Category / Funding opportunities

European Research Council- Starting Grant and Consolidator Grant figures

Funding opportunities

ercHave you thought about applying to the European Research Council (ERC) for funding?  Although the funding calls are not yet open, it may be worth starting on your proposal now as calls are published every year.

Starting Grants: For 2015, a combined total of €429 million was given to 291 early-career researchers, with the greatest number (48) being awarded the UK and an overall success rate of 12%. For 2016, the ERC received 2935 applications (an increase of (+0.5%).  The highest number of applications were from Physical Sciences and Engineering (1299), followed by Life Sciences (854, a decrease of -3%), and Social Science and Humanities (782, an increase of +3%).

Starting Grants are for researchers who have 2-7 years of experience since the completion of a PhD and a track record of excellence, you may be eligible for up to €1.5 million for projects lasting up to five years.

Consolidator Grant: For 2015, the ERC gave a combined €585 million to 302 successful applicants for an overall sucess rate of 15%.  For 2016, the number of applicants increase by 12% from the previous call with the highest number of applications was submitted from Physical Sciences and Engineering (1075), followed by Life Sciences (713), and Social Science and Humanities (516).

The Consolidator Grant is a fund with up to €2 million available for researchers with 7-12 years of experience since the completion of a PhD who also have a demonstrable record showing scientific talent and excellence.

As part of the first phase of a two phase application process, evaluators will first judge the synopsis and CV of the applicant to see if the work is ground-breaking in nature, ambitious and feasible.  The evaluators will also judge the track record of the applicant to see if they have the proven intellectual capacity (through publication), creativity (novelty) and commitment (through a track record of managing previous projects).

If you are interested in applying to these funds, please contact Emily Cieciura, the Research Facilitator for EU & International funding or your relevant faculty Funding Development Officer.

Latest Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

fifty-pound-note-money

The following is a snap-shot of funding opportunities that have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

NERC

UK aquaculture initiative – innovation projects call

NERC and Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council are inviting proposals for innovation projects to the UK Aquaculture Initiative, which builds on the 2014 Sustainable Aquaculture capacity-building call. Approximately £1·2m of funding is available for this call for projects that meet the needs of the UK aquaculture industry and create sustainable, tangible economic or societal benefits.

Maximum Award: £1.2m available
Deadline: 1st stage application by 26 April 2016

International opportunities fund

NERC is inviting proposals for Pump Priming and Pump Priming Plus grants to its International Opportunities Fund (IOF). The IOF scheme provides resources to NERC-supported researchers to allow them to forge long-term partnerships with overseas scientists that add value to current NERC-funded science. IOF grants are pump-priming, to help stimulate novel research collaborations.

Maximum Award: £40,000
Deadline: 19 May 2016

ESRC

ESRC/NRF Newton call – higher education in Africa

The ESRC and National Research Foundation (NRF) invite collaborative projects between the UK and South Africa which can offer additional value to existing programmes of education research. Some themes are:

  • Organisation of higher education systems, higher education institutions (HEIs) and alternative providers
  • Equity in higher education access and participation
  • Curriculum, pedagogy and modes and levels of provision

Maximum Award: £630,000
Deadline: 3 May 2016

BBSRC

Future Leader Fellowship

The Future Leader Fellowship (FLF) will provide support for researchers wishing to undertake independent research and gain leadership skills. The FLF will support the transition of early stage researchers to fully independent research leaders.

Maximum Award: £300,000
Deadline: 12 May 2016

NIHR

Health technology assessment programme – commissioned call for proposal 15/167

Proposals are sought on the topic of management of knee braces in the management of knee osteoarthritis, with the specific research question: What is the clinical and cost-effectiveness of knee braces in the management of knee ostearthritis.

Maximum Award: Unspecified
Deadline: 19 May 2016

Arthritis Research UK

Career development fellowship

Career development fellowships aim to attract and retain talented postdoctoral basic scientists and allied health professionals in research relevant to arthritis and related musculoskeletal conditions, and provide them with the opportunity to develop an independent research career and progress towards higher-level appointments.

