Tagged / European Commission

FP9: what is on the horizon?

EU, Events

Science|Business hosted a full day webcast of their event Research Strategies: Europe 2030 and the next Framework Programme.

There are a number of consulations forthcoming, where you will be able to contribute:

> Horizon 2020 interim evaluation (due to launch w/c 17/10/16)

> FP9 consulations (expected early 2017)

Please take a look at Policy directions – a synthesis, which drew together the discussions from the strategy and policy workshops:

> Connected health: Can big data help us live healthier, longer?

> Energy and resources: Can innovation really help us manage the planet better?

> Security and defence R&D: How can we make Europe safer?

> Connected cars: Can autos, ICT and regulation work together?

> Open Innovation: How public labs and private investment can work together

> Scaling up: How can Europe grow its companies faster?

> Enabling technologies: How can R&I re-power Europe’s industries?

Key features for possible inclusion in the next Framework Programme (FP9), the successor to Horizon 2020, include:

> A greater role for Social Sciences and Humanities much earlier in the innovation process, rather than being brought in to make new technology acceptable to the end user, late in the day

> Making innovation inclusive by engaging with all stakeholders, linked to a drive towards a shared vocabulary and cultural understanding, especially between industry and academia

> Demand-driven research

> Open data and the implications for security and privacy

> Impact, with the ability to measure, monitor, demonstrate and communicate impact being specifically mentioned – there needs to be a credible    promise of impact / added value for society and growth

> Excellence is still paramount

> FP9 activity needs to be part of society, part of the solution and perceived as such.

Further hints of what may be to come can be found in Commissioner Moedas’ speech Embracing an ERA of Change, Berlin, 10/10/16.

The inherent dilemmas presented by Kurt Vandenburghe (Director Policy Development and Coordination at European Commission’s DG Research and Innovation) are:

> Prioritisation may exclude some stakeholders

> The need for a careful balance between ensuring continuity yet embracing change, as we move from Horizon 2020 (FP8) to FP9

Want to know more? Watch out for further announcements made on this blog. As well as Science|Business being an excellent source of EU information, BU also has a subscription to UKRO, to which BU staff can subscribe with their BU email.

UK Research Office training opportunties

EU, Events, Funding opportunities, Info Days, Research Training

UKRO logoUKRO hold provides regular training events in their capacity as the UK National Contact Point for the European Research Council (ERC) and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions​ (MSCA).

Forthcoming events:

26th October 2016: ERC Consolidator Grants Information and Proposal Writing Event to be held at the University of Glasgow

Are you a researcher interested in applying for the 2017 ERC Consolidator Grants call?

The session is aimed at researchers based in, or moving to, the UK who are planning to submit a proposal to the ERC Consolidator Grants call. The 2017 Consolidator Grants call is expected to open on 20 October 2016 and close on 9 February 2017. Applicants are expected to be active researchers and to have a track record of excellent research. The scheme is designed to support Principal Investigators (PIs) at the stage at which they may still be consolidating their own independent research team or programme. To be eligible for the 2017 call, the PI must be 7-12 years from the date of award of their PhD on 1 January 2017, which is extendable in certain strict cases.

Another repeating event is being planned for a London location in November 2016.

 

12th October 2016: MSCA Innovative Training Networks (ITN) to be held at the University of West London

The ITN scheme supports joint research training and/or doctoral programmes, implemented by European partnerships of universities, research institutions, industry (incl. SMEs) and other non-academic organisations. The research training programmes are intended to provide doctoral students with excellent research skills, coupled with experience outside academia, hence developing their innovation capacities and employability prospects. The event aim to provide participants with an in-depth overview of the ITN scheme. Participants should gain a clear understanding of the proposal format for each scheme and the key issues relating to planning, writing and submitting proposals. There will also be ample opportunity to ask questions. Attendance will be free of charge, thanks to the support from the University of West London.

To attend staff should register, via BU’s subscription, on the UKRO website. Please ensure that you have approval within your Faculty to attend. You should also register with UKRO so that you 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.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships – well done to all our applicants!

