
Funding Development Briefing 01/02/23 Spotlight on: KTPs – with Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange Managers_re-scheduled!

Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
UKRI are reviewing their systems to better understand the effectiveness of approaches to supporting impact across the Research Councils.
In order to achieve this they have launched a consultation to gather feedback on how impact development activities are being embedded into proposals by applicants. The aim is also to determine the levels of stakeholder involvement, and how impact development activities within proposals are reviewed and assessed. The results from this consultation will be used to make improvements to UKRI’s processes and will be central to the development of a new reference guide on the topic of ‘maximising impact’ within applications, as well as being used as an evidence base for continuous improvement, cross UKRI policy and other UKRI programmes.
They are asking for input from:
You can access the survey until 4 February 2022 here.
Innovation is central to the largest challenges the world faces, from climate change and an ageing society to global pandemics.
Universities work closely with businesses, charities and others to support research and facilitate commercialisation. The interaction between universities and business is therefore vitally important for innovation.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has published its Innovation Strategy, setting out its long-term plan for delivering innovation-led growth.
Innovate UK and UKRI are supporting the strategy while universities and other research organisations are expected to play a key role in embedding and implementing its objectives.
The four Pillars
The strategy has four key objectives – referred to as ‘Pillars’ – to support the development of the UK as a global hub for innovation by 2035:
Some key takeaways from the strategy include:
Commercialisation of research
There is a real focus on commercialisation and using the UK’s research base to take new ideas and technologies to market.
The strategy outlines how the government plans to support commercialisation activities – both in the early stages and in the acceleration of deployment and scaling up. As part of this, UKRI will establish a UKRI-wide Commercialisation Funding Framework, which will include offering long-term, stage-gated funding to commercialise new and improved technologies, products, processes or services.
Navigating university-business relationships:
Business-research partnerships play an important role in driving innovation activity at a local and national level. The strategy outlines ways in which the interactions between universities and business can be more easily navigated, opening up opportunities for collaboration.
As well as the creation of ARIA (see yesterday’s blog post!) there are plans for UKRI (via Innovate UK) to develop a simpler way for businesses to access and understand opportunities and support.
Levelling-up
The government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda also plays a key role, targeting R&D interventions to the needs and strengths of specific regions.
The strategy discusses enabling places with emerging research and innovation strengths to deliver greater local economic benefits, linking this to local sector strengths as appropriate.
This includes helping places to develop effective investment strategies and an R&D prospectus, aligned to local and regional opportunities and national priorities.
Tackling major challenges
The government plans to direct innovation through a suite of ‘Innovation Missions’ focused on some of its most pressing national priorities and global challenges – such as the climate and biodiversity crises, demographic change, and pandemics.
Innovation Missions will translate these challenges into tangible problems, and bring together the insights and resources of government, industry, civil society, and academia to tackle them.
Find out more about the Innovation Strategy on the Government website
Dr Huseyin Dogan (Principal Investigator) and Co-Investigators: Dr Paul Whittington, Professor Keith Phalp, Dr Nan Jiang and Dr Benjamin Gorman from the Faculty of Science & Technology have recently completed a 9 month, £90,000 externally funded project to develop the Authentibility Pass Proof of Concept. Authentibility Pass (www.authentibility.com) is an Android application for people with disabilities to communicate their authentication and accessibility requirements to organisations, including higher education institutions, non-profit organisations and financial institutions. On 18th February, the team had the opportunity to demonstrate the solution to potential investors. Our team was one of the four teams to be selected for a 20 minutes discussion with Matt Warmen MP, Minister of Digital Infrastructure.
The funding was awarded through the Cyber Academic Startup Accelerator Programme (CyberASAP) from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in collaboration with Innovate UK and the Knowledge Transfer Network. The programme assists academics in UK Universities to commercialise cyber security ideas, by providing expertise knowledge and support. Lesley Hutchins (Research Commercialisation Manager, RDS) has provided us with valuable commercialisation support throughout the project.
During the initial 4 months, we developed our value proposition and conducted market validation. We identified that people with disabilities can encounter barriers due to web security and privacy technologies, preventing them from registering for services and leading to frustration. We also found that they often need to repeatedly inform organisations of their authentication and accessibility requirements.
Requirements only need to be entered once into the application, which can then be sent securely to multiple organisations via token-based authentication to an organisation’s database. Authentibility Pass also comprises a database system, web interface and an Application Programming Interface for organisations with existing databases. We believe that Authentibility Pass will assist organisations to comply with accessibility and equality regulations, whilst increasing the awareness of customer requirements.
Accessibility requirements can be entered and authentication methods selected using Authentibility Pass Application
A demonstration video is available at: https://vimeo.com/513400390/351c35f6c4 and further information about Authentibility can be found at: www.authentibility.com.
Authentibility Pass builds on the knowledge obtained during Dr Paul Whittington’s PhD and Postdoctoral Research (supervised by Dr Huseyin Dogan and Professor Keith Phalp) and the development of the SmartAbility Framework. This CyberASAP project supports the BU2025 Assistive Technology Strategic Investment Area. The CyberASAP events are usually held in London, but due to COVID-19 we have participated in Zoom bootcamps and workshops during the past 9 months, organised by the Knowledge Transfer Network.
We are planning to develop the Proof of Concept into a commercial product, customised to suit specific organisations. It will be a ‘Software as a Service’ with annual subscriptions for the application and API. In the future, we anticipate adopting volume licensing for financial institutions and forming a spin-out company from BU to disseminate Authentibility Pass.
The dissemination of Authentibility Pass and potential adoption by higher education institutions, schools, non-profit organisations, SMEs and financial institutions, will generate impact for our assistive technology research.
Dr Huseyin Dogan (Principle Investigator) and Co-Investigators (Dr Paul Whittington, Professor Keith Phalp, Dr Nan Jiang and Dr Benjamin Gorman) from the Faculty of Science & Technology have been awarded an additional £59,578 funding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, in collaboration with Innovate UK and the Knowledge Transfer Network, through the Cyber Academic Startup Accelerator Programme (CyberASAP). This external funding supports BU2025 Assistive Technology Strategic Investment Area. The CyberASAP programme is designed to assist academics in UK Universities to commercialise cyber security ideas, by providing expertise knowledge and support. Lesley Hutchins (Research Commercialisation Manager, RDS) is included in our team to guide the commercialisation of Authentibility Pass through a potential BU spinout company. We also receive valued administrative support from Caroline Jarmolkiewicz, Personal Assistant to Dr Paul Whittington.
We have discovered that people with disabilities can encounter barriers due to web security and privacy technologies. This could result in them being prevented from purchasing goods or registering for services, leading to frustration and cancelling transactions. Our CyberASAP project, named Authentibility Pass, will be an innovative solution to assist people with disabilities to communicate their authentication and accessibility requirements to higher education institutions, schools, non-profit organisations, small medium enterprises and financial institutions. Authentibility Pass builds on the knowledge obtained during Dr Paul Whittington’s PhD (supervised by Dr Huseyin Dogan and Professor Keith Phalp) and postdoctoral research through the development of the SmartAbility Framework.
This funding follows our previously successful bid for Phase 1 of the programme, where we received £31,612 to develop our value proposition and to conduct market validation of our concept. We conducted market analysis and identified that there is a need for Authentibility Pass, as organisations who do not comply with accessibility regulations lose approximately £80k per annum through accessibility claims. Our market validation highlighted that people with disabilities often need to repeatedly inform organisations of their authentication and accessibility requirements. Authentibility Pass will enable customers to enter their requirements into a smartphone application, which can be stored in secure organisational databases.
During Phase 2 (which runs from September 2020 to February 2021), Vers Creative UK (CEO David Passmore) will be sub-contracted to develop the Authentibility Pass Proof of Concept, consisting of an Android application, database and web interface for managing the database. We believe that adopting Authentibility Pass will assist organisations to comply with accessibility and equality regulations, as well as facilitating awareness of the requirements of customers with disabilities when interacting with organisations. The solution will be customisable to suit specific organisations through a ‘Software as a Service’ with varying licensing options, e.g. annual subscriptions for hosting the database or one-off costs to provide an API that interfaces with existing database systems.
Our aim is to evolve Authentibility Pass into a commercial product that improves the relationship with customers, students or pupils who have reduced abilities. The CyberASAP project will culminate in a Demo Day in February 2021 at Level 39 of Canary Wharf (COVID-19 permitting), where we will present our Authentibility Pass Proof of Concept to potential investors.
Dr Huseyin Dogan (Principle Investigator) and Co-Investigators (Dr Paul Whittington, Professor Keith Phalp, Dr Nan Jiang and Dr Benjamin Gorman) from the Faculty of Science & Technology have recently been awarded £31,612 funding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, in collaboration with Innovate UK and the Knowledge Transfer Network, through the Cyber Academic Startup Accelerator Programme (CyberASAP). This external funding supports BU2025 Assistive Technology Strategic Investment Area.
Our CyberASAP project is named Authentibility Pass and the concept is for a smartphone application that will assist people who have reduced physical and cognitive abilities to communicate their authentication and accessibility requirements to organisations, including banks, SMEs and charities. This will be achieved by implementing secure organisation databases that store customers’ requirements. We believe the benefit of Authentibility Pass will be to increase the awareness of employees of the suitable methods to support customers with reduced abilities, resulting in higher customer satisfaction. The solution will be customisable to suit specific organisations through a ‘Software as a Service’ with varying licensing options, e.g. monthly or annual subscriptions. We have conducted market analysis and identified that there is a need for Authentibility Pass, as organisations who do not comply with accessibility regulations lose approximately £80,000 per annum through accessibility claims. Authentibility Pass builds on the knowledge obtained during Dr Paul Whittington’s PhD and Postdoctoral Research and the development of the SmartAbility Framework (supervised by Dr Huseyin Dogan and Professor Keith Phalp).
The CyberASAP programme is designed to assist academics in UK Universities to commercialise Cyber Security ideas, by providing expertise knowledge and support. Lesley Hutchins (Research Commercialisation Manager, RDS) is also included in our team to provide advice regarding commercialisation and intellectual property. There are two phases of the programme and we are currently midway through the first phase, which is the Value Proposition and Market Validation.
Usually the CyberASAP events are held in London, but due to COVID-19 these were converted to online webinars using Zoom, organised by the Knowledge Transfer Network. The webinars have been successful and included interactive participation, using ‘virtual breakout rooms’. Our team has participated in the Value Proposition and Market Validation Bootcamps, where we have learnt skills to apply in the first phase of the funding. We have presented at the mid programme review and the Value Proposition assessment, where our team was successful in proceeding to the Market Validation phase.
We are currently having discussions with industries to validate our Authentibility Pass concept, in terms of establishing their need for the Application. The team is having video calls with All-Party Parliamentary Group for Assistive Technology, BU Additional Learning Support, Cumberland Lodge, Diversity and Ability and Google. In addition to these discussions, we are distributing the Authentibility Pass Survey to people with reduced abilities, to understand their current challenges of communicating their authentication and accessibility requirements to organisations. The combination of these methods will validate our Value Proposition for Authentibility Pass, which will be presented to the CyberASAP panel at the end of July.
The remaining 20 teams in the programme will then be judged by a panel of cyber security experts and the successful teams will be invited to submit a proposal to Phase 2 of the programme, Proof of Concept. If our team are successful for this phase, we will receive an additional £60,000 of funding to develop Authentibility Pass. This will run from September 2020 to February 2021 and will cover the staff costs of the existing Co-Investigators, as well as an Application Developer.
Our aim is to convert Authentibility Pass into a commercial product that is used by banks, SMEs and charities to improve their relationship with customers who have reduced abilities. This could result in a spinout company from BU to facilitate the dissemination of the application. We envisage this creating impact for our assistive technology research and we will provide updates on our progress.
Today sees the launch of Innovate UK’s delivery plan for 2019.
Innovate UK will take a thought-leadership role around business-led innovation, providing leadership through their expertise, being recognized as a trusted voice, and setting the direction for innovation in the UK and beyond. They have already introduced new ways of working with innovative businesses through world-class programmes and processes. These include building up the UK’s innovation infrastructure with the Catapult network and introducing new forms of innovation finance such as Innovation Loans and their Investment Accelerator. But they now need to move further and faster to make the most of public funding, ensuring maximum impact as an investor in business innovation, and not just as a funder.
In the UK, £4.7 billion is being expected to be invested in R&D over the next 4 years. Will you be ready to apply?
Much of this funding will be available to academia, in partnership with business, through Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund competitive grants. Writing these grants is an art in itself, because word counts are tight and the demand for detail high. And then there is the human factor – convincing five under-pressure assessors that your idea is novel, experimental, leading edge, etc. These are the people who will score you and ultimately decide whether you make it to the fundable zone…
BU’s Research & Knowledge Exchange Office is hosting a technical writing workshop, where the art of writing these grants will be unpacked by a successful bid writer, who has won them, spoken with the assessors to learn how to win even more of them, and is almost in daily contact with the funder, Innovate UK.
The workshop, on 10th December 2018, will include discussions on:
• Knowing your funder – vital background on what makes Innovate UK tick…
• Knowing your assessors – vital tips to improve your score…
• Unpacking the application questions – what you must write and how you must write…
After the workshop attendees will have the opportunity to have a one-to-one session with the bid writer to discuss project ideas and to explore suitable grants.
This workshop directly supports and is targeted towards those academics proactively working within the context of BU2025 Actions: 28, 29 and 30.
To attend, please see further information available on the BU staff pages and review the calendar of events for further opportunities.
This Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competition is funded by the GovTech Catalyst and is sponsored by Durham County Council and Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council.
This competition looks at 2 specific data-gathering techniques in local council services:
1.‘Boots on the ground’: enabling residents to collect and report accurate data about public assets, such as potholes and street lighting, to the local council.
2.‘Eyes on the street’: using local council vehicles to collect and report data as they travel around the borough.
Summary :
Call opens : 24 September 2018
Call closes : 31 October 2018
Available funding : up to £50,000 (including VAT)
Project start date : by 7 Feb 2019
Please see this link for more information about this call.
As part of the government’s Clean Growth Strategy BEIS has allocated up to £20 million to design and construct carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) demonstration projects. This programme is designed to encourage industrial sites to capture carbon dioxide which could then be used in industrial applications, while enabling learning and development of capture technologies at an intermediate scale, so reducing costs and risks.
The overall aims of the CCU demonstration programme are:
The programme is in 3 phases:
Summary :
Call closes : 11 November 2018 (Applicants must complete the application forms on this link and submit by email to Industry.Innovation@beis.gov.uk by Sunday 11 November 2018.)
Available funding : up to £5million
Project duration : up to 24 months
Project dates : finish by 31 March 2021
Please see this link for more information about this call.
Up to £20million investment will be made by Innovate UK in the best cutting-edge or disruptive ideas with a view to commercialisation.
All proposals must be business focused, and can come from any area of technology, science or engineering, including arts, design, media or creative industries.
Summary :
Call opens : 24 September 2018
Call closes : 14 November 2018
Available funding : between £25,000 and £500,000
Project duration : Between 19 and 36 months
Project dates : start by 1 April 2019 and end by 1 April 2022
Please see this link for more information about this call.
UK organisations can apply for a share of up to £8 million to carry out collaborative R&D, collaborative fast-track and feasibility projects that enhance the UK’s position in civil aerospace.
To be eligible for funding you must:
To lead a project you must:
To collaborate you must be a:
Summary :
Call opens : 24 September 2018
Call closes : 5 December 2018
Available funding : between £425,000 to £1million
Project duration : Between 12 and 24 months
Project dates : start by August 2019 and end by August 2021
Please see this link for more information about this call.
Up to £4million is available for UK businesses to apply for to research and develop technologies that accelerate the transition to zero emmision vehicles.