Maximum Award: Salary and research expenses
Deadline: 1 June 2016

EPSRC

Human dimensions of cybersecurity

The funder is inviting proposals which address the challenges identified at the ‘Human Dimensions of Cyber Security’ (HDoCS) workshop in 2014. The challenges are titled:

  1. Design, build and measure
  2. A theory of everyone
  3. Risk, trust and response
  4. Understanding people
  5. Evolution of cybercrime

Maximum Award: up to £5 million available
Deadline: 8 June 2016

eFutures Facility award

This award is intended for researchers who have a current or recent cross-disciplinary project and require additional resources to take their idea towards commercialisation or require further investment to bridge the gap with follow-on funding.

Maximum Award: £20,000
Deadline: Unspecified

Trans-Atlantic Platform Social Sciences & Humanities

T-AP Digging into Data Challenge

This funding opportunity is open to international projects that consist of teams from at least three member countries, and must include partners from both sides of the Atlantic. Projects must address any research question in humanities and/or social sciences disciplines by using large-scale, digital data analysis techniques, and show how these techniques can lead to new insights.

Maximum Award: Unspecified
Deadline: 29 June 2016

If you are interested in submitting to any of the above calls 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.

‘Voices of the Secret State’: Seminar presentation by Dr Hyun Joo Lim, 16th March, Studeland House, Room S206, 13:00-13:50

Awarded & submitted bids, BRIAN, BU Challenges, Centre for Excellence in Learning, Coffee Morning, conferences, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Fusion Investment Fund, Grants Academy, Knowledge Transfer, Publishing, R & KE Operations, Research assessment, Research Ethics, Research Integritiy, Research themes, Women's Academic Network

All staff and students welcome. Please feel free to bring your lunch.

 

Voices of the Secret State: Human Rights Activism among North Korean

Defectors in the UK

 

Abstract: My paper aims to highlight the lived experiences and identity formation of North Korean defectors settled in the UK who are involved in human rights activism. Whilst violations of human rights in North Korea are well documented, human rights activism by its defectors is less well known. Since 2004, approximately 600 North Koreans have settled in the UK. Free NK, a human rights organisation born out of this settlement, has been active in illuminating the reality of North Korea whilst also working towards subverting the regime by informing its fellow remainders about the outside world through the distribution of newspapers. This paper is drawn from ongoing research on North Korean defectors living in the UK. The data is collected using life history interviews to capture their lived experiences and to identify a range of factors which have influenced their involvement in the activism whilst also seeking to find better ways of improving the wellbeing and quality of life for those activists. The presentation will focus on the in-depth story of a North Korean defector who has founded Free NK. Themes that will be addressed in this story include the reason why he has fled North Korea; the processes of getting to the UK; challenges he has faced in his human rights activism.
Dr Hyun-Joo Lim is a lecturer in Sociology and the programme leader for BA Sociology and Social Policy at BU. She is originally from South Korea and has been engaged in various research projects that explore issues around migration, ‘race’/ethnicity, gender and identity. Her previous research examined East Asian mothers in Britain.

For more information about Social Science seminar series please get in touch with Dr Mastoureh Fathi (mfathi@bournemouth.ac.uk).

 

Case for Support with Dr. Andrew Derrington

Funding opportunities

BRADAs part of BRAD week, Dr. Andrew Derrington has been brought in to run a “Case for Support” workshop on Monday 4th of April 2016.

The workshop is designed to start you working on an extremely efficient ’recipe’ for a research project grant, such as research council standard grant, that makes it possible to produce a case for support in 2 weeks. The case for support is the central component of a grant application. All the rest of the information in the application should derive from the case for support.

If you have a fundable project in mind at the start of the workshop, you should have a rough draft of the skeleton of the case for support, in the form of 10 key sentences, by the end of the day. If you don’t have a fundable project in mind at the start of the day you will practise the skills of writing the 10 key sentences with a dummy project.

For those who are interested in booking onto this training, please follow the link here to book through Organisational Development.

NERC Valuing Nature programme: Understanding ecosystem stocks and tipping points

Funding opportunities

nerc-logo-50thNERC is inviting proposals to contribute to addressing the goals of the Valuing Nature programme through a broader understanding of the tipping points of ecosystem services.

This NERC supported call is for UK focused research proposals to further understand:

  • the links between ecosystem stocks, ecosystem service flows and benefits that are delivered as a result, to enable identification of critical levels of ecosystem stocks that avoid abrupt and damaging change in the delivery of benefits (tipping points); and
  • how the values (including those broader than economics) of ecosystem services and the benefits they deliver change as tipping points are reached and exceeded.

A funding pot of up to £1·1m (80%FEC) is available from NERC, which is expected to support three proposals of up to 30 months duration, and up to £370K (80% FEC).

Applicants should refer to the full Announcement of Opportunity for further details.

Announcement of Opportunity (PDF, 247KB)

Call closes: 16:00 BST 6 May 2016

Contacts: For further information about this Announcement of Opportunity, please contact:

Rachel Leader   01793 411595  

General Valuing Nature Programme Coordination Team enquiries should be directed to:

If you are interested in applying to this call then please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance.

Science and Innovation Network Japan

Funding opportunities

Academics in the UK have co-authored over 15,000 journal papers with academics in Japan between 2010-2014.  Could your research lead to the next co-authored paper with researchers inetworkingn Japan?  In order to facilitate this, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, through the jointly funded UK Science and Innovation Network (SIN), have compiled a list of 40 funds here where academics in the UK can submit proposals to foster research networks with academics in Japan.

If you are considering working with an international partner in your bid, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International or the relevant Funding Development Officer for you Faculty.

Join RKEO and Fundraising and Alumni for coffee and cake (and fruit)

Coffee Morning, Funding opportunities, Guidance

cupcakeRKEO have teamed up with Fundraising and Alumni to hold a joint coffee morning which will be taking place on Thursday, 10th March. Members of the RKEO and Fundraising and Alumni will be in the Retreat, Talbot Campus from 9.30 to 10.30am.

Come along and find out what Fundraising and Alumni do and how they can help you, and/or discuss your research plans with the RKEO team and check out how they can support you through the whole research funding process from applying through to successful project management and delivery. We can help with public engagement, knowledge transfer opportunities and much, much more…

Do pop in for a chat with us and see how we can help you, or just pop by and enjoy a coffee and a cake (and fruit).

We look forward to seeing you!

NERC standard grants (July deadline) – internal competition launched

Funding opportunities

NERC - Science of the Environment 2014NERC introduced demand management measures in 2012. These were revised in 2015 to reduce the number and size of applications from research organisations for NERC’s discovery science standard grant scheme. Full details can be found in the BU policy document for NERC demand management measures at I:\R&KEO\Public\NERC demand management 2016.

As at March 2015, BU has been capped at one application per standard grant round. The measures only apply to NERC standard grants (including new investigators). An application counts towards an organisation, where the organisation is applying as the grant holding organisation (of the lead or component grant). This will be the organisation of the Principal Investigator of the lead or component grant.

BU process

As a result, BU has introduced a process for determining which application will be submitted to each NERC Standard Grant round. This will take the form of an internal competition, which will include peer review. The next available standard grant round is July 2016. The process for selecting an application for this round can be found in the process document in I:\R&KEO\Public\NERC demand management 2016 – the deadline for internal Expressions of Interest which will be used to determine which application will be submitted is 8th April 2016.

NERC have advised that where a research organisation submits more applications to any round than allowed under the cap, NERC will office-reject any excess applications, based purely on the time of submission through the Je-S system (last submitted = first rejected). However, as RKEO submit applications through Je-S on behalf of applicants, RKEO will not submit any applications that do not have prior agreement from the internal competition.

Appeals process

If an EoI is not selected to be submitted as an application, the Principal Investigator can appeal to Professor Tim McIntyre-Bhatty, Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Any appeals must be submitted within ten working days of the original decision. All appeals will be considered within ten working days of receipt.

RKEO Contacts

Please contact Jennifer Roddis, RKEO Research Facilitator – jroddis@bournemouth.ac.uk or Jo Garrad, RKEO Funding Development Manager – jgarrad@bournemouth.ac.uk if you wish to submit an expression of interest.

