Category Archives: Business, Education and Law

EU Prize for Women Innovators 2016 Launched

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The European Commission, has recently launched the third edition of its contest for women innovators. Suitable female applicants can submit their proposals through the Participant Portal by 20 October 2015.

After the success of the forerunners of the competition in 2011 and 2014, the Commission intends to continue its drive to spotlight women researchers who have brought outstanding innovations to the market.

The prizes will boost the public awareness of the contributions that female researchers bring to the field of entrepreneurship and will encourage entrepreneurial women to become innovators.

Although women are more and more active in research, there are still too few women creating innovative enterprises.The Commission plans to award up to three “EU Prizes for Women Innovators” following a European-wide contest.

Three prizes will be awarded in Spring 2016:

  • 1st prize: €100 000
  • 2nd prize: €50 000
  • 3rd prize: €30 000

The prizes are addressed to women who have founded or co-founded a company and who themselves or through their company have benefitted from EU funding related to Research and Innovation.

The prizes will not reward research or innovation proposed for the future, but only successes that have been already achieved by the candidate

Please, find more information in the link below.

http://www.ukro.ac.uk/subscriber/Pages/150311_wiprize.aspx

 

ESRC: Research seminars and Strategic networks competition 2015/16

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The Economic and Social Research Council is supporting Research seminars and Strategic networks through its 2015/2016 annual competition.

Seminars and networks will address groups of academic researchers, postgraduate students and non-academics users from different organisations and sectors (public & private sectors, civil society and research bodies).

It is expected to advance research, to generate and to develop innovative and interdisciplinary collaborations, especially with overseas researchers and stakeholders from Newton countries.

A number of steer are focused on Civil society / Education and Neuroscience / Biosocial research / big data.

Seminar series grants are limited to a maximum justified costing of £30,000 and network grants are limited to a maximum justified costing of £100,000. The closing date for proposals is 16.00 on 8 April 2015.

To apply, please click here.

Event: Open Innovation 2.0 Conference 2015

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Open Innovation 2.0 Conference 2015 

07/06/2015 to 09/06/2015

The European Commission, is organising the 2015 Open Innovation Conference.
Like the previous editions, the conference will be organised by the European Commission, DG Connect Open Innovation Group (OISPG) together with Intel Labs Europe, Kindly supported by Aalto University, City of Espoo and other partners.

The OI2 Conference will be hold from the 07th until the 09th of June 2015 in Espoo (Aalto University Campus), Finland.
The conference will discuss the implementation of the Dublin Declaration and topics such as student entrepreneurship, open innovation digital platforms, regional information modelling and digitalized services.

The recently published High Level Group report on European Innovation Ecosystems will also be a basis for discussions at the event.

For more information on the event, please follow the link below.

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/save-date-open-innovation-20-conference-2015

 

 

 

A New Start for Europe – Opening Up to an ERA of Innovation

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A conference to discuss EU policies on Open Science, the European Research Area and Innovation is due to take place on 22-23 June 2015.

Organised by the European Commission in Brussels, the conference is expected to bring together 500 participants to discuss a broad range of issues, including:

  • the results and outcome of the ‘Science 2.0: Science in Transition’ consultation;
  • the European Research Area Roadmap;
  • open labour market for researchers;
  • building up an innovation ecosystem;
  • future markets.

The Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, will also be present at the event.

Further information can be found via the link below though registration is not yet open.

http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=events&eventcode=5B17594F-90C0-840A-1CCBAFF7F0E6D9D7

 

EPSRC Autonomous Manufacturing research call

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The EPSRC invites Expressions of Interest to bid into the call for research proposals in Autonomous Manufacturing. The aim of the call is to support research that addresses the research challenges that underpin autonomous manufacturing.

The expected outcome of this call is a diverse set of research programmes that span manufacturing applications, processes, and value sectors, that exploit novel and adventurous research for the advancement of autonomous production technologies and systems in the factory environment.

