Tagged / Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity : OfS Challenge Competition: Industrial strategy and skills – support for local students and graduates

BU research, Funding opportunities, Industry collaboration

The OfS, through the first Challenge Competition, invites higher education providers to develop and implement projects to identify ways of supporting the transition to highly skilled employment and improving outcomes for graduates who seek employment in their home region.

Please see a summary of the awards below:

Deadline : 14 December 2018

Project start date : April 2019; completed by 31 March 2022 (three years)

Award available : Between £100,000 to £300,000 (individual); Up to £500,000 (collaborative bids with strategic partners)

Please see this link for more information about this funding opportunity.

Funding opportunity : Manufacturing the Future: Standard Research Proposals

BU research, EPSRC, Funding opportunities

EPSRC logo

The EPSRC Manufacturing the Future theme invites standard research proposals for consideration at a manufacturing-focused prioritisation panel. A standard Manufacturing panel will be held every quarter (subject to sufficient demand). Proposals for any panel should address key research challenges facing manufacturing in the UK today and in the future. This activity is intended to highlight the theme’s long term ambition to increase the number of investigator- led research ideas we support.

The Manufacturing the Future theme has prioritised funding to support investigator-led research ideas in manufacturing, with up to £3 million per panel available (dependent on demand and quality of proposals). Should there be insufficient demand we reserve the right for proposals to be considered at the most appropriate capability theme panel meeting.

The next batching dates are:

  • 16:00 on 11 April 2019
  • 16:00 on 23 July 2019 (To be confirmed)

The batching dates are being published to help the manufacturing community plan and submit standard proposals. They are not deadlines but used by the Manufacturing the Future Theme to assess the level of demand in each quarter.

It is strongly recommended that proposals are submitted before the batching dates to ensure there is enough time for the peer-review process to be completed. Proposals submitted after this date, or those that do not have sufficient reviews in time for the panel, will be assessed by the most appropriate capability theme panel at a later date (i.e. Engineering, ICT, Physical Sciences or Mathematics).

Please see below a summary of this funding call :

Funding available : £3 million

Deadline : Open (However, it is suggested that applications be submitted in accordance with batching dates closing deadlines)

Please see this link for more information about this funding opportunity.

 

Funding opportunity : ESRC National Centre for Research Methods

BU Challenges, BU research, Funding opportunities, Research Training

The ESRC has announced funding opportunity for a new phase of its National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM), which is an exciting opportunity for a team to develop and deliver a strategy for methods training and capacity-building in the social sciences. The team will be responsible for :

  • co-ordinating ESRC’s investment in research methods training
  • delivering a strategically informed and diverse programme of research methods training
  • identifying, implementing and sharing best practice.

Please see below a summary of the funding opportunity:

Deadline for Expression of interest (EOI) : 18 October 2018

Deadline for full proposal : 22 November 2018

Project start date : 1 October 2019

Available funding: £3million for five years

Please see this link for more information about this funding opportunity.

Future electric vehicles: new Faraday battery challenge funding

BU Challenges, BU research, Business Engagement, innovation

Image from fleetcarma.com

A £25million funding competition from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund will be available to innovative businesses with projects to develop batteries for future electric vehicles.

The Faraday battery challenge is a £246 million investment to bring forward the next generation of electric vehicles. These will be powered by high-performance EV batteries that are cost-effective, lightweight, durable and safe, and can be recycled.

Funding details

This competition is to support business-led research and development to improve batteries for automotive applications.

There are 2 opportunities to apply, depending on the stage of your project, which are:

  • up to £23 million for industrial research and development
  • up to £2 million for feasibility studies

In both opportunities projects should aim to:

  • make it easier to scale up battery production and use
  • build the UK supply chain

Please see below a summary of the funding details:

Competition opens : 17 September 2018

Deadline : 12 December 2018

Lead : UK-based business OR research and technology organisation (in collaboration with other businesses, academic organisations, charities, public sector or research and technology organisations)

Available award : between £500,000 and £15million

Project duration : between 3 and 18 months

Please see this link for more information about this funding opportunity.

AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinkers 2019 scheme launched

Funding opportunities

The Arts & Humanities Research Council and BBC Radio 3 are on the lookout for a new generation of arts and humanities broadcasters.

The New Generation Thinkers 2019 scheme has been launched with a call for entries.  Once again, ten academics will be given the chance to front engaging and innovative programmes on BBC Radio 3 and beyond, as well as working with the AHRC on public engagement opportunities.

Now in its ninth year, the scheme aims to cultivate talented, articulate academics into exceptional all-round communicators. It provides a variety of training opportunities and the chance to work with world-class broadcasters from across the BBC.

