The External Projects Team recently supported a PHD seminar series in FCES, organised by Fran Stubbs, the series is designed to provide opportunities for PHD students to explore new topics and learn from the key speakers who are invited to attend.
The External Projects Team discussed bidding for research and in a EU context and provided tips to writing a successful proposal.
Pictured above are the PHD students and Jose Beech, External Grants Manager.
Enterprise and Commercial Development were joined yesterday by our UK Research Office (UKRO) representative Blazej Thomas and National Contact Point (NCP) for SME Innovation, Dr Jane Watkins as well as Mudlark owner Charles Hunter for an interactive session on European Funding and SME’s.
(pictured above from left to right, Prof Allan Howells, Dr Jane Watkins, Matthew Hocking, Jose Beech, Blazej Thomas & Charles Hunter)
The all day event, sponsored by EUREKA and hosted by the External Projects Team was held in the Ashley Building, and was designed to stimulate discussion and debate on the routes to EU Horizon 2020 funding for SME’s and local organisations as well as providing insight to academics on funding opportunities within the programme. Over 50 attendees had the opportunity to listen to expert advice as well as question our speakers on the nuts and bolts of European funding.
The slides will be avaliable to all participants, so if you didn’t attend and would like to recieve them please email: externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk
The External projects team have led on a Bid Writing Masterclass for colleagues across the University as part of the Staffs Fest programme. Staff from all faculties were represented as the session dealt with bidding from defining a project right through to evaluation of a bid, see picture above and below.
Slides are avaliable, if you want some more information please email Jose Beech External Grants Manager @ j.a.beech@staff.ac.uk
Staffordshire University hosted our annual Social Enterprise West Midlands (SEWM)event yesterday in the Ashley Building. Melanie Mills SEWM Director (pictured first left) Jose Beech from ECD and Nic Gratton from FACT hosted over 22 Social enterprise’s from across the region who gathered to share knowledge and contacts. SEWM is itself a social enterprise and Staffordshire University work in partnerhsip to champion the role of social enterprise within Staffordshire and beyond.
If you are interested in finding out more you can access the SEWM website http://www.socialenterprisewm.org.uk/
Or speak to Peter Twilley our SE champion at P.L.Twilley@staffs.ac.uk
Pictured from left to right, Jose Beech, Stephna Davis-Watts, Holly Hoar
The External Projects Team hosted a BIG Lottery funding event on Wednesday in the Ashley building. Over 40 people from different organisations attended to hear Stephna from the BIG Lottery talk about the “Reaching Communities” (RC) fund.
RC funds projects for 1-5 years with a clear community benefit, the fund has a 30% success rate and is prioritising a number of geographical locations in Staffordshire, including Tamworth, Newcastle-u-Lyme and East Staffs. Awards range from £10k to £500k. The four outcomes of the BIG Lottery Fund are:
For more information please email general.enquiries@biglotteryfund.org.uk
If you would like a copy of the slides or would like more information on opportunities to work in partnership please email the team at externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk
Hurrah!! At last all of the next Horizon 2020 proposals have been released. Following a great UKRO session yesterday with Eevi from the Brussels office (see pic below) the External Projects Team hosted a great day long programme of presentations on Erasmus + and the H2020 calls. We have been anticipating the launch which happened yesterday and we are now in the process of producing briefing sheets to help you to digest all of the information, but in the meantime you can access all of the latest info from the Commission HERE
Staffordshire 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.
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
Jean Cater, Assistant Director of The Leverhulme Trust visited Staffordshire University yesterday to give a presentation about research funding opportunities available through the Trust, followed by a Q&A session. Jean offered an insight into the decision-making process and some helpful “dos and don’ts” when making an application.
The event took place in Court Room 2 in The Law School and was very well attended by academic and project staff from Universities of Keele, Derby, Wolverhampton, Birmingham City, Manchester Met as well as Staffordshire.
Following the presentation, delegates could take part in small group discussions to talk informally about their experiences in making both successful and unsuccessful applications.
Information about funding opportunities can be found at http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/
For more information about the presentation contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk
