Tagged / funding

Current EU tenders open for applications

Europe’s Capacity to Tackle Demographic and Societal Change: The purpose of this call is to support a partnership of not-for-profit research bodies, public institutions and civil society organisations, to focus on collection and dissemination of key facts, figures, trends and policy analysis regarding demographic change across the EU. The ultimate aim of the partnership’s work will be to reach a wide non-specialist audience and to promote a well-informed public debate on its implications and appropriate policy responses among the general public in all Member States and at all levels of government. Deadline 11.09.12

A Profile of Current and Future Audiovisual Consumers: The study should aim at understanding the behaviour, preferences and orientations of audiences for films in general and, in particular, of young audiences. To that end, it should include in-depth interviews with, in particular, 10–15 and 15–25 year olds to learn more about their consumption patterns and their perception of current ways of marketing European films, series, etc.; i.e. could different or earlier marketing change their behaviour? The study should investigate the impact of different marketing tools including the use of social media. Furthermore it should analyse some of the existing film literacy initiatives and their impact on the future consumption patterns. The role of social networks for audiovisual consumption should be analysed. The study should be implemented by experts/consultants, who have in-depth experience with market research. Deadline 13.08.12

Economic Impact of Social Enterprises: The main objective of this call for proposals is to contribute to the availability of reliable statistics on social enterprises at national and European levels and to identify countries interested in collecting this information.  The aim is to provide policy makers and stakeholders with credible, comparable and systematic information and indicators on the role of social enterprises in national economies and to offer usable and practical information to support decision making. The Commission wishes to encourage national statistical offices in Member States to collect this information, so although other organisations dealing with the promotion of social enterprises (including universities and research organisations) are eligible applicants for the call, all proposals must involve national statistical offices. Deadline 07.09.12

Prevention of and Fight Against Crime Programme: Of most interest to BU under this scheme are action grants for transnational and national projects, for which there will be a budget of €78m in 2012. A series of targeted calls for proposals for action grants to support projects concerned with five specific policy areas were recently announced. Each has a deadline for submission of applications in August 2012  In the main, opportunities exist for HEIs to apply for support to undertake studies and analyses in specific areas and to establish networks of expertise. There are also limited opportunities to develop and deliver training courses for law enforcement professionals, prosecutors and judges and to identify and disseminate best practices in relevant fields.

LifeLong Learning Programme- Implementation of the European strategic objectives in Education and Training (ET2020): This call for proposals is for projects to fulfil the objectives for 2012-2014 in two separate parts:-  Part A: Support for raising awareness around and the national implementation of European cooperation in education and training. Part B: Support for the implementation of innovative learning environments using ICT (called ‘creative class-rooms’) in the development and implementation of transversal education and training policy issues linked to the priorities set out in Europe 2020 and ET 2020. Deadline 01.10.12

Pilot project Economy of cultural diversity: In the Communication ‘A Digital Agenda for Europe’ the Commission identified the need to push ahead with the creation, production and distribution of all platforms of digital content. To this end the European Parliament voted a budget line in the 2012 budget for a ‘Pilot project on the economy of cultural diversity’ which ‘would aim to create an open laboratory to test innovative approaches to deal with content for innovation and digital sharing and distribution. It would be therefore a way to explore new business models respecting diversity in the production and distribution chain’.  The aim of this pilot is to highlight and promote 10 to 15 ideas which make innovative use of ICT based technologies to finance, produce, make available, disseminate and/or extract value from cultural contents. Projects should facilitate access to culture (including cultural heritage) and cultural literacy via online devices and promote cultural diversity in the digital environment.

Preparatory Action Culture in external relations: The specific objective of this contract is to formulate recommendations for a strategy on culture in European external relations which will build on synergies with existing processes and will involve a high number of stakeholders in Europe and representatives of third countries, including cultural institutes and NGOs. Deadline 17.08.12

Regional Innovation Monitor 2013-2014 – RIM Plus: The EU’s Regional Innovation Monitor (RIM http://www.rim-europa.eu/) serves over 200 EU regions in 20 different countries. Under this call for tenders the Commission wishes to establish a service that will provide regional administrators with a reference framework for the development of more efficient innovation strategies. An inventory innovation strategies at regional level in Europe will be kept updated and made available to those actors involved in developing policy measures in support of innovation.  The service contract will provide users (regional authorities and stakeholders, Member States’ central administrations, the Committee of the Regions, various services of the Commission, experts, businesses and universities) with an overview of the state of development of regional policies and strategies on innovation and on the difficulties and successes of their implementation in the regions. Deadline 31.08.12

Business Innovation Observatory: The European Commission wishes to tender for a service contract to develop a Business Innovation Observatory. The Business Innovation Observatory is a three-year project with the aim to provide European policy makers with analysis and intelligence on latest novel business and industrial innovation trends, activities and models on a regular basis. The emphasis will be placed on the business micro-perspective and how it relates to the wider institutional, political, socio-economic, legal and policy contexts. The analysis will be complemented by the development of appropriate policy recommendations at European and national levels. The tool should be seen as complementary to quantitative analytical instruments, most notably the Commission’s European Innovation Scoreboards. Deadline 10.09.12

 

Tapping into US and Canadian Funding Streams

I currently work in the research field exploring interprofessional collaboration and training.
Whilst a hot topic in the early 2000s in the UK and Europe, there is a dearth of funding for this topic currently and a lack of recognition in funding streams (including European funding) of its importance in the patient safety and safeguarding agendas. The opposite is true in US and Canada as exemplified by the multimillion support by CIHR in Canada for this area over the past 5 years and the recent commitment this month of $8.6 million by the US Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and The John A. Hartford Foundation to accelerate team work and collaboration amongst health professionals and break down the traditional silo-approach to health professions education.
There is a need for BU to tap into these US and Canadian funding streams. We have recently had some success in this.
A team lead by BU recently submitted a bid for an international research network area to the ESRC with colleagues from the University of Western Cape, South Africa, Rhode Island, US, University of New Brunswick and British Colombia, Canada and Universities of Southampton, Huddersfield, Nottingham here in the UK. Not unexpectedly, this was blown out the water. We subsequently submitted the same application, to run ¼ of the same activity to the Canadian Research Council equivalent (CIHR) and have been notified today of its success.
Moral of the story: go to the funding streams interested in your area of research even if these are in other countries. US and the Canada have Interprofessional collaboration and education very high on their agendas. Through our international networks, BU is able to tap into these funding streams effectively and get the same work done. Result! Interested to hear others experiences of US and Canadian funders.

Funding opportunities on Coastal Vulnerability and Freshwater Security: Belmont Forum and G8 Research Councils Initiative

The Belmont Forum and G8 Research Councils Initiatives on Multilateral Research Funding International Opportunities Fund have announced a funding call for approximately €20 million.

Specifically, the International Opportunities fund is aimed at supporting research on Coastal Vulnerability and Freshwater Security.

For full details, please click here.

Please note the key dates:

Closing date for submission of pre-proposals: 20th July 2012

Notification for submission of full-proposals: 20th September 2012

Closing date for submission of full full-proposals: 20th December 2012

EPSRC/ESRC Invitation for Outlines: Consortia for Exploratory Research in Security

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

As part of their contribution to the RCUK Global Uncertainties Programme, EPSRC and ESRC are jointly inviting proposals for research consortia (PDF 79KB) to explore current and future cyber security challenges.

CEReS consortia are encouraged to work across or between established disciplines and to draw on expertise from multiple research organisations wherever necessary. They particularly welcome proposals with significant novel mathematics and/or social science content.

Initially, outline proposals will be assessed for their novelty and fit to the aims of the call. Successful outline applicants will be invited to submit full proposals later in 2012.

EPSRC and ESRC have made available up to £4M available to fund full proposals funded through the CEReS call. They expect to support a range of projects which is broad in terms of scale (likely to be between £500k and £1M for each consortium), duration (two to four years), mix of disciplines (with single discipline proposals being the exception rather than the norm) and subject matter (although all must focus on cyber security-related challenges in the broadest sense).  Activities funded through CEReS are limited to those currently allowed on EPSRC grants. As a result they will not be able to accept applications which request funding for PhD studentships, even if they are outside EPSRC’s remit.

CEReS is a call for exploratory research. Consortia should identify ambitious goals with far-reaching impacts on future research and, potentially at least, practice in cyber security. Projects which continue or extend current work in a straightforward or obvious way will not be supported. Collaboration between disciplines is strongly encouraged. Although it is not essential that all projects include cross- or intra-disciplinary working it is likely that the assessment process will select positively for consortia which adopt this approach.

Although it is being managed by EPSRC the CEReS call is also open to researchers eligible to apply for targeted funding from ESRC. There is no quota of applications or funding based on Research Council remits. It is possible for the same researcher(s) to be associated with more than one consortium application.

For further information visit the call website: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/Pages/ceres.aspx and read the call documentation: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/Calls/2012/CEReSCall.pdf. Outline proposals should be prepared and submitted using the Research Councils’ Joint electronic Submission (JeS) System (https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk/).

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

The closing date is 14 June 2012.

Welcome to our first Grants Academy members

We are delighted to announce that the selection process is complete and the Grants Academy has its first members!

 Membership includes not only early career academics, but also professors and everyone inbetween.  This mix of skills and experience will add extra depth and interest to the Academy programme.   

Our new Academy members will be attending their Strand One training  workshop next week.  The aim is that 2 days locked away in a hotel in Bournemouth with our workshop leader Martin Pickard, will give our new members the skills and confidence to develop some really strong funding applications.   They will be supported throughout the bidding process by bid mentors, bidding clinics and all the other resources and benefits available to the Academy.

We are really pleased to be getting this new initiative up and running.   We will let you know how the first workshop goes, and what our members think of it. 

Do you want to be part of our Grants Academy?  

Don’t worry – we will be soon be letting you know about the next round of applications.  Please keep in touch with the blog to stay on top of developments – click on the Grants Academy tag to find out about the Grants Academy and what it involves.

Any questions?  Please contact Caroline O’Kane

Royal Society Research Professorship scheme now open!

The Royal Society’s Research Professorship scheme is now open for applications! This scheme is for world-class scientists who would benefit from a period of long-term support to allow them to focus on research and collaboration based at an institution in the UK. The scheme provides salary costs, a one-off start-up grant and research expenses. Appointments are usually made for 10 years.

The Professorships may be awarded in any field across the natural sciences. These prestigious posts provide long-term support for internationally recognised scientists of outstanding achievement and promise.

For further information visit the call website: http://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/research-professorship/ and read the scheme notes: http://royalsociety.org/uploadedFiles/Royal_Society_Content/grants/schemes/Research-Professorship.pdf.

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.

The closing date is 26 June 2012.

Virgin Media Shorts Competition Opens to Entries (UK)

The Virgin Media Shorts, which is a short film competition that champions undiscovered talent, has announced that its 2012 competition is now open to entries.

The competition is open to filmmakers and gives them the chance to show their work in cinemas, on TV, online and on mobile (via the mobile internet).  Prizes include: 13 film makers win a chance to show their work on 214 cinema screens nationwide; one winner will receive £30,000 to make their next film; and a People’s Choice winner will receive £5,000 of film funding and BFI mentoring.  Films must be in English or subtitled in English and be of a duration of up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds. The deadline for entries is 12 noon on the 12th July 2012.

BBSRC – Raising awareness of commercialisation in postgraduate and postdoctoral scientists

 Closing Date for Applications: 25th May 2012

 This is  an exciting opportunity available to postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers* within the plant, microbial and environmental science disciplines, or those with an interest in these fields.

 Building on last year’s success, Syngenta, the world’s largest agribusiness company, are again hosting a Plant, Microbial and Environmental sciences workshop, at their world-class Jealott’s Hill research facility as part of the wider Biotechnology YES programme.

 We are particularly keen to attract teams from the plant, microbial and environmental sciences to this high profile workshop that will provide a unique opportunity for the participants to spend time at a world-class research facility, with the chance to have a look around and meet world-leading scientists. The workshop will have an emphasis on challenges such as:

  •  food security and production in a sustainable environment and using lower levels of inputs such as water, phosphorus and nitrogen;
  •  the effects of climate change on food production;
  •  the effects of global biodiversity collapse on ecosystem services;
  •  the production of liquid fuels without impacting on the environment, more effective strategies to control organisms such as crop pests, pathogenic bacteria and disease;
  •  making technology and marketing concepts to integrate crop protection with seeds more attractive to growers.

YES is an innovative competition aimed at raising awareness of the commercialisation of bioscience research. It is co-organised by the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise & Innovation (UNIEI). As part of the wider national YES programme, we are also currently encouraging applications from teams of bioscientists who wish to enter the 2012 Biotechnology YES and Environment YES competitions.

Entrants form imaginary companies and bid for funding to commercialise their ideas. Through 3-day workshops taking place across the UK this autumn, participants receive training from entrepreneurs, patent lawyers and industry representatives in the business skills necessary to recognise, protect and harness the commercial potential of scientific research outputs.

The culmination of the competition is the preparation and presentation, by each team, of a hypothetical business plan for a new start-up company.  The competition is therefore fully in line with the government’s objective of encouraging economic and social impact and the competition is endorsed by a number of bio-based industries through their sponsorship.  In addition, the winning team of the national Biotechnology YES competition will receive a prize of £1000 and an invitation to the Rice Business Plan Competition in the United States.

Since its launch seventeen years ago, Biotechnology YES has provided entrepreneurial business training for over 3000 researchers from across the UK. In 2010, an independent review of the scheme highlighted that many former participants found YES to be influential in developing their careers, with several starting their own companies and many more becoming business professionals within the bioscience sector. (Review of Biotechnology YES).

 The closing date for entries into this year’s competition is 25 May 2012.

 More information may be found at the website: www.biotechnologyYES.co.uk or those interested in participating may wish to contact Tracey Hassall-Jones (tracey@biotechnologyyes.co.uk). 

 

Some EU funding calls released – from water to social dialogue!

MEDIA 2007 The Sales Agent Scheme 2012: One of the objectives of the programme is to encourage and support the wider transnational distribution of recent European films by providing funds to distributors, based upon their performance on the market, for further reinvestment in new non-national European films.  The scheme also aims to encourage the development of links between the production and distribution sectors thus improving the market share of European films and the competitiveness of European companies. Deadline 18.06.12

 

Europe for Citizens: The European Commission, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Agency (EACEA), has launched a call for proposals (deadline 01.06.12) under the Europe for Citizens Programme. The Programme has five priorities and all projects are required to address at least one of these priorities:

  • the future of the EU and its basic values;
  • active European Citizenship: civic participation and democracy in Europe;
  • inter-cultural dialogue;
  • people’s wellbeing in Europe: employment, social cohesion and sustainable development; and
  • impact of EU policies on societies.

 

Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue: The European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, has launched a call for proposals to promote industrial relations and social dialogue. This call is aimed at measures and initiatives designed to facilitate the adaptation of social dialogue to changes in employment and work-related challenges such as:

  • addressing the modernisation of the labour market;
  • quality of work;
  • anticipation, preparation and management of change and restructuring;
  • flexicurity;
  • skills;
  • mobility and migration;
  • youth employment;
  • contributions to health and safety;
  • reconciliation of work and family life;
  • gender equality;
  • anti-discrimination;
  • active ageing;
  • active inclusion; and
  • decent work.

Please note that there is a second deadline set to 4 September 2012 for actions commencing no earlier than 4 November 2012 and no later than 21 December 2012.

 

EDULINK II: EDULINK, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP) – European Union (EU) Co-operation Programme in Higher Education, has launched a call for proposals. Proposals will have to address one of the following two priority areas: Energy access and efficiency; or  Agriculture and food security. The specific objectives are to increase the capacity of ACP HEIs at two levels: Management /Administration and Academic. Proposals will aim at supporting HEIs in ACP States to create new and upgrade existing curricula and teaching methods, reinforce links between teaching, modern technologies, lifelong learning and research, as well as strengthening their management and administration capacity. Deadline 30.07.12

 

Sustainable Industry Low Carbon scheme (SILC): The European Commission, Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry, has launched a call for proposals regarding the Sustainable Industry Low Carbon scheme (SILC).The objective of this call is to support actions that will enable energy-intensive manufacturing and process industries covered by the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) to cope with the challenges of a low carbon economy and to maintain their competitiveness.
More specifically it seeks to identify and select sector-specific or cross-sectoral industrial projects that will develop and deploy cost-efficient technological or non-technological innovation measures, or a combination of both, for improving the GHG (greenhouse gas) emission performance of installations under the EU ETS. Deadline 25.06.12

 

Support of the European Innovation Partnership on Water: The Commission intends to award a contract to establish a secretariat for the EIP on Water. The secretariat will support the European Commission with the establishment and operational phase of the EIP on water. The activities will vary in nature, and will include secretarial tasks, contact with stakeholders at various levels, support in the development of a strategic implementation plan, co-ordination of the (outcomes of) innovation sites and development of a Web-based market place for water innovations. Deadline 23.05.12

 

ERA-NET Bioenergy Joint Call: The sixth Joint Call for Research and Development Proposals of the ERA-NET Bioenergy is now open in the areas of biogas and energy crops.The call topics are:

  • Innovative biogas production. Focal points include e.g. pre-treatment technologies, unexploited substrates, measurement/control, upgrading, management of digestate; and
  • Sustainable biomass for energy purposes. Focal points include e.g. optimisation of existing and new crops by way of plant breeding or cultivation techniques, breeding and cultivation for cascading uses, harvesting/storage technologies.

Please note that calls for proposals run by ERA-Net projects have their own funding rules and reimbursement rates. Applicants should check the call documentation for further details.

 

FP7 JTI Clean Sky Call for Proposals: Via the Calls for Proposal, Clean Sky aims to incorporate Partners to address very specific tasks which fit into the overall technical Work Programme and time schedule. Due to the nature of these tasks, the Call is not set up using a set of themes, but it is conceived as a collection of very detailed Topics which can be viewed on the Participant Portal webpage. Deadline is 10th July.

OECD Co-operative Research Programme Call for Research Fellowships and Conference Sponsorship

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has launched its 2013 Call for funding international conferences and research fellowship grants in 2013, which provides funding for international conferences (for example workshops, congresses and symposia) and research fellowship grants. The CRP programme supports research on the sustainable use of natural resources in agriculture, fisheries, food production and forestry.

Applications should fit into one of following research themes:

  • The Natural Resources Challenge;
  • Sustainability in Practice; and
  • The Food Chain

The aim of the Research Fellowships scheme is to strengthen the international exchange of ideas and increase international mobility and co-operation between researchers working in these fields; while the aim of the Conference Sponsorship scheme is to inform policy makers, industry and academia of current and future research, scientific developments and opportunities in these fields.

The closing date for applications is 10 September 2012.

 

Got Central American contacts? Get some funding to go see them!

ENLACE travel grants promote exchange between Central American and European researchers, and encourage contacts between research institutions, to facilitate joint participation in FP7 calls.

These promote exchange between Central American and European researchers, and encourage contacts between research institutions, to facilitate joint participation in FP7 calls.

Full grants cover travel and subsistence costs worth up to €3,000 and co-financed grants provide costs worth up to €1,000. Funding covers a maximum of 30 days.

EC funding for the ‘Development of Knowledge Alliances’

The general objective of the call for proposals is to support the implementation of Knowledge Alliances which should ensure stronger societal and economic relevance, and outreach in higher education, by strengthening the role of higher education institutions as engines of innovation and increasing the employability, creativity and innovative potential of graduates, professors and company staff.Through this pilot project, the grant from the European Commission will support the implementation of Knowledge Alliances, helping the partner organisations implement structured partnerships which should lead to innovative and collaborative approaches in their field beyond the lifetime of the project.

Knowledge Alliances are structured partnerships aimed at stimulating innovation by bringing together businesses and higher education institutions. Knowledge Alliances should foster the role of Higher Education institutions as engines of innovation, through the flow and active exchange of knowledge between higher education and business, in turn leading to the development of long-term strategic partnerships between Higher Education Institutions and companies. These partnerships should support companies in providing new approaches to the professional development of their staff. Knowledge Alliances should also provide incentives to try out new and innovative teaching methods, to promote entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial mindsets, to foster the generation of new ideas and interdisciplinarity through co-operation. The deadline is June 28th.

UKRO have also released an article giving further detail on the call and the application process which you can access here.

Ambient Assisted Living Joint Programme: Daily Life Activities of Older Adults at Home funding

The Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) Joint Programme has launched its fifth Call for Proposals: “ICT-based Solutions for (Self-) Management of Daily Life Activities of Older Adults at Home”, which encompasses important dimensions of the broad topic of Home Care. The deadline for proposals is 31 May 2012. This call aims to develop ICT-based solutions which enable and sustain older adults to continue managing their daily activities in their home. The call also aims to identfiy ICT-based solutions which support informal carers in their assistance. Successful projects are expected to target systemic solutions addressing the users’ wishes and needs, or to provide a contribution which is meant to be integrated into a systemic solution, including some kind of support service. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is providing up to EUR 1.2 million in funding for UK academic partners, while the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is also providing up to EUR 1.2 million in funding for UK non-academic partners.  

 

 

Funding available from the MEDIA programme

Support to Video on Demand and Digital Cinema Distribution:The Video on Demand and Digital Cinema Distribution scheme constitutes one of the ways in which the MEDIA 2007 programme ensures that the latest technologies and trends are incorporated into the business practices of beneficiaries of the programme.The main objective of this scheme is to support the creation and exploitation of catalogues of European works to be distributed digitally across borders to a wider audience and/or to cinema exhibitors through advanced distribution services, integrating where necessary digital security systems in order to protect online content. The deadline is June 25th.

Support for the implementation of Pilot Projects: The programme may support Pilot Projects to ensure that it adapts to market developments, with a particular emphasis on the introduction and utilisation of information and communication technologies. The deadline is June 18th.

EU Funding for Women in Media

The European Institute for Gender Equality invites proposals for a study on area J of the Beijing platform for action, which addresses women and media in the EU.

The tenderer will conduct a study on women’s participation and access to expression and decision-making in media, with an emphasis on women’s presence in the decision-making bodies within media companies, the extent to which media companies have developed codes of conduct and other forms of self-regulation to obviate discrimination on the grounds of sex, as well as the monitoring of women’s and men’s presence in media content, excluding films and commercials.

Funding is worth approximately €400,000 over 11 months and the deadline is April 24th.

EU funding for ‘Youth in the World’

The European Commission has launched a call for proposal for the co-operation with countries other than the neighbouring countries of the European Union, under the Youth in Action Programme. The purpose of this call for proposals is to support projects, which promote co-operation in the youth sector between Youth in Action Programme Countries and Partner Countries other than those which are neighbours of the European Union (countries which have signed with the European Union an agreement relevant to the youth field).
This call provides grants to projects. It is addressed to organisations working in the youth sector that are interested in running projects promoting cooperation in this field, involving youth workers and youth leaders, young people themselves and other actors involved in youth organisations and structures.

Its objectives are as follows:

  • to improve the mobility of young people and youth workers, as well as youth employability;
  • to promote youth empowerment and active participation;
  • to foster capacity-building for youth organisations and structures in order to contribute to civil society development;
  • to promote co-operation and the exchange of experience and good practice in the field of youth and non-formal education;
  • to contribute to the development of youth policies, youth work and the voluntary sector; and
  • to develop sustainable partnerships and networks between youth organisations. 

Projects must start between 1 September 2012 and 31 December 2012, with a minimum duration of six months and a maximum duration of 12 months. The deadline is May 15th and all the documentation you need is on the EACEA website.