Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions: Upcoming UKRO Events

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Josephine Beech

UKRO have given its subscribers early notice of upcoming MSCA events. These events will be organised by UKRO in its capacity as UK National Contact for MSCA schemes. The events are aimed at staff at UK academic and non-academic organisations, including research support staff.
The first event will focus on the 2014 COFUND call, which is due to open on 10 April and close on 2 October 2014. The programme will include an overview of the COFUND scheme, including the new doctoral training option; practical information on proposal preparation, submission and finances; and a case study from a previous applicant. The event is scheduled to take place in London (venue to be confirmed) on Wednesday, 30 April 2014.

UKRO are also in the process of finalising dates and venues for three information and proposal writing workshops on the 2014 Individual Fellowships (IF) call, which opened on 12 March, with a closing date of 11 September 2014. The events will cover key issues relating to planning, writing and submitting proposals.
The likely schedule of the IF events is as follows:

Cardiff University, Wednesday, 28 May 2014
University of Warwick, Monday, 9 June 2014
London, June 2014 (date and venue to be confirmed)

If you are interested in finding out more please let the team know at externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk

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EPSRC International research in security (IRIS)

Posted on March 27, 2014 by BENNETT Margaret

EPSRC is inviting proposals from UK academics for projects which will support visiting Fellows from India, Israel or Japan to carry out cyber security research in and build collaborative links with the UK. Proposals are welcome in any area of research directly relevant to cyber security, including less well-represented domains such as the social, economic and mathematical sciences.

UK higher education institutions, research institutes funded by research councils and independent research organisations may apply. The visiting fellows must be of recognised research standing internationally, but they need not be academic researchers.

Awards cover the resources necessary to support a visiting fellow for a total of up to six months over one to four visits in a two-year period. The total budget of £1.2 million will fund around 20 visiting fellows.

Closing date: 28th August 2014

Full Call document: International Research in Security (PDF 124KB)

For further information: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2014/Pages/iris.aspx

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Making groundless threats of proceedings for infringement of a patent: section 70 of the Patents Act 1977

Posted on March 26, 2014 by ck7

Further to a recent inquiry as to whether any action could be taken against persons making groundless threats for infringement of a patent, I attach a recent decision of Judge Hacon QC, the case of Brundle v Perry [2014] CC 13 P 00980 (judgment handed down on 6 March 2014), in which a Claimant wholesaler of metal products and fences, brought proceedings against the Defendant, Mr Perry, as a company aggrieved by the threats of proceedings for infringement. The case is a good explanation of the procedure and issues in relation to the making of groundless threats.

It is possible for either party in such proceedings, to file a request at the Intellectual Property Office (the IPO) pursuant to section 74A of the Patents Act 1977, for an opinion, (in this case as to whether the Claimant’s suppliers of fences) had infringed the Defendant’s patent.

The test as to what constitutes threat of proceedings for patent infringement is set out in paragraph 22, 23 and following, of Judge Hacon’s judgment. In this case the threat in the Defendant’s letter was found to be ‘excplicit’and plainly contained a threat by the Defendant within the meaning of section 70 of the Act.

The Judgment is attached below:

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/IPEC/2014/475.html&query=brundle&method=boolean

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Latest news on the Health for Growth Programme

Posted on March 25, 2014 by Esther KNIGHT

h ttp://ec.europa.eu/health/programme/policy/proposal2014_en.htm

With a proposed budget of €446m the general objective of the Health for Growth Programme is to:- ‘work with the Member States to encourage innovation in healthcare and increase the sustainability of health systems, to improve the health of EU citizens and protect them from cross-border health threats’.

It is proposed that the programme will focus on the links between economic growth and health, and will concentrate on finding and applying innovative solutions to improve the quality, efficiency and sustainability of health systems. It will support actions aimed at developing human capital and exchanging good practices in the following areas:-

Contributing to innovative and sustainable health systems;
Increasing access to better and safer healthcare;
Promoting good health and preventing disease;
Protecting citizens from cross border health threats.

The Programme will be managed by the Directorate General for Health and Consumers. It will be delivered according to priorities set out in annual work programmes. Funds will be made available in the form of:-

Grants for joint actions (transnational partnerships)
Grant to projects
Operating grants
Direct grants to International Organisations
Public procurement

The opportunities available to apply for grants for joint actions and projects and public procurement tenders will be of interest to the university. The Programme will offer opportunities for HEI involvement in activities aimed at increasing the uptake of results from FP7 (and its successor Programme Horizon 2020) research; to participate in expert networks; to undertake research and analysis and in providing some training and staff development for health workers.

Publication of the first calls for proposals is expected in April or early May 2014.

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Introduction to Erasmus+

Posted on March 24, 2014 by Holly Hoar

Erasmus+ is the new EU Programme for education, training, youth and sport. Staffordshire University are running an Erasmus+ workshop on Wednesday 9 April 9:30-12:30. The new programme presents an excellent source of funding to develop a variety of projects in partnership with organisations across Europe. The workshop will be an opportunity to gain a better understanding of what activities can be carried out so we can ensure the Universities capitalises on this new resource.

