Author Archives: Josephine Beech

Wellcome Trust Awards – Society & Ethics

Posted on by

wellcome_logo

The Wellcome Trust invites applications for its university awards in society and ethics. These allow universities to attract or retain outstanding research staff at an early to mid-stage in their careers by providing support for up to five years, after which time the applicant takes up a guaranteed permanent post in the university. A monograph and other substantial publications are expected to result from an award, and so teaching and other non-research commitments are expected to be minimal during the period of support.

Candidates must be nominated by their prospective head of department and have an undertaking from the head of the institution, vice-chancellor, principal or dean that the personal support will be taken over by the institution at the end of the grant. Support is normally available only at lecturer level, although in exceptional cases awards to senior lecturer level may be possible. The host institution should normally be located in either the UK or Republic of Ireland.

Up to five years’ support is available, providing a full salary for three years, 50 per cent in the fourth year and 25 per cent in the fifth year. The trust provides travel costs to attend meetings for five years and other research expenses for the first three years of the award. Public engagement costs may also be included.

For more information click here: Wellcome Trust Awards

NESTA – Impact Investments

Posted on by

NESTA the innovation funder has a number of open funding opportunities. One of these is the Impact Investment Awards. They aim to bring about positive outcomes for people, communities and society as a whole, as well as providing financial returns for investors.

Impact investment is needed to fund the creation of new innovations and to support their testing and development. It also allows the best ones to scale up and change the world. This is as true of innovation that seek to achieve social impact as it is of those motivated by creating financial value.

In particular, NESTA are seeking innovations that have a positive impact on:

  • the health and wellbeing of an ageing population;
  • the educational attainment and employability of children and young people; and
  • the social and environmental sustainability of communities.
This is a open call and has a rolling deadline. To find out more please visit the WEBLINK
animation_meeting_2

INTERREG IVB North West Europe Event

Posted on by

photo.JB3Staffordshire University staff attended a partnership event in Roubaix, France on the 14th November 2013. The day long event was led by INTERREG IVB North West Europe (NWE) funded by ERDF, the aim was to discuss the new programme and facilitate patnership opportunities around three key themes, Innovation, Low Carbon and Renewable Materials.

Sacha Oberweis represented ARBOR a University led project on BioMass. Representing the Office of Sustainability, John Adlen was championing the setting up of “Urban Labs” and Jose Beech from ECD took part in discussions on Innovation.

To find out more please contact the team at externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk or you can click HERE to access the information from the day.

 

 

UKRO Horizon 2020 Event – Kings College London

Posted on by

IMG00163-20131010-1016

The External Projects Team attended a “Train the Trainer” Horizon 2020 event yesterday at Kings College, London. The session was hosted by Edward Ricketts (Pictured with Jose Beech) one of UKRO’s European Advisors. With over 100 HEI’s represented this was a key session for European Officers as institutions prepare for the new Horizon 2020 calls in January 2014.

A full briefing with details will be sent next week. Needless to say, there are still changes being made to the calls for proposals…

For further information please contact the external projects team at externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk

 

EPSRC-NIHR Healthcare Technology Call

Posted on by

EPRSC

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are inviting network proposals to enable collaborations between academia and the 8 National Institutes for Health Research (NIHR) funded Healthcare Technology Cooperatives (HTCs). Each network proposal must be led by an academic at an eligible institution and can be up to £150K (80% FEC) for a maximum duration of 3 years – an investment of up to £1.2M from EPSRC to fund up to 8 EPSRC – NIHR HTC partnership awards.

Each proposal must have support from at least one of the HTCs (but no more than 3). The closing date is the 7th January 2014.  The funding avaliable is £150k for a maximum of 3 years at 80% FEC.

For more information Click HERE

EU Prize for Women Innovators 2014

Posted on by

pict3

The European Commission has launched the second edition of the EU Prize for Women Innovators. The competition is open until 15th October 2013 and aims to raise public awareness about the need for more innovation and more women innovators. It will reward three women who have developed outstanding innovations and brought them to market, with prizes ranging from €25,000 to €100,000.