To be eligible you must:
To lead a project you must be a UK based business, of any size.
A separate £2 million is available for feasibility study projects and a further £16 million to support proportionality smaller collaborative R&D projects.
Summary :
Call closes : 6 December 2018
Available funding : up to £4million
Project duration : Between 12 and 36 months
Project dates : start by June 2019 and end by June 2022
Please see this link for more information about this call.
Image from startups.co.uk
Innovate UK has announced a new competitive scheme that takes a place-based approach to research and innovation funding, to support significant regional economic growth.
To be successful, applications must build on existing research and innovation capability and present a valid plan of new research and innovation activities. These should have a demonstrable impact on local economic growth.
Project consortia must be based within the project’s geographical area and have the support of a local civic leadership.
Projects can be led by either a UK based business or a UK publicly funded research organisation.
This first competition stage is an expression of interest (EOI). Consortia will set out plans for large collaborative proposals. Following assessment, successful EOIs will be selected to receive up to £50,000 in ‘seedcorn funding’ to further develop a proposal for a gull stage project.
Please see summary below:
Competition opens: Monday, 28th May 2018
Competition closes: Wednesday, 25th July 2018 (noon)
Funding available: up to £50,000 seedcorn funding for successful EOIs; full stage proposals between £10million and £50million
Project dates: June 2019 – April 2024
For more information, please see this link.
The M3 Network welcomes Chris Sawyer, Innovation Lead for Health & Care at Innovate UK, to speak at Bournemouth University on the 30th of May, 2018, 12:00-14:00. This event is an opportunity to gain not only information about Innovate UK and funding opportunities but to discuss the challenges facing health and care technology innovation.
Following the presentation there will be lunch and a facilitated workshop designed to bring forward ideas from academic and industry collaboration.
Academics from the M3 network and those from industry working with health and care technology are encouraged to attend. To book onto this session please e-mail RKEDevFramework@bournemouth.ac.uk with your name and organisation.
Image from insidermonkey.com
Innovate UK will invest up to £5 million in innovation projects to support the development of precision medicine (PM) technologies.
Applications can be for either feasibility study projects or industrial research and experimental development projects, although projects may have work packages in different research categories if necessary.
You must explain clearly how your proposed technology will advance precision medicine.
All projects must involve at least one UK based business.
Feasibility study projects must be led by a UK based business either:
Research and development projects must:
Please see below a summary of this funding opportunity:
Funding type : Grant
Project size : Feasibility study projects – up to £100,000/ Industrial research and experimental development – up to £2 million
Project dates : 1 November 2018 and up to 24 months
Deadline : 11 July 2018, 12noon
Please see this link for more information on how to apply.
Image from warontherocks.com
Innovate UK will invest £20 million in innovation projects to develop prototype quantum technology devices that address one or more of these important industrial challenges which are explained further in the scope of this competition:
Your proposal must:
A business must lead the project. You must work in collaboration with others.
Please see below a summary of this funding opportunity:
Funding type : Grant
Project size : Between £3 million and £10 million
Project dates : 1 November 2018 and up to 29 months (must be completed by March 2021)
Deadline : 13 June 2018, 12noon
Please see this link for more information on how to apply.
The M3 Network welcomes Chris Sawyer, Innovation Lead for Health & Care at Innovate UK, to speak at Bournemouth University on the 30th of May, 2018, 12:00-14:00. This event is an opportunity to gain not only information about Innovate UK and funding opportunities but to discuss the challenges facing health and care technology innovation.
Following the presentation there will be lunch and a facilitated workshop designed to bring forward ideas from academic and industry collaboration.
Academics from the M3 network and those from industry working with health and care technology are encouraged to attend. To book onto this session please e-mail RKEDevFramework@bournemouth.ac.uk with your name and organisation.
Innovate UK have announced that £33m will be invested in exploiting the new immersive technologies as part of the Audiences of the Future and £20m for Quantum technologies. When more information becomes available, more details will be posted here. As this fund forms part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, please be advised that the applications may need to involve a UK company. For further advice on preparing for these funds, please contact Ehren Milner (emilner@bournemouth.ac.uk)
The Creative Industries Sector Deal has been announced. You can read the document here.
