Funding to Enhance the Student Experience

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Holly Hoar

This funding is a great opportunity for anyone who has an idea of something they wish to do to improve the student experience, something Staffordshire University puts great emphasis on.

Funding Body: Higher Education Academy

Scheme: Individual Grants

Overview: The Individual grant scheme invites proposals from individual staff members to lead projects that enhance the student experience. The Higher Education Academy is keen to encourage evidence-based research which can lead to innovations in learning and teaching that have clear benefits beyond your own institution.

Applications are invited from any member of staff engaged in the student learning experience in HEA-subscribing institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. -(Staffordshire University is a subscribing institution)

Deadline: 10 June 2013

Budget: Proposals submitted under the Individual scheme may request up to £7,000 from the Higher Education Academy. Projects will run for twelve months.

Website: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/tdg/individual

Please could anyone wishing to apply please send their ideas to the External Projects Team before bidding so we can ensure the University makes a strategic bid to this fund. externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk

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Vestergard v Bestnet: Breach of Confidence of a Patent in the Supreme Court: an unarguable appeal?

Posted on May 8, 2013 by ck7

CK1105VestergardBlog

Please see attached a short Note relating to the short appeal heard in the UK Supreme Court recently. The case concerned unauthorised use of trade secrets related to a patent. This case will be explored further in later blogs.

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COST open call: European Science Foundation

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Esther KNIGHT

The European Science Foundation, through its European Cooperation in Science and Technology programme, has launched an open call for proposals. Funding supports networking activities, such as meetings, conferences, workshops, short-term scientific exchanges and outreach activities in the following domains:

•biomedicine and molecular biosciences;

•chemistry and molecular sciences and technologies;

•Earth system science and environmental management;

•food and agriculture;

•forests, their products and services;

•individuals, societies, cultures and health;

•information and communication technologies;

•materials, physics and nanosciences;

•transport and urban development.

Projects must include researchers from at least five COST countries.

Financial support for an action of 19 participating countries is in the range of €130,000 per year, normally for four years, subject to available budget.

Closing date 27 Sep 2013
Deadline information Submissions due by 5pm Brussels time (GMT+1).

See http://www.cost.eu/participate/open_call

If you are interested in this flexible funding opportunity please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk

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NESTA’s new Social Innovation Fund

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Holly Hoar

The Centre for Social Action Innovation Fund is a £14 million Fund to support the growth of innovations that mobilise people’s energy and talents to help each other, working alongside public services. This fund is an open call and will be here for two years, so even if you don’t have a project now, make a note of it for future reference.

Funding Body: NESTA

Fund: The Centre for Social Innovation Fund

Overview: As part of the Cabinet Office Centre for Social Action, Nesta will run a £14 million Innovation Fund.

We will provide financial and non-financial support to help grow the impact and reach of innovations that mobilise people’s energy and talents to help each other, working alongside public services.

Over the next two years the ambition is to:

Find innovations that harness different types of social action to make a positive difference across a range of outcomes

Support the most promising innovations to have more impact, including building evidence of what works

Enable a small number of proven innovations to achieve impact at significant scale, by reaching and benefiting many more people

The Innovation Fund will focus on a small number of big social challenges, like helping older people to age well or supporting young people to get into work, where there is a plausible account of how social action can make a difference and is under-exploited by the existing approach of public services.

Current priorities

Helping people to age well, particularly by supporting people over 50 to have a purpose, a sense of well-being and to be connected to others
Enabling people with long-term health conditions to have a better quality of life, particularly through the use of peer to peer networks and groups
Supporting and encouraging young people to succeed and find employment, for example through mentoring, coaching, and peer-to-peer networks

Using new approaches to “impact volunteering” to mobilise volunteers to increase and enhance the outcomes achieved by public services

Budget: £50,000 to £500,000 to individual ventures or programmes, funding usually needs to be matched from other sources.

Deadlines: Open call, just fill in an expression of interest form on the website

Website: http://bit.ly/12ZByAs

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Looking to promote your work?

Posted on May 6, 2013 by ejd2

Birmingham Science City aims to promote the strength of science, technology and innovation in and between the public, private and university sectors. Staffordshire University are involved in Birmingham Science City (BSC) working groups and we are therefore invited to publicise our work through their networks. A recent call has gone out to request content for the BSC website, providing an opportunity to:

Advertise achievements, funding, networks, events, etc through the news and events sections
Promote ‘Did you know’ facts about science and technology developed or applied locally
Share case studies of collaborative activity in Low Carbon, Innovative Healthcare and Digital areas

If you have news you wish to promote via BSC, please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk.

If you wish to find out more about the work of Birmingham Science City and its innovation community you can engage with partners via linked in Innovation Futures group or @Bham ScienceCity for Twitter. Further details at (http://www.birminghamsciencecity.co.uk/).

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Sport Based European Funding

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Holly Hoar

Before the Erasmus for All Sports funding starts in 2014, it seems the European Commission wants to run test projects. This is open for bids until 19 July.

Funding body: European Commission
Scheme: 2013 Preparatory Action: European Partnership on Sports
Overview: This call for proposals will support transnational projects put forward by public bodies or not-for-profit organisations in order to identify and test suitable networks and good practices in the field of sport, in three following areas:
(1) Strengthening of good governance and dual careers in sport through support for the mobility of volunteers, coaches, managers and staff of non-profit sport organisations.
(2) Protecting athletes, especially the youngest, from health and safety hazards by improving training and competition conditions.
(3) Promoting traditional European sports and games.
Projects must include at least five member states.
They expect to fund around 15 projects
Deadlines: 19 July 2013
Costs: The EU covers 80% of all eligible costs. There is no minimum or maximum amount to apply for, but projects are likely to be over €400,000

This type of project takes a large amount of work to develop. If there is not already a project idea and some partners in place, the team wouldn’t recommend applying for this round of funding. However, it is possible to identify organisations submitting bids with a view to being a project partner. A similar grant should be available in 2014 so this could provide the starting point to developing a bid for 2014.

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MQ: Transforming Mental Health fellowships

Posted on May 2, 2013 by BENNETT Margaret

MQ: Transforming Mental Health invites applications for its fellow awards. MQ is seeking talented researchers with bold ideas who aspire to be the next generation of research leaders in mental health. With this new Programme, they aim to support the most promising early career scientists and clinicians who are asking the difficult and challenging questions that will contribute to transformative advances in mental health research.

The programme is open to researchers from all sciences and the proposed research must address a question relevant to mental health.

In supporting researchers at an early stage of their career, MQ aims to build and ensure capacity in academic research in mental health for the future. Awardees will join the community of MQ supporters and friends championing research progress across all sectors of mental health research.

The Programme will provide £75,000 (or $110,000 or €85,000) per year for up to three years.

The award may be used as start-up funding for a specific project or as bridging funding for a current project. Funds may be used for salary support and/or direct research costs. Salary support may be either for the applicant themselves, or for research assistance staff as appropriate. Please see Guidelines for Applicants for more information on how funding may be used and other currencies.

These awards are open to individuals from any country.

Applicants must be early career researchers with a PhD, MD or equivalent, who have recently established their own independent research career or are about to become independent. The Programme is open to basic scientists, clinically qualified researchers (such as medical graduates and clinical psychologists) and social science researchers. Please see FAQs on Eligibility and Suitability for more information on Applicant selection.

Research can be based in the laboratory, clinic or field, and may involve experimental or theoretical approaches, but must be relevant to the cause, treatment or prevention of mental illness.

Applications for this Programme are to be considered annually. MQ anticipates making up to four awards in 2013.

Application deadline: 10 June 2013

http://joinmq.org/research-programme/the-mq-fellows-programme/

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Sharing Knowledge with Industry, Businesses and Universities

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Holly Hoar

This European pilot project is about sharing learning with students, HEI’s (including staff), business and industry, plus social and economic renewal. This fund is currently a one off. There is no supporting conference or partner search tool to go with it.

Funder: Directorate-General for Education and Culture, EU

Grant Title: Pilot projects for the development of knowledge partnerships and knowledge alliances

Fund Description: Projects should strengthen the role of higher education institutions as instruments of innovation and increase the employability, creativity and innovative potential of graduates, professors and company staff. Funding supports new learning and teaching methods, fostering entrepreneurial skills and attitudes and structured mobility. Higher education institutions, research institutes, training institutes and public and private large, medium or small companies, intermediaries and associations and national or regional organisations based in EU member states, may apply. Each partnership must include at least three different independent partners, established in a minimum of three different member states. Partnerships must include at least one higher education institution and one private company. Approximately three projects will be funded.

Amount Available: The budget for this call is €1 million. Grants are worth between €200,000 and €400,000 each and funding covers a maximum of 75 per cent of eligible costs over 12 to 18 months

Deadline: 28 June 2013

Website: http://ec.europa.eu/education/calls/s0312_en.htm

This page provides a quick overview of the call objectives and the concept

http://ec.europa.eu/education/calls/0312/objectives_en.pdf

Anyone interested in bidding for this fund should let the External Projects Team know as we can support with the application process. Our team are very experienced in submitting European bids so we can smooth the way through EU jargon and budgets.

The EU is looking for cover the following aims

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