Celebrate volunteers’ week with the Staffordshire University Fringe Festival

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Volunteers’ Week is an annual celebration of the fantastic contribution millions of volunteers make across the UK – and it’s taking place from the 1-7 June 2015.

Staffs Fringe Festival is the University’s annual public engagement festival.

Senior lecturer, Penny Vincent coordinates it and works with our community partners to facilitate a feast of free events and activities, ending with the Fantastic Fringe Finale on the last day (Saturday).

volunteers week logoImagine what the world would be like without volunteers. From the Staffs Live journalism team, to documentary photographers and workshop leaders at the Fantastic Finale – there are many students and local residents volunteering to make Fringe Festival go with a swing.

We will celebrate community arts with a Big Lunch picnic in Hanley Park with Park Live! performance on the bandstand by local people and a Photo walk led by the Photographers Collective North Staffs who are all volunteers.

The wonderful London Rd Festival on the 13th and 14th June is coordinated by a group of committed and skilful volunteers from Stoke West and Oakhill area.

Check out all the Volunteers Week events on their website here.

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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

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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

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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.

 

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Horizon’s 2020 SME Instrument: Looking for Europe’s next innovation leaders

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As part of the Horizon 2020 programme, the European Commission is hand-picking potentially disruptive businesses to invest and support as part of the SME Instrument. Your business could receive up to €2.5 million in funding, and world-class business coaching.

Who should apply?

The EU are looking for high growth, highly innovative SMEs [Check the EU definition of SME] with global ambitions that want to disrupt the established value networks and existing markets. It’s a good sign if your company is based in an innovation hub, has received grants or venture capital funding, received innovation-related tax benefits, or won an innovation prize in the last 2 years.

Phases

The funding will take place in three phases, with the aim of transforming disruptive ideas into concrete, innovative solutions with a European and global impact. SMEs are recommended to apply for Phase 1, but may also apply for subsequent phases depending on the progress of their proposals:

Phase 1. Concept & Feasibility Assessment; Idea to concept (6 months)

The European Union will provide €50 000 in funding, and carry out a feasibility study to verify the viability of the proposed disruptive innovation or concept.

The SME will draft an initial business proposal (around 10 pages).

Phase 2. Demonstration, Market Replication, R&D; Concept to Market-Maturity (1-2 years)

Assisted by the EU, the SME will further develop its proposal through innovation activities, such as demonstration, testing, piloting, scaling up, and miniaturisation. It will also draft a more developed business plan (around 30 pages).

Proposals will be based on a business plan developed on phase 1 or otherwise. The EU aims to contribute between €0.5 million and €2.5 million.

Phase 3. Commercialisation, Prepare for Market Launch

SMEs will receive extensive support, training, mentorship and facilitating access to risk finance as the project is further polished into a marketable product.

Additional support and networking opportunities will be provided by Enterprise Europe Network (EEN).

The EU will not provide additional direct funding in this phase.

Themes

In 2014 and 2015 the SME Instrument will sponsor SMEs operating within 13 themes:

  • High risk ICT innovation
  • Nanotech, or other advanced tech for manufacturing and materials
  • Space research and development
  • Clinical research for the validation of diagnostics devices and biomarkers
  • Sustainable food production and processing
  • Blue growth
  • Low carbon energy systems
  • Greener and more integrated transport
  • Eco-innovation and sustainable raw material supply
  • Urban critical infrastructure
  • Biotechnology-based industrial processes
  • Mobile e-government applications (2015 only)
  • SME business model innovation (2015 only)

Here is a SME Instrument Case Study

FABPulous is a SME based in The Netherlands which was spun out of Maastricht University at the end of 2008, which will receive €1.6 m. from the European Union under Horizon 2020 SME Instrument programme to develop the Rapidex project.

Thanks to its researching FABPulous has developed a rapid test for the cardiac biomarker so called heart-type fatty acid binding protein (H-FABP), to aid in the first-line diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) commonly known as a heart attack.

“It is able to distinguish patients who would have a heart attack to those wouldn’t have it. So a test like this could be identified those disinclined patients and send them home in three hours which is a big achievement”, states Mr. Conor O’Brien, Managing Director of FABPulous.

This offers great advantages in the point-of-care and home testing setting, over current technology.  Also it will help to relieve Emergency department overcrowding in Europe since “at the moment about 1 in 5 patients who seek medical attention with chest pain have a confirmed acute myocardial infarction but they have treat all of them”, points O’Brien.

For this company H2020 SME Instrument programme helps in generating critical evidences in this medical concern and boosts clinical research for the validation of biomarkers and/or diagnostic medical devices.

Deadlines:

Phase 1 &  Phase 2 17/06/2015; 17/02/09/2015; 25/11/2015

Find out more :

http://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/horizons-2020-sme-instrument

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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.

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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

 

 

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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

 

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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.

 

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