Category Archives: Journalism, Humanities and Social Sciences

Opinion research on British attitudes to innovation

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 Nesta

An invitation to tender to provide research services

Nesta wishes to commission a piece of detailed qualitative and quantitative opinion research on British people’s attitudes to innovation and technology, and the government’s role in promoting it.

Funding is offered up to £60,000 for the project (plus VAT where applicable), and would like the study to be completed by 2 December 2013.

Nesta would like to better understand how citizens think about innovation and technology and what governments can do to encourage them.

Research should address to what extent people value innovation and technology, how they understand the links between the development and use of new technologies and prosperity, and what they think the government should do about it and is doing about it. The study should also examine how views differ by geography and voting intention.

Deadline for tenders: 09:00 BST, 29 July 2013

For further information go to: http://www.nesta.org.uk/library/documents/ITTattitudes_to_innovation.pdf

 

European Union prize for cultural heritage/Europa Nostra awards

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           europa nostra internationaal     European Union Culture logo

Europa Nostra supported by the European Commission invites applications for the European Union prize for cultural heritage/Europa Nostra awards. These are granted to identify and promote best practices in the conservation of tangible cultural heritage, to stimulate the trans-frontier exchanges of knowledge and experience throughout Europe, to enhance public awareness and appreciation of Europe’s cultural heritage and to encourage further initiatives through the power of example.

Four categories are available:

  • conservation for outstanding achievements in the conservation, enhancement and adaptation to new uses of cultural heritage;
  • research for outstanding research leading to tangible effects in the conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage in Europe;
  • dedicated services by individuals or organisations for the protection, conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage;
  • education, training and awareness-raising initiatives

Entries may be submitted from all European countries. However, only entries from countries that take part in the culture programme of the European Commission are eligible for a monetary award.

Up to six entries will be awarded a grand prix including a monetary award of €10,000, while up to 25 entries will receive an award.

Closing date 09 Sep 13

For further information go to http://www.europanostra.org/heritage-awards/

Nuffield Foundation, GB

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Nuffield Foundation

Grants for research and innovation

Children and Families, Law in Society, Education and Open Door

The Nuffield Foundation invites applications for its grants for research and innovation. Grants will support research, practical experiments or development work in the following areas:

  • children and families – helps to ensure that the legal and institutional framework is best adapted to meet the needs of children and families;
  • education – supports innovative research and development in specific priority areas;
  • law in society – promotes access to and understanding of the civil justice system;
  • open door – for projects that improve social wellbeing and meet trustees’ wider interests but lie outside other programme areas.

The foundation will not fund organisations outside the UK or projects that take place outside the UK. Collaboration with partners in European or Commonwealth countries is permitted. Grants normally range from £10,000 to £250,000, although the majority are worth between £50,000 and £150,000.

Closing date 05 Jul 13

For further information go to: http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/children-and-families-law-society-education-and-open-door

 

NESTA’s new Social Innovation Fund

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The Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund is a £14 million Fund to support the growth of innovations that mobilise people’s energy and talents to help each other, working alongside public services. This fund is an open call and will be here for two years, so even if you don’t have a project now, make a note of it for future reference.

Funding Body: NESTA

Fund: The Centre for Social Innovation Fund

Overview: As part of the Cabinet Office Centre for Social Action, Nesta will run a £14 million Innovation Fund.

We will provide financial and non-financial support to help grow the impact and reach of innovations that mobilise people’s energy and talents to help each other, working alongside public services.

Over the next two years the ambition is to:

Find innovations that harness different types of social action to make a positive difference across a range of outcomes

Support the most promising innovations to have more impact, including building evidence of what works

Enable a small number of proven innovations to achieve impact at significant scale, by reaching and benefiting many more people

The Innovation Fund will focus on a small number of big social challenges, like helping older people to age well or supporting young people to get into work, where there is a plausible account of how social action can make a difference and is under-exploited by the existing approach of public services.

Current priorities

  • Helping people to age well, particularly by supporting people over 50 to have a purpose, a sense of well-being and to be connected to others
  • Enabling people with long-term health conditions to have a better quality of life, particularly through the use of peer to peer networks and groups
  • Supporting and encouraging young people to succeed and find employment, for example through mentoring, coaching, and peer-to-peer networks

Using new approaches to “impact volunteering” to mobilise volunteers to increase and enhance the outcomes achieved by public services

Budget: £50,000 to £500,000 to individual ventures or programmes, funding usually needs to be matched from other sources.

Deadlines: Open call, just fill in an expression of interest form on the website

Website: http://bit.ly/12ZByAs

 

Social Leadership Fellowships

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This fellow is for people working of volunteering in the wider social sector. There are general fellowships and a number of specialist. The specialists fellows include a focus on environment, finance, housing associations, aging population and other areas.

Fund: The Clore Social Leadership Programme

Overview: To be eligible, applicants must be working (or volunteering) in or closely with the wider social sector and will have demonstrated leadership potential in some of the work they have already undertaken. Applicants working internationally for UK-based organisations are now eligible.

Each Fellow benefits from a personalised leadership development programme.

Twenty fellowships are available. A number of these are Specialist Fellowships, which are funded by particular organisations to target specific groups or address particular needs, more details are on their website.

Deadlines: 10 June 2013

Website: http://www.cloresocialleadership.org.uk/

European Commission Support for Societal Challenges

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ICT for Societal Challenges: new publication on research and innovation projects

The European Commission has recently published a booklet to showcase projects and initiatives it has funded which utilise ICT to address a range of societal challenges.  This booklet provides good case studies of practical applications to issues such as independent living for the elderly, preservation of cultural heritage, energy saving and secure internet.  These challenges are a core component of future EU activity including the Digital Agenda for Europe strategy and Horizon 2020 funding programme, so the projects provide a useful reference point for EU best practice.

This booklet can be viewed at http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/newsroom/cf/document.cfm?action=display&doc_id=1944. More information on the EU’s Digital Agenda for Europe strategy can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/.

 

Youth in Action Programme (EU) Funding Opportunity

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Youth in Action Programme

Opportunities for UK HEIs

The call is specifically addressed to people working in the youth sector, youth workers and youth leaders, young people themselves (aged between fifteen and twenty-eight years old) and other actors involved in youth organisations and structures. Applicants to the Programme must be non-profit organisations, including NGOs, public bodies at regional or local level and youth councils. HEIs are therefore eligible applicants in so far as they are public bodies. The Youth in Action Programme will not support stand alone education programmes, indeed activities performed as part of formal educational programmes at any level are not eligible for support. It may, however, support extra-curricular activities, such as volunteering and work experience. The following indicative list of activities is included in the call documentation:

 Large-scale youth events, seminars, conferences

 Activities encouraging the development of partnerships and networks

 Activities encouraging the policy dialogue in the field of youth

 Information and awareness campaigns in favour of and by young people

 Training and capacity-building of youth workers, youth organisations and multipliers

 Job-shadowing and long-term mobility for youth workers

 Technical Features

Partners: Must involve partners from 4 different countries (including, at least 1 from the EU 27 Member States and 1 more from the EU 27 or the EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) or pre-accession countries (Croatia; Turkey); plus 2 other partner countries1.

Project Duration: 6 to 12 months

Projects Commence: between 1 October and 31 December 2013

Grant Rate: Up to 80%

Maximum Grant Size: €100,000

Timetable

Deadline for submission of applications: 14 May 2013

Announcement of selection results: August 2013

Projects commence: Earliest 1 October 2013 

Link to guidelines: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/youth/funding/2013/call_action_3_2_en.php

 

Fellowship opportunity for researchers

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The British Science Association Media Fellowship Scheme is open for aplpications.  The scheme aims to strengthen connections between scientists and the media by placing researchers in a 3-5 week summer placement with a media host such as the BBC, the Guardian and the Irish Times.

Participants return to their organisations better equipped to handle media enquiries, to turn their research into news and promote their research and institution. They also improve their communication skills that benefit their teaching, journal articles and grant applications.  Further information is available at http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/science-society/media-fellowships

Fellowship opportunity for researchers

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The British Science Association Media Fellowship scheme is open for applications.  The scheme aims to strengthen connections between scientists and the media by placing researchers in a 3-5 week summer placement with a media host such as the BBC, the Guardian and the Irish Times.

Participants return to their organisations better equipped to handle media enquiries, to turn their research into news and promote their research and institution. They also improve their communication skills that benefit their teaching, journal articles and grant applications.

The deadline for applications is the 11th March. Further information can be found at the following link: http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/science-society/media-fellowships.  Please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk if you are interested in this opportunity.

Joseph Rowntree – Calls for Proposals

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Please see the latest funding opportunities from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, these calls have deadlines in the new year, if you are interested in applying please contact the team at externalproject@staffs.ac.uk
 
13 February 2013