Innovate UK and the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico (CONACYT) are to invest up to £6 million in collaborative research and development projects to stimulate innovation across three sectors that underpin future Mexican socio-economic growth:

• agroindustry
• energy
• health

This investment from the UK has been made possible through the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills-managed Newton Fund: www.newtonfund.ac.uk

The aim of the competition is to bring together companies (small-to-medium-sized companies and/or larger, well established businesses), research organisations, academics and other collaborators from Mexico and the UK for the joint R&D of innovative products, processes or services that meet critical challenges existing within these three sectors. The principal market a project must consider is Mexico.

Projects must be collaborative, involving both UK and Mexican participants. On the UK side, projects must be business-led, and can involve other non-business partners.

Innovate UK and CONACYT are running parallel application processes under this competition. The UK applicants (that is the UK side of each project collaboration) must apply through Innovate UK; the UK applicant’s Mexican partners must apply through CONACYT.

For UK participants conducting industrial research, small or micro businesses could receive up to 70% of their eligible project costs, medium-sized businesses 60% and large businesses 50%.

We expect total UK project costs to be between £450,000 and £850,000 (although we will consider projects outside of this range) and projects to last between 12-24 months.

The UK lead partner must submit an application on behalf of all UK participants in a project to Innovate UK. The Mexican partner lead must submit an identical application on behalf of Mexican participants to CONACYT.

This competition opens on 25 June 2015, and the deadline for applications is at noon on 14 October 2015. UK applicants must register one week before the deadline, that is noon on 7 October 2015.

Scope

The scope for this competition has been kept intentionally broad to enable Innovate UK and CONACYT to understand where the interest in bilateral engagement on business-led innovation and commercialisation of research lies.

The competition will support businesses and researchers that can deliver innovative solutions to critical challenges that Mexico faces in the following three sectors:

• agroindustry
• energy
• health

Funding will be made available for collaborative research and development projects that will result in products, processes and services that provide solutions to key challenges existing within these three sectors. Projects should not only demonstrate high industrial relevance and commercial potential, but also demonstrate that they will have a positive impact upon the economic development and social welfare of Mexico, beyond primary commercial interests.

Such challenges might relate to, for example:

• access to clean energy
• improving security of energy supply
• carbon abatement
• tackling emerging diseases of national relevance
• food security and nutritional challenges
• downstream food processing

For further information click here https://interact.innovateuk.org/competition-display-page/-/asset_publisher/RqEt2AKmEBhi/content/mexico-uk-collaborative-industrial-r-d-competition

If you are working with partners in Mexico within these areas and are interested in applying for this funding please contact Naomi Arblaster: n.arblaster@staffs.ac.uk, 01785 353519

Innovate UK is to invest up to £2 million to support feasibility studies looking at innovative ways to improve the user experience in the digital economy.

We are looking for projects that use the increasing amount of personal data generated by individuals to gain insights into user needs and behaviours.

The competition is open to small and medium-sized enterprises singly or in collaboration. Proposals must be led by a business.

Small businesses could receive up to 70% of their eligible project costs, medium-sized businesses 60%.

We expect projects to last 6 to 12 months and to range in size from total costs of £90,000 to £120,000.

This competition opens on 16 March 2015. The deadline for registration is noon on 29 April 2015, and the deadline for applications is noon on 6 May 2015.

Proposals should explore new ways of using personal data to enhance users’ experience of a product or service.

We are interested in projects that:

• harness personal data to develop or improve products
• employ innovative methodology to explore opportunities arising from analysing personal data

Successful applications will demonstrate understanding of the commercial benefits of user-centred-design and use personal data to design innovative products that provide a great user experience.

Projects should focus on one or more of the three components of user experience outlined below.

Utility: Gain detailed insight into user needs and requirements in a specific sector area and design a new product or service that fulfils this need.

Usability: Gain detailed insights into user behaviour when using a specific product or service. Use them to design a new product or design improvements to an existing product, which can anticipate this behaviour, making it more inclusive and easier to use.

Desirability: Understand what data to capture, how to analyse it, and how to use these insights. Ensuring that a specific product or service can adjust to changes in user needs, behaviour and desires.

Successful projects can be focused on large user groups or on personalised solutions for individuals.

Please click here for further details https://interact.innovateuk.org/competition-display-page/-/asset_publisher/RqEt2AKmEBhi/content/enhancing-user-experience-using-personal-data

If you are interested and require support please contact Naomi Arblaster in ECD: N.Arblaster@staffs.ac.uk, Tel: 01785 353519

Innovate UK is to invest up to £4 million in collaborative research and development (R&D) projects that tackle the growing risks of disruption to internet-enabled businesses and their digital supply chains.

With the Internet of Things providing new sources of data and end-users’ ever-increasing digital footprint, it is difficult to adequately protect the interests of a business, industry or sector. There is also a lack of understanding of the effects disruption may have.

We are seeking proposals that address the challenge of protecting a business, industry or sector from digital disruption that could compromise data across the digital supply chain.

We want to identify and fund industrial research that will strengthen the protection and resilience of such data, so businesses and the public can place higher levels of confidence in the delivery of digitally enabled business products and services.

In Scope

This competition seeks better ways for UK organisations to mitigate these risks when operating in a digitally enabled environment, either within the UK or globally.

These may include (but are not limited to) innovative software, hardware, infrastructure or processes that target legacy, existing or new internet-based systems that are part of an organisation’s digital supply chain.

While we seek to fund industrial research and development projects to address this challenge, our primary goal is to achieve economic growth through new business success. As a result, we want to see a business model, sector or industry as the main focus of the proposed innovation.

We will therefore fund projects conducting industrial research whose outputs increase data protection, awareness and resilience:

• In an industry: suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and service partners form a supply chain that relies on accurate, reliable and trustworthy data within (and between) each organisation in order to directly, or indirectly, produce goods (physical or digital). Data of this type includes schematics, logistical information, creative artwork, payroll and employee details and passwords
• Between different sectors with their own data-reliant supply chains (e.g. transport and healthcare): the Internet of Things demonstrates the almost endless possibilities for greater collaboration between sectors. However, data not typically exposed to public networks is now being used in ‘big data’ analytics across multiple organisations, which may or may not have a relationship with the original data owner. Data has become a key asset that is being traded between organisations and may come from a variety of sources, including end-users themselves
• For data that is to be used to make critical decisions for a business model, industry or sector: for example, what impact would compromised traffic-light data have on an autonomous vehicle? Or what would be the effects of a malicious attack on the stock market where the decimal point is shifted forwards one place?

Proposals must be collaborative and led by a business. We expect to fund mainly industrial research projects in which a business partner will generally attract up to 50% public funding for their project costs (60% for SMEs).

We expect projects to range in size from total costs of £150,000 to £750,000, although we may consider projects outside this range.

This is a two-stage competition that opens for applicants on 23 March 2015. The deadline for registration is at noon on 29 April 2015.

The deadline for expressions of interest is at noon on 6 May 2015.

For more information click here https://interact.innovateuk.org/competition-display-page/-/asset_publisher/RqEt2AKmEBhi/content/protecting-data-in-industry

If you are interested and require support please contact Naomi Arblaster in ECD: N.Arblaster@staffs.ac.uk, Tel: 01785 353519

Innovate UK is to invest up to £1 million to establish new Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) in developing modelling approaches to support the use of stratified medicine in the UK, across bioinformatics, systems biology, health economics and analytical algorithms.

Stratified medicine means providing the right treatment, at the right time, to the right patient. The grouping, or stratifying, of patients according to the nature of their disease and their response to a particular treatment will improve patient outcomes and reduce ineffective treatment.

This has driven the need for new effective diagnostic tests that will guide patient selection for the most appropriate care pathways. Increasing development costs of new products and reduced healthcare budgets mean that these diagnostic tests need to be validated and evaluated for their potential impact on patient care pathways as early as possible.

Innovate UK’s Stratified Medicine Innovation Platform works in partnership with organisations including government, research councils and leading medical research charities to accelerate the development and uptake of stratified medicine in the UK.

It has identified the need for new modelling approaches to:

• enable companies to assess more quickly the feasibility and validity of new diagnostic products through bioinformatics and systems biology modelling
• demonstrate the value of diagnostic tests, evidenced through potential changes to current clinical care pathways, which would justify adoption by care providers and allow real market value to be forecast

Competition Scope

Successful partnerships will enable businesses to advance a product for a stratified approach to treatment, requiring the use of new modelling systems that will either:

• integrate healthcare and science data, to predict the likelihood of a product demonstrating the intended effect or value in a clinical setting, incorporating approaches such as systems biology or bioinformatics
• provide innovative multi-parameter algorithms that enhance the predictive strength of a diagnostic test and allow commercialisation
• provide innovative health economic models for products that will establish new clinical care pathways and allow product adoption

This competition aims to allow healthcare- related businesses to use KTP projects to access the modelling skills necessary to improve decision-making and the evaluation of diagnostic tests. This will allow for faster, more predictive and more accurate development of stratified medicine approaches.

Out of scope will be any modelling approaches that:

a) do not address a stratified approach to patient treatment

b) are not related to the advancement of a potential product

The competition opens for applications on 2 March 2015 and remains open on a rolling basis for applications until noon on 18 November 2015. A briefing webinar for potential applicants will be held on 19 February 2015 (register at: http://bit.ly/1yLNe6d)

The full competition brief is available at: http://bit.ly/1AIUVji

To discuss project ideas or for further information about the KTP programme and application process, contact Dominic Collins (Tel. 01785 353404, email: d.collins@staffs.ac.uk) or Sue Semple (Tel. 01785 353498, email: s.semple@staffs.ac.uk)

The Department for Education (DfE) is responsible for education and children’s services in England. It works to achieve a highly educated society in which opportunity is equal for children and young people, no matter what their background or family circumstances.  DfE is a ministerial department, supported by 9 agencies and public bodies.

Whilst there are a number of market-led websites and apps that help parents to find suitable childcare, none has achieved the status of “the place to go” and none provide comprehensive information about the entire range of childcare options (e.g. often they focus just on child-minders or nurseries).

In this competition, DfE is seeking the development of a new, engaging and innovative solution which provides accurate information about childcare provision for parents. The solution will enable parents to make informed decisions about what childcare is best for their children, taking into account a wide range of factors.  It should be easy to use and provide timely, accurate data.  DfE, supported by Innovate UK is using Phase 2 of the SBRI process to support the prototype development of selected proposed solutions.  A total of up to £200k (inc VAT) is allocated to this Phase 2 only competition.

DfE intends holding a high profile briefing event for potential applicants in mid to late February.  Applicants and potential developers should be willing to participate fully at the event and as the competition progresses.

 How to apply

All bids should be made using the Application Form; instructions on how to access this document and other competition material are available from https://interact.innovateuk.org/childcare-provision-for-parents

If you are interested in applying and require support please contact Naomi Arblaster in Enterprise & Commercial Development: 01785 353519, n.arblaster@staffs.ac.uk

The ‘Next Generation Predictive Policing Project’ is a new national competition that will be launched by South Wales Police and Gwent Police on Monday 19^th January2015 to identify and develop innovative solutions that maximise the effectiveness of resources and enhance the service provided to the communities of Southern Wales.

This competition is jointly funded by the Police Forces, Welsh Government and Innovate UK and has been run by South Wales Police as part of the Fusion Programme, which aims to change policing through the innovative and dynamic use of technology.