The 2019 New Generation Thinkers scheme is open now to early career researchers from all research backgrounds, provided their research is linked to one or more arts and humanities disciplines.

The ten chosen academics will be picked from a shortlist of 60 applicants who will all be given the chance to attend one of three workshops to develop their media skills and receive guidance from experienced BBC producers.

The final ten – selected by a panel of BBC programme makers – will then be given media training by the AHRC and the unique opportunity to develop a 15-minute programme based on their research for BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking, as well many other opportunities to appear on air.

For more information on the call – which is open until 4pm on, Thursday 4 October 2018 – and details of eligibility and how to apply please visit the New Generation Thinkers 2019 call page here.

Launch of UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships scheme

Funding opportunities

The UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship scheme (FLF) aims to develop, retain, attract and sustain research and innovation talent in the UK. Providing up to seven years of funding, for at least 550 early-career researchers and innovators, the scheme will tackle difficult and novel challenges.

UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships can be held at any UK-based organisation currently registered as eligible to apply to the research councils (for example higher education institutes, research council institutes and eligible independent research organisations), or Innovate UK. Companies or other privately owned research organisations are encouraged to host UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships if they can provide an innovation and/or research environment of international standing.

There will be six calls for the FLFs, with two calls taking place each year over the next three years. Applications can be submitted in any area of research or innovation covered by the Research Councils and Innovate UK.

The submission deadline for the first FLF call is 3 July 2018, with a mandatory Expression of Interest required by 7 June.

For further information visit the Future Leaders Fellowships call page.  If you wish to discuss this opportunity in more detail and/or find companies to work with then please contact Ehren Milner.

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

 

ESRC Pre-call announcement ‘Trust and Global Governance Large Grants’

Funding opportunities

ESRC will shortly be inviting applications of between £1 million and £2.5 million (at 100% fEC) to take forward an exciting research agenda in the area of Trust and Global Governance. They expect to fund between two to three large grants under this theme.

Four priority areas for research proposals have been identified under this call. While proposals may exclusively focus on one area, they strongly encourage proposals to explore a range of questions within and between each of these cross-cutting priority areas:

  • Trust in a world of inequalities
  • Trust and the future of democracy
  • Identity, community, and the social and psychological foundations of trust
  • Trust, ethics and international security

The call will launch for full proposals in April 2018. The closing date for full applications will be late June 2018, with awards expected to start from Spring 2019. There will be no demand management measures in place for this call.

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

ESRC Pre-call announcement ‘Open Large Grants Competition’

Funding opportunities

ESRC will be inviting applications of between £1 million and £2.5 million (at 100% fEC) for an open Large Grants Competition. They expect to fund up to four new large grants under this competition.

The call will have an outline stage which will open in early April. The closing date for applications will be in June 2018 and grants will start from 1 October 2019. This call will be a quota-based competition, with the same allocations for proposals as the current ESRC Centres Competition.

Further details will be available when the call opens.  If you are interested in applying then please inform your RKEO Research Facilitator in the first instance as we have been allocated a quota and will manage the submission going in.

PGR funding with EPSRC – Connected Nation Pioneers

Funding opportunities, PG research

Connected Nation Pioneers is an exciting partnership between the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and key stakeholders. They have come together to recognise exceptional UK doctoral students whose research contributes towards the development of a Connected Nation.

The competition is open to all UK doctoral students in the final two years of their doctorial training. Applicants need not be funded by the EPSRC to participate.  This competition is being sponsored by DSTL, Facebook, BT, Samsung, Huawei, Thales, Amazon and NVIDIA.

This competition celebrates the transformative and pioneering research of UK-based doctoral students in contributing to up to two of the following category topics:

  • Safe and Secure Cyber Society
  • Intelligent Informatics
  • Making Digital Technology Work for People
  • Creative Computing for the Digital Economy

Applicants will be assessed per category by a panel of industrial sponsors in three stages:

  • An Expression of Interest statement (500 words)
  • A three-minute video pitch
  • An exhibition and pitch presentation

All applicants reaching the third stage of the competition will receive media and presentation training and will have an excellent opportunity to network with representatives from both academia and industry. Each of the four category winners will receive a prize of £2,000 and a NVIDIA graphics card at a VIP Awards Ceremony Dinner, to be held at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. The category winners will also compete in an elevator pitch contest as part of the Awards Ceremony to select an overall winner, who will receive a further £1,000.

How to apply

Before applying for the 2018 Connected Nation Pioneers competition, please read the call document for full information regarding eligibility and assessment criteria. Please forward questions or comments to PioneersCompetition@epsrc.ac.uk.

