Author Archives: ejd2

HEFCE funding for 2013-2014 confirmed

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The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has announced its high-level funding decisions, following the annual grant letter from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on 14th January. Allocations to individual universities and colleges will be announced on 21 March.  The HEFCE Board agreed £4.47 billion for distribution for the 2013-14 academic year. This breaks down as follows:

  • £2.3 billion for teaching – reducing from £3.2 billion last year.  This will include widening participation activity (£105 million), student retention (£228 million) and funding for taught postgraduate students not eligible for government tuition fee loans.
  • £1.6 billion for research – retained for the third year running (including £1 billion for QR and £240million for research degrees).
  • £160 million for knowledge exchange – increasing by £10 million from last year.
  • £429 million in non-recurrent funds (capital grants, national programmes, Revolving Green Fund, Catalyst Fund).

The full press release and links to further information on student number allocations is available at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2013/name,76482,en.html.

Update on Horizon 2020

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Horizon 2020 is the successor research and innovation funding programme to Framework Programme 7.  Horizon 2020 will operate from 2014-2020 with a proposed overall budget of €80 billion. This programme will support three pillars of activity – Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges. 

Each legislative part of Horizon 2020 implementation must be approved by the European Parliament, Council and Commission.  These discussions are scheduled  to be completed by summer 2013, before the end of the Irish presidency.  Current issues to be resolved include the rules and rates for cost reimbursement, the detailed structured for the societal challenges pillar and widening the participation potential across all member states.  Once these issues have been resolved the first calls are expected in early 2014.

This all depends on the budget negotiations, which are part of the overall EU budget for 2014-2020 (the Multi-Annual Financial Framework), subject for the summit meetings this week.  Our UKRO annual visit on 13th February will provide more detailed information following on from these budget discussions. To register for this event contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk.

HEFCE consultation

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HEFCE are currently undertaking a consultation on whether all higher education institutions (HEIs) eligible to receive public funding for research through HEFCE should comply with a research integrity concordat published earlier this year.  The research integrity concordat is designed to ensure that the UK research base maintains its high reputation for excellence, professionalism and rigour.  This consultation has been discussed at the Staffordshire University Research, Enterprise and Advanced Scholarship Committee and views are being sought to inform our institutional response.

Further information on the consultation is available at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2012/201232/. Please send through any comments to externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk.

Staffordshire University wins support from the Design Council

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Staffordshire University has won a place on the Design Council’s Design Leadership Programme. The programme is a unique opportunity to work with the Design Council and their Design Associates, to help us use design in the Commercialisation of our research. In the process the projects have been learning valuable new skills to add to their existing capabilities. The successful projects include the Urinary Flow Assessment Monitor with Mr Khawar Hameed and Dr Abdel-Hamid Soliman, The Development of Unfired Commercial Pavers with Professor Michael Anderson and Mr John Adlen, The Development of Shear Reducing Midsoles Concept and Intelligent Footwear with Professor Nachiappan Chockalingam and Dr Roozbeh Naemi and finally the Forensic Contamination Prevention Project which involves Professor John Cassella, Ms Laura Walton, Mr Julian Partridge and Mr Rob Buurstede. The programme runs from November 2012 through to spring 2013 and over that period we will have up to 8.5 days of Jonathan Butters (Design Associate) experience.

Jonathon has kindly agreed to present at our next Enterprise Exchange Meeting on Wednesday 27th March 2013 to talk about the Design programme. The Enterprise Exchange is a quarterly meeting run by the Enterprise and Commercial Development team as a forum to share best practice and showcase projects and activity. Chaired by Dr Stuart Brown, Head of IP and Commercialisation, the group welcomes all university staff engaging in knowledge exchange activity, enterprise, applied research, consultancy and innovation to attend. If you would be interested in joining the group please contact Elizabeth Plant our Information Officer, on 01785 353851 or email e.j.plant@staffs.ac.uk

Funding for university cooperation and mobility

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The European Commission have launched their latest round of funding to support the cooperation of higher education institutions across Europe.  Erasmus Mundus is a cooperation and mobility programme that aims to enhance the quality of European higher education and to promote dialogue and understanding between people and cultures through cooperation with third countries. In addition, it contributes to the development of human resources and the international cooperation capacity of higher education institutions in third countries by increasing mobility between the European Union and these countries. Priorities for this call are for the development of Erasmus Mundus partnerships for curriculum based exchanges of staff and students and the promotion of European Higher Education.

 

The call deadline is 15th April 2013.  Further information can be found here http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus_mundus/funding/2013/call_eacea_38_12_en.php.  Please contact the External Projects Team if you are interested (externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk).  Staffordshire University has prior experience of success in this funding stream and we are keen to support new applications.

 

Funding for Arts and Digital Technology

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The Digital R&D fund for the Arts is a three way partnership between Arts Council England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Nesta, running for three years from 2012-2015.  This scheme is funding projects up to £125,000.  It is a £7 million fund to support collaboration between organisations with arts projects, technology providers, and researchers to enhance audience reach and/or develop new business models for the arts sector. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, until 30th December 2013. Briefing sessions and collaborative workshops are provided for people looking to develop projects.
Further information can be found at http://www.artsdigitalrnd.org.uk/.  Please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk if you are interested.

Wellcome Trust launches new investment company

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On January 3rd the Wellcome Trust launched a new healthcare venture capital fund through a subsidiary investment company, Syncona Partners LLP (“Syncona”).  Syncona is looking to develop a portfolio of investments in healthcare devices, diagnostics, therapeutics, information technology, and services.  Syncona will support early- and late-stage companies, as a majority investor or as part of a syndicate.  Syncona has starting capital of £200 million and will be looking to support investments between £1m and £20m to support the creation of sustainable healthcare businesses.

Further information is at http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2013/WTP041359.htm.

Intelligent Energy Europe Funding Announced

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The Intelligent Energy Europe programme has launched a call for proposals.  This funding stream supports projects designed to:

  • Promote energy efficiency and encourage the rational use of energy sources
  • Increase the use of new and renewable energy sources as well as encouraging energy diversification
  • Stimulate energy efficiency and renewables in the field of transport

The next call has €65 million available with a deadline of May 8th.  For further details on the call priorities and help in exploring opportunities please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk.  There is a Brussels based information day on the 23rd January followed by a networking partner brokerage event on the 24th January.  We have Staffordshire University representation at this event so if you would like to express an interest please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk. 

The official call information is available at http://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/getting-funds/call-for-proposals/how-to-apply/index_en.htm.

Design across Europe

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A group known as the European Design Leadership Board has formulated a series of recommendations for the European Commission on how to incorporate design as a driver of user-centred innovation across Europe in order to contribute to the Europe 2020 Strategy’s goals for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. The aim of the report is to enhance design’s long-term contribution to the Europe 2020 goals through increased competitiveness and the pursuit of a better quality of life for EU citizens, with design embedded in Europe’s innovation systems. The recommendations in the report cover aspects including differentiating European design on the global stage, positioning design within the European innovation system and design for both innovative and competitive enterprises and an innovative public sector. On Horizon 2020, the report states that design research must be better embedded in the programme and in particular, that Horizon 2020 work programmes should have sufficient flexibility to enable the formation of multidisciplinary consortia in which design is one essential element. One possible output of projects could therefore be new, meaningful applications with a better design content, better technology usability and better value for users. http://europeandesigninnovation.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Design_for_Growth_and_Prosperity_.pdf