Category Archives: Engineering

University Research Fellowship

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The Royal Society

This scheme is for outstanding scientists in the UK who are in the early stages of their research career and have the potential to become leaders in their field. Approximately 35 fellowships will be awarded each year.

The scheme provides the opportunity to build an independent research career. Those appointed are expected to be strong candidates for permanent posts in universities at the end of their fellowships.
The scheme covers all areas of the life and physical sciences, including engineering, but excluding clinical medicine and any researcher addressing a direct biomedical research question.

The applicant must:
  • have a PhD
  • be in the early stages of their research career and must have between 3 to 8 years of research experience since their PhD by the closing date of the round
  • not hold a permanent post in a university or not-for-profit organization in the European Economic Area (EEA)
  • be a citizen of the EEA or a be a Swiss citizen (or have a relevant connection to the EEA or Switzerland)

The EEA consists of the European Union (including the UK), Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.

Initially funding is provided for five years with the opportunity to apply for an extension of three additional years. The University Research Fellowship can be held part-time, and allows sabbaticals, secondments or international experience

The basic salary requested should be at a level commensurate with the applicant’s skills, responsibilities, expertise and experience, up to a maximum of £38,759.20 per annum.

Closing date 17 Sep 14 (Forecast)

For further information go to: https://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/university-research/

Have your say on Future and Emerging Technologies!

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Consultation closes: 15/06/2014
The Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programme launches a public consultation to identify promising and potentially game-changing directions for future research in any technological domain.

€2,7 billion will be invested in Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) under the new research programme Horizon 2020#H2020 (2014-2020). This represents a nearly threefold increase in budget compared to the previous research programme, FP7. FET actions are part of the Excellent science pillar of Horizon 2020.

The objective of FET is to foster radical new technologies by exploring novel and high-risk ideas building on scientific foundations. By providing flexible support to goal-oriented and interdisciplinary collaborative research, and by adopting innovative research practices, FET research seizes the opportunities that will deliver long-term benefit for our society and economy.

The aim of the public consultation is to identify promising and potentially game-changing directions for future research in any technological domain.

Vice-President of the European Commission @NeelieKroesEU, responsible for the Digital Agenda, said: “From protecting the environment to curing disease – the choices and investments we make today will make a difference to the jobs and lives we enjoy tomorrow. Researchers and entrepreneurs, innovators, creators or interested bystanders – whoever you are, I hope you will take this opportunity to take part in determining Europe’s future“.

The consultation is organised as a series of discussions, in which contributors can suggest ideas for a new FET Proactive initiative or discuss the 9 research topics identified in the previous consultation to determine whether they are still relevant today.

The ideas collected via the public consultation will contribute to future FET work programmes, notably the next one (2016-17). This participative process has already been used to draft the current work programme (2014-15).

Participate now in the consultation

EPSRC Energy Programme

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EPSRC, as part of its contribution to the RCUK Energy Programme, invites proposals for collaborative research projects to undertake fundamental research to tackle challenges in Conventional Power Generation. An indicative budget of up to £3M is available from EPSRC for this call. Cross-institutional bids are welcome, but there must be a single submission for each application, led by a single principal investigator, with only one proposal form.

The remit of this call is derived from the outputs of a scoping workshop which was held on 15 April 2014. We invite proposals in the areas of:

  • Step change technologies and materials for future plant design
  • Integration of conventional plants with future technologies

Anyone intending to submit a proposal to this call must register their interest by email to Laura Sewell by 16 June 2014.

 

 

 

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

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/

Erasmus + Event

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The External Projects Team led a workshop this week in the Ashley Centre, over 25 staff from across the institution attended to hear about the new EU funding programme for education and youth, ERASMUS+. This new programme replaces the old Life Long Learning Programme as well as Erasmus Mundus, Tempus, Asia Link, Youth in Action and Edulink. The team were joined by our Erasmus Co-ordinator Deb Graddon who shared the latest news on our Key Action 1 bid (mobility of staff and student from SU) and Abdel Hamid Soliman who gave a great overview of a current Erasmus Mundus project PEACE.

If you are interested in this programme, there are a number of ways to find out more, you can access all of the current calls for proposals in the Programme Guide or if you would like access to the slides from the day, please email us at externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND Seminar

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In its capacity as UK National Contact Point for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, UKRO is pleased to announce a seminar on the Horizon 2020 COFUND scheme. COFUND offers co-funding for new or existing regional, national and international programmes to open up to:

  • International, intersectoral and interdisciplinary research training; and
  • Transnational and cross-sectoral mobility of researchers at all stages of their career.

COFUND in Horizon 2020 has a new element to it, as there are now two funding streams: one supporting experienced researchers through a ‘Fellowship programme’ and the second supporting early stage researchers through a ‘Doctoral programme’.
The first COFUND call under Horizon 2020 is due to open on 10 April 2014, with a deadline for proposals on 2 October 2014.

Date and venue

Wednesday, 30 April Queen Mary University of London Mile End Road London, E1 4NS

Seminar format

This seminar aims to provide participants with a better understanding of the COFUND scheme and its requirements, including the new doctoral training option. The seminar will combine discussion on the objectives of COFUND and its fit within the wider postgaduate researcher training landscape in the UK, along with practical information on proposal preparation, submission and finances. The seminar will also feature a case study from previous successful COFUND applicants.
The event will run from 10.30 to 16.00, with a lunch break. Please note that lunch will not be provided.

Registration

Attendance is free of charge but capacity at the venue is limited and places will therefore be allocated on a first come first served basis. Contact the external projects team at externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk if you are interested in attending.

 

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

 

EPSRC Manufacturing Advanced Functional Materials

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EPSRC are inviting research proposals from consortia across the Engineering and Physical Sciences communities to address the manufacturing research challenges in developing applications, production technologies and future processes that incorporate advanced functional materials.

 

EPSRC are expecting to commit up to £10 Million on large, long term (up to five years), multidisciplinary programmes that capitalise on the UK’s growing research capability in functional materials and identify the most promising pathways for scale-up to applications and devices of these innovative materials. A two-stage process will be used to allocate the funding. 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 2014 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 2014 and these will be peer reviewed during the summer. Funding decisions are expected to be made in Autumn 2014

 

Closing date:15 April 2014

Type: Expression of interest

 

If you are interested in this call please email externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk

 

Royal Society Industry Fellowship

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The Royal Society

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.

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

It aims to enhance knowledge transfer in science and technology between industry and academia in the UK and 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 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 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 ensure that they meet all the eligibility requirements, which are explained in the scheme notes (PDF).

The scheme provides the applicant’s basic salary while on secondment. The employing organisation continue 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:

http://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/industry-fellowship/