The press release says:
After a consultation proposing changes to the UK Quality Code for HE, (you can read BU’s response here) the QAA have published the new, very short Code. There’s some commentary on Wonkhe here. It really is short – in a 7 page document there is only one real page of content – but there is more guidance to come.
To inform our BU response to the HE Review all staff and students are invited to consider the issues in this (anonymous) 5-minute survey. Please take a look at the survey questions as we’d like to hear from as many staff and students as possible. You don’t have to answer all the questions! The major review of HE will shape the HE system, including how universities are funded for years to come. The survey will be available to staff and students until Friday 20th April.
The Department for Education also published a research report by Youthsight on the influence of finance on higher education decision making
Amongst its findings:
And the government have published the outcomes of their 2014/15 student income and expenditure survey. There is a lot of data and there are lots of interesting charts, including figure 2.6 (the influence of financial support on my decisions), table 3.7 (what support English domiciled students received by mode of study), figure 4.3 (breakdown of total student expenditure (this one excludes the tuition fee but there is also a chart that includes it), figure 4.4 (total expenditure and housing costs).
The data from both these reports will be pored over to support responses to the HE review.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights has published its report into free speech in universities. The Committee has also published its own guidance for universities and students:
Charity Commission Response: Charity Commission responds to Joint Committee on Human Rights
The Committee don’t identify many actual cases of free speech having been prevented but note a “chilling effect” (it’s hard to prove a negative, of course). The report identifies factors that potentially limit free speech in universities:
Recommendations
Chair of the Committee, Harriet Harman MP, said:
Some particular points to note:
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has published its interim update on the impact of EEA and non-EEA workers in UK labour market. This is the first MAC inquiry of two – the second one is the one about students, this was more general and about workers across all sectors.
The update sets out a summary of the views expressed by employers and of the regional issues raised. They add that “these themes seem the best way of summarising the views expressed to us but should not be taken to imply that the MAC endorses a sectoral and/or regional approach to post-Brexit migration policy.” The MAC has also published the responses to their call for evidence, broken down by sector.
The report includes the following findings:
This week is the launch of UKRI – it is worth looking at their objectives.
.The Council for Innovate UK has been announced. The members are:
The REF panels have also been announced – follow this link to see the lists.
Q Andrew Percy MP
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that prospective undergraduates understand the potential effect of their choice of course on their prospects post-graduation.
Q Angela Rayner MP To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the value of plan 1 student loans that will not be repaid.
Q Angela Rayner MP: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the written ministerial statement of 31 October 2017 on government asset sale, HCWS205, what methodology his Department used to decide which loans from the plan 1 loan book would be sold.
Q: Angela Rayner MP: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the written statement of 6 December 2017 on Government Asset Sake, HCWS317, what assessment he has made of the net fiscal effect of the sale of the student loan book after accounting for reduced income arising from lost repayments.
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UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) officially opens on 1 April. RCUK will no longer exist. UKRI will incorporate all seven research councils, Innovate UK and a new organisation, Research England (which will manage the REF and HEIF).
Science Magazine explores UK Research and Innovation, and what it means for the UK scientific community. Looking into the details of the re-organisation, Science Magazine focuses on what impact UKRI will have and what it is aiming to achieve as an organisation.
In addition, HEFCE will no longer exist from 1 April. The Office of Fair Access (OFFA) will also cease to exist and the two will merge to form the new Office for Students (OfS).
Applications are now welcomed from businesses to Innovate UK’s Open competition for research and development for projects costing between £25k and £1m. Projects may last a maximum of three years and must be led by a UK business. An allocation of £19m has been made available for this fund but a further £10m is available for projects that are more suitable for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership. Research organisations can be eligible for up to 30% of eligible project costs so this is a great opportunity to work in collaboration with a business. If you are already working with a business on a novel/game-changing idea, and want to know more information, please contact Ehren Milner, Research Facilitator for Industrial Collaboration (emilner@bournemouth.ac.uk).