EPSRC are committing up to £10M for this call to support multidisciplinary research programmes of up to five years with flexible funding (similar to that provided through EPSRC platform and programme grants) that can be used for a mixture of multidisciplinary research projects, feasibility studies and networking and outreach activities.

This first stage of the call seeks expressions of interest to submit a full proposal. The submitted expressions of interests will be assessed at a short-listing panel in May 2015 and those that align appropriately with the scope for this call will be invited for the full proposal stage. The deadline for full proposals will be in July 2015 and funding decisions are expected to be made in November 2015.

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/files/funding/calls/2015/autonomousmanufacturing/

This call invites Expressions of Interest (EoIs) which will be assessed at a short-listing panel. Short-listed applicants will then be invited to submit full proposals.

Activity Date/Time
Call launched on web (EoI stage) 02 February 2015
Closing date for EoIs 16:00, 16 April 2015
Short-listing panel Early May 2015
Call opens in J-eS (Full proposal stage) End May 2015
Closing date for full proposals End July 2015
Postal peer review Aug-Oct 2015
Assessment (interview) panel November 2015

Major Research Fellowships in the Humanities and Social Sciences

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1586[1]Providing replacement teaching costs over two or three years, to allow academics in the humanities and social sciences to focus on a specific piece of original research.

These awards enable well-established and distinguished researchers in the humanities and social sciences to devote themselves to a single research project of outstanding originality and significance, capable of completion within two or three years. Candidates should state explicitly what the proposed outcomes of the award will be. Fellowships are particularly aimed at those who are or have been prevented by routine duties from completing a programme of original research.

Value

The Fellowships fund the salary costs (normally starting at the most junior point of the lecturer scale at the institution concerned) of an individual to undertake the normal duties of the applicant for the duration of the Fellowship.

A Major Research Fellow may also request research expenses up to an annual maximum of £5,000.

The closing date for applications is 7 May 2015

Duration

The duration of a Fellowship is for two or three years, to start at the beginning of the 2016/17 academic year.

Eligibility and application information

Please read the following before submitting an application.

Contact

Nicola Thorp (020 7042 9872).

Birmingham, February 18th: MSCA: Bridging Business and Research

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An event promoting business-academic collaborations under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) scheme is taking place in Birmingham on Wednesday 18 this month.
The European Commission has launched a promotional campaign, aimed mainly at industry and SMEs, to encourage more involvement in MSCA projects from the private sector. The campaign will be running across Europe during the end of this year and the whole first semester of 2015.

  • Birmingham, University of Birmingham: 18 February 2015.

The main objective of this event is to provide more practical information on how to get involved in the MSCA schemes, and to present the latest business opportunities under the new Framework Programme for Research, Horizon 2020. The application process and examples of partnerships will be explained during these information sessions.

The registration website with agenda and practical information is available at the link below.

https://mscabusiness.teamwork.fr/en/registration

Europe for Citizens – Action Grants

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This programme aims to strengthen remembrance and enhance capacity for civic participation at the European Union level. The programme contributes by developing citizens’ organisations’ capacity to engage citizens in the democratic life of the EU.

The Annual Priorities of the programme for 2015 are:

Strand 1: European remembrance

In the context of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, priority will be given to projects that focus on:

  • World War II and the associated rise of intolerance that enabled crimes against humanity;
  • The consequences of World War II for the post-war architecture of Europe : its division and the Cold war on the one hand, and the beginning of the European integration process following the Schuman Declaration in 1950 on the other hand.

Strand 2: Democratic engagement and civic participation

Debating on the future of Europe : In the current debate on the European Union in times of the economic crisis and following the European elections of May 2014, there is a need to deepen further the discussion on the future of Europe on what kind of Europe citizens want, also stimulating new forms of civic participation whilst reinforcing those existing. This debate should be based on lessons learned from history and consider in particular the concrete achievements of the European Union.

Such debate should not be limited to citizens already supporting the idea of the European Union, but reach out to citizens who have not been involved so far, or who reject the Union outright or put in question its achievements.