 

Latest Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

coins money

The following is a snap-shot of funding opportunities that have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

British Council

Newton Fund: Researcher collaboration workshop – supporting sustainable ecosystems for poverty alleviation in the Amazon

The British Council and FAPEAM will be holding a workshop on the above theme. It is now inviting Early Career Researchers from the UK or Brazil to apply to attend this workshop. All travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the Researcher Links programme.

Maximum Award: Not specified Deadline: 20 March 2016

Ministry of Defence

CDE enduring challenge competition

The enduring competition is continually open to all highly innovative research ideas that challenge existing conventions and have a high potential benefit for the defence and security end user.

Maximum Award: £40,000 – £150,000 Deadline: 22 March 2016 and recurring through the year

Medical Research Council

Biomedical catalyst – developmental pathway funding scheme

The DPFS scheme is a key part of our Translational Research Strategy and supports the translation of fundamental discoveries toward benefits to human health. It funds the pre-clinical development and early clinical testing of novel therapeutics, devices and diagnostics, including “repurposing” of existing therapies.

DPFS is an ongoing scheme, with outline deadlines every 4 months.

Maximum Award: Not specified Deadline: 27 July 2016

Wellcome Trust

People awards

People Awards are two related schemes supporting projects that encourage the public to explore biomedical science. The schemes are open to a wide range of people, including: mediators, facilitators and practitioners of science communication; science centre/museum staff; artists; educators. Project activities and outputs may include:

  • workshops, events, debates and discussions
  • exhibitions and museum outreach
  • films, games, websites and cross-platform projects.

Maximum Award: £40,000 Deadline: 20 May 2016, with 3 other deadlines in the year

Humanities & Science Small Grants

This scheme is for small-scale humanities and social science research projects, scoping exercises or meetings in any area of human or animal health, including projects relating to research resources.

Maximum Award: £10,000 Deadline: Open

Nuffield Foundation

Grants for research & innovation

This funder has seven programmes that fund research and innovation in areas of social policy and education. These are all open to applications.

The programmes are: Children and Families, Early Years Education and Childcare, Economic Advantage and Disadvantage, Education, Finances of Ageing, Law in Society, and Open Door.

Maximum Award: £350,000 Deadline: 18 April 2016 and other dates

British Tinnitus Association

Large research project scheme

Applications are actively encouraged in the following areas, although all applications will be considered:

  • Mechanisms of tinnitus/identifying potential therapeutic targets
  • Existing and novel practice/treatment
  • Prevention
  • Population/demographic/epidemiology/economic studies

Maximum Award: £75,000 Deadline: 30 April 2016

Fisheries Society of the British Isles

Small research grants

The Research Grant programme provides members of the Society with the opportunity to bid for financial support for carrying out research on any topic that is relevant to fish biology and management.

Maximum Award: £5000 Deadline: 1 May 2016

British Psychological Society

Research Seminar competition

The Competition provides grants to enable institutions to co-operate to hold a series of at least three scientific seminars.

The proposed seminars should have tangible goals and should focus on developing and extending the understanding of a psychological process in any field of scientific psychology.

Maximum Award: £3000 Deadline: 1 July 2016

Sections Initiative Fund

This Research Board fund is for Sections of the British Psychological Society. It provides grants of up to £15,000 to support scientific initiatives that promote or advance psychology.

Examples of initiatives include:

  • innovative or pioneering Conferences, one-off seminars or Workshops
  • research experience – for undergraduates or non-psychologists
  • specific short-term research on a topic falling under one the Society’s thematic priorities

Maximum Award: £15,000 Deadline: 1 September 2016

If you are interested in submitting to any of the above calls 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.

Regional Digital Business Drop-in – Bournemouth

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange

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The next monthly regional drop in session run by the Knowledge Transfer Network for the creative, digital and design community is to take place in Bournemouth. The event involving the KTN and Innovate UK is aimed at all digital innovation companies across various sectors in the region, looking to access funding and grow. A great networking opportuntity on your doorstep!

Date: Thursday 17 March

Location: Bournemouth

For more information and to register  – check out this link

 

The Royal Society – Pairing Scheme

Funding opportunities

Each year 30 research scientists are paired with UK parliamentarians and civil servants. They learn about each other’s work by spending time together in Westminster and the researcher’s institutions.

Those taking part gain an insight into how research findings can help inform policy making, and come away with a better understanding of how they can get involved.

See who has taken part in previous years.

How does the scheme work?

The scheme takes place annually, beginning with a ‘Week in Westminster’ in which the pairs first meet. Over the week the scientists take part in workshops, hear from invited speakers and spend two days shadowing their pair.

Read 2015’s ‘Week in Westminster’ agenda (PDF). You can see how last year’s participants spent their week in Westminster by checking out this Storify.

After the ‘Week in Westminster’, it is the turn of the parliamentarians and civil servants to get an insight into the world of research, undertaking reciprocal visits with their pairs.

The scheme is now open for applications from scientists until Wednesday 9 March.  Find out how to apply. Email public.affairs@royalsociety.org for more information.

Who is the scheme for?

Parliamentarians

  • Learn about the science behind the issues raised by your constituents and meet experts who can provide evidence on the policy issues you are dealing with
  • Visit your local universities or research institutions and meet students and researchers living in your local area
  • Find out how your local schools are encouraging students to study science and maths subjects
  • Discover how scientific research underpins the UK’s innovative industries

Find out more

Civil servants

  • Find out more about the science behind the policy issues you work on
  • Learn how to analyse research findings and discover how they can be used to inform the policy decisions you make
  • Make long-lasting relationships with scientists working in your field during the Week in Westminster and by visiting your pair’s research facility
  • Network with other civil servants working in scientific fields

Find out more

Scientists

  • Learn how parliament and government work and how you can feed in to the policy making process
  • Find out how your research can inform policy decisions
  • Build lasting relationships with parliamentarians and civil servants
  • Network with fellow scientists

Find out more

Creative Digital & Design – Horizon 2020

Business Engagement, Funding opportunities, innovation, Knowledge Exchange

Innovate UK have put together a very useful list of upcoming funding calls relating to Horizon 2020 funding. There are also links to other sources of information including events and their Guide to Horizon 2020 and Other InnovateUK_LogoA_Interim_RGBx320govuk[1]European Funding for the Creative Industries.

This information is provided freely to members of the _connect Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) Creative Digital  & Design. There are currently 16 KTNs plus many other groups. Whatever your discipline, there will be a group to which you can contribute and promote your research interests.

Why not take a look and register to receive updates direct to your inbox? 

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 fuorth Tuesday of each month. You can register here for your preferred date:

22nd March 2016

26th April 2016

24th May 2016

28th June 2016

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.

CEMP News

Centre for Excellence in Learning, Funding opportunities, Research assessment

cemp_big_021c-BU ORANGE

A crop of CEMP news all in one post …

Here’s the March 2016 CEMP newsletter

Here’s the call for abstracts for our 2016 Media Education Summit, to be held in Rome.

And here’s the March 2016 CEMP / CEL funding bulletin. CEMP CEL bulletin March 16

Thanks to Marcellus Mbah and Richard Berger for putting this one together.

As always, to find out more about CEMP research or to follow up one of the ‘leads’ in the bulletin, please contact Richard Berger or Julian McDougall.

For more information about BU research for REF UoA25 (education) co-led by CEMP and CEL contact Julian McDougall (MC faculty) or Debbie Holley (non MC / cross BU).

 

 

 

 

URA Academic Applications – FINAL CALL

Funding opportunities, Fusion Investment Fund, Knowledge Transfer

The deadline for the Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) programme is Sunday 21st February.

The application form to apply for funding to recruit a student to work on your research full time for six weeks during the summer can be found here.

The programme is funded by the Fusion Investment Fund and aims to support undergraduates to undertake paid work under the guidance of an experienced academic in a research position that is directly related to their career path and/or academic discipline.

The summer programme is for students to work full-time (37.5 hours per week) for six weeks over the summer. This programme will have the capacity for approximately 20 placements.

If you have any questions relating to the programme, please contact Rachel Clarke, KE Adviser (KTP) on 01202 961347 or email clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk