The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

The BBSRC is inviting applications for research grants from eligible researchers with a strong track record of research in their remit to purchase items of advanced research equipment via this Advanced Life Sciences Research Technology Initiative (ALERT14) call. The capital equipment budget for this call is approximately £8M. In addition, up to £2M in additional funding may be available to purchase computing equipment (hardware and software) that provides new capability or enhances capacity for the management and analysis of ‘big data’. Applications should be in the range of £250k-£750k excl. VAT. Closing date 16:00 on 13/05/14.

ERASynBio have announced the 2nd joint call for transnational research projects – Building Synthetic Biology Capacity through innovative transnational projects. Closing date 03/07/14.

The ESRC, in partnership with the Public Policy Institute for Wales, invites proposals for research on what works in tackling poverty from eligible research organisations across the UK. A briefing event will take place in Cardiff on 08/04/14. Five projects with costs up to £250,000 will be funded with 80% of costs covered by the funder. Closing date 16:00, 24/04/14.

Are you working with a company (SME) developing innovative products and is driven by research? Then EUREKA‘s Eurostars might provide the funding which they require to gain competititve advantage. Closing date 11/09/14.

The Royal Society‘s India-UK Scientific Seminars scheme is for mid-career scientists who want to organise a small three-day scientific seminar between groups of scientists from India and the UK. The meeting may take place in either the UK or India and may have up to 20 attendees (5 from the visiting country and up to 15 from the host country). The scheme is intended to encourage scientific discussion and to promote collaboration and knowledge transfer by encouraging interaction within the wide research community. Up to £12,000 is available. Closing date 10/06/14

IC tomorrow, via the Technology Strategy Board, is offering five businesses up to £25k each to encourage digital innovation in data. They are looking for innovative commercial solutions that meet broad objectives set in conjunction with industry partners – Ingram Content Group, EE Limited, Ordnance Survey, Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust and British Library. There will be a briefing event for the contest at BL-NK, London on 09/04/14. Up to £25,000 (excl. VAT) is available. Closing date 07/05/14.

The Technology Strategy Board is investing up to £3.5m in collaborative R&D that can help businesses establish secure, resilient and reliable connections with staff who need to work remotely. They are looking for novel proposals that address the challenge of integrating different technologies to make remote working easier and more cost-effective while sharing data securely with employees operating in the field.  There is a briefing event on 08/04/14. Applicants must register by 30/04/14. Expressions of Interest must be submitted by noon 07/05/14, with successful applicants invited to submit a full proposal by noon on 10/07/14.

SMART 2014-15 Round 1 from the Technology Strategy Board is now open. Smart is a grant scheme which offers funding to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in R&D projects in the strategically important areas of science, engineering and technology, from which successful new products, processes and services could emerge. The scheme supports SMEs carrying out R&D which offers potentially significant rewards and that could stimulate UK economic growth. Three types of grant are available: Proof of Market, Proof of Concept and Development of Prototype. A brouchure for businesses is available on the webiste or hard copies can be requested from Emily Cieciura (ecieciura@bournemouth.ac.uk) The batch assessment date for Round 1 of the current financial year 2014/15 is noon on 22/05/14.

Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic, which includes forthcoming training dates up to November 2014.

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

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

Proposals are invited by EPSRC for collaborative research projects to undertake fundamental research that will advance the case for Bioenergy. The successful projects will be expected to become members of the SUPERGEN Bioenergy Hub. Funding up to £1m for one of three projects is available,. Closing date 16:00 on 24/06/14.

ESRC and the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) jointly invite proposals for Early Intervention Evaluation Partnerships between eligible UK research organisations and the EIF’s Pioneering Early Intervention Places. These Places are a number of local areas across the country, committed to sharing information on best practise in early intervention. Closing date 15/04/14.

MRC  has issued a highlight notice regarding Environmental Exposer and Chronic Disease. The MRC states that a better understanding of the associations between environmental exposures and health effects will inform risk assessment by policy makers and individuals and facilitate the development of strategies for the prevention of diseases. Exploring the impact of environmental exposure on health is an objective in the MRC Strategic Plan Research Changes Lives, which MRC addresses jointly with partners under the auspices of the Living with Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership. Please see the website for details of action areas and closing dates.

NERC invites proposals for the pilot phase of the Strategic Research Impact Scheme(SR-IS), a scheme aimed at research translation, utilisation and informing future strategic research directions to deliver defined and tangible impacts. This pilot call focuses on previously funded active or completed NERC research relevant to the remit of the proposed programme area. Applications should focus on one (or more if appropriate) programme areas and justify why this has been chosen. A full list of past and current NERC programmes is available. Closing date: 15/05/14

The Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £6m in collaborative R&D that supports the digitisation of the construction sector supply chain. This will bring together the construction, digital and ICT communities to develop innovative new products, processes or services that could revolutionise collaborations between supply chain partners and unlock new business models. This will help the sector to reduce costs, speed up delivery times, increase efficiency, cut waste, and deliver solutions that are ‘right first time’. The deadline for expressions of interest is at noon on 30/04/14. The second stage deadline for invited applications is at noon on 03/07/14.         

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic, which includes forthcoming training dates up to November 2014. If thinking of applying, why not add notification of your interest on ResearchProfessional’s record of the bid so that BU colleagues can see your intention to bid and contact you to collaborate.

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

The BBSRC‘s Bioinformatics and Biological Resources (BBR) Fund aims to: support the bioscience research community with the establishment, maintenance and enhancement of infrastructures; support high quality bioinformatics and biological resources that align with otheir updated Strategic Plan: The Age of Bioscience; supply long-term funding and provide a stable environment for resource development and provision. The indicative budget for the call is £6.5M, subject to the quality of applications received, and will incorporate capital investment in software infrastructure. Full applications must be submitted using Je-S by 08/05/14 16:00.

The BBSRC Enterprise Fellowships aim to increase exploitation of ideas with commercial potential from BBSRC supported research.  The Enterprise Fellowships are designed to enable an individual to advance the commercialisation of existing research results or technological developments and are tenable for a period of one year.  The Fellowships enable the holder to concentrate on developing the commercial potential of their research, whilst also receiving formal training in relevant business skills. The Enterprise Fellowship programme provides entrepreneurship and business skills training through the participating Training Provider, currently the Entrepreneur Business School (EBS), which will be directly relevant to the Fellow as they seek to build their new business. Closing date 16/05/14.

The British Academy receives a generous grant from the Sino-British Fellowship Trust (SBFT), established by the late Dr Elizabeth Frankland Moore, to support individual or co-operative research projects. Research may be conducted either in Britain or in China, or in both countries, and must involve person-to-person contacts. Up to £10,000 is available. The closing date is 16/04/14.

Through the British Academy, the Ancient Persia Fund was established in 1988 in memory of the distinguished Russian scholar Vladimir G Lukonin. The aim of the fund is to encourage and support the study of Ancient Persia and related areas including Central Asia, in the period before the coming of Islam. Activities supported by the Fund include research grants for the study of Ancient Iran and neighbouring areas, covering the travel costs of students and scholars. Applications should be submitted by 16/04/14.

The Leverhulme Trust are inviting university applications to their new Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarships scheme which was announced  in January 2014 as a means to support doctoral studies in UK universities and to nurture the future generation of aspiring young researchers. At a time of growing undergraduate debt, the Board wishes to ensure that increased indebtedness does not discourage graduates from undertaking doctoral study. The initial investment in the scheme is over £10 million, providing for 150 scholarships over the next three years. Closing date 11/09/14 at 16:00

NERC seeks proposals to host a new Centre for Doctoral Training specialising in risk and mitigation; using big data. Funding for ten studentships will be awarded per annum, and the CDT award will provide funding for three years of new student intake from 2015-16. Closing date 16:00 on 26/06/14

NERC and BBSRC invite proposals from consortia of research organisations interested in hosting a new Centre for Doctoral Training, specialising in the training of scientists with a high level of rounded skills and knowledge to tackle current and future challenges in soil science. Funding for eight studentships will be awarded per annum, and the CDT award will provide funding for three years of new student intake from 2015-16. Closing date  16:00 on 26/06/14

NERC is inviting proposals 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. up to £40,000 is available. The closing date is 16:00 on 22/04/14.

The Wellcome Trust is offering funding for accommodation and travel for ‘Gathering Intelligence: A free seminar regarding Thomson’s life and work’ to be held at Edinburgh University Library on 16th May 2014. Applicants must apply by 28/04/14.

 Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic, which includes forthcoming training dates up to November 2014.

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

The BBSRC Visualising Research competition for designers, graphic artists, software developers, programmers and anyone with an interest in data visualisation is now open. The purpose of this challenge is to develop visualisations of the Gateway to Research data that can be easily understood by the public. Displaying these data in an accessible way will also have benefits for a range of sectors, stakeholders including policy makers, other funding bodies and the media. A prize of £2,000 will be awared on 28/4/14. The closing date for application is 21/03/14.

The EPSRC‘s Centre for Power Electronics is pleased to announce an external call for proposals for funding to carry out Feasibility Studies which align or deliver to the Centre’s vision. Central to this call is the need for submissions to deliver to the vision of the Centre in supporting innovation in the UK power electronics sector. Up to £70,000 per project is available. The closing date is 15:00 on 10/04/14.

In addtion, the EPSRC are support Cross-Cutting Topic Projects (scroll down on page for this call). Up to £300,000 is avaialble per proejct. The closing date for this call is also 15:00 on 10/04/14. 

