Are you a member of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies? Successful applicants for Small Event Grants will receive up to £1,000 of funding for one-off events, typically conferences or workshops. Closing date Friday 18th September 2015. Proposals are welcome on any aspect of contemporary European Studies, particularly interdisciplinary proposals which encourage the participation…
Category / Funding opportunities
ERC Starting Grants – Information and Proposal Writing Event LSE, London, 8 September, 13:30 – 16:30
In its capacity as UK National Contact Point for the European Research Council, the UK Research Office (UKRO), in partnership with the hosting institution, is holding an event at London School of Economics and Political Science for researchers who are interested in applying for the 2016 ERC Starting Grants call. Details and registration are here.
Each session will provide participants with a detailed practical overview of the ERC Starting Grants scheme. Participants should gain a deeper understanding of the proposal format and the key issues they are required to address in planning, writing and costing a proposal as well as tips for preparing for interview. There will also be ample opportunity to ask questions. Attendance will be free of charge, thanks to the support from the organisations hosting the events.
Women Innovators – EU Prize
Are you or do you know a Woman Innovator?
With the EU Prize for Women Innovators, the European Commission wants to give public recognition to outstanding women entrepreneurs who brought their innovative ideas to the market. The aim is to inspire other women to follow in their footsteps.
After two successful editions in 2011 and 2014, the European Commission has launched the third edition of the prize.
Three prizes will be awarded in Spring 2016:
- 1st prize: €100 000
- 2nd prize: €50 000
- 3rd prize: €30 000
Contestants will be able to submit their entries until 20 October 2015 (12:00 – Brussels time).
An independent panel of judges from business and academia will select the three winners who will be announced in 2016.
Who can participate in the contest?
The contest is open to all women who have founded or co-founded their company and who have at some point of their careers benefitted from the EU’s research framework programmes, the EURATOM Framework Programme, the Competitiveness and Innovation framework programme (CIP) or actions relating to research and innovation under the European Structural and Investment Funds (known as the Structural Funds prior to 2014).
The contestant must reside in an EU Member State or a country associated to Horizon 2020, the EU’s research and innovation programme.
The company must have been registered before 1 January 2013 and have had an annual turnover of at least EUR 100 000 in 2013 or 2014.
Apply via the website
EU Horizon 2020 Funding – Societal Challenges
The following calls are being promoted on the Participant Portal:
Digital Security : Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust : closing 27/8/15
Disaster-resilience: Safeguarding and Securing Society, including adapting to climate change: closing 27/8/15
Border Security and External Security: closing 27/8/15
Fight against Crime and Terrorism: closing 27/8/15
FCH2 JU Call for proposals 2015 (Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking): closing 27/8/15
Bio Based Industries: closing 15/9/15
H2020-JTI-IMI2-2015-05-Two Stage (Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 (IMI2) Joint Undertaking): closing 13/10/15 (stage 1) and 15/3/16 (stage 2)
Green Vehicles: closing 15/10/15
Mobility for Growth (transport): closing 15/10/15
European Capital of Innovation Prize (plus dedicated website): closing 18/11/15
Horizon 2020 Dedicated SME Instrument Phase 1 and 2, 2014-2015 with specific themes (Company to apply): next closing dates – 17/9/15 and 25/11/15
Horizon Prize – Food Scanner: due to open in September 2015 with a closing date of 9/3/16
Horizon Prize – Better use of Antibiotics: closing 17/8/16
All closing dates are 17:00 (Brussels time)
If you are applying to any of these calls, be that as Lead or in collaboration with another organisation, please contact Paul Lynch or Emily Cieciura (Research Facilitators – EU and International) or contact your Faculty Funding Development Officer.
Newton Advanced Fellowships 2015 announced
The Academy of Medical Sciences, the British Academy and the Royal Society have announced the first round of recipients of their new research funding scheme, the Newton Advanced Fellowships. The scheme provides established international researchers with an opportunity to develop the research strengths and capabilities of their research groups through training, collaboration and reciprocal visits with a partner in the UK.
Researchers in Brazil, China, Mexico, South Africa and Turkey will collaborate with research partners in the UK. It is anticipated the skills and knowledge gained through these partnerships should lead to changes in the well-being of communities and increased economic benefits for partner countries. Partner agencies in participating countries are also offering their own schemes which UK researchers can apply for.
The recipients receive funding for diverse research projects which include studying the anthropogenic pollution effects on clouds in the Amazon; evaluating the role of youth employability programmes in South Africa; understanding how risk behaviour shapes foreign capital flows to Turkey; designing photocatalysts for solar fuels; working on child obesity in Mexico; examining the effects of affirmative action in college admission on social mobility in Brazil; and a study on antibiotic resistance.
See the full list of recipients and their areas of research via the webpage. Non-Russell Group recipients include Northumbria University, Heriot-Watt University, University of Greenwich and Edge Hill University.
Applications for the next round of Academy of Medical Sciences, Royal Society and British Academy Newton Advanced Fellowships closes on 16 September 2015. The Royal Society also has a LinkedIn group to facilitate finding partners.
If you intend to apply for a Newton Advanced Fellowship in this or future rounds, please contact Emily Cieciura as soon as possible.
NERC Annual Report 2014-15
NERC have published their annual report of 2014/15. This includes their strategic direction and highlights of the year.
Research Professional have written an article about the decrease in NERC success rates and why demand management measures have been put in place. You may find this a useful take on the report.
Know a SME who is looking to boost their Cyber Security? The Government is willing to help – up to £5000 is available!
A new scheme to protect small businesses from cyber-attacks was announced by the Government last week.
Speaking at the Reform “Cyber Security: assurance, resilience, response” conference in London, Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey has outlined how a new voucher scheme designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) will launch later this month.
The launch of the voucher scheme is part of a package of initiatives designed to increase the resilience of UK businesses to cyber-attacks. The package also includes a new online learning and careers hub to help ensure the UK has the cyber skills talent pool to protect both the public and private sectors as we face the reality of increasing cyber threats.
The new UK £1m cyber security innovation vouchers scheme will offer micro, small and medium sized businesses up to £5,000 for specialist advice to boost their cyber security and protect new business ideas and intellectual property. The scheme will be overseen by the Government’s innovation experts at Innovate UK.
As well as helping protect businesses from cyber-attacks, the vouchers enable firms to access services from the UK cyber security industry. This new scheme will also help businesses to adopt Cyber Essentials, Government’s flagship scheme to protect businesses online.
The UK cyber security industry is strong and growing – worth £17.6bn and employs over 40,000 people – but more skilled people are needed to help protect the nation as the UK goes digital and adopts new technologies.
For more information on how to apply, contact the Bournemouth University Cyber Security Unit on 01202 962 557 or email us at bucsu@bournemouth.ac.uk.
The full text of this article can be found here.
Leverhulme Trust Funding Call for an Artist in Residence
The Leverhulme Trust are offering up to £15,000 for UK universities to foster a new creative collaboration with an artist working in a discipline outside the applicant institution’s usual curriculum.
Apply after 10 April and by 10 September 2015. An artist may not apply directly – all applications must be made by the host institution.
See the call at https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/grant-schemes/artist-residence-grants
Latest Major Funding Opportunities
The following funding opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information.
Arts and Humanities Research Council
PaCCS Conflict Theme (2 calls). The call for Interdisciplinary Innovation Awards (up to 18 months and up to £100,000 fEC) aims to support the development of innovative, adventurous, higher risk, interdisciplinary research, including projects at an earlier stage of interdisciplinary evolution and/or led by early career researchers. The call for Interdisciplinary Research Grants (up to 48 months and between £400,000 and £800,000 fEC) aims to support innovative interdisciplinary research proposals related to specific conflict themes. Closing Date: 22/10/15
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Highlight notice in novel tools and technologies for vaccinology. The BBSRC, MRC and EPSRC are working together on a scheme which aims to fund cutting edge technology across the Councils’ portfolios into vaccine development and early-stage manufacturing research, and foster research that may be applicable across different diseases.Expression of Interest Closing Date: 17/9/15 at 16:00
Economic and Social Research Council
Future Research Leaders 2016. The Future Research Leaders scheme aims to enable outstanding early-career social scientists, in partnership with their host organisation, to acquire the skills set to become the future world leaders in their field. Grants will be for a maximum of two years, with a pro-rata duration option for those employed part-time on a contract of 0.5 FTE or above. There is an overall limit of £230,000 (at 100 per cent full economic cost) although the actual amount you can apply for will vary depending on when you submitted your PhD and your level of academic experience. Closing Date: 29/9/15 at 16:00
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Healthcare Impact Partnerships 2015/2016. This call is open to eligible UK academics who have held an EPSRC grant or portfolio of grants relevant to the capabilities of Disruptive Sensing and Analysis or Medical Device Design and Innovation. An overall budget of £5m is available. Intention to submit a proposal Closing Date: 27/8/15 at 16:00
The Health Foundation
Behavioural Insights Research Programme will make up to £1 million available to support a number of multidisciplinary research teams, consisting of psychology and behavioural economists, health care professionals, support-staff and managers, patients and those with design expertise. Awards will be between £200,000 and £350,000 for research completed over two to three years. Closing Date: 30/9/15 at Noon.
Innovate UK
Developing regenerative medicines and cell therapies. Innovate are to invest up to £8 million in collaborative R&D projects to stimulate the development of regenerative medicines and cell therapies in the UK. Proposals must be collaborative and led by a business and projects are expected to range in size from total costs of £500,000 to £2.5 million. Registration closes: 26/8/15 at Noon. Expression of Interest Closing Date: 2/9/15 at Noon.
Natural Environment Research Council
Green Infrastructure Innovation Projects. Proposals are invited that address the issues and opportunities around green infrastructure (GI) in the planning and investment decisions that are made by local policymakers, local planners and organisations responsible for developing the built environment. A maximum of £125k may be requested for projects lasting up to two years. Closing Date: 22/10/15 at 16:00
Independent Research Fellowship (IRF) Scheme is designed to develop scientific leadership among the most promising early-career environmental scientists, by giving all fellows five years’ support. Closing Date: 1/10/15
Science for Humanitarian Emergencies & Resilience (SHEAR) research programme Research Consortia Grants 2015. Outline proposals are invited for world-leading research into hydrological controls on landslide hazard in South Asia or flood and drought risk assessment, modelling and forecasting in Sub-Saharan Africa. Funding of up to £2m full economic cost (FEC) will be available per consortium with a total available budget of £8m. Closing Date: 1/9/15 at 16:00
Understanding the Value of the Natural Environment for Improving Human Health & Wellbeing. A funding pot of up to £3·96m (80% FEC) from NERC, AHRC and ESRC is available, which is expected to support between three and six interdisciplinary proposals of up to three years duration. This will provide an opportunity for natural and social scientists, arts and humanities researchers to form substantial interdisciplinary research collaborations. Closing Date: 22/9/15
Royal Society
Newton International Fellowship. The scheme provides the opportunity for the best early stage post-doctoral researchers from all over the world to work at UK research institutions. Newton Fellowships last for two years. Funding consists of £24,000 per annum for subsistence costs, and up to £8,000 per annum research expenses, as well as a one-off payment of up to £2,000 for relocation expenses and may also be eligible to receive up to £6,000 annually following the tenure of their Fellowship to support networking activities with UK-based researchers. Closing Date: 9/9/15
Wellcome Trust
Seed Awards in Science. Grants of of up to £100,000 for up to two years will be made available to help researchers develop original and innovative ideas which propose to carry out interdisciplinary research across our Science, Medical Humanities, Society and Ethics and Innovations funding. Closing Date: 22/10/15
Sustaining Excellence Awards. The fund is targeted towards organisations which have an excellent track record with the Wellcome Trust (at least 3 awards drawn from any of the Engaging Science schemes) and a desire to maintain best practice in public engagement. Sustaining Excellence awards will typically be in the range of £90,000 to £1,000,000, spread across three to five years. Expression of Interest Closing Date: 25/9/15
World Health Organisation, EDCTP and the UK Medical Research Council
Research and capacity development in support of the EVD response. Proposals is to build and strengthen regional, national, institutional and individual capacities to conduct high quality health research (e.g. clinical trials, operational and/or implementation research) during infectious disease outbreaks resulting in health emergencies. Up to €250k is available per proposal. Closing Date: 6/8/15
Please note that some funding bodies specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKEO Funding Development Officer
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.
