Funding opportunity for PhD students

Posted on June 17, 2013 by ejd2

The Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income countries (PEDL) programme has issued an Exploratory Grants Programme (EPG) call specifically for current PhD students. The ERG programme supports research related to private enterprise development in low-income countries which should contribute at least in part to the student’s planned doctoral dissertation. Applications in different aspects of private sector development will be encouraged. For information PEDL’s priority areas include – The dynamics of SMEs: Informality and entrepreneurship; the role of export-oriented industries in driving growth; Gender; fragile and conflict affected states; climate, environment and social compliance.

The upper limit of funding for ERG proposals is £35,000 with a deadline date of 1^st July 2013. Further information is available at http://pedl.cepr.org/content/special-exploratory-research-grant-calls.

Winner of prize draw!

Posted on June 13, 2013 by ejd2

Following the recent closure of the Research and Funding Blog survey, respondents choosing to leave their name were entered into a prize drawer for up to £200 towards their professional development. We are pleased to announce the winner is Dr Claire Gwinnett from Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Sciences. Simon Dyer from Youth Enterprise selected the winner from the draw at Wednesday’s Enterprise Exchange. We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone responding to the survey and attending the focus group yesterday. The team has had valuable feedback which we are now reviewing to inform our future blog developments.

University attends the 5th University Business Forum, Brussels

Posted on June 10, 2013 by ejd2

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On 4^th and 5^th June the European Commission hosted the 5^th University Business Forum. Over 300 registered delegates from across the EU listened to a number of high profile speakers including Jan Truszczyński, Director General of DG EAC and Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. From the UK perspective Sir Tim Wilson, author of A Review of Business–University Collaboration, February 2012 (click here to view) also gave a key note which was well received by the audience.

The role of University Business collaborations for growth was central to discussions. The Commissioner highlighted the importance of University Business collaborations to address the challenges of high the levels of youth unemployment and an increasing skills gap facing Europe today. Successful initiatives evolving from previous forums were also presented, including details of the Knowledge Alliance funding calls and the “Guiding Framework for Entrepreneurial Universities”; an online self assessment tool developed in cooperation with the OCED.

Staffordshire University’s Catherine Fehily also presented at one of the workshops ‘Design – a vital part of Innovation’, providing an overview of the excellent staff-student enterprise activity that FACT has achieved through Flux, High House and SPoTS atelier. The Commission also paid for two of our FACT students to attend along with a handful of students to provide real time illustrations of the workshops to support the feedback process.

Should you wish to find out more information the event website has a full list of the speakers and recordings of the main sessions http://ubforum2013.teamwork.fr/.

Horizon 2020 update from UKRO

Posted on June 3, 2013 by ejd2

The UK Research Office have advised that they understand the European Commission’s DG Research and Innovation is planning to complete internal drafts of the first Horizon 2020 work programmes by the end of June 2013. This timetable is extremely ambitious and reliant on the budget discussions progressing, but if all goes as planned an indicative list of topics could be available in July, with consultations underway in Autumn.

The Horizon 2020 Strategic Programme for 2014-2016 is expected to be published alongside the first work programmes to set out the overall objectives of the first two years of the programme and a number of ‘focus areas’ which are expected to be the main thematic driver for the first work programmes. Early indications suggest these could include:

Sustainable food security
Blue growth: unlocking the potential of the oceans
Smart cities and communities
Competitive low-carbon energy
Energy efficiency
Mobility for growth
Waste: a resource to recycle, reuse and recover raw materials
Water innovation: boosting its value for Europe
Overcoming the crisis: new ideas, strategies and governance structures for Europe
Disaster-resilience: safeguarding and securing society, including adapting to climate change
Digital security
Personalising health and care

The full article is available from the UKRO subscriber services via www.ukro.ac.uk, or contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk for further information.

Digital NHS conference

Posted on June 3, 2013 by ejd2

Digital NHS – Delivering 21st Century Healthcare
19th September 2013, The Barbican, London

At the Digital NHS – Delivering 21st Century Healthcare event, the impact on services of moving the NHS into a digital era will be explored. Case studies will share best practice initiatives, allowing delegates to assess how digital services may both enhance their professional roles and the patient experience

Confirmed speakers to date include;
Dr Charles Gutteridge, National Clinical Director for Informatics, Department of Health
Jon Lindberg, Associate Director, Intellect Healthcare Programme
John Cruickshank, Consultant Director, 2020 health
Rachel Neaman, Deputy Director for Digital, Department of Health
Dr Jeremy Wyatt, Leadership Chair in eHealth Research, University of Leeds

Further information is available at the conference website: http://www.regonline.co.uk/Register/Checkin.aspx?EventID=1214728&lbrd=1&rtypeid=285239. Fees are £395 plus VAT.

Capital Funding Call for Digital Transformations in Community research Co-Production in the Arts and Humanities

Posted on May 20, 2013 by ejd2

As part of the cross-Council Connected Communities Programme, the AHRC is inviting applications for Digital Community Research Co-Production Projects. The call aims to harness digital technologies to stimulate innovative engagements and research co-production between communities and researchers. £4m capital funding is available under this call.

A key focus of, and output from, the projects funded must be some form of new, or significantly enhanced, research-based asset of enduring value for communities and future research. These assets may take a variety of forms, such as open datasets, integrated search facilities, mash-ups, visualizations and mappings, enhanced gateways and portals, galleries, tools, hardware, interfaces, software, material artefacts, or other forms of innovative cultural and creative resource or asset.

Applications are invited for between £50,000 and £600,000 on a full economic cost basis and the AHRC will fund 80% of the full economic costs (with the exception that equipment costs may be included under this call). The closing date is Thursday 27th June 2013.

There are a series of launch events, the local event is Birmingham on 30^th May.

Please contact External Projects Team (externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk) if you are interested in this call. Further information is available at http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Funding-Opportunities/Pages/Capital-Funding-Call-for-Digital-Transformations-in-Community-research-Co-Production-in-the-Arts-and-Humanities.aspx

New research-intensive alliance

Posted on May 13, 2013 by ejd2

A new alliance of research-intensive universities has been recently been formed called the Science and Engineering South Consortium (SES-5). This consortium involves the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Southampton, Imperial College London and University College London. Collectively, the SES-5 have a combined annual research spend of more than £1.3 billion.

The SES-5 will collaborate on research, innovation and training activities, whilst providing efficiencies of scale and shared utilisation of facilities for research in the physical sciences, bio-sciences, and engineering. Further engagement with industry will be sought.

Further information is available at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0513/130509-science-and-engineering-south-consortium.

EU budget discussions update

Posted on May 13, 2013 by ejd2

Official negotiations between the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament regarding the overall EU budget for 2014 to 2020 are finally scheduled to start on Monday 13 May, to try to reach agreement on the budget before the end of the Irish presidency on 30 June. These Multiannual Financial Framework negotiations will continue on the basis of the EUR 960 billion budget agreed at the European Council meeting in February 2013. The negotiations are looking to agree final budgets for the next generation of EU programmes due to be launched in 2014.

Looking to promote your work?

Posted on May 6, 2013 by ejd2

Birmingham Science City aims to promote the strength of science, technology and innovation in and between the public, private and university sectors. Staffordshire University are involved in Birmingham Science City (BSC) working groups and we are therefore invited to publicise our work through their networks. A recent call has gone out to request content for the BSC website, providing an opportunity to:

Advertise achievements, funding, networks, events, etc through the news and events sections
Promote ‘Did you know’ facts about science and technology developed or applied locally
Share case studies of collaborative activity in Low Carbon, Innovative Healthcare and Digital areas

If you have news you wish to promote via BSC, please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk.

If you wish to find out more about the work of Birmingham Science City and its innovation community you can engage with partners via linked in Innovation Futures group or @Bham ScienceCity for Twitter. Further details at (http://www.birminghamsciencecity.co.uk/).

Staffordshire University Research and Funding Blog

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