Through the EPSRC, the RCUK Energy Programme invites expressions of interest from those willing to attend a workshop in Oxford to develop Phase 3 of the UK-India civil nuclear research programmes. The EoI must be submiited by 04/04/14. The workshop is expected to take place 10/06/14 to 12/06/14.

The MOD’s Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) (part of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)), seeks applications regarding Novel electro-optic infrared technology. There will  be a webinar for this competition on Thursday 6 March 2014. The closing date is 08/04/14.

The NERC  Standard Research Grants  is an open competition for curiosity-motivated basic, strategic or applied research in the environmental sciences. Proposals are assessed on their scientific excellence. A minimum of £65,000 to a maximum of £1.2m is awarded. The next round will close on 22/07/14.

Through NERC, the ESPA-2014 Grants call is for ‘blue skies’ research projects designed to significantly advance global understanding on the way that ecosystem services contribute to poverty alleviation, with specific emphasis on generating new understanding that can benefit poor people in low-income countries (LICs). Research funded under ESPA-2014 is expected to inform thinking and practice over, at least, the next decade, representing a step-change in the knowledge and evidence that will underpin future activities in ESPA’s sphere of activity. Awards of up to £150,000 are available. The closing date is 16:00 on 14/05/14.

 NERC is inviting applications to host workshops. One of the activities that helps integration and interaction across the Biodiveristy and Ecosystem Service Sustainability (BESS) projects and extends BESS science into the wider community is through NERC’s programme of workshops and working groups. BESS has internal funds for supporting this activity which can be applied for at any time. Up to £8,000 can be awarded for each workshop, which could include travel for up to two international participants.

The Wellcome Trust invites application from PhD student or junior fellows, funded through the Wellcome Trust Medical Humanities (MH) programme, to undertake a three-month fellowship at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). The Fellowship allows unique access to a parliamentary and policy-making setting, thereby facilitating the real-world application of policy relevant research in medical humanities. Applications should reach the Wellcome Trust by 22/11/014.

The Wellcome Trust has announced the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Fellowship in Society and Ethics. This scheme enables a Wellcome Trust-funded PhD student or junior fellow to undertake a three-month fellowship at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). If successful in applying, a fully funded three-month minimum extension to the PhD or fellowship award will be supported, and any maintenance grant will also be paid while based at POST. Travel and accommodation needs will also be considered. Closing date 02/04/14.

 Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic, which includes forthcoming training dates up to November 2014.

The following opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information:

The AHRC and ESRC have developed a partnership with three organisations that are interested in hosting a funded Design Fellow within their organisation: The Design Council, Skills Development Scotland and The Cabinet Office Policy Lab. The Fellowship will fund design researchers to spend up to 12 months embedded in such organisations, working on a collaborative project that will be of interest and benefit to both the researcher and the host organisation. Awards must start between 1st August 2014 and 31st December 2014 inclusive. Closing date 24/04/14.

EPSRC are inviting research proposals from consortia across the Engineering and Physical Sciences communities to address the manufacturing research challenges in developing applications, production technologies and future processes that incorporate advanced functional materials. Up to £2.5m per proejct is available. EOIs are to be submitted by 15/04/14 with invited full proposals to be submitted by end July 2014

 As part of their community building exercise, EPSRC Centre – LiME (national centre in liquid metal engineering) have set up a special fund to support small-scale feasibility studies in the UK solidification community (excluding the original LiME investigators). A total of £144,000 has been ring-fenced to support a total of 6 studies, each at a cost of up to £24k (80% FEC). The duration of each feasibility study should not exceed 6 months. This support will provide proof-of-concept results for preparation of grant proposals to the relevant funding bodies. Closing date 14/03/14

The ERA-NET Bioenergy wishes to fund collaborative projects on integrated biorefineries. Projects must aim to provide optimal value by a complete, integrated utilisation of raw material from sustainable. Pre-proposals closing date 28/04/14.

 NERC are offering funding for the Oil and Gas sector. They have a call for innovation funding to facilitate the take up of NERC science and expertise by the oil and gas industry. The closing date for this call is 16:00 on 08/05/14.

NERC also have a number of Knowledge Exchange opportunties. All close on 06/05/14 with interview dates in June aNand July. These include:

• Oil and Gas – developing a broader, strategic approach to mapping and engaging the sector, including identifying future opportunities and approaches to engagement
• FASTNEt – understanding UK shelf water quality and productivity
• Horticulture – to bring tangible benefits to business performance through sustained knowledge exchange and effective research translation
• Environmental Nanoscience – for the Environmental Nanoscience Initiative (ENI) research programme in 2014 for a period of one year with the possibility of further extension
• Future Cities – meeting the need of the Cities-Lab to access the UK environmental science base
• International Ocean Discovery Programme – developing knowledge exchange activities and improve engagement with industry

Please note that some funders specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKE Support Officer.

You can set up your own personalised alerts on ResearchProfessional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s RKE Officer in RKE Operations or see the recent post on this topic, which includes forthcoming training dates.