Tagged / nerc

Funding available to support the commercialisation of ideas arising from that NERC-funded research

Funding opportunities, Knowledge Exchange

Announcement of Opportunity

 The Follow-on Fund is a ‘proof of concept’ fund to support the commercialisation of ideas arising from that NERC-funded research.

This funding picks up where research programme and discovery science (responsive mode) grants leave off and enables those research outputs to be further developed so their commercial potential can be realised.

Examples of activities funded include technology licensing, launching technology-based products or services, selling know-how based consultancy services, and the commercialisation of NERC-funded datasets. Proposals are invited for projects pursuing any of these approaches or, indeed, others.

The Follow-on Fund will open on 14 July 2015 and close on 22 October 2015.  This call will allow proposals for up to £125k at 100% FEC (£100k NERC contribution at 80% FEC) for up to 12 months, starting in April 2016.

For further information: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/available/schemes/followon/

 

BU process for selecting applications to NERC Standard Grant call – Expressions of Interest due

Funding opportunities, Guidance

nerc-logo-50thNERC introduced demand management measures in 2012. These were revised in 2015 to reduce the number and size of applications from research organisations for NERC’s discovery science standard grant scheme. Full details can be found in the BU policy document for NERC demand management measures.

As at March 2015, BU has been capped at one application per standard grant round. The measures only apply to NERC standard grants (including new investigators). An application counts towards an organisation, where the organisation is applying as the grant holding organisation (of the lead or component grant). This will be the organisation of the Principal Investigator of the lead or component grant.

BU process

As a result, BU has introduced a process for determining which application will be submitted to each NERC Standard Grant round. This will take the form of an internal competition, which will include peer review.  An Expression of Interest for NERC Standard Grant call (EoI) form will need to be completed.  The next available standard grant round is January 2016. The process for selecting an application for this round will be as follows:

NERC1NERC2

 NERC have advised that where a research organisation submits more applications to any round than allowed under the cap, NERC will office-reject any excess applications, based purely on the time of submission through the Je-S system (last submitted = first rejected). However, as RKEO submit applications through Je-S on behalf of NERC applicants, RKEO will not submit any applications that do not have prior agreement from the internal competition.

Appeals process

If an EoI is not selected to be submitted as an application, the Principal Investigator can appeal to Professor Tim McIntyre-Bhatty, Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Any appeals must be submitted within ten working days of the original decision. All appeals will be considered within ten working days of receipt.

RKEO Contacts

Please contact Jennifer Roddis, RKEO Research Facilitator – jroddis@bournemouth.ac.uk or Jo Garrad, RKEO Funding Development Manager – jgarrad@bournemouth.ac.uk if you wish to submit an expression of interest.

Latest Major Funding Opportunities

Funding opportunities, Research themes

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

 

The Department of Health, including NIHR, invites tenders for its small business research initiative call on faecal and urinary incontinence in frail elderly people. The call aims to find innovative new products and services to help with faecal and urinary incontinence in frail elderly people. Tenderers should address prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management.

Phase 1 shows the technical feasibility of the proposed concept, and Phase 2 contracts are intended to develop and evaluate prototypes or demonstration units from the more promising technologies in Phase 1. Only those projects that have completed Phase 1 successfully will be eligible for Phase 2.

Maximum award: up to £100,000 per project over six months

Closing date:  12:00pm,  11/08/15

 

NHS England, under the Department of Health, invites tenders for minimising the impact of falling. This competition focuses on minimising the impact of falls and the fear of falling in older people, and should address a range of unmet needs, expressed as ‘what if’ scenarios, that could improve the care that clinicians are able to offer to patients in terms of outcomes, experience and efficiency. Fall prevention services provide assessment, strength and balance training, occupational therapist support, vision assessments and medicines review. Tenders should show the technical feasibility of the proposed concept.

Maximum award: up to £100,000 per project for a maximum of six months.

Closing date: 12:00pm, 11/08/15

 

NHS England, under the Department of Health, invites tenders to address functional needs in the elderly. This competition aims to find technologies to help address, as well as provide solutions for, functional difficulties associated with patients, particularly the increasingly frail elderly suffering multi-morbidities (defined as suffering two or more chronic conditions). Technologies should be aligned to the three key challenges which are commonly associated with functional difficulties; these are: detecting frailty and monitoring deterioration; activities of daily living (including dressing above and below the waist, grooming, bathing and showering, light housework and preparing meals); and treatment burden, including adhering to disease management plans and lifestyle changes, as well as drug concordance, adherence and compliance.  Tenders should show the technical feasibility of the proposed concept.

Maximum award: up to £100,000 per project for a maximum of six months.

Closing date: 12:00pm, 11/08/15

 

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council and the Newton Fund invite proposals for their collaborative call with China, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam on rice research. This aims to build on the combined strengths of academic research groups within China, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and the UK to work together on collaborative interdisciplinary and innovative basic, strategic or applied research that contributes to and underpins the long-term sustainable production of rice, and also an understanding that rice production sits alongside the provision of other ecosystem services. Projects of up to three years in duration and addressing the following challenges will be encouraged:

• Greater resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses;

• Improved resource use efficiency, including nitrogen, phosphorous and water;

• Improved quality of rice, including nutritional enhancement and grain quality;

• Novel research tool and technology development supporting the above areas, including systems biology, bioinformatics, screening and characterisation of germplasm for gene and trait discovery.

In addition to the challenges listed above, proposals will also be welcomed in the following areas and countries:

• Improved photosynthetic efficiency in rice (China, Thailand, UK)

• Environmentally sustainable rice cultivation systems (Thailand, Philippines, UK)

• Utilisation of rice by-products (Philippines, Vietnam, UK)

• Sustainably increasing the genetic yield potential of rice (China, UK)

Each proposal must involve at least one applicant based in the UK and one based in either China, the Philippines, Thailand or Vietnam. All proposals are required to have a UK principal Investigator, in addition to a PI from one or more of the partner countries.

All applicants must adhere to the national eligibility rules for research proposals.

The total budget from BBSRC and NERC is worth up to £6.5 million, with matched funding from the partner agencies in China, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Projects may last up to a maximum of up to three years.

Closing date: 16:00, 13/08/15

 

The Natural and Environmental Research Council (NERC) and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) are inviting research proposals under this ‘Understanding and Sustaining Brazilian Biome Resources’ call. This call is supported by the UK through the Newton Fund which forms part of the UK governments Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment and is only open to joint UK-Brazil applications.

This call aims to improve the understanding of the role of biodiversity in the functioning of ecosystems, the drivers and impact of change, and management and restoration options in Brazil. The call’s objectives are:

• Improve understanding of the role of biodiversity in major biome biogeochemical cycles at the whole-biome level;

• Explore the spatial correlations between ecosystem function in terms of biogeochemical cycles and the distribution of species of conservation concern, within a range of Brazilian ecosystems including forest and non-forest biomes;

• Critically assess the potential and trade-offs of ecosystem management and policy options to protect both key ecosystem functions and biodiversity and other ecosystem services.

Projects must undertake research at the biome spatial level, and should seek to utilise new or novel technological capability and make use of existing long term data sets that are available from other projects.

UK-based researchers associated with organisations eligible for NERC funding may apply. Brazilian researchers associated to public or non-profit higher education and research organisations in the state of São Paulo may apply.

NERC will provide up to £2 million at 80 per cent full economic cost for UK-based researchers with FAPESP providing matched equivalent effort to Brazilian researchers.

It is expected that two to three project proposals, lasting up to three years, will be funded.

Closing date: 16:00, 02/09/15

 

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council has extended the closing date for technical assessments and applications for their ARCHER leadership projects.

The previous deadline of 1 September has been extended to 7 September 2015. All other call details remain the same.

These awards provide direct access to the UK’s national supercomputing facility ARCHER for computationally intensive individual projects. Eligible projects may include the following:

• Leadership calculations that push the boundaries of scientific high performance computing;

• Calculations that require a large number of processing cores;

• High-risk, high-reward projects that rely heavily on high performance compute resource and have significant potential for large future impact;

• Substantial computational projects by experienced teams that need large compute resources, but do not rely on additional support by EPSRC or NERC;

• Pre-competitive computational production runs by non-academic research groups within sectors related to the remits of the ARCHER partner research councils.

Applicants should be individuals eligible to hold a full EPSRC or NERC grant, or persons of similar standing in industry or the third sector.

A total of 2m kAU is available, split between EPSRC and NERC remits at the ratio of 77 % EPSRC and 23 % NERC. Each applicant should apply for at least 100,000 kAU for a maximum period of two years.

Closing date: 16:00, 07/09/15

 

The Centre for Defence Enterprise and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory invite innovative proposals for their themed competition on ‘what’s inside that building’. This supports phase one research projects that aim to develop novel techniques which remotely provide information about the layout and situation inside a building, or underground facility from a range of at least 100 metres. Projects should develop and mature technology readiness level 2 to 3 concepts based on both direct sensing and inference from indirect measurements. In addition, they should address the following technology challenges: novel applications of traditional sensing methods; new technologies and approaches.

Proposals may include technologies that address the following:

• Detecting concealed manufacturing activity;

• Finding out about the internal structure of a building in preparation for entry, including walls, furniture and electrical equipment;

• Identifying illegal storage activities;

• Working out the number of people in a building and what they are doing;

• Detecting people who are hiding or being held against their will;

• Supporting disaster relief, for instance seeing under collapsed buildings.

Preference may be given to projects that produce a technology demonstration as opposed to projects that only deliver a written report.

The total budget for phase one of this competition is worth £650,000. There is no cap on proposals, however MOD is more likely to fund phase one projects worth between £50,000 and £100,000. Successful projects may receive an additional £500,000 for phase two of the competition, in which funding is awarded on a per-project basis. Proposals should focus on a short, sharp, proof of concept phase, typically lasting between 3 to 8 months.

Closing date: 17:00, 10/09/15

 

Nesta, in collaboration with Innovate UK, invites proposals for the Longitude prize. This rewards the development of a transformative point-of care diagnostic test to revolutionise the delivery of global healthcare and conserve antibiotics for future generations. The test must be accurate, rapid, affordable, easy to use and available to anyone, anywhere in the world. It should be able to identify when antibiotics are needed and, if they are, which ones to use.

Anyone and any organisation may enter. Teams must include a member who has a presence in the UK. The competition is only open to those who have developed a new diagnostic test.

The winner is awarded £8 million. £2m is awarded to support promising entries along the way. The prize money must be used to develop and market the winning solution.

Closing date: 30/09/15

 

Innovate UK’s IC tomorrow, in collaboration with several partners, invites proposals for its digital innovation contest on games. This supports the development of an innovative commercial prototype service or application across five areas which different areas of the games industry. Proposals should address one of the following challenges:

• Second-screen use in a game, supported by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE);

• Open street map data, supported by Crytek UK;

• New markets and perceptual computing, supported by Intel;

• Wider games distribution on mobile web, supported by Google Chrome;

• Games and cinema, supported by Odeon Cinema and Pinewood Studios.

Businesses based in the UK and EU may apply.

Five companies may receive up to £25,000 each. The total budget is £125,000.

Closing date: 12:00pm, 16/10/15

 

Follow-on funding from The Natural Environment Research Council

As the name suggests, the Follow-on Fund picks up where research programme and discovery science (responsive mode) grants leave off, and enables their commercial potential to be realised by further developing the research outputs.

Examples of activities funded include technology licensing, launching technology-based products or services, selling know-how based consultancy services, and the commercialisation of NERC-funded datasets.

Researchers who are receiving/have received NERC funding may apply. Proposals must build on the outputs of recent/previous NERC-funded research activity. Applicants are encouraged to seek input from potential commercial stakeholders and end-users before submitting an application. Projects do not have to be based on proprietary, patentable intellectual property, though all proposals must have demonstrable economic potential, and be likely to deliver some form of societal or environmental benefit.

Each proposal may receive up to £100,000 at 80 per cent full economic cost.

Closing date: 22/10/15

 

Please note that some funding bodies specify a time for submission as well as a date. Please confirm this with your RKEO Funding Development Officer

You can set up your own personalised alerts on Research Professional. If you need help setting these up, just ask your School’s/Faculty’s Funding Development Officer in RKEO or view the recent blog post here.

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

 

NERC publish demand management quotas

Funding opportunities, Guidance

nerc-logo-50thNERC informed us in March that they were implementing new measures designed to raise discovery science standard grant success rates.  This included a reduction in the maximum value of a standard grant award (will fall from the current £1·2m to £800k (100 per cent full economic costing (fEC), £640k at 80 per cent fEC)), and a new institutional-level submission policy which limits the number of applications an individual research organisation can make.

NERC have just issued an update on demand management measures, which includes a full list of the quotas that will apply to the July 2015 and January 2016 standard grant (including New Investigator) closing dates for each institution.

Please note that following on from my previous blog post explaining the selection process to be adopted at BU, if you wish to apply to the NERC standard grant scheme then please contact the RKEO Funding Development Team in the first instance (please note that the application has been selected for the July call and so no further applications will be accepted).

NERC Industrial CASE Studentship Competition

Funding opportunities

Background 

NERC studentships can be delivered in collaboration with non-academic partners from the private, public and third/civil sectors; where studentships are delivered in collaboration they are referred to as ‘CASE studentships’. CASE studentships provide the PhD students with enhanced training opportunities by ensuring they spend between three and eighteen months in total with their CASE partner in a workplace outside the academic environment.

2015 NERC Industrial CASE Studentship Competition

This call is now open. The closing date is 16:00 Wednesday 8 July 2015.

Please see the guidance for applicants document below for full details of this call. Applications will be assessed on the following criteria:

  • research excellence (30%)
  • training excellence and multidisciplinary training environments (30%)
  • collaboration and impact (20%)
  • student recruitment, monitoring and management (20%)

Update

  • Please note, CASE partner financial contributions are to be paid to the lead Research Organisation to supplement the studentship and project, and will no longer be paid directly to the student.
  • In most instances organisations eligible for Research Council funding cannot act as a CASE partner. This includes NERC Research Centres (BAS, BGS, CEH, NCAS, NCEO, NOC)

Guidance for applicants (PDF, 229KB)

All proposals should include a case for support, using the ‘case for support form’, and the ‘Industrial CASE non-academic partner form’. Both forms are provided below. Applications must be submitted via the research councils’ joint electronic submission system (Je-S).

Case for support form (Word, 57KB)

Industrial CASE non-academic partner form (PDF, 35KB)

The assessment panel will meet on 17-18 November 2015. Applicants will be notified of the outcomes by the end of December 2015.

For further information, please contact NERC Studentships & Training Awards Group at stag@nerc.ac.uk.

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

NERC Demand Management measures – Important changes

Funding opportunities, Guidance

NERC is implementing new demand managment measures designed to raise discovery science standard grant success rates.

This is to reduce the number and size of applications from research organisations for NERC’s discovery science standard grant scheme, and ensure research excellence, efficiency and value for money for the taxpayer.

Following an update on demand management measures in November 2014, NERC consulted with advisory boards and research organisations to determine the detailed mechanisms it will apply to reduce demand for discovery science standard grants.

From the July 2015 standard grants scheme, there will be a reduction in the maximum standard grant award size, from the current £1·2m to £800k (100% Full Economic Costing, £640k at 80% FEC).

At the same time, demand management measures in the form of a new institutional-level submission policy will take effect. This will be based on historic application and award data and will limit the number of applications an individual research organisation can make, where that organisation fails to meet a 20 per cent success rate quality threshold.  Research organisations that fail to meet the 20 per cent success rate threshold will have the number of applications the organisation can make in each standard grant round restricted, until the organisation meets the threshold. The data will be re-calculated annually using the most recent six grant rounds.  Restrictions will be calculated on a sliding scale with the most limiting restriction that will be applied to any research organisation being one application per grant round.

Any BU academics requiring further information on the cap should contact the RKEO Funding Development Team.  All BU academics intending to apply to the NERC Standard Grant scheme must contact the RKEO Funding Development Team in the first instance.  For the foreseeable future, there will be an internal competition for NERC standard grant applications in order to ensure that the highest quality applications are submitted.

The measures only apply to NERC standard grants (including new investigators); likewise the data used to calculate research organisation restrictions is only based on NERC standard grants (including new investigators).

Where a research organisation submits more applications to any round than allowed under the cap, NERC will office-reject any excess applications, based purely on the time of submission through the Je-S system (last submitted = first rejected).  However, as RKEO submit applications through Je-S on behalf of applicants, RKEO will not submit any applications that do not have prior agreement from the internal competition.  Any lead or component application from another research organisation linked to the rejected application will also be rejected. If any applications are subsequently rejected based on rule adherence or remit, a research organisation cannot submit alternative applications.