EU, Funding opportunities, Research Training, RKE development framework

RKEO are pleased to confirm that Bournemouth University has submitted 19 applications to the highly competitive Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship scheme. Logo_Marie-Curie

We wish all the participating BU staff and potential fellows, from across the world, every success.

This year’s potential fellows are from countries including Brazil, Romania, Greece, Hungary, Spain, France and China.

If you are interested in applying next year, it is never too early to start building your relationship with potential fellows. RKEO will be running sessions specifically for MSCA fellowship applications and other international schemes, in the coming months, as part of the new RKE Development Framework.

Please keep an eye on this blog for further event details or come along to our information stands on launch day at the EBC Ground Floor (Lansdowne Campus) or in the Poole House Courtyard (Talbot Campus) between 9am-5pm on September 20th, 2016.

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

Business Engagement, EU, 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.

EURAXESS – Marie Skłodowska-Curie

EU

Please see the following announcement just received from EURAXESS:
Euraxess

Dear researchers,

As you know, the Marie Skłodowska Curie Action-Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) call was launched on the 12th April. With the collaboration of SRUK/CERU (Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK), at RUVID we have organised a webinar on Friday 6th May between 9 am and 11 am to present 12 research groups from our Valencian universities as potential host institutions for young researchers and candidates for this MSCA-IF call.

Each of the 12 researchers will give a ten minute presentation on their research group, main research area(s) and the profile of the candidate they are looking for.

These groups cover different fields: Physics, Life Sciences, Information Science & Engineering, and Social Sciences. Please see the detailed programme of the webinar – Webinar Presentation of Host Institutions inValencia_06-05-2016

This is a unique opportunity for you to find your host institution.

If you have completed your PhD or have 4 years full-time experience as a researcher, this webinar is for you.

Don’t miss it and register at: bit.ly/1Y2NvQN

We are also promoting this event on social media, using the following hastags: #MSCA #IF #MarieCurieFellowship

For more information, feel free to contact Joumana at jsweiss@ruvid.org

Latest Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities

money and cogs
The following funding opportunities have been announced. Please follow the links for more information.

British Council

The British Council have announced the opening of a number of Newton funded grants.

The Newton Institutional Links grant aims to build innovative collaborations directly relevant to social welfare and economic development between the UK and any of the following countries:  Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Thailand and Mexico.  Grants are available for amounts between £50k-£300k. Closing Date 27/6/16 at 16:00

The Newton Researcher Links Travel Grants has made available funds for international research placements (for 1-6 months, dependent on the country) for researchers that reside in the UK with partners in Colombia, Egypt, Indonesia and Turkey or those from the partner countries to visit the UK. guidance may be found here.  Closing Date 27/6/16 at 16:00

The Newton Workshop Grants fund aims to bring early-career researchers together with a partner country (Brazil, Egypt, India, Turkey, South Africa and Vietnam.  Mexico may also be added to this fund in the future.)  to address problems of low-income and vulnerable populations.  The level of the grant funding available depends on the specific partner country. More guidance may be found here. Closing Date 27/6/16 at 16:00

Economic and Social Research Council

The ESRC, together with DFID, welcome applications to the Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Research Programme.  The topic for 2016 relates to ‘how do accountability relationships and processes within developing country education systems enable or inhibit the raising of learning outcomes?’ A total of £6.5M will be made available with projects expected to be between £200k-£700k.  Closing Date 26/7/16 at 16:00

European Commission

The  Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport have announced a tender opportunity to apply for a “Study on the implementation of Directive 2006/126/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20.12.2006 on driving licences“.  Applications are welcome for amounts up to €200k to provide analysis for the project which can last a maximum 12 months. Closing Date 7/6/16

The  Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion has opened a call for proposals which offer “Support for Social Dialogue“.  A total fund of €9.3M is available with expected grants to be between €150k-€500k.  Closing Date 30/6/16

