Household Solutions to Managing Energy Supply

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Holly Hoar

NESTA has launched a fund which may be of interest to researchers involved in measuring energy usage. The funding hopes to shift electricity demand to off peak times or make better use of renewable energy generation.

They are keen to see projects that are innovative. If you are awarded the funding you need the capacity to build a prototype or service blue print for your idea.

Funding Body: NESTA
Scheme: Dynamic Demand Challenge Prize
Overview: This competition aims to create a new product, technology or service that uses data to significantly improve the ability of households or small businesses to demonstrate measurable reduction in carbon emissions by shifting energy demand to off-peak times or towards excess renewable generation. Solutions should have commercial market potential.
The competition is open to anyone in the EU. SMEs, charities, NGOs, community groups, developers, engineers, students and sustainability and energy professionals are encouraged to apply. Applicants may submit up to three entries. The prize is worth £50,000.
Deadlines: 9 September 2013
Further Information: http://dynamicdemand.nesta.org.uk

Urban Europe: funding call

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Esther KNIGHT

Urban Europe invites proposals for its joint transnational call for proposals, addressing research and experimental development for creating attractive, sustainable and economically viable urban areas.

This enables researchers, practitioners, innovators and other stakeholders dedicated to the development of European urban areas to suggest international research and innovation projects. Proposals may either address governance of urban complexity or urban vulnerability, adaptability and resilience.

Consortia may include partners from universities, research organisations, institutes, city councils, SMEs, industry and stakeholder associations, and must include partners from at least three of the following countries: Austria; Belgium; Cyprus; Denmark; Italy; the Netherlands; Norway; Sweden; Turkey; the United Kingdom. Partners from third countries may participate using their own funding.

The budget for this call is €15 million. There is no minimum or maximum funding amount per project, although approximately 10 projects, with budgets in the range of €1 million to €2m, are typically expected. Projects may last for up to three years, and must commence between May and September 2014.

The ESRC has made available €2 million (£1.7million) to fund British aspects of proposals.

pre-proposal – 18 September 2013
shortlist published – November 2014
full proposal – 21 January 2014
announcement of results to main applicants – April 2014
start of projects – May-September 2014

Further information

ESRCs national agency contact – Rick Hamilton – email: cities@esrc.ac.uk

Further details:

ESRC http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/funding-opportunities/26565/urban-europes-second-pilot-joint-call18-september.aspx

And http://www.jpi-urbaneurope.eu/About/Vision_Mission

Manufacturing with light

Posted on July 1, 2013 by BENNETT Margaret

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

L’Oréal UK and Ireland fellowships for women in science

Posted on June 27, 2013 by BENNETT Margaret

L’Oréal UK and Ireland invites proposals for its fellowships for women In science. These are tenable at any UK or Irish university or research institute over a 12-month period, and cover research in the life or physical sciences. Computer science, engineering, mathematics, psychology, science education and social sciences are not eligible for this fellowship.

Candidates must: be female postdoctoral researchers with no more than 10 years’ active full-time postdoctoral experience; be a citizen of the EEA or Switzerland, or have permanent residence status in the UK or Ireland; be residing in the UK or Ireland at the time of application.

The value of each fellowship is £15,000. The prize money may cover equipment, childcare or travel costs to an overseas conference. Four awards will be made.

The 2014 Fellowships will open on 1st February 2014 for applications.

Closing date 15 Mar 14 (Forecast)

For futher information go to http://www.womeninscience.co.uk/index.php

RAEng Enterprise Fellowships Call for applications announced

Posted on June 20, 2013 by BENNETT Margaret

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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

NESTA: Mapping the Start up Acceleration Landscape

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Holly Hoar

NESTA funding to look at the success of acceleration start ups. This has been sent out by email to the CABR ARC, but is on the blog in case there are any other academics who may be interested in the research area.

It is a short deadline, 1 July, and they ideally want to see some money brought to the project, so it is not a hot fund. But just in case the details are below

Funding body: NESTA

Scheme: Analysis and evaluation of startup acceleration in Europe.

Overview: Research will support Nesta in developing a series of projects, mapping the startup acceleration landscape, analysing methods and models of support and measuring their causal effect on startup performance, as well as on the local ecosystem in which they operate. Proposals may address one or more of the following topics:

•mapping the development of Startup Factories in Europe;

•a series of detailed case studies on state-of-the-art support methods and interventions employed by such accelerator programmes;

•measuring the effectiveness of accelerators;

•network analysis;

•corporate incubation and corporate venturing.

Deadlines: 01 July 2013

Budget: The overall budget for this call is £75,000. Nesta particularly welcomes projects that involve co-funding by other organisations and partnerships with other organisations providing access to valuable data sets, as well as those that aim to open up research and data publicly.

Website/Contact: http://www.nesta.org.uk/about_us/working_with_nesta

Secondment Project Grants

Posted on June 13, 2013 by BENNETT Margaret

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IT as a Utility+ Network

Applications are invited from the IT as a Utility+ Network under the RCUK digital econopmy theme for its secondment project grants. Secondments are for up to six months and are for individuals in academia, industry or policy bodies and should be undertaken in a different professional environment concerned with IT as a utility. The priority areas are:

usability and user experience
ethics, education and skills in utility computing environments
social computing platforms
smart spaces – the internet of things
security, trust and governance
economics and sustainability of services

Applicants must either relocate to a different institution or to a different sector and industry and governmental involvement is strongly encouraged.

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

Grants are worth up t0 £50,000 for up to six months with £40,000 provided by the network and £10,000 required by the applicant’s own institution.

Closing date 31 Oct 13

For more information go to http://www.itutility.ac.uk/home/

Final Eco-Innovation Call Launched

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Holly Hoar

The European Commission has launched the final call for the Eco-Innovation Fund. This is not a brilliant fund as it only covers 50% of costs. But could be worth looking into if work is already being developed around this theme.

Funding body: European Commission

Scheme: Eco-Innovation

Overview: The Eco-Innovation initiative is designed to support projects on the first application or market replication of eco-innovative techniques, products, services or practices which have already been technically demonstrated with success but which, owing to residual risk, have not yet entered the market.

The priorities for this year’s call are:

• Materials Recycling;

• Sustainable Building Products;

• Food and Drink Sector;

• Water; and

• Greening businesses.

Deadlines: 05/09/2013

Budget: Grants for successful projects cover up to 50% of the eligible project costs, and this call has a total budget of €31 million.

Website: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eco-innovation/apply-funds/call-proposal/index_en.htm

An Information Day on the 2013 call is also taking place in Brussels on Monday 27 May. Registration can be done via the web page above.

5 NEW EPSRC Calls for Proposals inc Digital Economy & Energy

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Josephine Beech

New Economic Models in the digital economy 2

Invitation for outlines: RCUK Digital Economy theme invitation proposal for cross-disciplinary packages consisting of research and people-based activities to develop and strengthen the engagement between research communities in digital economy, economics and management.

Closing Date: 28-06-2013

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/neweconomicmodels.aspx

Adoption of ICT to improve security and trust in the UK food chain

Call for participants: A two-day Residential workshop will explore best practice from around the UK and beyond and strive to identify tools and ICT systems that can be harnessed to improve food product security, traceability, nutritional benefits and consumer confidence.

Closing Date: 01-09-2013

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/foodsecurityimprovements.aspx

Call for Secondments between academic and industrial, commercial or governmental research groups

Expression of interest: The IT as a Utility Network+ is offering funding to support secondments between academic and industrial, commercial or governmental research groups (in either direction) that will help grow the ITaaU Network+ and the RCUK Digital Economy Theme.

Closing Date: 31-10-2013

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/itaaunetworksecondment.aspx

Call for Expression of Interest for ITaaU Network Plus Pilot Studies

Expression of interest: The IT as a Utility network has issued a second call for Pilot Projects. Up to two projects, aiming for a wide coverage of the challenge area are available.

Closing Date: 07-06-2013

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/itaaunetworkpluspilotstudies.aspx

EPSRC-NSFC call for collaborative research with China on Grid Scale Energy Storage for Intermittency

Invitation for proposals: EPSRC, as part of the RCUK Energy Programme, wishes to develop collaborative projects between the UK and China, in partnership with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), in the field of ‘Grid Scale Storage for Intermittency’.

Closing Date: 02-07-2013

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/gridscaleenergystorage.aspx

Staffordshire University Research and Funding Blog

Category Archives: Computing, Engineering and Sciences