ECD’s Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Team would greatly value your feedback about the ‘Knowledge Transfer Chronicle’ – our quarterly newsletter devoted to KTP and KEEN programmes and projects.
Essentially, we want to know if people are reading it, who is reading it, which of its features are useful, and whether the periodic newsletter format is the best way to communicate with enterprise-minded staff.
So please take five minutes to complete the following, bracingly brief survey:
Novembers Wider Outlook is now available
This issue includes:
Page 1 Witty report on HE role in the Economy
Page 2 Review of the Leverhulme Visit to the University
Page 3 In House compliance Audits
Page 4 EU Innovation Indicator
If you have any comments or ideas for future editions we would love to hear from you
The Global Innovation Initiative is a higher education partnership grant opportunity established between the United States and the United Kingdom aimed at strengthening multilateral research collaborations between universities in the US, UK and other selected countries. The Global Innovation Initiative will award grants to university consortia focusing on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-related issues of global significance that foster cutting-edge multinational research and strengthen institutional international partnerships. The Institute of International Education will administer the U.S. competition and the British Council will administer the UK competition.
The Department of State and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have identified Brazil, China, India and Indonesia as designated countries for the Global Innovation Initiative.
New or existing research partnerships comprised of at least one US, one UK and one institution of higher education from one of the four emerging economies are invited to apply for a Global Innovation Initiative grant. Partnership research proposals in the area of STEM are eligible.
Approximately 20 grants will be awarded ranging from $150,000 to $250,000 (US competition) or from £100,000 to £150,000 (UK competition).
UK-led partnership proposals must apply through the UK grant competition, administered by the British Council.
The application for both country competitions will close December 16, 2013
For further information go to: http://global-innovation-initiative.org/
Please find attached a Note and link to the case of Woodland v Essex County Council [2013] UKSC 66 recently decided in the Supreme Court; extending the ambit of the educational authority’s liability (via the educational function of the schools) to school pupils for personal injury (in this tragic case, catastrophic hypoxic brain injury) on the basis of the educational authority’s ‘non-delegable’ duty of care.
The extension (or if preferred, redefinition) of the educational authority’s non-delegable duty now covers the negligence of independent contractors engaged in work that the schools would ordinarily have carried out themselves (usually via their direct employees) – in this case swimming lessons to primary school pupils. Swimming lessons, were on the available evidence, part of the national curriculum. The case, replete with tragic consequences, will be remitted back to the High Court for trial, but the Supreme Court in its judgment appears to have found the Defendant with the ‘deepest pocket’ for the Claimant to bring an action against.
This exchange fund from the British Academy will be of interest to academics working in humanities and social sciences and looking to develop a programme of work in China. The deadline is in February, so this leaves plenty of time to work up links with a Chinese partner.
Funding Body: British Academy
Scheme: International partnership and mobility scheme – UK-China one-year partnerships
Overview: The aim of this scheme is to support the development of partnerships between the UK and China, strengthening research excellence through new, innovative initiatives and links.
The scheme intends to strengthen research capacity and capability, with both partners gaining from the collaboration, and to initiate the development of long-term, vigorous links between the UK and Chinese scholars whilst also encouraging an intra-regional exchange of expertise and knowledge sharing. Awards cover any branch of the humanities or social sciences and are intended to focus on collaborative research on a specific theme of mutual interest. Workshops and seminars should form an integral part of the research programme. Partnerships including a training element and involving early-career scholars will be looked on favourably.
Both applicants must be of postdoctoral or equivalent status and based at a research-active institution.
Budget: Funding is worth up to £10,000 for one year
Deadlines: 5 February 2013
Further Information: http://www.britac.ac.uk/funding/guide/intl/International_Partnership_and_Mobility.cfm
Enterprise and Commercial Development will shortly be opening a call for Innovation and Collaboration Vouchers. The guidelines and application form for this call are now available for download from Drop Box at the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/o7enem2ouzowbem/-Um17cAot7.
Applications can be submitted from the 4th Nov – 6th Dec 2013. Further details can be found by viewing the guidelines and a best practice example of a completed HEIF application form is also available at the above link. Please send all completed application forms to Alex Harvey, HEIF Project Manager, via email to a.harvey@staffs.ac.uk.
Future calls: A call for Continuous Improvement Projects is planned for January 2014.
British Council has funding for Early Career Researchers to travel to nineteen countries across the world for up to three months. This is part of the British Council Research Links Scheme. Funding can also include a partner country visiting the UK.
Different countries have different priority areas and these can be found in the guidelines. If no priority areas are specified, all research areas are covered.
The countries involved at this stage are; Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Morocco, Egypt, Qatar, South Africa, Nigeria, Russia (Humanities and Social Sciences only), Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Vietnam and Bangladesh. For this call placements involving the United States are also eligible, in specific areas which focus on using the humanities and social sciences in an interdisciplinary environment.
Deadline 23:59 GMT 24th November 2013
Guidelines and further information are on the British Council Website http://www.britishcouncil.org/society/science/researcher-links
A new factsheet outlining the new European Research Programmes –Horizon 2020 has been launched by UKRO today.
The factsheet nicely condenses the programme to show what research areas will be covered by the funding, who should apply and what is funded.
The External Projects Team will be getting out lots of information on the new programme over the coming weeks in preparation for the launch in January 2014. This document provides a good starting point to give an overview of the new scheme.
For a copy of this fact sheet contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk
An Information Day on the Horizon 2020 societal challenge on Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing will take place on 22 November 2013 in Brussels. The event, for which registration is now open, will provide information on the first funding calls and priorities for 2014.
Further to a main session on the Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing societal challenge, there will also be sessions covering:
Places will be attributed on a first come, first served basis. To register, please follow the link enclosed below.
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=EUHEALTH
The Economic and Social Research Council invites expressions of interest from eligible individuals for an intensive, five-day interactive commissioning workshop (sandpit) from 6-10 January 2014, being held at Cranage Hall in Cheshire.
ESRC, in partnership with AHRC, EPSRC, Dstl and CPNI, is commissioning new research to develop a greater understanding of how empathy and trust are developed, maintained, transformed and lost in social media interactions.
In order to develop innovative approaches and stimulate genuinely transdisciplinary collaborations, the ESRC is commissioning projects via a sandpit. The aim of the sandpit is to bring together researchers and other partners to create projects that will develop theoretically-informed and empirically-derived understandings of the workings of empathy and trust in online contexts and communities.
This call is intended to attract participants from across the full range of social sciences, arts and humanities, and engineering and physical sciences. The ESRC is particularly looking for people with particular personal attributes – creativity, openness, and the ability to work effectively as part of a team. A willingness to engage with policymakers, community organisations, government agencies, businesses and other key stakeholders is also essential.
Full-time and part-time scholars at UK-based research organisations (ROs) can apply. A mix of researchers at different career stages is also sought. The sandpit is aimed at early- and mid-career researchers as well as those in senior academic posts. We regret that, on this occasion, PhD students and scholars based overseas are not eligible to participate in the sandpit.
The sandpit is an intensive residential event and participants must attend all five days of the event. By submitting an application form, you are confirming that you are available for the full five days of the sandpit.
The closing date for expressions of interest is 11.00 on 11 November 2013. Applications from interested candidates should be submitted via the electronic application form.
For further information, please contact: