CK3001MontaguevInfoCommissionerLiverpoolJohnMoores
Please see attached the short article relating to Public information requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, for information held by a University lecturer as private research, and when it will be ‘held’ by the University (and so disclosable) for the purposes of the 2000 Act.
eFutures is an EPSRC funded network which aims to consolidate the academic community engaged in all aspects of electronics research in a bid to address the major challenges of the future.
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s eFuturesXD programme invites applications for its Staff Awards, Travel Awards, Facilities Awards, Meeting Awards.
Staff awards are primarily aimed at small teams of researchers from two or more disciplines who wish to carry out key experiments or measurements to confirm an initial hypothesis. This is for carrying out larger scoping or proof-of-concept studies that require dedicated staff to carry out specific experiments or an extended visit to a laboratory in order to be immersed in another discipline. No funding will be available for academic staff time or other directly allocated costs.
Applicants must be academic employees, at lecturer level or equivalent, of an eligible organisation and must be resident in the UK. EPSRC fellows, except postdoctoral fellows and Royal Society fellows are also eligible to apply. Awards are not available to industry or international collaborators. Applications must consist of at least two partners from UK universities and be cross-disciplinary within ICT. It is anticipated that inter-university applications will form the majority, but applications where partners are from the same institution are also welcome.
Travel outside the UK is not permitted.
Maximum award (100% FEC): £5,000
Applications for buying new equipment or refurbishing current equipment will not be permitted.
(A list of EPSRC supported facilities can be found here: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/facilities/epsrc/Pages/default.aspx but this is not definitive).
Awards of more than £15k will require recipients to give two presentations at community events, one soon after the award and one at the end of the award. The final profile payment will be withheld if this is not adhered to.
Maximum award (100% FEC): £20,000
Meeting Awards
This supports events specifically aimed at building a research consortium (including sandpits, speed dating etc.) comprising researchers from a number of departments and institutions across the information and communication technology portfolio. There is no upper limit on the number of people who can be involved in events funded by the award. Resources can be requested to allow non-UK researchers to attend and give talks.
Applicants must be academic employees, at lecturer level or equivalent, of an eligible organisation and must be resident in the UK. EPSRC fellows, except postdoctoral fellows, and Royal Society fellows are also eligible to apply. Awards are not available to industry or international collaborators. Applications must consist of at least two partners from UK universities and be cross-disciplinary within ICT. It is anticipated that inter-university applications will form the majority, but applications where partners are from the same institution are also welcome.
Maximum award (100% FEC): £10,000
View website for details: http://efutures.ac.uk/
For further information contact: externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk
This report aims to establish what a well performing UK Catapult centre looks like, reviewing evidence from similar initiatives in other European countries. 32 international technology and innovation centres were surveyed to provide the evidence base for this report.
The research was carried out by the Big Innovation Centre between May 2012 and January 2013 with support from the Technology Strategy Board, the Institution for Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
HEFCE are currently undertaking a consultation on whether all higher education institutions (HEIs) eligible to receive public funding for research through HEFCE should comply with a research integrity concordat published earlier this year. The research integrity concordat is designed to ensure that the UK research base maintains its high reputation for excellence, professionalism and rigour. This consultation has been discussed at the Staffordshire University Research, Enterprise and Advanced Scholarship Committee and views are being sought to inform our institutional response.
Further information on the consultation is available at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2012/201232/. Please send through any comments to externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk.
The announcement was made by science minister David Willetts on 23 January at an industrial biotechnology event in London.
The funding will create two new schemes to develop the UK’s industrial biotechnology and bioenergy research community (including biopharmaceuticals and biorenewables) and to support the translation of new ideas into commercial applications. The new schemes form the central part of BBSRC’s strategy to support the development of industrial biotechnology and bioenergy (IBBE) as a key component of the UK bioeconomy.
Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts said: “Industrial biotechnology is a very promising area of science that could provide greener solutions for many important sectors, like manufacturing and life sciences. Through investing in research and working with industry we can harness the UK’s expertise in this area to drive growth and create jobs.”
Industrial biotechnology is the harnessing of bio-based inputs for the production of industrially useful products on a large scale. It offers novel solutions through the use of plants, bacteria, algae and fungi as non-fossil sources that will benefit many UK industry sectors including chemicals, renewable energy, materials, and health.
BBSRC’s new strategy in IBBE will support both networking activities and investment in major application-focused integrated research projects.
The first phase is a competition for Networks, aimed at both emerging and established areas of importance to IBBE. BBSRC has committed up to £15M to foster collaboration between academic researchers and business at all levels, in order to find new approaches to tackle research challenges. The Networks will work across the boundaries of biology, chemistry and engineering. They also encourage the participation of other disciplines including mathematics, computational modelling, environmental science, economics and social science.
The second phase of the strategy will be launched in 2014 with £20M to support major integrated research projects in IBBE derived from the networking activities and involving the academic and business communities.
Dr Celia Caulcott, BBSRC Director, Innovation and Skills, said: “Investing in industrial biotechnology and bioenergy research has the potential to generate significant returns. World-class research exists within the UK and these schemes will do more to achieve its full potential for industry, economic growth and society as a whole. The bioeconomy is worth trillions globally and could bring major benefits to the UK and create thousands of jobs in the coming years. These benefits offer a sustainable and ‘green’ future with more efficient manufacturing, of biopharmaceuticals for example, and a shift away from fossil fuels towards renewable foundations.’
“Through these schemes we are seeking to energise the UK industrial biotechnology and bioenergy community and to support the building of strong research networks, industry-academic collaborations and new ideas that can be funded through to the brink of commercial application. This will ensure that emerging areas of bioscience are fully integrated into the industrial biotechnology arena.”
The schemes will be live from 24 January 2013 at: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/IBnetworks
Exchange of confidential information under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (or Confidentiality Agreement)
In most standard Non-disclosure Agreements (NDAs) the clause relating to the period for which the confidences should be kept between the parties (or third parties) will refer to a definite period of time, for example 5 years.
The period for which confidences are to be kept will run from either the date of the disclosure under the agreement, or from the termination date. The period hit upon is often a matter of instruction from the client, sometimes the client places such importance on the confidential information (invention, trade secrets, design, all manner of commercially or otherwise inherently sensitive information) that they would wish the confidences to be kept, if at all possible, forever.
In the University sector, given that there is a constant commitment to wide dissemination of knowledge or information through academic publication and other channels, shorter time periods of 5 years are often agreed, in light of the fact that so much information by its very nature ends up rapidly in the public domain.
A typical clause for general commercial use, or for research agreements would read:
‘The provisions of this clause [the clause setting out the confidences that should be kept – e.g. a large category including know-how, trade secrets, operations, plans, processes, copyrights etc] shall survive any termination of this agreement for a period of 5 years from termination.’
Some NDAs refer to a window of time, in which the confidences are exchanged, for example for 1 year running from the start date of the agreement, and so the only confidential information caught in the net is that exchanged in a defined period. In such cases, you need to carefully ensure that the confidential information is also (in another clause in the agreement!) to be preserved for an unlimited time, or for the temporal period of 5 years for example.
The above issues are under current review in regard to the precedents in current use. However, simply because the product of Research or information is often aimed to be in the public domain as quickly as possible, and widely disseminated, it does not mean that there are confidences that should be kept and for long periods of time.
The European Commission Framework Programme 7: European Research Council/Ideas invites applications for the European Research Council proof-of-concept grants. Grants enable ERC-funded ideas to be brought to a pre-demonstration stage where potential commercialisation opportunities have been identified. Funds support:
•establishing viability, technical issues and overall direction;
•clarifying intellectual property rights position and strategy;
•providing feedback for budgeting and other forms of exploitation opportunity discussion;
•providing connections to later stage funding;
•covering initial expenses for establishing a company.
Applications are accepted by host institutions in association with principal investigators. All principal investigators benefiting from a recent ERC advanced or starting grant may participate and apply for ERC proof-of-concept funding. Candidate host institutions must engage the principal investigator for at least the duration of the proof-of-concept activity and must be established in a member state or an associated country. Any type of legal entity may host the principal investigator and their team. ERC actions are open to researchers of any nationality who intend to establish and conduct their research activity in any member state or associated country. Principal investigators may be of any age and nationality and may reside in any country at the time of the application. The indicative budget for this funding scheme is €10 million, to be divided equally over two rounds. Grants are worth up to €150,000 over 12 months to cover 100 per cent of eligible costs. One proof-of-concept grant will be awarded per ERC-funded project. FP7 ERC-2013-PoC.
http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/page/call_FP7?callIdentifier=ERC-2013-PoC&specificProgram=IDEAS#wlp_call_FP7
Staffordshire University has won a place on the Design Council’s Design Leadership Programme. The programme is a unique opportunity to work with the Design Council and their Design Associates, to help us use design in the Commercialisation of our research. In the process the projects have been learning valuable new skills to add to their existing capabilities. The successful projects include the Urinary Flow Assessment Monitor with Mr Khawar Hameed and Dr Abdel-Hamid Soliman, The Development of Unfired Commercial Pavers with Professor Michael Anderson and Mr John Adlen, The Development of Shear Reducing Midsoles Concept and Intelligent Footwear with Professor Nachiappan Chockalingam and Dr Roozbeh Naemi and finally the Forensic Contamination Prevention Project which involves Professor John Cassella, Ms Laura Walton, Mr Julian Partridge and Mr Rob Buurstede. The programme runs from November 2012 through to spring 2013 and over that period we will have up to 8.5 days of Jonathan Butters (Design Associate) experience.
Jonathon has kindly agreed to present at our next Enterprise Exchange Meeting on Wednesday 27th March 2013 to talk about the Design programme. The Enterprise Exchange is a quarterly meeting run by the Enterprise and Commercial Development team as a forum to share best practice and showcase projects and activity. Chaired by Dr Stuart Brown, Head of IP and Commercialisation, the group welcomes all university staff engaging in knowledge exchange activity, enterprise, applied research, consultancy and innovation to attend. If you would be interested in joining the group please contact Elizabeth Plant our Information Officer, on 01785 353851 or email e.j.plant@staffs.ac.uk
The European Commission have launched their latest round of funding to support the cooperation of higher education institutions across Europe. Erasmus Mundus is a cooperation and mobility programme that aims to enhance the quality of European higher education and to promote dialogue and understanding between people and cultures through cooperation with third countries. In addition, it contributes to the development of human resources and the international cooperation capacity of higher education institutions in third countries by increasing mobility between the European Union and these countries. Priorities for this call are for the development of Erasmus Mundus partnerships for curriculum based exchanges of staff and students and the promotion of European Higher Education.
The call deadline is 15th April 2013. Further information can be found here http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus_mundus/funding/2013/call_eacea_38_12_en.php. Please contact the External Projects Team if you are interested (externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk). Staffordshire University has prior experience of success in this funding stream and we are keen to support new applications.