Author Archives: BENNETT Margaret

About BENNETT Margaret

External Projects Officer in External Projects Team since January 2012.

Diet and Health Research Industry Club (DRINC)

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The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, together with the Medical Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council, invites applications for its diet and health research industry club. The DRINC scheme supports UK universities and research institutes with innovative basic research that addresses the theme of improving the understanding of the relationship between diet and health. Proposals should seek to relate improved understanding to the challenges facing the food and drink industry and address one of the following research challenges:

  • understanding the relationship between food processing and nutrition
  • designing foods to maintain and improve health
  • understanding food choice and eating behaviour to improve health through diet

Principal applicants must be resident in the UK and hold an academic staff appointment, at the lecturer level or equivalent, at a higher education institution or research council institute. Research teams must include expertise for designing and running clinical trials. Collaborative applications bringing together groups with relevant expertise or experience to move research closer to application are encouraged.

A budget of approximately £3 million will support a portfolio of projects at 80 per cent full economic cost. Projects are typically three to four years in duration, but projects up to five years will be considered.

Outline application deadline: 9 July 2014, 4pm

A workshop for the call will be held on 3 June 2014 in London and will be an opportunity for applicants to:

  • understand the DRINC research challenges and assessment process
  • meet other potential applicants and form new collaborations
  • discuss proposals with representatives from the DRINC steering group, the Club’s company members and the Research Councils

For further information go to: http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/business/collaborative-research/industry-clubs/drinc/apply.aspx

EPSRC Novel Manufacturing Instrumentation call: invitation for outline proposals

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The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council invites outline proposals for its call on novel manufacturing instrumentation.

It is an opportunity for the development of novel manufacturing instrumentation to improve existing processes and develop new capabilities. It is aimed at the development of novel techniques in manufacturing, manipulation and metrology with the intention that they can be incorporated into or form the basis of new, laboratory standard instruments.

Instruments developed should be capable of supporting research work into novel manufacturing and further development into industry-standard machines.

The goal is to establish new technologies with a strong UK base, in terms of intellectual property, supply chains and expertise.

An industrial partner is not a requirement for this call. However, partnerships are encouraged between university partners and companies that will either be users of the instrument or potential future suppliers of the instrument to the market.

The budget is £8 million, with £4m for equipment procurement and £4m for in-house development and commissioning. Resource costs and consumables are supported at 80 per cent of full economic costing.

Between eight to 12 projects, up to 36 months in duration will be funded.

Closing date: 15 May 2014

For  further information go to: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2014/Pages/novelmanufacturinginstrumentation.aspx

Joint Israel-UK Research in Cyber Security

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Israel’s National Cyber Bureau and Ministry of Science, Technology and Space together with the UK’s Cabinet Office and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council invite applications for joint research projects relevant to any area of cybersecurity.

Proposals are welcome for new projects in any area relevant to cyber security, from new or established partnerships. Collaborations will need to prepare a single, unified, proposal which describes a full programme of work in both countries.

Projects should last between 25 and 30 months, to start in Spring 2015 and end no later than December 2017.

Projects that address shared challenges in the following areas are particularly welcomed:

  • smart authentication and identity management
  • governance and regulation of cybersecurity
  • privacy assurance and perceptions
  • mobile and cloud security
  • human aspects of security or usable security
  • cyber-resilient systems

Support will be available for up to three collaborations, each of which involves leading academic researchers in both the partner countries. The total budget is £1.2 million. The key to success in the call will be the identification of a programme of work which is of high scientific quality and truly collaborative.

For UK partners, funding covers 80 per cent of full economic costs with a maximum project value of £250,000. For Israeli partners, the maximum project value is £200,000.

Closing date: 24th June 2014

For further information go to: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2014/Pages/cybersecurity.aspx

Industry Fellowship

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This scheme is for academic scientists who want to work on a collaborative project with industry and for scientists in industry who want to work on a collaborative project with an academic organisation.

It aims to enhance knowledge transfer in science and technology between those in industry and those in academia in the UK.

The scheme provides a basic salary for the researcher and a contribution towards research costs.

The scheme is funded by the Royal Society, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, Rolls-Royce plc and BP plc.

The scheme covers all areas of the life and physical sciences, including engineering but excluding clinical medicine.

The applicant must:

  • have a PhD or be of equivalent standing in their profession
  • hold a permanent post in a university, not-for-profit research organisation or industry in the UK
  • be at a stage in their career when they would particularly benefit from establishing or strengthening personal or corporate links between academia and industry as a foundation for long-term collaboration and development

Applications involving spin-offs or small companies are encouraged. Applicants should clearly state how the fellowship will benefit the not-for-profit research organisation, especially in cases where the applicant has financial involvement within the company. Applicants should also state which complementary skills the employees at the company can offer.

Applicants should ensure that they meet all the eligibility requirements, which can be viewed in scheme notes (PDF).

The applicant’s basic salary is provided while on secondment but the employing organisation continues to pay national insurance and pension contributions.

Research expenses may be claimed up to the value of £2,000 per year. Awards can be for any period up to two years full-time or a maximum of four years pro rata. (i.e. an award could be held at 50% part-time for four years enabling fellows to maintain links with their employing institution more easily).

For further information go to https://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/industry-fellowship/

JPI Cultural Heritage – Heritage Plus call

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JPI on Cultural Heritage and global change

A new funding opportunity has been announced by the Joint Programming Initiative in Cultural Heritage and Global Change for transnational proposals in the area of cultural heritage.

This Heritage Plus call is designed to generate new, research-based knowledge to promote the sustainable use and management of cultural heritage, thereby meeting societal challenges and contributing to the development of society.
The call aims to fund excellent collaborative, transnational, interdisciplinary, innovative R&D projects focussed mainly on tangible cultural heritage research, while not excluding the interlinked aspects of intangible and digital heritage.
                                                                                                                                      The call will support projects across three broad topics:
  • Safeguarding tangible cultural heritage and its associated intangible expressions
  • Sustainable strategies for protecting and managing cultural heritage
  • Use and re-use of all kinds of cultural heritage

Only researchers based in countries that have committed to the Heritage Plus call can apply for funding. These are:

Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France,  Israel,  Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania,  Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.

Additional funding is being provided by the European Commission.

The Heritage Plus call will support well-defined, interdisciplinary and collaborative R&D projects that maximize the value of research outcomes.

The deadline for submission of the pre-proposals is 28 April 2014.

The total budget for the call is around 9 million EUROS

Duration of projects: up to 36 months

Each project must comprise of at least three research teams, each based in an eligible institution in a different country participating in the Heritage Plus call. The maximum number of teams in a project is five.

For further information go to: http://www.jpi-culturalheritage.eu/wp-content/uploads/Announcement-for-Heritage-Plus-post-3rd-March.pdf

EPSRC International research in security (IRIS)

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EPSRC is inviting proposals from UK academics for projects which will support visiting Fellows from India, Israel or Japan to carry out cyber security  research in and build collaborative links with the UK. Proposals are welcome in any area of research directly relevant to cyber security, including less well-represented domains such as the social, economic and mathematical sciences.

UK higher education institutions, research institutes funded by research councils and independent research organisations may apply. The visiting fellows must be of recognised research standing internationally, but they need not be academic researchers.

Awards cover the resources necessary to support a visiting fellow for a total of up to six months over one to four visits in a two-year period. The total budget of £1.2 million will fund around 20 visiting fellows.

Closing date: 28th August 2014

Full Call document: International Research in Security (PDF 124KB)

For further information: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2014/Pages/iris.aspx

A comparison of FP7 and Horizon 2020

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The most important changes are outlined below:

Description FP7 Horizon2020
Focus Research Research and Innovation
Budget 55 billion € ~ 79 billion €
Components Cooperation, Capacities, People, Ideas, Euratom, JRC Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership, Societal challenges,   Spreading Excellence, Science for Society, EIT, JRC, Euratom
Funding rate (up to) for research 75% 100%
Funding rate (up to) for Demonstration/ Innovation projects 50% 70%
100% for non-profit organizations
Overhead/indirect costs Different   models (20% 60% or actual) 25%
Time-to-grant 12 months in average after submission of proposal reduced to 8 months
Ex-ante financial viability check All   beneficiaries exceeding 500,000 EUR EU contribution Coordinators
Audit certificates to be submitted All beneficiaries exceeding 375,000 EUR EU contribution – cumulative   in periods All beneficiaries exceeding 325,000 EUR EU contribution – only one at   the end of the project
Interest on pre-financing Reported by the coordinator No need to declare
Thematic approach “Cooperation” 10 themes Will be under “Industrial leadership” and “Societal challenges”
Frontier Research, ERC New in FP7 – Ideas block Extended under the “Excellent Science” pillar

 

Sustainable Pathways to Low Carbon Energy (SPLiCE) Research Programme: Phase 1

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The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs invites tenders for its sustainable pathways to low carbon energy research programme.

The SPLiCE research programme will fill gaps in knowledge about the sustainability of different mixes of energy supply and demand options needed to deliver 2050 greenhouse gas emissions targets. It will look specifically at the effects of different energy options on the natural environment, society and the economy. This new research will be combined with existing information and synthesised into a comprehensive, accessible and holistic view of the data that will support decision making to build a sustainable future energy system.

Phase 1 will establish a foundation for this programme and will start a process of reviewing and synthesising existing research; prioritise new research for phase 2; produce a specification for a portal to access the synthesised information and assess options for evaluating and comparing impacts and engaging the public.

Listing Deadline: 03/04/2014 16:00
Contract Start Date: 28/04/2014
Contract Duration: 12 months

 

BIOREFINE Cluster Europe

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Staffordshire University’s ARBOR project under the leadership of Dr Sacha Oberweis has joined the BIOREFINE Cluster Europe, an initiative which links 15 national and international projects and involves more than 80 institutions from 14 EU member states. The projects are all focussed in some way on nutrient and energy cycling.

Sacha is a member of the steering group of the cluster which aims to stimulate project interaction as well as interaction of the institutions, organisations and individuals involved.

The cluster was launched from the NEW INTERREG IV.B project BIOREFINE and it’s aim will be to source sustainable biomass, improve energy technology and refine and recuperate products from the bio-energy process sidestreams.

The total budget for the project exceeds 30 million Euros.

In 2014, the projects within the cluster will work to develop tools and actions to enhance their mutual interaction, stakeholder outreach will be enhanced and project development will be increased.

Ultimately, the cluster aims to develop a community of like-minded organisations sharing a common interest in Biorefinery.

For further information please contact Sacha Oberweis on: S.Oberweis@staffs.ac.uk

Background

Accelerating Renewable Energies through valorisation of Biogenic Organic Raw Material (ARBOR).

The ARBOR project has supported the establishment of a European Centre of Excellence for Biomass Trigeneration based at Staffordshire University, which aims to implement innovative approaches from across Europe, working with a range of organisations to increase the adoption of biomass for energy production. Through European partnerships the project exchanges best practice with other research organisations specialising in biomass.

Part of the Beacon Building is now heated by biomass, realised by ARBOR.

Partners include:

  • Inagro vzw Belgium,
  • CRP Henri Tudor Luxembourg,
  • IZES gGmbH, Saarbrücken
  • Wageningen University, Netherlands
  • FlandersBio, Ghent, Belgium
  • VCM vzw, Brugge,
  • POM West-Vlaanderen, Brugge,  Belgium
  • University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin
  • DLV Plant, Wageningen, Netherlands
  • Stoke on Trent City Council,
  • Ghent University, Ghent, Belgiium
  • Provincie Utrecht

ARBOR is an INTERREG  IVB project with a total value of €7,289,415. The project began in 2010 and is due to end in 2015/16.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Open Fund

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The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation invites grant applications under its programme for art research and development. Applications must address projects or ideas under the foundation’s three main strategic aims:

  • Cultural Understanding

To help improve people’s perceptions of each other by providing opportunities through culture and between cultures.

  • Fulfilling Potential

To assist the most disadvantaged in society to fulfil their potential by building connections and developing opportunities.

  • Environment

To help in the development of a society which benefits from a more sustainable relationship with the natural world and understands the value of its resources.

Not-for -profit organisations based in the UK or Republic of Ireland may apply for funding, and projects must take place in these countries. Projects may involve international partners, or emulate good practice in other countries.

Grants average between £10,000 and £30,000.

There is no closing date.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is a charitable foundation established in Portugal in 1956 with cultural, educational, social and scientific interests. The Foundation’s Headquarters are in Lisbon with offices in London (the UK Branch) and Paris

For further information go to: http://gulbenkian.org.uk/open-fund/fund.html