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/europe-for-citizens_en

The 2015 Calls are now open with a deadline of 2 March 2015

Specific eligibility criteria apply to the different Strands and actions as follows:

Strand 1 – European remembrance

  • Public local/regional authorities or non-profit organisations, including civil society organisations, survivors’ associations, and cultural, youth, educational and research organisations, associations of twinned towns
  • A project must involve organisations from at least one Member State, but preference is given to transnational projects

Strand 2: Democratic engagement and civic participation (action grants)

Town-Twinning

  • Towns/municipalities or their twinning committees or other non-profit organisations representing local authorities
  • Must involve towns from at least two eligible countries of which at least one is an EU Member State

Networks of Towns

  • Towns/municipalities or their twinning committees or networks, other levels of local/regional authorities, federations/associations of local authorities and non-profit organisations representing local authorities; the other organisations involved in the project can also be non-profit Civil Society Organisations
  • Must involve towns from at least four eligible countries of which at least one is an EU Member State

Civil Society Projects

  • Non-profit organisations, including civil society organisations, educational, cultural or research institutions; the other organisations involved in the project can also be public local/regional authorities
  • Must involve organisations from at least three eligible countries of which at least one is an EU Member State

 

2015 Philip Leverhulme Prizes

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Philip Leverhulme Prizes recognise the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already won international recognition and whose future is exceptionally promising. In 2015 there are thirty prizes available across six broad subject areas,

Prizes offer £100,000 over two or three years and may be used for any purpose that advances the prize-winner’s research, with the following exceptions: salary costs for the prize-winner, capital costs, and institutional overheads.

In 2015, applications are invited from researchers working in the following subject areas: Classics, Earth Sciences, Physics, Politics and International Relations, Psychology and Visual and Performing Arts. The subject areas are intentionally broad and they encourage applicants to consider which best reflects their area of research, irrespective of their departmental affiliation.

To be eligible, applicants must hold a post in a UK university or research institution and must have received their highest degree no earlier than 14 May 2005 (exceptions will be considered where applicants have had a distinct career break).

Applicants must be nominated by their head of department (or equivalent). Applicants may be nominated in one subject area only. Full details of the nomination process are available on the Leverhulme Trust website.

Closing date: 4pm on 14 May 2015

Guidance and nominations: Full scheme details and the online nomination form are available on the Leverhulme Trust website (http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/funding/PLP/PLP.cfm?utm_source=jobsac&utm_medium=online&utm_content=psych&utm_campaign=plp)

The prizes commemorate the contribution to the work of the Trust made by Philip Leverhulme, the Third Viscount Leverhulme and grandson of the William Hesketh Lever, the founder of the Trust.

Horizon 2020: Fast Track to Innovation Pilot

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The Fast Track to Innovation pilot supports projects from the demonstration stage through to market uptake.

A wide range of activities will be supported including piloting, test-beds, systems validation in real world/working conditions, validation of business models, advanced R&D, standard-setting and advanced performance testing.

The scheme targets relatively mature new technologies. Concepts, processes and business models that need a last development step to reach the market and achieve wider deployment are the focus.

The total budget for FTI in 2015 is EUR 100 million, which will be divided equally among the three cut-off dates in April, September and December. The EC plans to fund 50-70 projects each year and it is expected that the scheme is going to be extremely competitive.

FTI is open to all types of participants, including universities, RTOs, SMEs, large companies, incubators, first time applicants, etc.

Consortia must be comprised of three to five beneficiaries from different Member States or Associated Countries, with significant industry participation.

No typical commercial activities (including marketing activities) will be supported due to EU competition rules but funding can be used to improve an existing marketing strategy to help maximise impact (i.e. developing the marketing strategy to include more countries, etc).

All proposals must include a business plan that clearly describes the market potential and business opportunities for participants, in addition to measures to enhance the probability of potential commercial take-up as well as a credible commercialisation strategy.

Maximum project duration will be 36 months with a maximum EU contribution of EUR 3 million. The Commission expects that the average project duration will be 12-24 months.

Deadlines:
29/04/2015, 01/09/2015, 01/12/2015

For further information go to: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/fast-track-innovation-pilot-2015-2016