The Expression of Interest form should be completed and submitted by the closing date of 16:00 on Thursday 26 April 2018.  This can be found here.  Key dates are also on the link.

You must contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer for your Faculty in advance of applying.  Their name will need to be given on the expression of interest and we will need to record the application on BU’s database for research and innovation.

ECR Highlight Notice in the AHRC Leadership Fellowships scheme

Funding opportunities

RCUK has received funding through the National Productivity Investment Fund to develop a fellowship programme targeted at early career researchers (ECRs). These fellowships will be a step change in the support provided by the Research Councils to the research leaders of the future, enabling some of the UK’s most talented researchers to undertake major new innovation orientated, intellectual endeavours.

Applications of up to £250k (fEC) are invited through a highlight notice in the Leadership Fellows Scheme. The RCUK/UKRI Innovation Fellowships will allow ECRs to explore interdisciplinary research challenges and partnerships to the economic benefit of the UK.

For this highlight notice some of the eligibility of the Leadership Fellows Scheme has been waived and so it is important to read the FAQ and call documents before applying.

There are three thematic strands under which applications can be made

  1. Creative and Digital Economy Innovation Leadership Fellows
  2. Inter-disciplinary Interface Innovation Leadership Fellows
  3. Rutherford Fund Fellows- specifically aimed at non UK applicants.

Applicants should apply under the strand which most strongly reflects their research focus and their own circumstances.

For the Rutherford Fellows the proposed research will need to fall within the scope of one of the other strands (a or b).

Closing Dates

Closing Date: 31/05/2018

Applications to the highlight notice can be submitted no later than 4pm on Thursday 31st May 2018.  Applications will need to go through the appropriate institution submission process. Applications should be submitted using the Research Councils’ Joint electronic Submission (Je-S) System (https://jes.rcuk.ac.uk/).  If you are interested in applying, please inform your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance.

How to make an application

To meet the aims of the UKRI Innovation Fellowship Scheme, there are some modifications to the standard AHRC Leadership Fellows (ECR route) scheme which applicants need to consider and these are outlined in the call document. All other requirements are as normal for early career AHRC Leadership Fellows, as specified in the AHRC Research Funding Guide.

Further Information

Contacts

Gillian Gray Portfolio Manager g.gray@ahrc.ac.uk

James Dracott Strategy and Development Manger j.dracott@ahrc.ac.uk

ESRC GCRF Inequalities and skills acquisition in young people

Funding opportunities

ESRC are inviting proposals for new research grants that qualify for funding from the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). This call aims to fund a portfolio of innovative research grants focusing on skills acquisition in developing countries.

GCRF is a £1.5 billion funding stream to support research which addresses the problems faced by developing countries. GCRF forms part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment, and as such funding under this call will be awarded in a manner consistent with official ODA guidelines.

Funding is available for applications which fall under the remit of ESRC. The ESRC has a total budget of £5 million allocated to this call. ESRC expects to fund a balanced portfolio of proposals of varying sizes and ambitions, with a maximum grant value of £1 million at 100% full Economic Cost (fEC). The research councils will contribute 80% fEC on successful proposals. It is expected that the portfolio will include grants which are significantly smaller than the maximum value.

Proposals are invited for research grants of durations up to 27 months. Proposals must be led by a researcher at an eligible UK research organisation and should be submitted through the research councils’ Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system.

Thematic focus

This call seeks to address how inequalities such as gender, class and caste manifest in access to and experiences of skills training and skills programmes for young people both within and outside employment. While these and other inequalities affect experiences across the life-course, this call seeks to further increase understanding on issues particularly affecting adolescents and young people.

Different forms of skills provisioning (public, private, work-based, nonformal) can be considered under this call, as well as skills acquisition at a local, national or international level. Applications may consider how skills-oriented programmes can transform rather than reproduce intersecting inequalities. The call seeks to address how creative solutions can be used to help meet the SDG challenges.

The call aims to address how transitions to meaningful work could be more successfully and smoothly achieved and the aspirations of young people moving into the workplace be met. Research under this call should consider some of the wide range of issues affecting transitions into work for young people and how the resulting understanding of those issues can be applied to influence policy at national/international levels, develop specific interventions or new ways to improve existing transitions to meaningful work.

Further information on the themes can be found within the call specification.

How to apply

All proposals must be submitted through the Je-S system by 16.00 on 22 March 2018.  Detailed guidance about how to apply is provided in the guidance below.

Standard ESRC eligibility rules apply. See the Research Councils UK website for a list of eligible organisations.

Call documents

Timetable

  • Deadline for submitting full proposals – 16.00 on 22 March 2018
  • Panel meeting – July/August 2018
  • Decisions to applicants – late September 2018
  • Start date for successful proposals  – 1 December 2018

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

NERC Doctoral Training Partnerships 2 (DTP2) call is open

Funding opportunities

Closing date (Notification of Intent): 16:00 on Wednesday 7 March 2018

Closing date (Proposals): 16:00 on Wednesday 16 May 2018

NERC invites proposals to host and deliver its second phase of investment in Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs).

DTPs provide excellent postgraduate research opportunities as well as varied professional and technical skills and personal development training. Training delivered through DTPs can be drawn from any part of the NERC science remit and research topics are chosen by students and supervisors. This training plays a key part in maintaining the breadth and diversity of our research base and in ensuring that as a community we are responsive to new ideas.

DTP students are trained in cohorts, and training is delivered in collaboration with both academic and end-user partners from a wide range of backgrounds to ensure students are equipped with the skills and experiences required across NERC’s diverse community, for the benefit of science, policy, the wider labour market, and the economy.

NERC expects to invest in between 10 and 20 DTPs through this call. Each DTP award will provide funding for five years of new student intakes (eight years of funding in total, from the start of the academic year 2019-20). Each DTP will be allocated between 12 and 24 studentships per year.

Each DTP will offer training across a range of scientific topics within the NERC remit and may include training at the interface between environmental sciences and other disciplines, where many major research challenges exist. It is anticipated that, collectively, the DTPs awarded through this call will cover the breadth of NERC’s remit. However, there is no expectation that a single DTP will cover the whole of NERC’s remit.

This is an open competitive call for new DTP awards and no existing NERC DTP awards will be automatically renewed. Existing NERC DTPs must follow the application process outlined here and submit both a notification of intent and a proposal through this call.

A town hall meeting will be held on 30 January 2018 in central London to give potential applicants the opportunity to discuss the call with NERC. Registration for this meeting has already closed and the final attendee list has been confirmed. A summary of the meeting will be published on the NERC website.

This call has been informed by the outcomes of the DTP mid-term evaluation 2016-17.

How to apply

This call includes a notification of intent stage.

Notification of intent

Notification of intent must be submitted using the online registration form. The closing date for notifications of intent is 16:00 on 7 March 2018.

Full proposals

Full proposals will only be accepted from those that have submitted a notification of intent via the online form and NERC must be informed of any changes to hosting partners following the submission of a notification of intent.

Proposals must use the form provided below and must be submitted via the research councils’ Je-S system by 16:00 on 16 May 2018.

Full proposal form (Word, 57KB)

For full details, please see the Announcement of Opportunity document below.

Announcement of Opportunity (PDF, 760KB)

Contact

NERC Research Careers

If you intend to submit to this call, please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance.

ESRC Centres Competition 2018

Funding opportunities

ESRC have announce the call for outline proposals for their Centres Competition 2018.

They are investing up to £30 million over five years through this centres competition. It is anticipated that ESRC will fund four centres. The competition is for proposals ranging from £2 million to £8 million 100% full economic cost (fEC) with a term of five years. They will meet 80% of the full economic costs on proposals submitted (ie ESRC funding total of £24 million at 80% fEC).

Research centre funding is aimed at experienced research leaders who require longer-term or extended support for research groups, inter-institutional research networks, project-linked programmes, medium-to-large surveys, other infrastructure or methodological developments, or any related larger-scale projects.

They envisage centres as long term investments which strengthen the social science landscape in the UK and successful proposals must add value to the current portfolio of ESRC centres. In addition to taking forward an ambitious research agenda and making significant economic or societal impact, centres add value by increasing research infrastructure, building capacity, encouraging interdisciplinary working in social science and beyond, and enabling research collaboration in the UK and internationally. They anticipate that over time centres awarded under this call will become major strategic partnerships with their host research organisations.

For more details, click here.  Outline proposals must be submitted to the Je-S system: by the call deadline 16:00 on 15 March 2018.

If you are interested in applying to this call, you must discuss your plans and ideas with your Dean of Faculty in the first place (before contacting RKEO) as there will be significant commitment requirements from the university.

Commissioning process for NERC DTP2 confirmed

BU research, Funding opportunities

NERC will commission its second round of Doctoral Training Partnership investment (DTP2) through a fully open competitive call, to be launched in January 2018.

The announcement of opportunity, containing full details of the call, is currently under development and will be published in January 2018. To ensure a fair and transparent process, NERC will not answer individual queries about the DTP2 call in advance of the announcement of opportunity being published.