Erasmus+ Started on 1 January 2014 and will run till 2020. The programme supports activities in education, training, youth and sport across all sectors of lifelong learning including Higher Education, Further Education, adult education, schools and youth activities.

The deadlines for the 2014 calls are coming up in the next few weeks. This workshop is timed to get people thinking ahead to the 2015 calls.

The workshop will be in the LT114/116, Ashley Building, Stoke. Members of staff from all faculties are encouraged to attend. To book a place please email exteranlfundingofficer@staffs.ac.uk

Below is an overview of the agenda:

9-00-9-30 Coffee /Networking

9-30 Abdel-Hamid Soliman, Erasmus Mundus – case study

10-00 Deb Graddon, Introduction and overview

10-30 Deb Gradden, Erasmus Mundus 201402020, Key Action 1

11-00 Q&A

11-15 Margaret Bennett and Jose Beech, Key Actions 2 & 3

12-00 Q&A

12-15 Close

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NIHR Funding Event

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Josephine Beech

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funding workshop took place this week in the Ashley Building (see speakers in the picture above). Hosted by the External Projects Team and the Faculty of Health Sciences, this workshop was opened by Prof Tony Stewart, who set the scene and chaired the day.

Over 35 people attended to listen to experts from the NIHR present funding information on a range of health related topics, this was a helpful session, aimed at encouraging colleagues and partners to think about cross collaboration with the NHS and stimultating and reinforcing which streams of NIHR can be accessed.

There was also a useful presentation from the Research Design Service (RDS) for our area, which is based at Keele University. This is led by Roger Beech, the service now supports all applications to the NIHR scheme rather than just the Research for Patient Benefit programme (RFPB). There is also a small bursary avaliable from the RDS service up to a max of £500 to facilitate patient and public involvement (PPI) to enable applicants to put the patient views at the centre, from the pre application planning stage through to application and project implementation.

To access the RDS please email rds@cphc.keele.ac.uk

if you are interested in this stream of funding, you can access an overview of NIHR by clicking HERE

The external projects team has all the slides, so please let us know if you would like a copy by emailing externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk

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A comparison of FP7 and Horizon 2020

Posted on March 20, 2014 by BENNETT Margaret

The most important changes are outlined below:

Description	FP7	Horizon2020
Focus	Research	Research and Innovation
Budget	55 billion €	~ 79 billion €
Components	Cooperation, Capacities, People, Ideas, Euratom, JRC	Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership, Societal challenges, Spreading Excellence, Science for Society, EIT, JRC, Euratom
Funding rate (up to) for research	75%	100%
Funding rate (up to) for Demonstration/ Innovation projects	50%	70% 100% for non-profit organizations
Overhead/indirect costs	Different models (20% 60% or actual)	25%
Time-to-grant	12 months in average after submission of proposal	reduced to 8 months
Ex-ante financial viability check	All beneficiaries exceeding 500,000 EUR EU contribution	Coordinators
Audit certificates to be submitted	All beneficiaries exceeding 375,000 EUR EU contribution – cumulative in periods	All beneficiaries exceeding 325,000 EUR EU contribution – only one at the end of the project
Interest on pre-financing	Reported by the coordinator	No need to declare
Thematic approach	“Cooperation” 10 themes	Will be under “Industrial leadership” and “Societal challenges”
Frontier Research, ERC	New in FP7 – Ideas block	Extended under the “Excellent Science” pillar

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Government’s Response to Sir Andrew Witty’s Review of Universities and Growth

Posted on March 19, 2014 by ck7

Please find attached the Government’s response to the Witty Review on Universities and Growth. The recommendations include making as much information available to potential investors of Research information, encouragement of links with small to medium sized enterprises, funding from European Structural and Investment Funds to Local Enterprise Partnerships, and encouragement of the LEPs to have a ‘university presence’ on the University’s Board. The Universities will be encouraged by Government Ministers to take on ‘co-chairmanship’ of the LEP in suitable situations. The Government’s response to the 10 recommendations are set out at the end of the document.

bis-14-540-government-response-witty-review-british-invention-global-impact (2)

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Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions: MSCA Individual Fellowships Call

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Esther KNIGHT

The call for the 2014 Individual Fellowships, under the Marie Skłowdowska-Curie Actions, has been published on the Participant Portal.

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/calls/h2020-msca-if-2014.html

The Individual Fellowships Guide to Applicants can be found on the Portal through the Call Documents tab for the IF call.
The link to the submission service is not yet active and will become available over the coming weeks – currently expected to be during April.

The deadline for the 2014 Individual Fellowships call is 11 September 2014.

UKRO is planning three information and proposal writing sessions on the Individual Fellowships across the UK in May/June 2014. Dates, venues and registration information will be published over the coming weeks on this blog.
The European Commission will be organising a joint webinar information seminar on the Individual Fellowships and COFUND calls on 10 June 2014. We will circulate further details of the seminar as soon as they become available.

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