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) welcomes applications for the provision of services in relation to research on “Italy-Parma: Wildlife: collecting and sharing data on wildlife populations, transmitting animal disease agents“. The maximum amount to be tendered for is €3m for a study lasting no more than 72 months. Closing Date 13/6/16

As part of H2020, 27 calls related to Bio-Based Industries (H2020-BBI-JTI-2016) have opened.  An overall budget of €188.6M will be available with a minimum amount of €110M to be awarded. Closing Date 8/9/16

Wellcome Trust

Applications are invited for an Early Career Fellowships who wish undertake research in a laboratory in India.  Fellowships are for up to five years and will cover personal support for the fellow, research and travel expenses. Closing Date 6/6/16 

The Seed Awards in Science scheme provides one-off grants of up to £100k for projects lasting up to two years.  Funds cannot be used to pay for personal salary costs but are intended to pay for research and travel costs. Closing Date 20/6/16

The Collaborative Awards in Humanities and Social Science invites applications for projects proposing to conduct research into major health-related questions in the humanities and social sciences.  Awards cannot exceed £2M but are expected to be in the range of £1M to £1.5M. Preliminary Application Closing Date 8/7/16

The Collaborative Awards in Science makes available an award of up to £4M over five years for interdisciplinary research collaborations of scientists and/or clinicians (medical and veterinary) and/or non-biologists (e.g. mathematicians, physicists, chemists, engineers and social scientists). Preliminary Application Closing Date 22/8/16

If you are interested in submitting to any of the above calls you must contact RKEO with adequate notice before the deadline.

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.

Sign up to EU RSS News Feeds to keep up to date

EU, Events, Funding opportunities, Info Days, Research communication, Research news

Hate that sinking feeling of finding out that you have missed out on a key funding Info Day or brokerage event?

Sign up now and be in the know.

The European Commission’s DG Innovation and Research provides subject-specific news feeds to help you to keep up to date with your research activities in your discipline and EU opportunities, including funding and networking events. To do this, the place to go is their RSS page. Instructions on how to add these to your news feed are also given on this page

Main topics include:

To see the full list and subsets of those listed above, please go to the main RSS page and find all the relevant RSS news feeds for you.

 

Become an EU Expert to further your experience of research submissions

EU, Research assessment, Training

One important way to learn more about how a funder manages the process of accepting, evaluating and awarding grants is to act as an expert reviewing applications. It may also help you meet with other experts in your field or promote interdisciplinary working.

For the EU, there is a section on Participant Portal dedicated to experts where you can find out more about the commitment required and how to register. Experts for the EU are involved in:image001

  • evaluation of proposals
  • monitoring of actions

In addition, experts assist in the :

  • preparation, implementation or evaluation of programmes and design of policies. This includes the Horizon 2020 Advisory Groups.

There are also opportunities to become a Business Innovation Coach for the SME instrument.

Interested? Why not take a look at the resources made available for evaluators for the Innovative Training Networks call? This page shows how much support is made available to experts and how this can be a valuable addition to your research CV.

You might also like to take a look at the various videos on the YouTube channel – Innovation Union.

If you are already an expert, please contact Emily Cieciura, RKEO’s Research Facilitator: EU & International so that you can share your experiences with others at BU.

 

 

Call for Ideas – Your view counts!

BU Challenges, EU, innovation

The European Commission has launched a Call for Ideas for a European Innovation Council to support Europe’s most promising innovators.question mark

Commissioner Moedas launched the Call for ideas at the Science|Business Annual Conference in Brussels. He said that “Europe has excellent science, but we lack disruptive market-creating innovation. This is what is needed to turn our best ideas into new jobs, businesses and opportunities.” While the number of start-ups created in Europe is on a par with competitors such as the United States, Europe lags behind in disruptive innovation and in scaling start-ups into world-beating businesses. A European Innovation Council could contribute to solving this problem.

To find out more and to participate in this survey, please go to the European Innovation Council website, where you can also view background documents and position papers.

The deadline for survey completion in 29 April 2016.