Any woman innovator complying with the following criteria can apply:

  • Resides in an EU Member State or in a country associated to the Research Framework Programme.
  • Is a founder or co-founder of an existing and active company.
  • Your company must have been registered before 1st January 2011.
  • The annual turnover of the company must have been a minimum €100,000 in 2011 or 2012.
  • Either you or the company you founded/co-founded have received or is receiving funding from the European Union or the European Atomic Energy Community Research Framework Programme, or from the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP).

If you would like to participate, please got to the contest website before the 15th October 2013.

Webinar: New Participant Portal for Horizon 2020, 9th September

Posted on by

The Participant Portal, the central web platform for the EC research and innovation funding, is improving its user-friendliness and functions for H2020 and this webinar will highlight its main features.

All the grant-related online exchanges of EC research and innovation funding are managed on the Participant Portal. To make the system as user-friendly as possible and to prepare it for Horizon 2020, the Commission seeks continuous advice from the actual users. The next meeting of an external user group is planned for Monday 9th September 2013 (3pm – 6pm UK time) in Brussels and at this meeting, discussion points will include:

  • The improved version of the Participant Portal for Horizon 2020
  • The approach for completely paperless management of Horizon 2020 grants
  • New online functions for the appointment and payment of experts
  • Improvements to the system of registering organisations

To allow maximum participation and input from a wide audience, this meeting will be webcast with a live stream. Additionally, a web forum will be used where questions and comments can be posted, either during or after the meeting.

The video link for the live stream will be available from 14.00 Brussels time (3pm UK time) on the 9th September, with a recording of the meeting available shortly after the meeting. To access the webinar and a draft agenda, please click here.

Open access to research publications reaching ‘tipping point’

Posted on by

LOGO CE_Vertical_EN_quadri

The European Commission has published a new report on the impact of “open data”, stating that over 50% of scienctific articles published in 2011 are now avaliable for free. By making research results more accessible, open access can contribute to better and more efficient science, and to innovation in the public and private sectors.

The Commission will make open access to scientific publications a general principle of Horizon 2020. As of 2014, all articles produced with funding from Horizon 2020 will have to be accessible:

  • articles will either immediately be made accessible online by the publisher (“gold” and “hybrid” open access) – up-front publication costs can be eligible for reimbursement by the European Commission; or
  • researchers will make their articles available through an open access repository no later than six months (12 months for articles in the fields of social sciences and humanities) after publication (“green” open access).

To read the full reports you can go to this LINK

ARMA (Association of Research Manager Administrators) Annual Conference 2013

Posted on by
Reply
Jose Beech @ ARMA conference JUNE 2013

Jose Beech @ ARMA conference JUNE 2013

 

Jose Beech, External Grants Manager from the External Projects Team, led parallel session “505 The routes to funding success” on day 2 of this years National ARMA conference at Nottingham University. Margaret Bennett, External Projects Officer also attended to assist in facilitation. Over 55 people listened and participated in a interactive and insightful presentation on the barriers to successful funding and the strategies that can be implemented to encourage best practice.

The two day conference had a focus on “Strategies for Success” with 480 delegates attending daily plenary and parallel sessions. With over 2000 members ARMA has become an important voice for Research & Funding Managers, providing training, study tours and policy advice to HEFCE, BIS and RCUK.

The 2013 European Culture Forum: Call for Presenters

Posted on by
Reply

If you have an original and inspirational idea you would like to make about culture in front of over 1,200 European cultural stakeholders, this is your chance. The European Commission is looking for talented speakers to take part in the Culture Forum on 4-6 November 2013 in Brussels. You can make any point you like, so long as it is related to culture and Europe.

More information

The selected speakers will be given the opportunity to present their ideas in plenary or in breakout sessions. You will be expected to make your point in English or in French, without notes or power point support. Each speech will be five minutes long. Speakers will be automatically cut off if they do not keep to time.

If you would like to be considered, please explain your idea in simple terms and provide a link to a video in which you speak about your idea in 3 minutes maximum. The content of the video should focus on the expression of your idea with words, without special effects or visuals. It can be from any support (phone, camera), no high-quality image required.

The deadline to apply is 20 June 2013.

All applicants will be informed of the results of the selection by 30th August.