellowships will be supported through this call and the successful applicants will commence their fellowships by 1 January 2018 at the latest.

Please see the Announcement of Opportunity document below for full details of the call including information concerning how to apply.

Announcement of Opportunity (PDF, 158KB)

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

NERC has prepared a FAQ document for this call – this document will be updated over the lifetime of the call so please check the latest edition before contacting NERC with your query.

Frequently asked questions (PDF, 102KB)

Contacts

For queries regarding the application process and administration of this opportunity, please contact:

David Roberts
01793 442644

If you are interested in applying, please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer immediately (given the short deadline).

The importance of justifying yourself! Writing a Justification of Resources Session 12th October 2017

Funding opportunities

Many people see the ‘Justification of Resources’ document as another thing to quickly pull together and tick off the list, after having already completed a 70+ page funding application. As a result, it often doesn’t get the prior consideration needed to write a good one – even though applications are often rejected due to insufficient justification of resources.

As part of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework, RKEO are holding a session on ‘Writing a Justification of Resources’. The session will provide an overview of the Justification of Resources document, and will offer tips for writing this section of the application form. Examples of effective Justifications of Resources will be provided.

Date: Thursday 12th October

Time: 09:30-11:00

Venue: Lansdowne Campus

Book your space via the RKE Development Framework page for this event.

For further information, please contact Lisa Gale-Andrews, RKEO Research Facilitator.

Special Edition Policy Update: Sir John Bell report on Life Sciences and the Industrial Strategy

Funding opportunities, international, PG research

Following our Industrial Strategy update last week, as expected Sir John Bell has published his report for the government on Life Sciences and the Industrial Strategy. There are 7 main recommendations under 4 themes, which are summarised below.

Some interesting comments:

  • “The key UK attribute driving success in life sciences is the great strength in university-based research. Strong research-based universities underpin most of the public sector research success in the UK, as they do in the USA and in Scandinavia. National research systems based around institutes rather than universities, as seen in Germany, France and China, do not achieve the same productivity in life sciences as seen in university-focussed systems.” (p22)
  • “The decline in funding of indirect costs for charity research is coupled to an increasing tendency for Research Councils to construct approaches that avoid paying indirect Full Economic Costs (FEC). Together, these are having a significant impact on the viability of research in universities and have led to the institutions raising industrial overhead costs to fill the gap. This is unhelpful.” (p24 and see the recommendation about charitable contributions under “reinforcing the UK science offer” below)
  • “It is also recommended, that the funding agencies, in partnership with major charities, create a high-level recruitment fund that would pay the real cost of bringing successful scientists from abroad to work in major UK university institutions.” (see the proposal to attract international scientists below).
  • On clusters “Life sciences clusters are nearly always located around a university or other research institute and in the UK include elements of NHS infrastructure. However, evidence and experience suggests that governments cannot seed technology clusters28 and their success is usually driven by the underpinning assets of universities and companies, and also by the cultural features of networking and recycling of entrepreneurs and capital.” And “Regions should make the most of existing opportunities locally to grow clusters and build resilience by working in partnership across local Government, LEPs (in England), universities and research institutes, NHS, AHSNs, local businesses and support organisations, to identify and coalesce the local vision for life sciences. Science & Innovation Audits, Local Growth Funds and Growth Hubs (in England), Enterprise Zones and local rates and planning flexibilities can all be utilised to support a vision for life sciences. “ (see the proposal on clusters under “Growth and Infrastructure” – this was a big theme in the Industrial strategy and something we also covered in our Green Paper response)
  • On skills: “ The flow of multidisciplinary students at Masters and PhD level should be increased by providing incentives through the Higher Education Funding Council for England.2 and “Universities and research funders should embed core competencies at degree and PhD level, for example data, statistical and analytical skills, commercial acumen and translational skills, and management and entrepreneurship training (which could be delivered in partnership with business schools). They should support exposure to, and collaboration with, strategically important disciplines including computer and data science, engineering, chemistry, physics, mathematics and material science.”

Health Advanced Research Programme (HARP) proposal – with the goal to create 2-3 entirely new industries over the next 10 years.

  • Establish a coalition of funders to create the Health Advanced Research Programme to undertake large research infrastructure projects and high risk ‘moonshot programmes’, that will help create entirely new industries in healthcare
  • Create a platform for developing effective diagnostics for early, asymptomatic chronic disease.
  • Digitalisation and AI to transform pathology and imaging.
  • Support projects around healthy ageing.

Reinforcing the UK science offer

  • Sustain and increase funding for basic science to match our international competition – the goal is that the UK should attract 2000 new discovery scientists from around the globe
    • The UK should aim to be in the upper quartile of OECD R&D spending and sustain and increase the funding for basic science, to match our international competitors, particularly in university settings, encouraging discovery science to co-locate.
    • NIHR should be supported, with funding increases in line with Research Councils
    • Ensure the environment remains supportive of charitable contributions through enhancing the Charity Research Support Fund (see above for the context for this).
    • Capitalise on UKRI to increase interdisciplinary research, work more effectively with industry and support high-risk science.
    • Use Government and charitable funding to attract up to 100 world-class scientists to the UK, with support for their recruitment and their science over the next ten years.
  • Further improve UK clinical trial capabilities to support a 50% increase in the number of clinical trials over the next 5 years and a growing proportion of change of practice and trials with novel methodology over the next 5 years.
    • Establish a working group to evaluate the use of digital health care data and health systems; to evaluate the safety and efficacy of new interventions; and to help ICH modernise its GCP regulations.
    • Improve the UK’s clinical trial capabilities so that the UK can best compete globally in our support for industry and academic studies at all phases.
    • Design a translational fund to support the pre-commercial creation of clinically-useable molecules and devices.

Growth and infrastructure – the goal is to create four UK companies valued at >£20 billion market cap in the next ten years.

  • Ensure the tax environment supports growth and is internationally competitive in supporting long-term and deeper investment.
    • Address market failures through Social Impact Bonds and encourage AMR research.
    • Consider how UK-based public markets can be used more effectively in the sector.
  • Support the growth of Life Sciences clusters.
    • Government, local partners and industry should work together to ensure the right infrastructure is in place to support the growth of life sciences clusters and networks.
    • UK’s existing clusters should work together and with government to promote a ‘single front door’ to the UK for research collaboration, partnership and investment.
  • Attract substantial investment to manufacture and export high value life science products of the future. – the goal is to attract ten large (£50-250m capital investment) and 10 smaller (£10-50m capital investments) in life science manufacturing facilities in the next five years.
    • Accept in full the recommendations of the Advanced Therapies Manufacturing Action Plan and apply its principles to other life science manufacturing sectors.
    • A programme in partnership with industry to develop cutting-edge manufacturing technologies that will address scale-up challenges and drive up productivity.
    • Optimise the fiscal environment to drive investment in industrial buildings, equipment and infrastructure for manufacturing and late-stage R&D.
    • Consider nationally available financial incentives – grants and loans, or capital allowances combined with regional incentives – to support capital investment in scale-up, and prepare for manufacturing and related export activity.
    • Make support and incentives for manufacturing investment and exporting available to business through a single front door, provide a senior national account manager accountable for delivery and simplify the customer journey.

NHS collaboration – the Accelerated Access Review should be adopted with national routes to market streamlined and clarified, including for digital products. There are two stated goals:

  • The NHS should engage in fifty collaborative programmes in the next 5 years in late-stage clinical trials, real world data collection, or in the evaluation of diagnostics or devices.
  • The UK should be in the top quartile of comparator countries, both for the speed of adoption and the overall uptake of innovative, cost-effective products, to the benefit of all UK patients by the end of 2023.

The recommended actions are

  • Utilise and broaden the Accelerated Access Review to encourage UK investment in clinical and real-world studies. Deliver a conditional reimbursement approval, for implementation as soon as licensing and value milestones are delivered.
  • Create a forum for early engagement between industry, NHS and arms-length bodies (e.g. NICE, MHRA) to agree commercial access agreements.
  • Use the recommendations from the AAR to streamline the processes and methods of assessment for all new products.
  • Value assessments should be evolved in the long-term with improved patient outcome measures, affordability and cost management data beyond one year timeframes.
  • NICE’s funding model for technology evaluation should be set up in a way that does not stifle SME engagement

Data – Establish two to five Digital Innovation Hubs providing data across regions of three to five million people.

  • The health and care system should set out a vision and a plan to deliver a national approach with the capability to rapidly and effectively establish studies for the generation of real world data, which can be appropriately accessed by researchers.
  • ePrescribing should be mandatory for hospitals.
  • NHS Digital and NHS England should set out clear and consistent national approaches to data and interoperability standards and requirements for data access agreements.
  • Accelerate access to currently available national datasets by streamlining legal and ethical approvals.
  • Create a forum for researchers across academia, charities and industry to engage with all national health data programmes.
  • Establish a new regulatory, Health Technology Assessment and commercial framework to capture for the UK the value in algorithms generated using NHS data. A working group should be established to take this forward
  • Two to five digital innovation hubs providing data across regions of three to five million people should be set up as part of a national approach and building towards full population coverage, to rapidly enable researchers to engage with a meaningful dataset. These regional hubs should also have the capability to accelerate and streamline CTA and HRA approvals. One or more of these should focus on medtech.
  • The UK could host 4-6 centres of excellence that provide support for specific medtech themes, focussing on research capability in a single medtech domain such as orthopaedics, cardiac, digital health or molecular diagnostics.
  • National registries of therapy-area-specific data across the whole of the NHS in England should be created and aligned with the relevant charity.

Skills

  • A migration system should be established that allows recruitment and retention of highly skilled workers from the EU and beyond, and does not impede intra-company transfers.
  • Develop and deliver a reinforced skills action plan across the NHS, commercial and third sectors based on a gap analysis of key skills for science.
    • Create an apprenticeship scheme that focuses on data sciences, as well as skills across the life sciences sector, and trains an entirely new cadre of technologists, healthcare workers and scientists at the cutting-edge of digital health.
    • Establish Institutes of Technology that would provide opportunity for technical training, particularly in digital and advanced manufacturing areas.
    • There should be support for entrepreneur training at all levels, incentivising varied careers and migration of academic scientists into industry and back to academia.
    • A fund should be established supporting convergent science activities including cross-disciplinary sabbaticals, joint appointments, funding for cross-sectoral partnerships and exchanges across industry and the NHS, including for management trainees.
    • High quality STEM education should be provided for all, and the government should evaluate and implement additional steps to increase the number of students studying maths to level 3 and beyond

JPICH Heritage in Changing Environments pre-call announcement

Funding opportunities

The Joint Programming Initiative in Cultural Heritage and Global Change is pleased to announce a new funding opportunity for transnational proposals. The Heritage in Changing Environments call will support the development of new, research-based ideas and knowledge in response to the rapidly and widely changing context with which heritage and heritage practice is faced. It invites research projects that help cultural heritage to meet societal challenges and contribute to the development of society. The call aims to fund excellent research that is collaborative, transnational, interdisciplinary and innovative. The total budget for the call for transnational projects is approximately 4.5 million Euros.

Detailed Eligibility Requirements for each country are published alongside the Heritage in Changing Environments Call for Proposals on the JPICH website.

The Call for Proposals will open on 4 September 2017 and the deadline for submission of proposals will be 30 November 2017, 14:00 CET.

Topics for the Changing Environment joint call

Three broad categories of the changing environments of heritage are addressed in this call:

  1. changing (physical) environments
  2. changing social and economic environments
  3. changing political and cultural environments.

Projects funded through this call will use cultural heritage to address global challenges such as:

  • the impacts of climate change
  • environmental deterioration
  • migration
  • demographic and social change
  • diasporic change
  • urbanisation and de-ruralisation
  • economic inequity
  • changing perceptions and sustainability.

Further details can be found in the JPICH Heritage in Changing Environments pre-call announcement. (PDF, 110KB) Full details of the call will be available through the AHRC funding pages and the JPICH website on the 4 September 2017.

New HERA funding Call ‘Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe’

Funding opportunities

The Arts and Humanities Research Council, 23 humanities funding organisations and the European Commission are pleased to announce a new €20 Million Joint Research Programme (JRP) for arts and humanities researchers in Europe.

Organised by HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area), and facilitated in the UK by the AHRC, this joint research programme will fund innovative and exciting international research projects on ‘Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe’.

The beneficiaries of this Call are eligible researchers located in the HERA JRP PS countries: Austria, Belgium (Wallonia), Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom, irrespective of their nationality.

The research programme will fund new and exciting humanities-centred projects involving researchers from four or more participating countries. Proposals can be up to €1 Million in value, and 24-36 months in duration. The deadline for the submission of Outline Proposals is Tuesday 24 October 2017, 14:00 CEST (Central European Summer Time).

If you are looking for partners, you can use the HERA partner search tool .

Further information on eligibility, call guidance and application process is available on the HERA website

The AHRC will be running a Webinar on the HERA application process and UK eligibility rules on Thursday 7th September 1.30 – 2.30 pm. To participate please follow this link.

If you are interested in applying, please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance.

British Academy Bid Writing retreat 7/9/17

Funding opportunities

The BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants scheme opens on the 6th of September 2017.

A workshop, the “Bid Writing retreat- British Academy small grant” will be held Thursday September 7th, 2017 (9:30-16:30). The workshop will offer helpful tips from past British Academy Small Grant winners as well as focused support from team members of the Research & Knowledge Exchange Office.  Participants are asked to have a draft application for the British Academy Small Grant in preparation in advance of this workshop that they can develop during the day.  Workshop places are limited so please book your place here.

Members of BU interested in discussing this workshop opportunity please contact Ehren Milner, Research Facilitator (emilner@bournemouth.ac.uk).

SAVE THE DATE: Building a low-carbon, climate resilient future – 18/10/17

Funding opportunities, Info Days

On Wednesday, 18th October 2017, the National Contact Points for two of the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges will be visiting BU.

Topics will include:

  • Mobility for Growth
  • Autonomous Road Transport
  • Green Vehicles
  • Sustainable Food Security
  • Rural Renaissance
  • Blue Growth

Arrival will be 10:00 for 10:15 and the event is scheduled to close at 16:15. The venue will be at the Lansdowne Campus, Bournemouth, with the room location confirmed after booking.

The day is open to all within both the academic and non-academic sectors, with an interest in applying for calls forthcoming in Horizon 2020, with a particular emphasis on those from the South East and South West.

To book your place – BU staff and external attendees should contact Dianne Goodman via our RKEDF email account. To ensure a balanced audience, registrations will be assessed and places confirmed by 11th October 2017.

About the National Contact Points:

Ian Holmes is the National Contact Point for Societal Challenge 2:  Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy

Louise Mothersole is the Horizon 2020 UK National Contact Point for Societal Challenge 4: Smart, Green and Integrated Transport

Helen Fairbairn is the National Contact Point for Societal Challenge 3: Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy    (N.B. Helen is unable to attend this event but is providing materials for attendees and is happy to be contacted by attendees wishing to apply for SC3 calls).

National Contact Points (NCPs) provide impartial advice regarding EU Funding within their specialist area of Horizon 2020. The advice is free and confidential and tailored to your needs.  This is an excellent service for drawing on the experience and knowledge of someone who deals exclusively with a particular scheme or work programme.  If you are interested in testing out project ideas, checking scheme eligibility, discussing the direction of travel of a particular funding stream or just asking some questions on the practicalities of applications they are a great source of help. You can find all of them listed here along with their contact details.

UK Research Councils join forces on mental health

Funding opportunities

The UK’s seven research councils have announced they will be working together to encourage and strengthen mental health research. Mental health is recognised as a major societal challenge that requires novel cross-disciplinary research approaches, that is, research that spans more than one branch of specialist knowledge. They have published a new research agenda, paving the way for cross-council collaboration on mental health in the years ahead. Following the publication of the research agenda, a cross council call will be launched in early September 2017.

In 2016 an expert group was set up to advise the research councils on the development of a new mental health research agenda to strengthen cross-disciplinary research. The group was made up of leading academics in the field of mental health. It considered specific research areas that could be tackled through cross-disciplinary work and across the individual remits of each research council. A wider group was also consulted, including academics, funders, mental health charities, representatives of end users of research and service user organisations.

It is estimated that 23% of the UK population is affected by mental health problems at some point each year. In spite of recent progress, more research is needed to better understand how to prevent, diagnose and treat mental illness. Only about a quarter of people with a mental health problem are deemed to receive ongoing treatment, leaving the majority grappling with mental health issues seeking help or information on their own, and depending on the informal support of family, friends or colleagues.

You can view the new mental health research agenda here .

RKEO will publish on the blog the calls related to this agenda; with the first expected in September.  BU academics are well-placed to submit to upcoming calls.  Watch this space!

HE Policy update w/e 25th August 2017

Funding opportunities, Fusion, innovation, international

Immigration, International Students and Brexit

The government have commissioned a series of assessments and reviews of the impact of immigration policy and Brexit via the Migration Advisory Committee:

  • Call for evidence and briefing note: EEA-workers in the UK labour market – we will be responding on the HE questions via UCEA and UUK and we are considering a regional response, please let Sarah or I know if you have evidence that would be relevant to this – it is looking at EEA migration trends, recruitment practices and economic and social impacts.
  • a detailed assessment of the social and economic impact of international students in the UK. We would expect a call for evidence for this to follow. Looking at both EU and non-EU students, the MAC will be asked to consider:
  • the impact of tuition fees and other spending by international students on the national, regional, and local economy and on the education sector
  • the role students play in contributing to local economic growth
  • the impact their recruitment has on the provision and quality of education provided to domestic students.

The Commissioning Letter from Amber Rudd says: “The Digital Economy Act provides a unique opportunity to improve understanding of the migration data and as part of this work the Home Office will be working with the ONS and other Government departments to improve the use of administrative data. This will lead to a greater understanding of how many migrants are in the UK, how long they stay for, and what they are currently doing. The ONS will be publishing an article in September setting out this fuller work plan and the timetable for moving towards this landscape for administrative data usage”

As well as the post-Brexit future of students, the letter also makes reference to the Tier 4 visa pilot which was launched last year and included a handful of universities. Amber Rudd says “the pilot is being carefully evaluated and, if successful, could be rolled out more widely”.

The pilot covered masters courses at 4 universities:

  • Masters course for 13 months or less at the University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Bath or Imperial College London.
  • Participating in the pilot allowed students to:
    • stay for six months after the end of the course;
    • submit fewer evidential documents with their applications – e.g. previous qualifications and documents relating to maintenance requirements

A deluge of other data and reports gave also been published:

  • The Home Office has published its second report on statistics being collected under the exit checks programme – Exit checks data.
    • For the 1.34m visas granted to non-EEA nationals and which expired in 2016/17, where individuals did not obtain a further extension to stay longer in the UK, 96.3% departed in time (that is before their visa expired)
  • A National Statistics update has been published which gives a breakdown of all the data
  • Additional analysis by Office for National Statistics (ONS) on international students, has been published
  • The Centre for Population Change has published the findings of a survey it carried out in March 2017 in partnership with the ONS and UUK. The survey looked at the intentions of graduating overseas students and found:
  • The majority of students do not intend to stay in the UK for more than a year after finishing their studies (and those that stated they intended to stay were not certain of their post-study plans, particularly non-EU students).
  • Fewer than one in ten international students plan to stay in the UK indefinitely and find a job.

According to UUK:

  • Exit checks data shows that student overstaying is at worst 3% and much of the 3% of undetermined outcomes may be due to individuals leaving via routes where there are no exit checks currently (such as via the Common Travel Area). This means student visa compliance is at least 97%, far higher than previous (incorrect) claims.
  • The Home Office exit checks data provides a more accurate picture (than the International Passenger Survey – IPS) of what non-EU students do after their initial period of leave to study
  • The ONS report suggest that the IPS is likely to underestimate student emigration – therefore any implied student net migration figure is likely to be an overestimate
  • The ONS also commits to working with colleagues across the government statistics service to utilise all available administrative systems to further improve migration statistics. They have also asked for UUK’s input to this work.

Widening Participation

A survey of access agreements has been published this week by the Office for Fair Access. In their press release OFFA note that every university has committed to working with schools to help increase access to HE. The report also notes that universities will focus on improved evaluation of the impact of financial support and an evidence based approach more generally, a specific focus on White working class males and BME attainment, and more support for mental health issues.  The amount universities spend on widening access will rise.

Responding to the survey, UUK Chief Executive, Alistair Jarvis, said: “The enhancements in support provided by universities has helped to increase the entry rate for disadvantaged young people to record levels. All UK universities work hard to widen participation and support disadvantaged students throughout their time at university. It is right to expect a continued focus on support for disadvantaged students to make further progress in closing the gap between different student groups.”

Industrial Strategy

The formal outcome of the Industrial Strategy consultation is still pending. However, there has been a reasonable amount of activity in the meantime and we thought it might be helpful to do a round up.

Clusters – The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have set up a Creative Industries Clusters Programme, starting in 2018, to facilitate collaboration between the industry and universities. The pre-call announcement sets out the plan for at least 8 research and development partnerships, each led by an HEI, and a Policy and Evidence Centre. Calls will apparently open in October 2018.

Sector deals – As part of the Industrial strategy green paper, the government announced that there were 5 sector reviews taking place and suggested that they would welcome more.

Other organisations are setting up consultations and other reviews to respond to the Industrial Strategy, such as:

The interim findings of the industrial digitalisation review are interesting – they are working on a final report for the autumn of 2017:

  • It highlights a need for more leadership – with “much stronger marketing and messaging” and proposed the establishment of a Digital Technology Institute and Digital Technology Networks
  • It discusses issues with adoption rates for technology, particularly among SMEs and suggests better support for businesses via LEPs and other organisations, work on skills through interventions such as an Institute of Digital Engineering
  • Innovation – the interim review suggests looking at additive manufacturing and AI – and creating new industries in autonomous operations, but also providing kite marked content for businesses.

Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund – Innovate UK are running the Industrial strategy Challenge Fund – in April 2017 they identified 6 “core industrial challenges”:

Interesting reading

JANE FORSTER                                            |                       SARAH CARTER

Policy Advisor                                                                     Policy & Public Affairs Officer

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Follow: @PolicyBU on Twitter                        |                       policy@bournemouth.ac.uk

Amends to NERC Research grant eligibility for New Investigators

Funding opportunities, Guidance

The eligibility for the NERC New Investigators scheme has been updated from three to five years of applicants first becoming eligible for NERC funding as a Principal Investigator. This applies from the January 2018 closing date. See: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/application/eligibility/

Grants and Fellowships Handbook – A new version of the NERC grants and fellowships handbook is now available on their website at: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/application/howtoapply/forms/grantshandbook/

 

Changes to British Academy grant submission system

Funding opportunities

The British Academy have used e-GAP as their application submission system for a number of years.  They have now changed to Flexi-Grant.

If you have previously registered with eGAP, your account has been migrated to the new grant management platform, Flexi-Grant®. Before you can log in to Flexi-Grant®, you will need to reset your password as your existing eGAP password will not work.  View this page and click on ‘Reset eGAP password’ to access the new system.  If you have never registered for eGAP then you can create an account on Flexi-Grant by clicking on ‘register’ in the ‘Get Involved’ section of the same page.

You will have to register for an account on Flexi-Grant in order to apply to any future British Academy funding opportunities.  Applicants who have submitted an application through eGAP and are still awaiting a result should be able to review progress through the new system.

If you are unsure of what to do then please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer for advice.

2017 Industrial Innovation Fellowships and Industrial Mobility Fellowships

Funding opportunities

RCUK (UKRI) have announced that up to 24 Industrial Innovation Fellowships for Early Career Researchers will be supported as part of the National Productivity Fund.  NERC will be delivering the fellowships as Industrial Innovations Fellowships and Industrial Mobility Fellowships. Successful applicants will be expected to commence their fellowships by the 1st of January 2018 at the latest.

The Industrial Innovations fellowships are 3.5 year awards for a single named researcher.  The Industrial Mobility Fellowships are 6-12 month fellowships that enable ECRs to spend time exploring interdisciplinary solutions while placed within industry. Both fund must have research clearly aligned with one or more of the challenge areas of the governments Industrial Strategy of:

  • Clean energy;
  • Robotics and AI;
  • Satellites and space;
  • Leading edge healthcare and medicine;
  • Manufacturing and materials;
  • Biotechnology and synthetic biology;
  • Transformative digital technologies (including big data and analytics);
  • Quantum technologies;
  • Technologies for the creative industries;
  • Building a resilient economy.

A total fund of £8.86m is available for the Industrial Innovations Fellowships and there are no specific funding limits to applicants other than a restriction that no equipment cost may exceed £10k. Industrial Mobility Fellowships are anticipated to have budgets between £50k-100k depending on the duration of the award.

For further information, or to check the suitability of these funds, please contact your faculty Research Facilitator (Ehren Milner, emilner@bournemouth.ac.uk or Lisa Gale-Andrews,  lgaleandrews@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

Research funding available for the economic and social value of health in the UK

Funding opportunities

The Health Foundation, an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK, has launched a new £1.5 million funding programme for innovative research on the economic and social value of health in the UK.

They are inviting researchers to submit research proposals that build the evidence for health as an asset for the economy and society, and generate new knowledge to understand the impact that the health of an individual has on their own social and economic outcomes.

They are looking to fund a number of projects that span a range of age groups and different social and economic outcomes.

Each project will receive between £150,000 and £350,000 for research that is up to three years in duration.

The closing date for applications is 12 noon, Friday 29 September 2017.

For more information, and to apply, see here.

An information call for the programme will be held on Thursday 17 August at 4pm. Register your interest here.