Category / Funding opportunities

Innovate UK – emerging & enabling technologies – funding opportuntites

Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

space SBRI

The Emerging and Enabling Technologies sector group is the new home for  support for early stage (emerging), cross-cutting (enabling) and broad scope (open) innovation across whole economy. (See the Delivery Plan 2016 to 2017 for more information on all the sector groups .)

Although this sector group contains the word technologies in its title, Innovate UK’s actions are guided by the principle that: “no-one buys technology; they buy what technology does for them.”    

The focus here is very early stage technologies, those still emerging, or only recently emerged, from the research base.

By ‘emerging’,  recognise  those technologies, methods and approaches developed in the UK’s scientific research base – primarily in universities – that allow us  to do things that simply couldn’t be done before (or could only be done in theory).

What these emerging technologies have in common is the potential to create totally new value propositions (and so to disrupt markets). Examples include graphene and quantum technologies.

Whilst sectors like Manufacturing and Materials or Health and Life Sciences turnover several hundreds of billions of pounds globally per year, by contrast, many of these early-stage, emerging technology sectors have very low, or even zero turnovers, typically below £10 million pa when we pick them up.

Examples of other high impact technologies include:

  • space and satellites
  • electronics, photonics and sensors
  • robotics and autonomous systems

It has now been admirably demonstrated that:

  • satellite technologies can be used in the fight against illegal fishing
  • advanced sensors can help in the earlier diagnosis of disease
  • compound semi-conductors can manage electrical power more effectively
  • robots can perform tasks in environments too dangerous for people to work in

You can follow Innovate UK on:

     

Robotics and autonomous systems: apply for innovation funding

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

robot_in_tomorrows_world

Competiton is open now!

There will be a briefing webinar on 27 July 2016

Find out more about this competition and apply

In brief:

Innovate UK is inviting businesses to apply for a share of £5 million to develop innovative applications of robotics and autonomous systems. Innovate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are to invest up to £5 million in robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) projects.

The aim of this competition is to help UK companies explore new RAS opportunities. It will enable them to develop capabilities for applications in many sectors of the UK economy.

We are looking for proposals that will speed up the development of RAS technologies towards demonstration and commercialisation.

Proposals can be for systems that are physical, for example a next generation robot. They can also be digital only, for example an automated decision-making system.

Robots that are independent of human control can learn, adapt and take decisions. These could revolutionise our economy and society over the next 20 years. Disruptive technologies related to RAS include mobile internet, automation of knowledge work, advanced robotics, and automated and autonomous vehicles.

These technologies have the potential for an annual economic impact of US$9.8 to US$19.3 trillion in 2025. The UK has world-leading strengths in the underlying science and engineering that contributes to RAS. It also has access to the markets that could exploit them.

Key information:

  • There will be a briefing webinar on 27 July 2016
  • The registration deadline is noon on 19 October 2016
  • The application deadline is noon on 26 October 2016
  • Projects should range in size from total costs of £50,000 to £500,000
  • Projects should last between 6 and 15 months
  • You must complete the work and incur, pay and claim for all costs before the end of March 2018
  • A business must lead the project
  • Projects with costs of £100,000 or above must be collaborative

Find out more about this competition and apply.

If you are interested in submitting to this  call you must contact your  RKEO Funding Development Officer with adequate notice before the deadline.

For more funding opportunities that are most relevant to you, you can set up your own personalised alerts on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in  RKEO or view the recent blog post here.

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

Royal Academy of Engineering Public Engagement Awards

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange

If you have an imaginative idea that helps engineers to communicate their expertise and passion to a wider audience – The Royal Academy of Engineering invites applications for its public engagement awards. These support projects that engage the public with engineers and engineering. Projects should aim to achieve the following:

•inspire public engagement with engineering;

•stimulate engineers to share their stories, passion and expertise in innovative ways with wider audiences;

•develop engineers’ communication and engagement skills;

•create debate between engineers and people of all ages to raise awareness of the diversity, nature and impact of engineering.

Awards are worth between £3,000 to £30,000 per project.

 

The latest round of the Ingenious scheme is now open to applications, and the closing date is 4pm on Monday 17 October 2016.

Find out more at: http://www.raeng.org.uk/grants-and-prizes/ingenious-grant or contact Naomi Kay for more details: nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk

 

UKRO – ERC Starting Grant Information and Proposal Writing Events

Funding opportunities

UKRO logo​​​In its capacity as UK National Contact Point for the European Research Council (ERC), the UK Research Office, in partnership with the hosting institutions, is holding two events for researchers who are interested in applying for the next ERC Starting Grants call. The events are scheduled as follows:

•University of York, Monday 5 September 2016, 13:30 – 17:00

•King’s College London​, Tuesday 6 September 2016, 10:00 – 13:00

​​The scheme is designed to support Principal Investigators (PIs) at the stage at which they are starting their own independent research team or programme. To be eligible for the 2017 call, the PI must have been awarded their PhD between two and seven years prior to 1 January 2017 (extendable in certain strict cases).

The next ERC Starting Grant call is not yet available on the Participant Portal but please refer to the ERC website for all information about this and other ERC calls.

BU staff can also register, via BU subscription, on the UKRO website to receive announcements concerning EU funding direct to your own inbox – make sure that you hear first!

If you are considering applying, please contact Emily Cieciura, REKO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International, in the first instance.

British Academy announce call closing dates

Funding opportunities

british_academy_logoThe British Academy have released their latest call closing date information for various schemes.  Details of these can be found on the ‘Standard Funder Calls’ page of the research blog.

More detail on each of the calls is shown below:

  • Mid-Career Fellowships Outline Stage
  • http://www.britac.ac.uk/british-academy-mid-career-fellowships
  • Scheme Opens: 10th August 2016
  • Deadline for Applicants: 14th September 2016
  • Deadline for Institutional Approval: 15th September 2016
  • Deadline for Referees: 22nd September 2016
  • Result of Outline Stage Announcement: December 2016

 

  • BA/Leverhulme Senior Research Fellowships
  • http://www.britac.ac.uk/baleverhulme-senior-research-fellowships
  • Scheme Opens: 12th October 2016
  • Deadline for Applicants: 16th November 2016
  • Deadline for Institutional Approval: 17th November 2016
  • Deadline for Referees: 24th November 2016
  • Final Award Announcement expected: 31st March 2017
  • Earliest Award Start Date: 1st September 2017
  • Latest Award Start Date: 1st January 2018

 

  • Wolfson Research Professorships
  • http://www.britac.ac.uk/wolfson-research-professorships
  • Scheme Opens: 28th September 2016
  • Deadline for Applicants: 23rd November 2016
  • Deadline for Institutional Approval: 24th November 2016
  • Deadline for Referees: 1st December 2016
  • Final Award Announcement expected: 31st March 2017
  • Earliest Award Start Date: 1st September 2017
  • Latest Award Start Date: 1st January 2018

 

  • Postdoctoral Fellowships Outline Stage
  • http://www.britac.ac.uk/british-academy-postdoctoral-fellowships
  • Scheme Opens: 24th August 2016
  • Deadline for Applicants: 5th October 2016
  • Deadline for Institutional Approval: 6th October 2016
  • Deadline for Referees: 13th October 2016
  • Result of Outline Stage Announcement: January 2017

 

  • BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (Autumn 2016)
  • http://www.britac.ac.uk/baleverhulme-small-research-grants-0
  • Scheme Opens: 1st September 2016
  • Deadline for Applicants: 12th October 2016
  • Deadline for Institutional Approval: 13th October 2016
  • Deadline for Referees: 27th October 2016
  • Final Award Announcement expected: 31st March 2017
  • Earliest Award Start Date: 1st April 2017
  • Latest Award Start Date: 31st August 2017

 

  • BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (Spring 2017)
  • http://www.britac.ac.uk/baleverhulme-small-research-grants-0
  • Scheme Opens: 12th April 2017
  • Deadline for Applicants: 24th May 2017
  • Deadline for Institutional Approval: 25th May 2017
  • Deadline for Referees: 8th June 2017
  • Final Award Announcement expected: 31st August 2017
  • Earliest Award Start Date: 1st September 2017
  • Latest Award Start Date: 31st March 2018

Please note that this is not a final list of all the schemes that will be opening this year.  Timetables for other schemes are being finalised by the British Academy.  If you are interested in applying for any of these calls then please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance.

Eurostars? – Celebrities, footballers or EU funding scheme for SMEs?

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities

If you are working with SMEs, you may know that Eurostars is a scheme which assists small businesses to access funding.

eurostarsEurostars supports international innovative projects led by research and development- performing small- and medium-sized enterprises (R&D-performing SMEs). With its bottom-up approach, Eurostars supports the development of rapidly marketable innovative products, processes and services that help improve the daily lives of people around the world. Eurostars has been carefully developed to meet the specific needs of SMEs. It is an ideal first step in international cooperation, enabling small businesses to combine and share expertise and benefit from working beyond national borders.

Eurostars is a joint programme between EUREKA and the European Commission, co-funded from the national budgets of 36 Eurostars Participating States and Partner Countries and by the European Union through Horizon 2020. In the 2014-2020 period it has a total public budget of €1.14 billion.

The role of SMEs for the economy has never been so important. Eurostars aims to bring increased value to the economy, higher growth and more job opportunities.

If you are working with a research-active business or have the opportunity to contact a potential industrial partner undertaking research, this site and the explanatory video found there, might just be the good news they have been waiting to hear!

N.B. As universities are not eligible to be funded through this competition in the UK, such partners must be in a position to self-fund. In addition, to be an eligible project, an SME has to do at least 50% of the work and no one partner or country can do more than 75% of the work. The university input, therefore, is limited and the partnering activity may be approved through benefits in kind, such as reputational, access to SME and relationship building, further joint funding strategy with the company, and academic experience of working with an industrial partner. These factors will need to be considered alongside the 0% fEC return.

 

Thinking of working with a applicant SME? Please contact Emily Cieciura and Jayne Codling in RKEO so that you can access our support and assistance.

UKRO Conference Report – important EU funding updates

Funding opportunities, Guidance, international

UKRO logoThe UK Research Office (UKRO) is the European office of the UK Research Councils. It delivers a subscription-based advisory service for research organisations (in the main UK HEIs) and provides National Contact Point services on behalf of the UK Government. UKRO’s mission is to maximise UK engagement in EU-funded research, innovation and higher education activities. One way UKRO supports this mission is through the annual conference.

The slides are publicly available via the UKRO website. To access further subscriber-only information, including events notifications and news, BU staff members can register today!

The 2016  UKRO Annual Conference took place at Glasgow ​Caledonian University in Glasgow on Thursday 30th June and Friday 1st July 2016.​​ Please follow the links below to access slides and other information from the event:

Conference Programme​​

​Biographies of Speakers​

Presentations:

Thursday 30 June 2016

Opening plenary session

Horizon 2020: Are We On the Path to Success?​
Mr Wolfgang Burtscher (DG RTD, Deputy Director General)

European Research Council: An Update and Future Directions​
Mr Theodore Papazoglou (ERCEA, Head of Unit, Support to the ERC Scientific Council)

Parallel sessions 1

A) Horizon 2020 Health Challenge: Zika, Ebola & Antimicrobial Resistance
Ms Line Matthiessen (DG RTD, Head of Unit, Fighting Infectious Diseases and Advancing Public Health)

B) Being Ethics Ready and Compliant
Ms Maria Filipa Ferraz De Oliveira (ERCEA, Head of Ethics Sector)

C) Horizon 2020 Funding for Research into Migration and Mobility​
Ms Elisabeth Lipiatou (DG RTD, Head of Unit, Open and Inclusive Societies)

Parallel sessions 2

A) Marie Skl​odowska-Curie Actions Reporting: IT’s That Time of the Year Again…
Ms Cathy Souto Enriques (REA, MSCA Project Advisor)

B) Funding Research for a Secure Society
​Mr Graham Willmott (DG HOME, Head of Unit, Innovation and Industry Security)​

Friday 1 July 2016

Open Innovation: The Future of EU Innovation Funding? Ideas for Creating a European Innovation Council
Ms Sophie Laurie (NERC, Associate Director of Innovation and Translation)​
Mr Matthew King (DG RTD, Head of Unit Open Innovation)​​

Parallel sessions 3

A) Open to the World: Co-Funded Calls and How it Works in Practice
Mr Diego Sammaritano (DG RTD, Policy Officer, R&I Cooperation with China)

B) Open Science: Opening Up Scientific Information in Horizon 2020
Ms Joy Davidson (Collaborative Research & Services Provision Manager, University of Glasgow)

Parallel sessions 4

ELO Profiles for the Future of EU Funding
Ms Angela Noble (University of Edinburgh, Manager – Europe)
Ms Philippa Shelton (University of the West of England, Bristol, Senior Research Business Development Manager)
Ms Kimberly Cornfield (UCL, Head of EU Proposal Management)​

Managing Intellectual Property in Horizon 2020​
Mr Jakub Ramocki (EU IPR Helpdesk, Intellectual Property Advisor)

If you would like to discuss potential EU funding activity, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International. To see related articles, just search for ‘UKRO’ on the BU Research blog.

 

£5 million boost for next generation robotics technologies

Funding opportunities, innovation

robot_in_tomorrows_world

Science Minister Jo Johnson has announced a £5 million challenge, to encourage UK companies and academics to develop robotic innovations.

The challenge will encourage UK businesses and academic institutions to work together to develop new and novel uses for robotics and autonomous systems across different industry sectors. The competition has been devised by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Read the news from Innovate UK here.

This competition is not yet live but is due to be launched  around the week commencing 18th July and more details on it will be available then.

Why not bookmark the Live Competition list by clicking on the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/innovation-grants-for-business-apply-for-funding

 

 

 

 

 

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Aerospace research and development projects – funding announced

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities

 

Aircraft engines

£365m funding announced for new UK aerospace research and development projects and major partnership with Boeing to create 2,000 jobs in the UK.

Read the story in full.

To ensure the UK’s continued position at the forefront of global aerospace, a further £365m worth of aerospace R&D projects have been approved. These are jointly funded by industry and government. These are part of the work of the Aerospace Growth Partnership which will publish a new strategy at Farnborough setting out plans to maintain the UK aerospace sector’s leading position. This includes a new supply chain competitiveness charter signed by 11 major companies across the aerospace sector.

For more on the Aerospace Strategy click here.

For more information on innovation grants for business click here.

ERC Deadlines

Funding opportunities, international

ercThe deadlines for the European Research Council calls are quickly approaching.

Please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU and International if you intent to apply for:

Why not sign up for ERC email alerts so that you keep up to date with ERC news and events?

 

Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework : Pre-Award at BU

Funding opportunities, Training

research_strategyWe have previously posted about the Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Development Framework. Here, we introduce another of the pathways: that focusing on the Pre-Award process when applying for funding. Please see the previous blog posts on the Development Framework for information on the separate  pathways.

The ‘Pre-Award at BU’ pathway will provide details about the information and tools that will aid BU academics applying for funding.  Sessions will include details about ‘Searching for research funding’, ‘Getting started on applying for research funding’, understanding ‘Pre-award finances’  and ‘Intellectual property at pre-award’.  Training will also be provided as part of this pathway for those conducting Quality and Financial approvals.  More events will be added to this pathway in 2017-18 and beyond, with a focus on emerging priorties for BU.

We’ll be populating the the OD website with more information and the booking link over the coming weeks. We’ll also be providing a timetable of all events as soon as possible. In the meantime, updates will be posted on the BU research blog and the Faculty blogs.

RCUK GCRF Call for Evidence

Funding opportunities

RCUKlogoThe Government Spending Review on 25th November 2015 announced “a new £1.5 billion Global Challenges Research Fund, to ensure UK science takes the lead in addressing the problems faced by developing countries, whilst developing our ability to deliver cutting-edge research”. The Global Challenges Research Fund is a BIS initiative which operates across a number of delivery partners, including the Research Councils, National Academies and HEFCE.

The RCUK Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) represents the largest portion of this Fund. They have launched a call for evidence to gather your views on the high-level challenges that will form the basis of the funding calls from the GCRF Collective Fund, the information gathered will also be shared with the other delivery partners so that it may inform their own strategies. They would also like your views on the most effective ways of delivering GCRF.

They are seeking inputs from individuals and institutions across all academic disciplines, non-governmental organisation and industrial sectors both in and outside of the UK.

The results from the survey will be reviewed alongside feedback from the Town Meetings. They will share a short summary of evidence they have collected and outline how that has informed their strategy in the autumn.

This call for evidence forms part of a broader programme of strategic engagement activities taking place under the GCRF programme. They will be running focus groups later this year and opening a Call for Ideas early next year to generate priority themes within each challenge.

You can complete the survey by clicking the link below. The survey closes at 16.00 on 22 August:

http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/6LOJI/

Respondents are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the following background information whilst completing the survey:

NERC/AHRC/ESRC GCRF Building Resilience call

Funding opportunities

NERCAs part of the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), the UK research councils, led by NERC, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), are taking a leadership role in generating inter-disciplinary research and communities which can address the issue of ‘Building Resilience’.

AHRC_logo_anniversaryBuilding resilience rests on the ability to take a holistic approach which encompasses environmental knowledge, socio-economics, infrastructure, governance, and the history and culture of a community or region that is affected. It will require new inter-disciplinary research and recognition of the importance of engaging with local actors to understand what knowledge is required and how it can be implemented to design solutions that help all parts of society.

ESRC logoThe call is open to proposals addressing resilience to natural and man-made environmental hazards in a range of developing world contexts. The focus is on how to build resilience in relation to both sudden and slow-onset environmental hazards (eg land-degradation, deforestation, drought, hurricanes, climate change) taking into account the intersections and relationships with other contexts such as conflict and fragility, poverty and famine, urbanisation, economics and health / disease risks.

The call will fund foundation-building activities to stimulate the creation of inter-disciplinary international research communities; to enable broader, deeper and more effective collaborations with beneficiaries and user organisations at the forefront of the development agenda; test new innovative ideas and inter-disciplinary approaches for addressing the issue of developing resilience. All proposals are expected to take an inter-disciplinary approach, bringing together environmental science with social science and arts and humanities.

A total of £3.3 million of funding is available for this call. Awards are expected to vary in scale according to the nature of the activities proposed and not to exceed £200,000 (at 100 per cent full economic costs). The funders anticipate funding 15-20 projects ranging from 3-9 months. A small number of projects of 12 months duration can be funded. Successful projects will be expected to start no later than 1 November 2016.

The closing date for applications is 16.00 on 6 September 2016.

Networking-300x140Workshop

There will be a workshop on 19 July 2016 to provide more information on the call and facilitate the development of collaborations between academics from different disciplines and between academics, beneficiaries and users. To apply to attend please complete the online application form by 27 June 2016.

Further information

Further details about the call and workshop can be found on the NERC website.  If you are interested in applying to this call then please contact the RKEO Funding Development Team in the first instance.

Deadline for latest HEIF call – Friday 1 July

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, HEIF, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

andrew archery

Friday 1 July is the deadline for applications to be submitted in response to the latest HEIF funding call.

Quick tips if you have yet to submit your final proposal.

  • Make sure your word count is within the limits where specified.
  • The review panel is made up of internal and external members – consider this when writing your proposal in terms of language, acronyms and abbreviations.
  • Contact your DDRP if you have not already done so . Their signature is required. An electronic version is acceptable.
  • Make sure the budget section has been completed and the totals add up.
  • Supporting documentation is not needed. (Website links can be used within the proposal if relevant to your application.)
  • Please submit your proposal in word format  – so using the original application template.

Next steps

Based on the call schedule:

Action Date
Call w/c   – applications open w/c 06/06/16
Proposal deadline – applications close 01/07/16 Friday
Proposal review process 04/07/16   – 18/07/16
Successful projects announced w/c 18/07/16
New project funding starts 01/08/16

For all details on the latest HEIF call click here.

Good luck!

Your Research: Science for Global Good

Funding opportunities

UKCDSUKCDS have launched  ‘Your Research: Science for Global Good’ a new researcher hub with information for researchers who want to use their knowledge and skills to help tackle global development challenges. The hub includes inspiring case studies from nanotechnology to behavioural science, a new funding hub with an overview of the main programmes within the UK, such as the Newton Fund and Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), and tips for building partnerships.

This is an excellent source of information for anyone interested in applying for funding, particularly those who want to tap into the £1.5bn funding available from GCRF (see my blog article on this fund for more information).

UK Collaborative on Development Sciences (UKCDS) is a group of 14 UK government departments and research funders working in international development.

What’s been happening at the research councils?

Funding opportunities

RCUKlogoAs you will know, the Government has published a White Paper which details its planned policy to reform support for higher education and research, including proposals on the future of the Research Councils. ‘Success as a Knowledge Economy’ outlines how Government intends to take forward the implementation of the recommendations of Sir Paul Nurse’s Review.  What does this mean for the research councils, and more importantly, how will this affect the pots of money available for funding?

The quick facts on the over-arching changes are as follows:

  • New organisation to be formed: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI replaces RCUK (can you spot the difference?)) with John Kingman (HM Treasury) being appointed as interim Chair of the board for UKRIJohn Kingman
  • This will include the seven research councils plus Innovate UK and part of HEFCE (Research England)
  • New organisation to be headed by a single Chief Executive/Accounting Officer with existing RC Chief Executives to become ‘Executive Chairs’
  • Councils will retain names and will each have a council of 7-10 individuals (Council members will no longer be ministerial appointments)

The role of the UKRI will be as follows:

  • UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a new research and innovation funding body that will allocate funding for research and innovation and act as a champion for the UK’s world class system.
  • The names and brands of the Research Councils and Innovate UK will be retained.
  • UKRI will have a strong board with responsibility for leading on overall strategic direction, cross-cutting decision making and advising the Secretary of State on the balance of funding between research disciplines.
  • The board will manage funds with cross-disciplinary impact and a ‘common research fund’ as proposed by Sir Paul Nurse.
  • They will retain and strengthen leadership in specific research discipline areas, innovation and England only research funding by establishing nine Councils within UKRI with delegated autonomy and authority.
  • The Councils will be responsible for the strategic leadership of their disciplines and on scientific, research and innovation matters.
  • The Secretary of State will set budgets for each of the nine Councils through an annual grant letter.
  • There would be a new legislative protection for the dual support system in England and they are formally restating the Government’s commitment to the Haldane principle.

The second reading of the Bill is likely to be in July and it will then go to the ‘Commons Committee’ for intensive work for 6-8 weeks.  However, given the current uncertainty of who will be running the country and which MPs will form a new cabinet, this could change (see the latest Research Professional article on the uncertainty of the HE and research Bill).

If the Bill does go through, the RCUK Change Programme will move to centrally led corporate functions, such as HR and Finance, but this will also include the grant funding platform.  They are aiming for a (much welcome) single common approach as the default for all activities.  The overall aim is for better ways of working and responding to new challenges, such as the Global Challenges Research Fund (see by blog post on what this is).

You may also have heard that the research councils are replacing their electronic grants submission service, Je-S, in 2017.  Please see my other blog post on how you can be part of the testing group for the new system.