The competition will seek to develop innovative solutions that utilise predictive analytic tools, methods and processes to integrate, interpret, visualise and forecast using existing and future police and partner data sets in order to assist in delivering the following outcomes:

• Improved prevention, detection and disruption of criminal activity and disorder.
• More efficient use of staff and resources to ensure we have the right people in the right place, at the right time.
• Improved planning and forecasting to ensure best value is obtained from our staff and resources.
• Provide greater information and intelligence to front line officers enabling them to provide an improved and more efficient service to the public of Southern Wales.
• An improvement in public confidence and customer satisfaction for the local communities we police.

Organisations will be invited to compete for a share of a total £250,000 fund for the further development and commercialisation of innovative technologies, processes and business models.

The competition opens on Monday 19th January, with a briefing event for interested parties being run on Wednesday 4th February at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Click here for more information

https://interact.innovateuk.org/competition-display-page/-/asset_publisher/RqEt2AKmEBhi/content/next-generation-predictive-policing?p_p_auth=vJ7xy7ny

If you are interested and require support please contact Naomi Arblaster in Enterprise & Commercial Development: 01785 353519, n.arblaster@staffs.ac.uk

International Conference on Innovation Through Knowledge Transfer 2015 15th-17th April 2015 at Staffordshire University http://inkt15.innovationkt.org/ 

Paper submission is now live! Submit your papers here before 19 January 2015 to present and publish your paper at the conference: http://inkt15.innovationkt.org/prose.php

InnovationKT15 will be of interest to all knowledge professionals – those academics, business people, managers and researchers working with innovation, enterprise, knowledge transfer, exchange and sharing. Featuring world-class speakers, oral presentation sessions and interactive workshops, the InnovationKT 2015 conference will provide an excellent opportunity to publish a paper in journal and book form, and at the same time disseminate, share and discuss the impact of university-business and business-business interactions.

There will be an Innovation Tour at the Emma Bridgewater factory and a talk at the conference itself plus a plenary session entitled ‘Staffordshire Innovation Forum’ which will consist of case studies and papers from Staffordshire University and the local area.

Papers on relevant topics are invited to be evaluated for the conference under peer-review and if accepted, published in the proceedings.

Conference Scope

InnovationKT15 covers the following topics (although this list is not intended to be exhaustive):

• Case studies of successful university-business
• Examples of best practice in respect of innovation and knowledge transfer from practitioners
•  Innovative innovation and knowledge transfer mechanisms
• The outcomes and results of university-business and business-business projects
• Management of projects and development of applicable policy

Applicable knowledge transfer mechanisms and paradigms include, but are not limited to:

• The UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB) Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) product
• Spin-out companies
• Incubators and entrepreneur schemes
• University-industry contracts and consultancy
• Licensing of university-originated intellectual property
• Other modes of knowledge transfer and technology transfer, e.g. work-based learning projects
• The knowledge transfer, knowledge origination and knowledge exchange process

Invited Sessions

An invited session consists of a presentation session of 6 to 12 or more papers on a specific conference topic, organised as half or full day mini-conference. We invite senior specialists who have an interest in a specific conference topic to take responsibility for an invited session, gathering papers from a range of research expertise around the world.

If you would like to arrange an Invited Session please contact: admin@kesinternational.org

Dates & Deadlines

Submission of Papers: 19 Jan 2015

Notification of Acceptance: 16 Feb 2015 Upload of Files for Programme / Proceedings: 16 March 2015

Early Registration Deadline: 1 March 2015

All deadlines are provisional and subject to change.

Location

The collaboration between Staffordshire University and UK partners includes excellent relationships with local and national companies as well as 17 further education colleges plus charitable organisations such as the Institute for Children, Youth and Mission and Oasis College.

Further information

For general enquiries email IKT at: contact@innovationkt.org. You can also follow  @IKT_Talk and @KESIntl on Twitter for updates.

Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board) has announced the investment of up to £1m in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) in the area of ‘user experience‘ (UX) to encourage new, enhanced forms of interaction between computing systems and the people who use them.   Proposals may address technologies that contribute to these new forms, such as sensing information about the user, or those that improve specific types of experience, such as mobile and wearable devices. Examples include but are not limited to:

• Sensors and interactions: eye tracking, emotion-sensing, advanced gesture tracking, haptic interfaces, expression analysis, voice/speech interaction.
• Wearable technology: devices/clothing worn outside or on the body, in contact with the skin or embedded within the body.
• Mobile user experience: supporting natural and easy interactions on the move
• Multiple device user experience: how seamless co-operation among various devices can enhance the user experience.
• Multi-disciplinary approaches: methods and tools to involve non-ICT experts in user experience design, including artists, anthropologists and psychologists.
• Brain-controlled computing: practicality – such as when user is wearing protective headgear, such as in sport, construction and cycling.
• Combinations of emerging technologies: short-range, ad-hoc wireless technologies or application performance management tools.

If you’d like to explore the eligibility of any project ideas you might have, please call Dominic Collins (01785 353404) or Susan Semple (01785 253498) in Enterprise & Commercial Development.

Further information about the call is available at: http://bit.ly/1wwb2hD

… and the full briefing document can be found at: http://bit.ly/1EAnE9N

This call closes on April 15th 2015.

InnovationKT 2015  – the ‘International Conference on Innovation Through Knowledge Transfer’ is to be hosted by Staffordshire University on its Stoke-on-Trent campus between the 15th and 17th April, and chaired by the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Sciences’ Dr Matthew Hocking.

InnovationKT 2015 will be of interest to all knowledge transfer professionals – those academics, business people, managers and researchers working with innovation, enterprise, knowledge transfer, exchange and sharing.

Featuring world-class speakers, oral presentation sessions and interactive workshops, the InnovationKT 2015 conference will provide an excellent opportunity to publish a paper in journal and book form, and at the same time disseminate, share and discuss the impact of university-business and business-business interactions.

Papers on relevant topics are invited to be evaluated for the conference under peer-review and if accepted, published in the proceedings. Full papers will be presented and appear in a special edition of ‘InImpact: The Journal of Innovation Impact’ after the conference.

Full details of how to submit papers are available at: http://inkt15.innovationkt.org/submission.php

Conference Scope

InnovationKT 2015 covers the following topics (although this list is not intended to be exhaustive):

• Case studies of successful university-business
• Examples of best practice in respect of innovation and knowledge transfer from practitioners
• Innovative innovation and knowledge transfer mechanisms
• The outcomes and results of university-business and business-business projects
• Management of projects and development of applicable policy

Applicable knowledge transfer mechanisms and paradigms include, but are not limited to:

•  The UK Technology Strategy Board (TSB) Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) product
• Spin-out companies
• Incubators and entrepreneur schemes
• University-industry contracts and consultancy
• Licensing of university-originated intellectual property
• Other modes of knowledge transfer and technology transfer, e.g. work-based learning projects
• The knowledge transfer, knowledge origination and knowledge exchange process

Invited Sessions

An invited session consists of a presentation session of 6 to 12 or more papers on a specific conference topic, organised as half or full day mini-conference. We invite senior specialists who have an interest in a specific conference topic to take responsibility for an invited session, gathering papers from a range of research expertise around the world.

If you would like to arrange an Invited Session please contact: admin@kesinternational.org

 Dates & Deadlines

Submission of Papers: 19 Jan 2015

Notification of Acceptance: 16 Feb 2015 Upload of Files for Programme / Proceedings: 16 March 2015

Early Registration Deadline: 1 March 2015

All deadlines are provisional and subject to change.

Further information

For further information on InnovationKT 2015 visit the conference website: http://inkt15.innovationkt.org/index.php

Or contact Dr Matthew Hocking: M.Hocking@staffs.ac.uk , Tel: 01785 353833

Full details of how to submit papers are available at:http://inkt15.innovationkt.org/submission.php

For general enquiries email IKT at: contact@innovationkt.org. You can also follow  @IKT_Talk and @KESIntl on Twitter for updates.