BIS annual report 2014-15
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have published their Annual Report and Accounts for 2014-15.
The report highlights key acheivements, how they performed, and consolidated accounts. The accounts show that the department’s spending on science and innovation in 2014-15 was around £500m, with £561m planned for 2015-16, including the budget for Innovate UK. Spending through the research councils remains stable at around £4.6 billion.
MRC Annual Report 2014/15
The MRC have published their Annual Report for 2014/15. This includes a strategic overview and highlights their key activities.
You can also read Research Professionals article on the decrease in MRC’s success rates.
EPSRC Annual Report and Funding Rates 2014-2015
The EPSRC have issued their annual report where they are focussing on securing better value for money and investing in skills training and research. You can read Research Professionals article on the EPSRC’s annual report here.
EPSRC have also issued a report of their funding rates for last year. In this period, EPSRC considered 2,386 research grant proposals through peer review and provided funding for 914, giving a funding rate of 38%. This amounted to a demand of £1,823M, with funding for £713M and funding rate by value of 39%.
Managing low EU grant success rates
According to Science|Business, the EU is considering mechanisms to manage the increasingly low EU grant success rates before research universities shy away from the EU calls.
“It’s more popular than ever before. But with our success rates we’re heading to a situation where we have to be very careful not to scare away top researchers,” Robert-Jan Smits, the European Commission’s Director-General for Research and Innovation, told Science|Business.
Apparently, the Commission is considering three approaches:
- Two-stage applications – As a rule of thumb, 80 per cent of proposals – those not considered strong enough to meet competition requirements – should be rejected in a short-form, stage one evaluation, Smits said. In stage two, where a longer application is required, at least 35 per cent of proposals should have a chance of success.
- Greater emphasis on impact – Brendan Hawdon, Head of Horizon 2020 Policy in Smit’s directorate-general, elaborated. “It’s all about the outcome,” he said. An applicant should say clearly: “Here’s what we want to come out of the project.”
- Non-starters – making the call documents clearer so that potential applicants can work out for themselves that they will not be funded alongside, potentially, some element of demand management
To read this article in full, please go to Science|Business, where you can also register for newsletter updates.
Funding available to support the commercialisation of ideas arising from that NERC-funded research
Fund now open !
The Follow-on Fund is a ‘proof of concept’ fund to support the commercialisation of ideas arising from that NERC-funded research.
This funding picks up where research programme and discovery science (responsive mode) grants leave off and enables those research outputs to be further developed so their commercial potential can be realised.
Examples of activities funded include technology licensing, launching technology-based products or services, selling know-how based consultancy services, and the commercialisation of NERC-funded datasets. Proposals are invited for projects pursuing any of these approaches or, indeed, others.
The Follow-on Fund will opens today – 14 July 2015 and close on 22 October 2015. This call will allow proposals for up to £125k at 100% FEC (£100k NERC contribution at 80% FEC) for up to 12 months, starting in April 2016.
For further information: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/available/schemes/followon/
BBSRC Annual Report
The BBSRC have released their annual report for 2014-15. The report contains their highlights of the year as well as their strategy, priority and themes ‘the age of bioscience’
.
You may also be interested to see Research Professional’s article on BBSRC’s increased success rates for women.