An application counts towards an organisation, where the organisation is applying as the grant holding organisation (of the lead or component grant). This will be the organisation of the principal investigator of the lead or component grant (component meaning where BU is the non-lead partner submitting our own application form through Je-S to accompany the lead application and case for support).

As said above, if you require further information then please contact the Funding Development Team (FDT) and if you intend to apply to future rounds then you must contact FDT as early as possible (it is advised that this is four months before a closing date).

Do you already have NERC funding? Then read on…..

Funding opportunities

This is a reminder that the Pilot Follow-on Fund closing date is 16.00 hrs on 18th December 2014. Panel interviews with applicants will be held in London on 26 February 2015.

This pilot round of the NERC Follow-on Fund has increased the previous maximum amount that could be applied for (£125k) to up to £250k (£200k at 80% FEC).  As part of the pilot, NERC has also introduced more flexible time scales, ie funding for projects lasting between 3 and 24 months.  These changes have been introduced to provide projects with the very best opportunity for commercial exploitation.

There is also an optional Pathfinder grant available to strengthen your market knowledge and make your Follow-on Fund application more persuasive for the Panel.

For further information go to the NERC website.

Please make sure that you contact your School’s Funding Development Officer for help and support.

 

 

NERC – Academic Workshops in Oil and Gas..

NERC, in collaboration with the Knowledge Transfer Network, are going to be hosting a series of events during 2014 which will investigate solutions to the top challenges facing the sector in the UK.

As the UK pursues a long-term strategy to decarbonise our society, there will be a continuing need for hydrocarbon exploration to bridge the gap to low emission power generation in future. Britain’s energy security and long-term economic performance will benefit hugely from maintaining the health of this key industrial sector. With this in mind, NERC is keen to establish where research activities might support the sector.

Please find details of the upcoming events below:

Unconventional hydrocarbons. Unconventional oil and gas (e.g. shale oil and gas resources) are playing an increasingly important part of the energy mix. Producing these resources effectively and with minimal environmental impact requires innovative science and technology.

Date: 24/09/2014
Time: 09:00 – 16:30

Exploitation in challenging environments. The petroleum industry has successfully extracted a large proportion of the ‘easy to get’ oil and gas. Large resources are still present in environments in which exploration, appraisal and production are difficult and where conventional technologies are inadequate (eg ultra high temperature-high pressure reservoirs, deep-water environments, subsalt, sub-basalt, Arctic). This theme also includes the identification and assessment of risks from environmental hazards to offshore infrastructure.

Date: 17/10/2014
Time: 09:00 – 16:30

Extending the life of mature basins. Mature basins such as the UK’s North Sea contain very significant amounts of unrecovered hydrocarbons. Identifying new resources, and producing this resource in a cost-effective and environmentally sensitive way is technically challenging but will extend field life and help reduce UK reliance on imported energy in the medium term. This theme could include novel approaches to data analysis and interpretation as well as areas such as enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

Date: 26/11/2014
Time: 09:00 – 16:30

Environmental impact and management. Reducing the environmental impact of oil and gas extraction is a key priority for the sector. Improvements in the scientific understanding and technology used during hydrocarbon resource extraction will result in lower levels of environmental impact and will directly influence UK oil and gas industry regulations. Another key challenge for the sector is the environmental impacts of offshore infrastructure, including the assessment of decommissioning options. Note this is a cross-cutting theme which could be included in any of the above themes.

Date: 03/12/2014
Time: 09:00 – 16:30

To find out more information about the events, please visit the connect website.

NERC announces inaugural Impact Awards

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, NERC is pleased to announce its inaugural Impact Awards.

There are four award categories:

  • Economic Impact Award
    Recognising research that has achieved exceptional economic benefit.
  • Societal Impact Award
    Recognising research that has achieved exceptional social, cultural, public policy or service, health, environmental or quality of life benefits.
  • International Impact Award
    Recognising research that has achieved exceptional economic and/or societal impact outside the UK.
  • Early Career Impact Award
    Recognising an early career researcher who has achieved exceptional economic and/or societal impact within the UK or internationally.

A winner from one of the four categories will be selected to receive the Overall Impact Award, in recognition of the outstanding impact of their research.

The winner of each category will receive £10,000 and the runner-up £5,000, to further the impacts of their research. The Overall Impact Award winner will receive an additional £30,000.

The closing date for applications is 16:00 Wednesday 10 September 2014.

Click here for more information including eligibity and the application process.

NERC Standard Research Grants (including New Investigator grants) deadlines announced!

NERC have announced the deadlines for their competition targeting curiosity-motivated basic, strategic or applied research. The primary criterion for assessment is scientific excellence, with all applications subjected to an Initial Review stage that makes decisions on which proposals should proceed to external review. Moderating Panels meet annually in June and December to grade the applications and make recommendations for funding.

The minimum that can be requested per complete proposal and per component is £65,000 (100% Full Economic Cost) and the maximum for the complete proposal is £1·2 million (100% Full Economic Cost). A validation on the Je-S form will prevent proposals requesting less than £65,000 from being submitted.

For 2014 the actual January closing date will be 21 January at 4pm; don’t forget at BU you will need to submit 5 working days prior to this as it requires Institutional Submission through Je-S and as it is an RCUK funder, it will also need to undergo the RPRS. NERC does have demand management measures in place and therefore the assistance you will receive via this is critical.

 

You can find out more on the grants on the NERC webpage and don’t forget to let your RKE Operations Officer know if you intend on applying.

NERC peer review college call for members 2013

I don’t need to sell you the benefit of sitting on a funder review panel as I know you are already aware of what a fantastic experience this is in terms of meeting potential collaborators, learning how the assessment process works and discovering what makes a great proposal. BU’s Dr Richard Shipway is a peer reviewer for the ESRC and recently wrote an excellent blog post on the benefits of being a peer reviewer. You can read Richard’s post here.

 

You may recall that NERC recently announced initiatives to increase confidence in peer review; these include measures to increase the status and performance of the NERC College. As a result they are currently recruiting for members of their Peer Review College with the nomination deadline of 5 August 2013.

BU is fully supportive of you becoming a reviewer, including helping with ensuring you have time to perform reviews for funding bodies. If you want to take up this opportunity, please email me and I can inform you of the BU process for this.

How is NERC changing its peer review processes?

Guidance

NERC is making changes to its peer review processes to strengthen and streamline the assessment of responsive mode grants.   NERC  has agreed a series of reforms to improve the consistency, quality and transparency of peer review that identifies the very best research proposals to fund.

The following changes will apply to responsive mode research grant and fellowship calls with closing dates on or after 1 October 2013.

Consistency of review number and expertise – For each scheme minimum and optimal number of peer review reports required have been agreed; these are detailed in the assessment process. Decisions will only be made based on lower or higher number of reviews in exceptional circumstances.

The reviews will be provided by a combination of NERC College members and internationally-recognised experts, depending on where the most appropriate expertise exists. Reviewers who consider they have low expertise will no longer be asked to contribute.

Standard grant process – There will no longer be a ‘sift’ to reject uncompetitive proposals during the review process. All proposals will reach the stage where there is an opportunity to respond to review comments. Proposals, reviews and responses will then be assessed by two panel members who will assign a ‘pre-score’ for excellence. The Chair will then prioritise the proposals to discuss at the moderating panel. NERC will aim to provide decisions on the majority of Standard Grant proposals within 20 weeks of the closing date.

Moderating panels – Half of the membership of any panel will regularly attend as ‘Core Panel Members’ and there will be an identified Chair. Flexibility to select members from the College according to the particular proposals being considered will remain. For schemes where multiple panels meet (ie Standard Grants and Fellowships), business will be divided between panels with stable remits. A preliminary panel structure will be announced in June 2013. Applicants will select the panel to consider their proposal during submission.

Feedback – Panel members will be responsible for the content of feedback from panels to applicants. For any proposal discussed, moderating panel feedback will automatically be provided.

Peer Review College – Changes to the NERC Peer Review College from January 2014 are also planned, and its performance will be more actively managed. A membership review and recruitment initiative (call opening June 2013) will take place, to continue to increase the number of established academics and grant holders involved as College members and Chairs. Members will have a lead responsibility for either reviewing or moderating panel activities. Core Panel Members will be identified to work within the new moderating panels.

When will these changes happen? 

From January 2014. The PRC year will start from January rather than July from that point onwards. In the meantime there will be a call for new membership in June 2013.

Open call for NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellows and NERC Policy Placement Fellows

 

NERC are seeking to award a number of part-time Knowledge Exchange Fellows (KE Fellows) and Policy Placement Fellows, whose objective will be to increase the impact of NERC-funded science through a programme of work of their own choosing.

The KE Fellowships are intended to enable the sharing and flow of knowledge and expertise between the NERC funded researchers and their user communities.  The KE Fellows can be a focus for a school /department KE activity arising from NERC funded research. It is understood that in some cases a mix of funding will lead to an opportunity to generate impact but it is essential that NERC funding has played a key role. 

Focus of the Fellowships

The applications should focus on accelerating and amplifying economic impact and improvements in the quality of life from NERC-funded research through working with business, NGOs or government bodies. This could include:

  • strengthening existing partnerships
  • developing new relationships
  • researching new market opportunities
  • providing case studies of knowledge exchange from NERC-funded research
  • providing briefings and reports suitable for policymakers

 

Details of the two types of fellowship are:

       1. Knowledge Exchange Fellowships (KE Fellowships)

 

  • Up to four fellowships are available for those who submit a work plan of their own choosing to generate impact from NERC-funded research in their host institution.
  • KE Fellowships will cover the KE Fellow’s salary including superannuation, NI and specific allowances, plus up to £40k for travel and other associated work plan costs.
  • KE Fellowships are based in the institution where they are employed, and open to researchers at any stage of their career.
  • KE Fellows can last for a minimum of one year to a maximum of three years. Candidates can apply to spend between 20% and 80% of their time on the fellowship.
  • KE Fellows have to be employed by the host institution for the duration of their fellowship.

 

       2. Policy Placement Fellowships

 

  • Must be organised in collaboration with a policy-making body, for example a government department, devolved administration or agency. The placement is for a fixed term, for a specific project.
  • Placement is jointly funded by NERC and the partner organisation on a 50:50 basis.
  • Minimum length of placement will be six months and the maximum three years.
  • Placement fellows will be expected to spend at least 50% of their fellowship in the partner organisation’s offices, although some work might require time to be spent at other locations in the UK or abroad.

 

Closing date for applications: 10 June 2013

Interview dates: 16-18 July 2013

 

For further information on how to apply please visit the NERC website

Alternatively, if you have any queries please contact keschemes@nerc.ac.uk, 

or call Lynne Porter on 01793 411791.

 

 

 

Wanted: members for RC governing councils

Six research councils are inviting applications to fill governing council vacancies expected to arise in 2013.

Suitably qualified academics and experienced individuals from industry, commerce, government, and the voluntary, creative and cultural sectors, can apply.

The vacancies are at the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

The vacancies include some positions with audit committee responsibilities for part-time membership.

Annual honoraria of £6,850 will be paid. The closing date for applications is 19 November.

NERC call – Flooding from intense rainfall

Funding opportunities

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is inviting research proposals to its Flooding from Intense Rainfall research programme. This is a five-year £5·2m research programme in collaboration with the Met Office and the Environment Agency.

The programme will address both the strategic challenge of the NERC natural hazards theme to “enable better forecasting and mitigation of hydro-meteorological hazards,” and key research priorities identified in the UK Flood & Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research Strategy.

This call is for projects to address the programmes first two scientific goals, namely:

  1. improve the length and accuracy of forecasts of the occurrence and intensity of rainfall associated with convective storms; and
  2. identify the susceptibility to high-intensity rainfall of different catchment types.

The goals will be addressed through undertaking the research requirements described in work package 1 and 2 in the AO below.

Up to £0·9m is available for WP1.

Up to £2·7m is available for WP2.

Applications are invited from UK researchers eligible for NERC funding.

Applicants should refer to the Announcement of Opportunity document for full details of the requirements of this call.

Announcement of Opportunity (242KB)

All applicants are required to submit an outline bid for their project using the provided application form.

Application form (77KB)

Outline bids must be submitted by email to ffir@nerc.ac.uk by the deadline of 23 July 2012.

Following assessment of the outline bids, applicants may then be invited to submit a full proposal.

Closing date for full proposals: October 2012 (exact date to be confirmed).

Contacts

NERC: Dominique Butt

Met Office: Dale Barker

Environment Agency: Doug Whitfield

The RKE Operations team can help you with your application.