A town hall meeting will be held in central London on Tuesday 30 January 2018 to provide an opportunity to discuss the call. Details of how to register your interest in attending the town hall meeting will be announced in due course.

For more information on NERC DTPs, and the outcomes of the recent DTP evaluation, please see the information available on the NERC website.

 

AHRC New Generation Thinkers scheme 2018

BU research, Funding opportunities

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have launched their annual competition, in conjunction with BBC Radio 3, called ‘New Generation Thinkers’.

This competition aims to develop a new generation of academics who can bring the best of university research and scholarly ideas to a broad audience through working with the media. It’s a chance for early career researchers to cultivate the skills to communicate their research findings to those outside the academic community.

Each year, up to 60 successful applicants have a chance to develop their media skills, including programme-making ideas with experienced BBC producers at a series of dedicated workshops. Of these up to ten will become BBC Radio 3’s resident New Generation Thinkers and benefit from a unique opportunity to develop their own programmes for the station and a chance to regularly appear on air. There will also be the possibility of working with BBC TV, a number of speak opportunities and the chance to become a regular blogger.

Applicants are welcome from researchers working in all areas of the arts and humanities. This year the call has been extended for researchers who work in areas of social sciences and medical science whose work intersects with the arts and humanities. There are a series of interfaces, and many areas of common ground between. This scheme is open to researchers whose work intersects with arts and humanities and is not restricted to AHRC researchers.

To enter, please see the Call Guidance (PDF, 233KB) and Conditions of Entry (PDF, 108KB). Entries must be submitted via Je-S. If you are interested in applying, please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance.  BU approval is required before submission and only RKEO can submit your application for you.

RCUK (UKRI) 2017 Industrial Fellowships

Funding opportunities

RCUK (UKRI) 2017 Industrial Fellowships – NERC closing date 19th September 2017.

In response to the Industrial Strategy, Research Councils UK (RCUK) (UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)) has developed a fellowship programme to be supported through the National Productivity Investment Fund. Targeted at early career researchers (ECRs), RCUK / UKRI Industrial Innovation Fellowships will be a step change in the support provided by the research councils to the research leaders of the future, enabling some of the UK’s most talented researchers to undertake major new innovation oriented and intellectual endeavours.

For applicants within NERC’s science remit, NERC will be delivering these fellowships through Industrial Innovation Fellowships and Industrial Mobility Fellowships

Three-and-a-half-year awards to support early career researchers in exploring interdisciplinary solutions as well as addressing focused sectoral needs, both in the short term and long term, to the economic benefit of the UK.

NERC invites proposals for mobility fellowship awards of between 6-12 months in duration aligned with the objectives of the Industrial Strategy.

If you have any queries concerning these programmes, please contact fellowships@nerc.ac.uk

If you wish to apply for a fellowship then please contact your RKEO Funding Development Officer in the first instance.

Building resilience to natural disasters using financial instruments – Networking Event &Funding Call

BU research, Funding opportunities

Call closes: 16:00 on 26 September 2017

ESRC and UK Aid (DFID) logoNERC, the Department for International Development, and the Economic & Social Research Council invite proposals to address the topic building resilience to natural disasters using financial instruments. Funding is available to apply existing environmental and social science research to inform the design, development, refinement and validation of financing instruments to help developing countries respond and recover from extreme weather and natural disasters.

The overarching goal of these projects is to have impact on the developing world. To achieve this, projects must work with practitioner project partners who have a role in the design, development and application of innovative financing mechanisms for developing countries (eg non-governmental organisations, policymakers, disaster risk management actors, insurance companies).

NERC funding for this call will form part of the UK’s official development assistance (ODA) commitment, and proposals should demonstrate their primary purpose is to promote the economic development and welfare of countries on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development’s Development Assistance Committee list of ODA recipients.

The programme will support both:

  • feasibility studies of up to £100,000 (at 100% full economic cost) and up to six months in duration
  • longer projects of up to £350,000 (at 100% full economic cost) and up to 24 months in duration.

Successful projects are expected to start no later than 1 January 2018.

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

Networking and brokerage event

In order to bring together academics and potential project partners, a one-day networking event will be held at the Radisson Blu Portman Hotel in London on 28 July 2017. For further information and details of how to register your interest in attending this event, please see the networking event page.

Please note that attendance at this networking event is not a pre-requisite for the submission of proposals to this call.

Further information

Further information on this call and details of how to submit a proposal will be available to download shortly.

Contact

Lisa Bettington
Programme Manager – Innovation
01793 411630