Royal Society/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowships

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      Leverhulme Trust

This scheme is for scientists who would benefit from a period of full-time research without teaching and administrative duties.

The scheme reimburses the employing institution with the full salary cost of a teaching replacement.

The scheme covers all areas of the life and physical sciences, including engineering, but excluding clinical medicine.

The applicant must

  • have a PhD or equivalent
  • hold a permanent post at a UK university or not-for-profit institution
  • be at a stage in their career when they would particularly benefit from a period of full-time research

The award lasts between one term and one academic year.

The applicant’s employing institution will be reimbursed for the full salary cost of a teaching replacement (up to the equivalent of the minimum point on the lectureship scale as paid by the host university).

Research expenses up to a maximum of £2,500 are available to each fellow to cover the costs of consumables, equipment, travel and communicating science.

Eligibility requirement can be found in the scheme notes.

For further information on how to apply go to http://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/leverhulme-trust-senior-research/

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Designer in residence workshops

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There are places available to register for two workshops with Designer in Residence Jonathan Butters on Friday 13th December.

The sessions are:

How to find and brief a designer 9.30am – 11.00am

• Once you have a specification and a brief you can try to find some talent to help deliver a great solution
• An interactive journey to find who else might be relevant and help them understand how the process of selection is often very informative and can help focus the project

 

Design as an engine of commercialisation 11.30am – 1.30pm

• Examples and discussion of how the design process fits into the commercialisation process for innovative products and services

Please email r.watmore@staffs.ac.uk to register for one or both of the workshops.

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Supporting Student Start Ups: Could Universities be more supportive and how?

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Please find attached the link to an old(ish) interesting article on the above subject (September 2013) from the Times Educational Supplement.

The article does not explore formal ownership of University intellectual property, including patents, whether developed or created by Students with Universities, or independently. However if the starting point is in relation to Intellectual property formally owned by the University, consideration would need to be given to the policy as to whether it was the intention that the Student owned IP generated during coursework or studies, or whether the University owns it. If the policy was that University owned, we would also need to consider whether the University should formally assign all rights in intellectual property to the Student. These are all well known policy choices; some Universities assert (for themselves) formal ownership of all IP generated by Students, and then in suitable cases assign rights back to the Student; others as a matter of policy start from a base where the Student owns all IP created or developed by them during the period of their studies or coursework.

The picture would inevitably change if there was Course work or research privately funded by external parties, and in cases where the Student has ceased formal studies. It is not clear (to me) whether this is the case in the two examples. In general, it is recommended to work out claims as to ownership on a case by case basis. The article discusses two interesting examples of Student inventors working in the field of fibre optic sensing technology, and secondly in the field of surgical devices. Universities should be able to provide workable legal frameworks for current and former Students in start ups, and the attached article contains two good examples for discussion.

It is true that the preliminary legal framework can be rigid and out of date; but we have to start the discussion somewhere – I recommend the case of Kelly and Chiu v GE Healthcare [2009] EWHC 181, a case involving valuation of contribution to inventions by employees (pursuant to sections 40 and 41 of the Patents Act 1977), Unilever v Shanks [2010] EWCA 1283.

The other elements (whether students or the educational institution formally owns) inventions are often in many circumstances, matters of policy, depending on who had actually made the invention, or contributed to an outstanding benefit. The two attached cases explore the difficult issue of valuing outstanding benefit and contribution of inventions, albeit in the context of the employer/employee relationship. The two valuation cases hopefully mirror the two examples of start ups in the Times Higher Education article.

Times Higher Education Article:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/universities-must-give-more-support-to-student-start-ups/2007678.article

Kelly v Chiu

http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Patents/2009/181.html

Shanks v Unilever:

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2010/1283.html&query=unilever+and+v+and+shanks&method=boolean

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Sustainable Society Network

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This small fund targets Early Career Researchers. It can be applied to at anytime and is looking for cross disciplinary work around digital technologies and sustainability, which makes it a good fit to a number of research areas in the University.

Funding Body: Sustainable Society Network

Scheme: Small Grants open call

Overview: Small grants provide funding for projects, or other activities, that lead to, or support, cross-disciplinary collaboration in the use of digital technologies to promote and support a sustainable society. The applications should address the “three pillars” (UN, 2005) or “triple bottom line” (Elkington, 1994) of sustainability – social, economic, and environmental. These will be up to 3 months in duration and are designed to test new ideas or create novel linkages between research areas.

We encourage applications led by early career researchers (defined as within 5 years of their PhD submission).

  • resource consumption (e.g. water, waste, and energy)
  • environmental degredation and contamination (e.g. air, soil, noise, water)
  • local and national transport, water, waste, and energy, and ICT infrastructures
  • architecture, landscape architecture, town and country planning, building science
  • national and international supply chains
  • rural and urban enterprise infrastructures
  • support health and wellbeing (this call will NOT fund clinical trials)
  • social infrastructure support mechanisms
  • sustainable prosperity
  • safety and emergency services
  • environmental and engineering policy

Budget: Funding for 80% of a project costing up to £3,000 is available for applications led by staff from UK universities and research organisations

Deadlines: The fund closes on the first of every month (but will shut on the 15th for the January call)

Further Information: http://sustainablesocietynetwork.net/open-call-submissions/

Trainingfora

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Wider Outlook: December’s edition now here

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The External Project’s Team newsletter Wider Outlook for December is now here –

http://bit.ly/1hsDytB

the team has chosen the theme of  Horizon 2020 this month—our annual UK Research Office UKRO event on December 11th will major on the new EU research funding programme –and this month’s edition is full of tips, information and advice to get your project off the ground. As ever do contact us with any comments, ideas or suggestions at  externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk.

 

 

 

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Horizon 2020 briefing sessions

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As we are coming close to the launch of the first series of Horizon 2020 calls on December 11th, Beta Technology and the Environment Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network (ESKTN),are organising webinars on 5th December on the following topics:

  • 10.00 – 11.00: Food Security Societal Challenge (Jane Watkins, UK National Contact Point for Food Security Challenge)
  • 11.00 – 12.00: Climate Change Societal Challenge (Catherine Holt, UK National Contact Point for Climate Change)
  • 14.30 – 15.30: SME Instrument (Steve Bradley, UK National Contact Point for SMEs)

The webinars can be viewed via http://tinyurl.com/esktntv. Further information from Beta Tehcnology at http://www.betaeurope.co.uk/news.htm. 

 

horizon2020_0

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NESTA – Impact Investments

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NESTA the innovation funder has a number of open funding opportunities. One of these is the Impact Investment Awards. They aim to bring about positive outcomes for people, communities and society as a whole, as well as providing financial returns for investors.

Impact investment is needed to fund the creation of new innovations and to support their testing and development. It also allows the best ones to scale up and change the world. This is as true of innovation that seek to achieve social impact as it is of those motivated by creating financial value.

In particular, NESTA are seeking innovations that have a positive impact on:

  • the health and wellbeing of an ageing population;
  • the educational attainment and employability of children and young people; and
  • the social and environmental sustainability of communities.
This is a open call and has a rolling deadline. To find out more please visit the WEBLINK
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Public health research programme – commissioned calls for proposals: 13/90, 13/91, 13/93

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The Department of Health’s National Institute for Health Research invites proposals for commissioned research projects under its public health research programme.

The following commissioning briefs are now available.

13/90 – Interventions to maintain or increase physical activity in adolescents

13/91 – Interventions to prevent elder abuse

13/93 – Social and emotional wellbeing in early years

Closing Date: 18th December 2013

For guidance notes and application information: http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/funding/phr-commissioned

 

 

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UK National Agency for Erasmus+

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Erasmus+, the new European programme for education, training, youth and sport will have a national agency to manage certain aspects of the funding. The previous Lifelong Learning Programme was run by both Ecorys and the British Council. They have teamed up together to bid for the new Erasmus+ contract and been successful.

In the Lifelong Learning Programme, there were a range of smaller funds which were applied to via the National Agency rather than to the European Commission. This will be the same in Erasmus+ only now the two agencies will be providing the support together.

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills estimates that the new Erasmus+ programme will be worth Euros 940 million to the UK between 2014 and 2020. It is expected to increase opportunities for international study, teaching and volunteering across Europe.

This is subject to final contractual agreements and approval by the European Commission. But it is expected they will start operating on 1 January 2014.

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