AHRC annual report
The AHRC have released their annual report for 2014-15. The report contains their highlights of the year as well as their strategy, which highlights the trend towards increasing funding for those applications with non-academic partners.
You may also be interested to see Research Professional’s article on AHRC’s reduction of spend on research.
British Council International Research Workshops – your chance to participate
The following international workshops are all being advertised on the British Council website.
If you are an early-career researcher based in the UK or the partner country you can apply for a grant to participate.
Promotion of clean energy in resource-rich countries: case study of Kazakhstan
Date of workshop: 17-19 August 2015
Location of workshop: Astana, Kazakhstan
Partner country: Kazakhstan
Deadline for application: 7 July
Science, Technology and Innovation in Neglected Diseases: Policies, Funding and Knowledge Creation
Date of workshop: 17-20 November 2015
Location of workshop: Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Partner country: Brazil
Deadline for application: 17 August 2015
Date of workshop: 28 October – 1 November 2015
Location of workshop: Institute of Technology Bandung, Indonesia
Partner country: Indonesia
Deadline for applications: 13th July 2015
Materials Chemistry for Energy and the Environment: A UK-Indonesia Initiative
Date of workshop: 26-29 January 2016
Location of workshop: Bogor, Indonesia
Partner country: Indonesia
Deadline for applications: 1 September 2015
Date of workshop: 12-16 October 2015
Location of workshop: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Partner country: Brazil
Deadline for applications: 29 July 2015
Date of workshop: 3-6 November 2015
Location of workshop: Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Partner country: Mexico
Deadline for applications: 31 July 2015
Do you need a KIC?
The European Institute for Innovation and Technology (A European Commission body) has announced their Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC) calls for 2016:
- EIT Food: Food4future: sustainable supply chain from resources to consumers
- EIT Manufacturing: Added-value manufacturing
To find out more and how you can get involved, the first port of call is the dedicated website, which includes slides outlining the announcement and timeline. There is also specific information for potential partners in the HE sector.
If you are not sure what a KIC does, the EIT website details:
As new types of partnerships within the European innovation landscape, KICs are characterised by the following features:
- High degree of integration: each KIC is organised around an independent legal entity, gathering world-class KIC partners from all the innovation dimensions. The specificity of the KICs is to integrate, for the first time at EU level, education and entrepreneurship with research and innovation. The EIT does not address education, research and innovation independently but instead simultaneously, as constitutive elements of a single innovation chain, to deliver incremental and disruptive innovation.
- Long-term perspective: each KIC is set up for a minimum of seven years to contribute to overcoming fragmentation via world-class, long-term, integrated partnerships. This long-term perspective enables partners to commit to a strategic initiative for a longer time than in traditional innovation policy initiatives. It also ensures that the KIC is able to focus on short-, mid- and long-term objectives, remaining agile enough to adapt to emerging needs from the field in which they operate.
- Efficient governance: strong leadership is a pre-requisite; each KIC is driven by a CEO and KIC partners are represented by single legal entities for more streamlined decision-making. KICs must produce annual business plans, including an ambitious portfolio of activities from education to business creation, with clear targets and deliverables, looking for both market and societal impact.
- The co-location model: each KIC consists of five or six world-class innovation hotspots, building and leveraging on existing European capacities. A co-location centre brings together diverse teams of individuals from across the Knowledge Triangle together in one physical place (usually within partners’ universities or companies), acting as a hub for many KIC activities, and combining competences and skills developed in different areas of specialisation at a pan-European level.
- KICs culture: Europe needs to embrace a true entrepreneurial culture, which is essential for capturing the value of research and innovation, for setting-up new ventures and actual market deployment of innovations in potential high-growth sectors. KICs are doing just this by integrating education and entrepreneurship with research and innovation and operating according to business logic and a results-oriented approach.
Still not sure? Take a look at the websites for the existing KICs: EIT Raw Materials, Climate-KIC, EIT Digital, EIT Health and KIC Innoenergy to see who is involved and what they have achieved.
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