Funding for Staff Exchanges

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Holly Hoar

The European Commission are running a final round of funding under the Marie Curie Fellowships. They help academic staff in different countries to develop their experience, or bring new expertise to Institutions. The three types of fellowships are open to all kinds of research areas.

IIF –International Incoming Fellowships -Experienced researchers outside the EU carry out high level research in an EU institution for 2-3 years –These are useful if you know someone from outside Europe that you would like to bring to the UK to work at the University.

IEF-Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development – Experienced researchers develop a long term training plan enable them to advance significantly in their career. They go to a host organisation in Europe for 12-24 months. An interesting way for Staffordshire University to get involved with these might be if you know someone in another European country that you would like to get over to the UK.

IOF –International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development – Experienced researchers carry out high level research in countries outside of the EU for up to three years. These projects might be of interest if you feel you wish to work in a different country for a number of years, you will need to know where you want to work.

You have until 14 August 2013 to apply.

Applicants will need a clear project idea, as the EU is looking for quite detailed bids. However, if your project idea is well defined, it is a relatively straightforward application process.

The funds do not cover University overheads. It is essentially a flat rate payment to the staff doing the exchange and flat rate payment for a management fee.

Staffordshire University has not made as much use of these funds as we could have done, we don’t have any applications in the pipeline at the moment, whereas Keele University are looking at submitting fourteen bids! The External Projects Team is able to support with bid writing, but advise that you start working it up as soon as possible, if you are interested in applying please email externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk. If you don’t think you are ready to apply for this round it is expected that similar funding opportunities will be available next year in the in new Horizon 2020 programme.

Further details: http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/about-mca/actions/index_en.htm

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

Teaching Development Grant funding announced

Posted on July 8, 2013 by ejd2

The Higher Education Academy has an open call for Teaching Development Grants. This funding is designed to support cooperation between colleagues to enhance teaching and learning activities. Up to £30,000 can be requested, match funding from us would also be expected.

Applications should relate to one on the main HEA themes: assessment and feedback, education for sustainability, employability, flexible learning, internationalisation, online learning, retention and success, reward and recognition, and students as partners.

The deadline for applications is noon on Friday 2 August. Further details: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/tdg/departmental. We expect this call to be of interest to a number of colleagues, therefore please inform us if you are considering to prevent internal competition.

Funding focusing on Research combining Design and Innovation

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Holly Hoar

The Arts and Humanities Research Council have decided to focus a chunk of their funding on design. They are particularity interested in projects which link design and innovation. This sounds like something Staffordshire University are very good at (Flux, High House), so we should be looking to get a bid in.

They want applications to be in by 3 October 2013. We can only submit a maximum of three bids, and in truth we should really be looking to submit only one, so anyone looking to apply should talk to the External Projects Team and the head of their faculty.

More details here: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Funding-Opportunities/Pages/Collaborative-Doctoral-Awards.aspx

Horizon 2020: Funding Deal Secured

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Esther KNIGHT

After long negotiations a deal has finally been secured on Horizon 2020.

The Irish EU Presidency has announced that the Council and the European Parliament have finally come to an agreement on remaining outstanding issues and that a provisional deal has been secured. The deal is provisional as it still has to be endorsed by so-called Committee of Permanent Representatives in the Council. This should however be a formality.

One of the main stumbling blocks during the negotiations, the reimbursement model, has now been agreed. Horizon 2020 will operate according to the “simplification model”, so with one funding rate for all beneficiaries and a flat rate for indirect costs. The Parliament, which had been pushing for a full cost option until late into the negotiations, instead won some concessions on issues such as widening participation.

It would also appear that a deal was agreed on the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, with funding for Knowldge Innovation Communities in the areas of healthy living and active ageing, raw materials, food and added value manufacturing.

http://eit.europa.eu/about-us/organisation/

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

Video Games Funding

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Holly Hoar

The Arts and Humanities Research Council have funding for collaborative research projects with a particular focus on video games

It is unusual for the AHRC to be making a particular focus on just video games, so if it is your research area it is worth looking into the call in more detail because it might not come up again for a while.

Funding body AHRC

Scheme Videogames Research Networking Funding Call

Overview These are for collaborative research projects between arts and humanities researchers and video developers. Proposals should explore new areas of interest to research and development in the videogames industry, be multi-institutional and demonstrate creative and innovative approaches.

Deadlines 1 August 2013

Budget Grants are worth up to £30,000 for projects of six to 18 months, and an additional £15,000 may be sought to cover international activities.

For further information: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Funding-Opportunities/Pages/AHRC-Videogames-Research-Networking-Funding-Call.aspx

New Fund for Todays Biggest Problems

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Holly Hoar

A new fund launched recently by the Prime Minister will provide money for researchers to solve a range of issues which of importance to the public.

The prize was launched as a celebration of the 300^th anniversary since the Longitude Prize was won by watch make John Harrison with the invention of the chronometer. The invention changed ocean going navigation forever, by making it possible to work out where you were at sea even when the sun or stars we not visible.

The new prize, which will be run by NESTA, is hoping to follow in these steps by getting the public to vote for some of today’s biggest problems and then providing funding to solve them.

Further information on the prizes will be launched in the coming months www.nesta.org.uk

Staffordshire University Research and Funding Blog

Category Archives: Funding