Tag Archives: energy

Horizon 2020 Energy call: Buildings design for new highly energy performing buildings

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Energy efficiency technology demonstration in buildings and industry

By the end of 2020 (2018 for buildings occupied and owned by public authorities), all new buildings should comply with the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive obligations and thus meet ‘nearly zero-energy’ performance levels using innovative, cost-optimal technologies with integration of renewable energy sources on site or nearby. The drive for nearly zero-energy buildings takes place in the context of the drive for new-buildings towards zero life-cycle material impacts.

Projects should focus on development and demonstration of solutions which significantly reduce the cost of new buildings with at least ‘nearly zero-energy’ performance levels, whilst accelerating significantly the speed with which these buildings and their systems are taken up by the market. The focus should lie on solutions for appropriate indoor air quality and comfort, design adapted to local climate and site, passive solutions (reducing the need for technical building systems which consume energy) or active solutions (covering a high share of the energy demand with renewable energies), building energy management systems (where appropriate), highly efficient Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC, e.g. low temperature systems, solar cooling), electric and/or thermal energy storage of renewable energy onsite and nearby. Projects should also provide solutions for automated and cost-effective maintenance of the installed equipment, and assess differences between predicted and actual energy performance. Such differences should be documented and minimized.

Projects should also focus on design methods for on-site and nearby-generation of renewable energy for new buildings (electricity as well as heating and cooling generation, e.g. heat pumps, integrated photovoltaics, or other options) accompanying energy efficiency measures to achieve standards higher than those of ‘nearly zero-energy’ buildings.

Budget: 20m Euros, 3-5m Euros per project

Deadline: 4th February 2014

For further information go to: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/2366-ee-02-2015.html

 

Newton Fund: building science and innovation capacity in developing countries

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The Newton Fund is part of the UK’s official development assistance. Its aim is to develop science and innovation partnerships that promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries.

The fund is £75 million each year from 2014 for 5 years. It will be administered by The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Activities under the fund will be managed by a core group of Delivery Partners, including: the Royal Society, Royal Society of Engineering, The Royal Society of Chemistry, British Academy and The Academy of Medical Sciences, The British Council (in collaboration with the UK Higher Education International Unit), Research Councils UK (RCUK), Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and the Met Office.

The funding will be allocated in varying proportions across 15 partner countries, all of which are emerging economies. All programmes must be match funded so that partnerships are on an equal basis and must also assist with the economic development of the partner country.

Partner countries are:  Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, and Vietnam.

The fund will cover 3 broad categories of activity:

  • people: improving science and innovation expertise (ie: ‘capacity building’), student and researcher fellowships, mobility schemes and joint centres
  • programmes: research collaborations on development topics
  • translation: innovation partnerships and challenge funds to develop innovative solutions on development topics

The Newton Fund should promote the long term economic development and welfare of people in partner countries and unlock new opportunities for HEIs to contribute and build partnerships. Challenges such as the alleviation of poverty, improvement of energy and water quality, as well as innumerable other social, environmental and cultural benefits which could ultimately lead to increasing the economic growth of partner countries as well as the UK should be addressed.

Calls are likely to be opened at different times according to the country and the programme area. For all current research calls go to:

Multi-country calls  No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for Brazil The joint Research Councils UK-CONFAP research partnerships call opened on 4 August. The application form and guidance for applicants will be available from 18 August 2014. The deadline for applications is 17 October at 16:00 UK time.

Calls for Chile Newton-Picarte fund No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for UK-China Research and Innovation Partnership Fund Ten calls now open with the Met Office as the delivery partner. Deadlines: 1 September 2014 & 27 February 2015.

Calls for Colombia Newton-Caldas Fund No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for Egypt No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for India Two calls for India’s Newton-Bhabha fund are now open, with more expected shortly.

  • DBT-MRC Joint Centre Partnerships (Deadline: 29 September at 16:00)
  • Joint Global Research Programme: Women’s and children’s health (Deadline: 21 October at 16:00)

Calls for Indonesia No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for Kazakhstan Newton-Al Farabi Partnership Programme No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for Malaysia No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for Mexico No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for Philippines No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for South Africa No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for Thailand No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for Turkey No calls are open at the moment.

Calls for Vietnam No calls are open at the moment.

Newton Fund programme descriptions

For regular updates on the fund visit the HE International Unit website

Full details can be found on the UK government website

For further information, contact the External Projects Team.

Valuing Natural Capital in Low Carbon Energy Pathways – Consortia Awards

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NERC invites proposals to the new research programme Valuing Natural Capital in Low Carbon Energy Pathways (VNC).

Proposals should form a challenge for phase 3 of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) and should also include links to the new NERC Valuing Nature programme.

This call is for consortium projects (minimum of three research organisations) of up to £1·9m (80% FEC). Projects should be five years in duration and should start no later than March 2015. It is expected that one multidisciplinary consortium project will be funded, with four or five associated PhD studentships that should start in October 2015.

The main aim of this research programme is to understand the implications for natural capital and the provision of ecosystem services of a range of future energy scenarios, including scenarios that are compatible with the UK’s energy policy goals of maintaining energy security, keeping energy affordable and cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.

Closing date for proposals: 2 October 2014

For further information go to: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/funded/programmes/valuingnaturalcapital/news/ao/

Engineering Grand Challenges: expression of interest to attend a workshop

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EPSRC - Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council 

Following the successful 2013 Global Grand Challenges London Summit, organised by the Royal Academy of Engineering, EPSRC set out to identify Engineering Grand Challenges.

Seven areas have been identified as potential Engineering Grand Challenges:

  • Risk and Resilience in a Connected World
  • Controlling Cell Behaviour
  • Engineering from Atoms to Applications
  • Bespoke Engineering
  • Big Data for Engineering Futures
  • Suprastructures – integrating resource infrastructures under constraint
  • Engineers at the Heart of Public Decision Making.

Three workshops will be run in the Autumn to:

  1. Engage the research and user community to identify clear targets or milestones for each of the selected Grand Challenges areas
  2. Start the process of building collaborations and/or consortia as appropriate
  3. Build advocacy for the Engineering Grand Challenges, particularly as EPSRC, working with its partners in academia, industry and government, is looking to build the case for Engineering and Physical Sciences ahead of the next spending review

EPSRC would like to invite a diverse cross-section of the research community to attend workshops planned for November 2014. If you’d like to be considered to attend one of the workshops please fill in the survey and return it to EPSRC by 15th September 2014.

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/engineeringgrandchallenge/

For further information go to:

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/pubs/engineering-grand-challenges/

If you have any queries email:

engineeringgrandchallenges@epsrc.ac.uk

 

EPSRC Energy Programme

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EPSRC, as part of its contribution to the RCUK Energy Programme, invites proposals for collaborative research projects to undertake fundamental research to tackle challenges in Conventional Power Generation. An indicative budget of up to £3M is available from EPSRC for this call. Cross-institutional bids are welcome, but there must be a single submission for each application, led by a single principal investigator, with only one proposal form.

The remit of this call is derived from the outputs of a scoping workshop which was held on 15 April 2014. We invite proposals in the areas of:

  • Step change technologies and materials for future plant design
  • Integration of conventional plants with future technologies

Anyone intending to submit a proposal to this call must register their interest by email to Laura Sewell by 16 June 2014.

 

 

 

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 EU Energy Focus, the National Contact Point for Energy in Horizon 2020, and the Energy Generation and Supply Knowledge Transfer Network are arranging a series of webinars on the topics covered by the draft Horizon 2020 Work Programme for 2014. It is hoped that 2014 work programmes will be published on 11th December, so for an early insight colleagues are advised to join these webinars or visit the site afterwards to listen to the recordings for more detail about the funding available.

Low carbon energy – 20th November at 2:30pm: Research and demonstration for grids, storage, biofuels, CCS plus market uptake www.eventsforce.net/h2020-6

Smart Cities and Communities – 22nd November 12.30pm  www.eventsforce.net/h2020-7

 

European Environment Agency report published

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 “Towards Green Economy” is a recent report which gives a detailed overview of the key objectives and targets in EU environmental policy and legislation for the period 2010-…2050.  It may provide a good reference point for environmentally based research or business support activities colleagues are involved in.
The report covers the following policy areas:
  • Energy
  • Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and ozone-depleting substances
  • Air quality and air pollution
  • Transport sector emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants
  • Waste
  • Water
  • Sustainable consumption and production (SCP)
  • Chemicals
  • Biodiversity and land use

The report identifies over 130 targets, with binding targets in the areas of energy, air pollution, transport emissions and waste. 

Further information: http://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/an-overview-of-eu-environment

Household Solutions to Managing Energy Supply

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NESTA has launched a fund which may be of interest to researchers involved in measuring energy usage. The funding hopes to shift electricity demand to off peak times or make better use of renewable energy generation.

They are keen to see projects that are innovative. If you are awarded the funding you need the capacity to build a prototype or service blue print for your idea.

Funding Body: NESTA
Scheme: Dynamic Demand Challenge Prize
Overview: This competition aims to create a new product, technology or service that uses data to significantly improve the ability of households or small businesses to demonstrate measurable reduction in carbon emissions by shifting energy demand to off-peak times or towards excess renewable generation. Solutions should have commercial market potential.
The competition is open to anyone in the EU. SMEs, charities, NGOs, community groups, developers, engineers, students and sustainability and energy professionals are encouraged to apply. Applicants may submit up to three entries. The prize is worth £50,000.
Deadlines: 9 September 2013
Further Information: http://dynamicdemand.nesta.org.uk

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5 NEW EPSRC Calls for Proposals inc Digital Economy & Energy

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New Economic Models in the digital economy 2

 Invitation for outlines: RCUK Digital Economy theme invitation proposal for cross-disciplinary packages consisting of research and people-based activities to develop and strengthen the engagement between research communities in digital economy, economics and management.

 Closing Date: 28-06-2013

 http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/neweconomicmodels.aspx

 Adoption of ICT to improve security and trust in the UK food chain

 Call for participants: A two-day Residential workshop will explore best practice from around the UK and beyond and strive to identify tools and ICT systems that can be harnessed to improve food product security, traceability, nutritional benefits and consumer confidence.

Closing Date: 01-09-2013

 http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/foodsecurityimprovements.aspx

Call for Secondments between academic and industrial, commercial or governmental research groups

 Expression of interest: The IT as a Utility Network+ is offering funding to support secondments between academic and industrial, commercial or governmental research groups (in either direction) that will help grow the ITaaU Network+ and the RCUK Digital Economy Theme.

 Closing Date: 31-10-2013

 http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/itaaunetworksecondment.aspx

 Call for Expression of Interest for ITaaU Network Plus Pilot Studies

 Expression of interest: The IT as a Utility network has issued a second call for Pilot Projects. Up to two projects, aiming for a wide coverage of the challenge area are available.

 Closing Date: 07-06-2013

 http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/itaaunetworkpluspilotstudies.aspx

EPSRC-NSFC call for collaborative research with China on Grid Scale Energy Storage for Intermittency

 Invitation for proposals: EPSRC, as part of the RCUK Energy Programme, wishes to develop collaborative projects between the UK and China, in partnership with the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), in the field of ‘Grid Scale Storage for Intermittency’.

 Closing Date: 02-07-2013

 http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/2013/Pages/gridscaleenergystorage.aspx

Intelligent Energy Europe Funding Announced

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The Intelligent Energy Europe programme has launched a call for proposals.  This funding stream supports projects designed to:

  • Promote energy efficiency and encourage the rational use of energy sources
  • Increase the use of new and renewable energy sources as well as encouraging energy diversification
  • Stimulate energy efficiency and renewables in the field of transport

The next call has €65 million available with a deadline of May 8th.  For further details on the call priorities and help in exploring opportunities please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk.  There is a Brussels based information day on the 23rd January followed by a networking partner brokerage event on the 24th January.  We have Staffordshire University representation at this event so if you would like to express an interest please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk. 

The official call information is available at http://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/getting-funds/call-for-proposals/how-to-apply/index_en.htm.