Category Archives: Computing

EPSRC-NIHR Healthcare Technology Call

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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

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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.

NESTA – Digital makers fund

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The digital makers fund is about getting 1000’s of young people involved in making digital activities. Something we seem pretty well placed to do as a university.

 NESTA expect successful initiatives will use young people’s existing interests, passions and pastimes as a gateway to digital making, inspiring young people to become creators, not just users of digital technologies. NESTA are looking for applications from organisations, or partnerships between organisations, that have the capacity to engage thousands of young people in digital making activities.

Further details:

http://www.nesta.org.uk/areas_of_work/public_services_lab/digital_education/assets/features/digital_makers_fund_second_open_call

  • Use different interests and content to reach new audiences – how can digital making tie in with music, fashion, sport, film or brands that will inspire young people to participate?
  • The ‘making’ element is important. NESTA want ideas that lead participants to the creation of a digital product that they can show to and share with others.
  • NESTA are interested in reaching different networks and communities for learning – youth clubs, libraries, after school clubs, interest groups and social networks speak to thousands of young people every day. How can they integrate digital making into their activities?

NESTA take a broad view of digital making that encompasses 3D printing and physical computing, as well as coding and programming, and want to work with partners who are noisy advocates for the importance of digital making; who will use all the channels available to them to shout about and promote their projects.

Deadline: 14 November 2013

Grants between £20,000 and £50,000

TSB Funding for Digital Media

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The Technology Strategy Board is investing up to £15m in projects that stimulate innovation in the UK digital media sector by addressing convergence in digital technologies. This funding opportunity covers film and television, online video, animation and video games (including pre-production, production and post-production processes, particularly in visual effects technologies). 

Projects must be business-led but can involve collaboration with Universities. The competition will fund feasibility studies as well as collaborative R&D projects. Projects size is expected to vary according to need, ranging from £300K – £2million for R&D activity of up to 24 months and from £100k to £120k for feasibility studies lasting between six and 12 months. 

The competition opens on 23 September 2013. The deadline for registration is 6 November 2013, and the deadline for completed feasibility expressions of interest is noon on 13 November 2013. A briefing event for both strands will take place on 30 September 2013. This event will be filmed and turned into a webinar for applicants to refer to. 

 For further information click here https://www.innovateuk.org/competition-display-page/-/asset_publisher/RqEt2AKmEBhi/content/cross-platform-production-in-digital-media-collaborative-r-d?p_p_auth=LF3BHyMA or contact n.arblaster@staffs.ac.uk.

 

Ethics and rights in a security context

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This fund aligns with a number of the research areas in the University. It looks like a good opportunity for a few ARCs to collaborate. As well as collaboration across the University, applications would need to collaborate with other institutions. The Research Council UK is keen to see a cross-disciplinary approach to this research.

Anyone interested in pursuing this fund should make sure they attend the Town Meeting on 23 September 2013 (details from the web link below). Plus they should get in touch with the External projects Team externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk to say they are following it up, this will help us to make a University orientated response rather than just a faculty based response.

 Funding Body: ESRC, AHRC, EPSRC

Scheme: Ethics and rights in a security context

Overview: The Economic and Social Research Council, the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council invite proposals for their ethics and right in a security context, under the Research Councils UK Global Uncertainties programme. This call aims to develop greater understanding of how questions of ethics and rights play out in a security environment, with a focus on government. The call focuses on the following research themes:

•legitimacy; •jurisdiction; •autonomy; •temporality; •surveillance; •protection; •agency.

Collaborative research groups which address at least two of the councils’ remits may apply. Projects are for a duration of 24 months. It is anticipated that eight to 10 research grants will be awarded. Grants will commence on 1 September 2014.

Budget: The total budget for this call is between £2 million and £2.5m. Funding is worth up to £200,000 at 80 per cent of the full economic costs

Deadlines: 21 November 2013

Further Information: http://www.globaluncertainties.org.uk/funding/pre-call-ethics-and-rights-in-a-security-context.aspx

Binary Matrix Security

Fostering digital entrepreneurship in Europe

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The European Commission has launched a tender which aims to foster digital entrepreneurship with SMEs. They want to promote SMEs that are good at developing digital products. The tender fits a number of different skill and research areas in the University so it may be a project that is well suited to be worked on across faculties.

Funding Body: European Commission –Competitiveness and Innovation
Scheme: Fostering digital entrepreneurship in Europe: raising awareness and the visibility of digital icons and creation of a European e-mentors ecosystem
Overview: The commission wants to:
•    Raise media attention to European business and entrepreneurs that offer new digital products and services, invent innovative business models and thrive through the intelligent use of novel digital technologies
•    Set up a mentoring ecosystem to help spark, support and expand new business ideas and fuel Digital Entrepreneurship in Europe
Projects will last up to 24 months.
Budget: Maximum price €3m
Deadlines: 6 September 2013
Further Information: Below is the link to the tender, plus on this blog you can download a factsheet giving a broader overview of the tender below the link.
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=6795&lang=en&title=Fostering-digital-entrepreneurship-in-Europe%3A-raising-awareness-and-the-visibility-of-digital-icons-and-creation-of-a-European-e-mentors-ecosystem

Fostering digital entrepreneurship in Europe

EPSRC Funding for the Internet of Things

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This is a fund for researchers involved in internet-embedded applications. There is no specified budget per project, but it looks as though there could be around £350,000 per project. Proposals should focus on early stage directed research through to implementation, testing and iterative improvement of technologies or methods with potential beneficiaries. Projects must have a user partner who is actively engaged in the research.

Funding Body: EPSRC
Scheme: Research in the Wild – Internet of Things
Overview: This seeks to encourage user-driven research in the emerging area of Internet of Things- systems and methodologies that underpins internet-enabled applications, based on physical objects and the environment, seamlessly integrating into this information network.
Activities could either test new technologies and methods with potential beneficiaries in the user domain or look at new ways of using existing technologies and methods. Applications must demonstrate:
•that the research challenge has been co-created with an end-user from the public, private or third sector;
•that the research will be conducted ‘in the wild’, exposing it to potential beneficiaries;
•that the potential impact of the research will be realised by the end-users or related beneficiaries.
Budget: Up to £3.5 million is available to fund approximately 10 projects for a duration of 18 months
Deadlines: 24/10/13
Further Information: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/internetofthings.aspx

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EU Call for Tender – Study on ‘ICT & Art Connect’

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The European Commission, Directorate General Communications Networks, has published a call for tenders regarding a study on ‘ICT & art connect’, with a closing date of August 27th 2013.

The study will create a map of institutions and ongoing programmes/activities linking ICT and the arts in Europe and worldwide. It will analyse best practice to enhance interaction between artists and IT experts and to increase the impact of these interactions on innovation and creativity.

From this analysis, recommendations will be drawn for a DG Connect strategy to engage more broadly with the arts in Horizon 2020. The aim is to contribute to enhancing creativity and innovation in society, technology, science, education, and business; and to better embed science and technology in society.The following 4 objectives should be addressed:

1) Provide an overview of European and worldwide activities linking art and ICT in research, education, and innovation.

2) Take stock and analyse best practices in Europe and worldwide for linking art and ICT and thereby enhancing creativity and innovation.

3) A list of recommendations for a DG Connect strategy on how to best engage in H2020 with the arts will be presented and based on the analysis in first objective and second one.

4) The contractor will organise a final 2-day symposium on ‘ICT & art connect’. This event should bring together artists, technologists, scientists and representatives of relevant institutions and funding bodies identified in the study.

Further details:

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/news/study-ict-art-connect-smart-20130030

 

Manufacturing with light

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The EPSRC invites participants for its manufacturing with light call. This aims to encourage adventurous research ideas to explore how to generate, collect, manipulate, control and transmit light to transform and shape the manufacturing industry.

Research ideas should have the potential to revolutionise production processes or develop new and profound technological applications, where a consideration of the pathway to manufacture is necessary.

The proposed research should endeavour to bring the physics, materials, engineering and manufacturing research communities closer together and to support the device development community. Some examples of innovative areas that fall within the scope of the call are:

  • non-traditional uses of light in manufacturing processes or technologies;
  • developing new sources of light that are applicable to manufacturing;
  • manufacturing with light outside traditional spectral range;
  • innovative interactions between materials and light;
  • novel metrology and inspection concepts that exploit the properties and characteristics of light;
  • manufacturing with photons;
  • new manufacturing technology for production of devices;
  • manufacturing applications of quantum physics or quantum devices;
  • quantum physics or laser science for new manufacturing processes;
  • new applications that arise from wavelength-tuning of light sources, for example, biological and medical applications.

Higher education institutions and some research council institutes and independent research organisations are eligible to apply.

The budget is up to £3 million. Grants should not exceed £300,000 and a duration of 18 months.

Closing date 24 Jul 13

For further information go to http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/manufacturingwithlight.aspx

 

RAEng Enterprise Fellowships Call for applications announced

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Royal Academy of Engineering logo

The Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship scheme is now open for applications.

Enterprise Fellowships provide funding and support to entrepreneurial engineering researchers, working at a UK University, to enable them to develop the commercial potential of their research. The aim of Enterprise Fellowships is to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to commercialise technology based business ideas from academic institutions into spin out companies. Enterprise Fellowships provide up to £85,000 seed funding and salary support for 12 months. In addition to the funding, training is provided to give each Enterprise Fellow the tools, contacts and confidence to transform their idea into a successful business project or venture. Business mentors (drawn mainly from The Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship) are allocated to each Enterprise Fellow to provide additional support and advice for the duration of the Enterprise Fellowship as well as access to business angels and venture capital networks.

The closing date for applications is Monday 9 September 2013.

For further information on how to apply, please see the website or contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk