Category Archives: Computing, Engineering and Sciences

Newton Researcher Links workshop grants –

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The British Council, working with the Higher Education International Unit, have opened a call for proposals for workshop grants under the Newton Researcher Links programme, a part of the Newton Fund.

The Royal Society of Chemistry is also partnering with the British Council to fund successful workshops in some countries.

This element of Newton Researcher Links provides financial support to bring together a UK/partner country bilateral cohort of early career researchers to take part in workshops to:

  • build research capacity in developing economies
  • building links for future collaboration
  • enhancing the researchers’ career opportunities

The Newton Fund is part of the UK’s official development assistance programme. Through the Newton Fund, the UK will use its strength in research and innovation to promote economic development and social welfare of partner countries.

Deadline for applications: 16:00 UK time on 13 July 2015.

The workshops must take place between 1st November 2015 and 31st March 2016.

Partner countries:

Brazil, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey and Russia*.

Other countries may added in due course, and any additions will be announced here.

*Russia is not a Newton Fund country and is a part of this call outside of the Newton Fund. The application process is the same, however there is no need to articulate the relevance of the application to economic development and social welfare where the partner country is Russia.

Workshop themes and priority areas

Partner countries may have areas of research priority, and workshops must be themed around one of these. All priority areas are listed in Annex 1 of the Guidelines document available in the Downloads section.

In Malaysia, Thailand and Turkey proposals in the Chemical Sciences would also be welcome and, if selected, may be co-funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

ELIGIBILITY

Eligibility criteria apply, please download and read the Guidelines document in full before applying (available in the Downloads section).

HOW TO APPLY

Before applying please download and read the guidelines document from the Downloads section below. Once ready, you can apply online. You can view the information requested in the application form in the word document available in the Downloads section.

For advice on applying to funding schemes, read this article from the British Council Director, Science and Research.

CONTACT

If you have any enquiries relating to this call, please contact UK-researcherlinks@britishcouncil.org

Newton Researcher Links travel grants –

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The British Council, have opened a call for proposals for travel grants under the Newton Researcher Links programme, a part of the Newton Fund.

Researchers based in the UK and one of the partner countries may apply to spend up to 6 months in a research institution, either in the UK (if researcher is based in a partner country), or one of the partner countries (if researcher is based in the UK).

For further information on the specifics of the call, please read the Guidelines document in full (available from the Downloads section below).

The Newton Fund is part of the UK’s official development assistance programme. Through the Newton Fund, the UK will use its strength in research and innovation to promote economic development and social welfare of partner countries.

Deadline for applications: 16:00 UK time on 13 July 2015.

Travel funded by the grant must take place before 31 March 2016.

Partner countries

Turkey, Vietnam. Other countries may added in due course,

Eligibility

  • Applicants must be based in the UK or one of the partner countries identified above. There is no restriction on nationality.
  • Only one application can be made per person.
  • Applicants must have already been awarded a PhD. PhD students are not eligible.
  • Partner countries may have priority areas of research, and in these cases applications will be restricted to researchers in these fields. Please check the guidelines document for country specific restrictions.

Further eligibility criteria may apply. Please read the Guidelines document in full (available in the Downloads section below).

How to apply

Before applying please download and read the guidelines document from the Downloads section below. Once ready, you can apply online. You can view the information requested in the application form in the word document available in the Downloads section.

For advice on applying to funding schemes, read this article from the British Council Director, Science and Research.

Contact

If you have any enquiries relating to this call, please contact

UK-researcherlinks@britishcouncil.org

National teaching fellowship scheme

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The Higher Education Academy invites applications for its national teaching fellowship scheme. This recognises, rewards and celebrates individuals who make an outstanding impact on the student learning experience.

Higher education institutions in the UK participating in the scheme are eligible to nominate up to three members of staff. Staff are eligible to be nominated under part-time, full-time and fixed-term contracts. There are no nationality requirements.

For more details see:

https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/professional-recognition/awards/national-teaching-fellowship-scheme-ntfs

 Closing date : tbc – expected to be early 2016.

 

Research Seminar – Computing, Engineering and Sciences

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The External Projects Team recently supported a PHD seminar series in FCES, organised by Fran Stubbs, the series is designed to provide opportunities for PHD students to explore new topics and learn from the key speakers who are invited to attend.

The External Projects Team discussed bidding for research and in a EU context and provided tips to writing a successful proposal.

Pictured above are the PHD students and Jose Beech, External Grants Manager.

Call for methodological research projects

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The Economic and Social Research Council and the Department for International Development invite proposals for the National Centre for Research Methods call for methodological research projects that will undertake cutting-edge methodological research development, within the context of substantive research problems.

This supports projects that undertake methodological research in one or more of the following areas:

  • digital devices and mobile technologies for data collection;
  • participatory approaches;
  • analysis of online digital and big data;
  • bio-social data analysis;
  • policy-relevant research synthesis;
  • small area estimation.

The aim of the call is to increase the quality and range of methodological skills and techniques used by the UK social science community, to enable new or existing social science research questions to be addressed more effectively.

Applicants are encouraged to focus their research in ways that are likely to add value to existing data resource investments. Projects must demonstrate a connection between methodological developments and the social scientific questions, data and theory they relate to.

The total budget available from ESRC is £5 million at 80% full economic cost. Projects may receive up to £825,000 each at 80% FEC for up to 36 months. Funding may cover part of the salary costs for a principal investigator and other directly allocated staff costs, costs for supporting administrative, technical and research staff, and costs of equipment, travel, subsistence and project-specific consumables.

Projects should commence on 1 January 2016.

Closing date 16 Jun 15

For further information go to: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/funding-opportunities/34169/ncrm-methodological-research-projects-2015-call.aspx

 

 

Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Actions: MSCA Individual Fellowships Call

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Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Actions: MSCA Individual Fellowships Call

The 2015 Individual Fellowships (IFs) call, which includes the European Fellowship and the Global Fellowship strands, has been published on the Participant Portal.

The IF Guide for Applicants can be found on the Portal through the Call Documents tab for the IF call, as can a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document for the IF call.

The deadline for the 2015 Individual Fellowships call is 10 September 2015.

To find out more follow this link to the web page MSC Fellowship call 2015

Or see the fact sheet here – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Horizon 2020 Briefing Sheet

 

European Parliament rejects Horizon 2020 cuts

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The European Parliament’s committees on budgets and economic and monetary affairs have voted against taking money out of Horizon 2020 to pay for an EU investment fund.

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20150420IPR42732/html/Strategic-Investment-Fund-committees-back-Juncker-Plan-but-not-programme-cuts

In a vote on 20 April, the two committees voted for European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s proposal to establish a European Fund for Strategic Investments (Efsi), but rejected his proposal to use €2.7 billion of Horizon 2020 funds to pay for it. Funding should instead be taken from the annual budgetary margins, until it reaches the required amount of €8 billion by 2022, according to the Parliament vote.

“We want to preserve Horizon 2020 as much as possible, which is why we want to use the budget margins, formed on an annual basis,” said José-Manuel Fernandes, the budget committee’s rapporteur for Efsi, at a press conference following the vote on 20 April.

Europe’s researchers have lobbied against Horizon 2020 cuts for months, arguing that a decrease in funding would undermine the continent’s strong research base. Research groups such as the European University Association have said that universities will struggle to access the Efsi funds because they are based on loans rather than grants, and only few universities are legally allowed to take loans.

 

Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professors

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The Royal Academy of Engineering invites applications for its visiting professors scheme. This industry-into-academia initiative is intended to utilise the experience of senior industry practitioners from engineering disciplines to enhance student learning as well as the employability and skills of UK engineering graduates.

The visiting professor would deliver teaching and mentoring at the host university and contribute to postgraduate teaching, curriculum development and strategy development.

Applications must be made by UK host universities.

Funding is worth up to £10,000 per year over three years to support the visiting professor through honoraria and travel expenses.

Closing date 16 Jun 15

For further information go to:

http://www.raeng.org.uk/grants-and-prizes/schemes-for-people-in-industry/visiting-professors-in-innovation

 

Using Crowdfunder for your crowdfunding campaign

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Crowdfunding is a huge growth area, Nesta said that in 2014 crowdfunding grew by a massive 388%. Crowdfunder is the UK’s largest based crowdfunding platform. Crowdfunder helps community groups, charities and social enterprises raise funds from the community around them, helping people turn their ideas into reality. So far they have helped thousands of projects raise over £4 million.

Crowdfunding is a way of funding a specific project by raising donations from people through an online campaign.

You can crowdfund if you are starting your fundraising from scratch, want to set up a new project or have already received funding from other sources. In fact many organisations chose to use Crowdfunder as match funding to unlock much larger pots of money.

How does it work?

  • To start your project you’ll need to decide on the amount you need to raise and explain how you are going to use the money through an online video.
  • Once your project page is live you invite your community to back the project with pledges of cash. You can also ask people to donate time and skills towards projects.
  • In return for backing your project that person receives a ‘reward’ from you. Rewards are normally a product, service or experience that is produced by the project. When a person backs a project they get a ‘reward’ from the project. Rewards are normally a product, service or experience that is produced by the project. For example Leeds bread co-operative gave a loaf of bread every week for a year in return for a £100 pledge, this allowed them to setup their bakery and raise £8000 from 114 local people.
  • Supported by Crowdfunder, you promote your project using a mixture of social media, email, word of mouth and events.
  • You need to hit your fundraising target for the money to be released to their project.
  • Once you have raised the money, you then distribute their rewards to your backers – and make their great idea happen.

Many projects say they learn entrepreneurial and marketing skills in the process of crowdfunding and promote their project to new people who will help in many ways over the coming years. Start your project here:

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/workingwith/funding-central/?af=fundingcircle