Urban Europe: funding call

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Esther KNIGHT

Urban Europe invites proposals for its joint transnational call for proposals, addressing research and experimental development for creating attractive, sustainable and economically viable urban areas.

This enables researchers, practitioners, innovators and other stakeholders dedicated to the development of European urban areas to suggest international research and innovation projects. Proposals may either address governance of urban complexity or urban vulnerability, adaptability and resilience.

Consortia may include partners from universities, research organisations, institutes, city councils, SMEs, industry and stakeholder associations, and must include partners from at least three of the following countries: Austria; Belgium; Cyprus; Denmark; Italy; the Netherlands; Norway; Sweden; Turkey; the United Kingdom. Partners from third countries may participate using their own funding.

The budget for this call is €15 million. There is no minimum or maximum funding amount per project, although approximately 10 projects, with budgets in the range of €1 million to €2m, are typically expected. Projects may last for up to three years, and must commence between May and September 2014.

The ESRC has made available €2 million (£1.7million) to fund British aspects of proposals.

pre-proposal – 18 September 2013
shortlist published – November 2014
full proposal – 21 January 2014
announcement of results to main applicants – April 2014
start of projects – May-September 2014

Further information

ESRCs national agency contact – Rick Hamilton – email: cities@esrc.ac.uk

Further details:

ESRC http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/funding-opportunities/26565/urban-europes-second-pilot-joint-call18-september.aspx

And http://www.jpi-urbaneurope.eu/About/Vision_Mission

Teaching Development Grant funding announced

Posted on July 8, 2013 by ejd2

The Higher Education Academy has an open call for Teaching Development Grants. This funding is designed to support cooperation between colleagues to enhance teaching and learning activities. Up to £30,000 can be requested, match funding from us would also be expected.

Applications should relate to one on the main HEA themes: assessment and feedback, education for sustainability, employability, flexible learning, internationalisation, online learning, retention and success, reward and recognition, and students as partners.

The deadline for applications is noon on Friday 2 August. Further details: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/tdg/departmental. We expect this call to be of interest to a number of colleagues, therefore please inform us if you are considering to prevent internal competition.

Funding focusing on Research combining Design and Innovation

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Holly Hoar

The Arts and Humanities Research Council have decided to focus a chunk of their funding on design. They are particularity interested in projects which link design and innovation. This sounds like something Staffordshire University are very good at (Flux, High House), so we should be looking to get a bid in.

They want applications to be in by 3 October 2013. We can only submit a maximum of three bids, and in truth we should really be looking to submit only one, so anyone looking to apply should talk to the External Projects Team and the head of their faculty.

More details here: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Funding-Opportunities/Pages/Collaborative-Doctoral-Awards.aspx

News of funding for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP

Posted on June 28, 2013 by ejd2

This week has been an important week for preparation for the next generation of EU funding programmes for External Projects Team and also bought news of our local EU funding allocation. Our LEP has been given a notional allocation of €161.6m (£137m) of Structural Investment Funds 2014-2020, which equates to the 14^th highest allocation out of the 39 LEP’s.

The Structural Investment Funds, formerly known as the Common Strategic Framework (CSF), bring together ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), ESF (European Social Fund) the Cohesion Fund, EAFRD (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development) and the EMFF (European Maritime and Fisheries Fund). Emma Davies presented at the first Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire LEP EU Investment Strategy Working Group meeting on Monday. This group will be leading the preparation of the LEP’s Structural Investment Fund and Investment Strategy (SIFIS). It was agreed that a series of challenge groups over the summer will be run to allow stakeholders to input into prioritisation for the draft strategy required for Autumn. Further information will be circulated on how university colleagues can input into this process. Tuesday followed up with a review of the West Midlands Socio-Economic Framework, prepared by West Midlands European Service. This will form part of the evidence base for our local SIFIS.

Wednesday was the Universities UK conference Europe: at the heart of internationalisation. This conference was focussed on the opportunities and policy drivers the EU presented for internationalisation of UK HEIs, considering the Bologna Process and funding opportunities for research and teaching. It was announced at this event that the Erasmus for All programme will be changing its name to Erasmus Plus!

For further information please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk. Details of the Structural Investment Funds and the West Midlands Socio Economic Framework can be found at http://www.wmemployers.org.uk/wmescsf. Presentations from the UUK conference can be found at http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/events/Pages/EuropePresentations.aspx.

New Fund for Todays Biggest Problems

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Holly Hoar

A new fund launched recently by the Prime Minister will provide money for researchers to solve a range of issues which of importance to the public.

The prize was launched as a celebration of the 300^th anniversary since the Longitude Prize was won by watch make John Harrison with the invention of the chronometer. The invention changed ocean going navigation forever, by making it possible to work out where you were at sea even when the sun or stars we not visible.

The new prize, which will be run by NESTA, is hoping to follow in these steps by getting the public to vote for some of today’s biggest problems and then providing funding to solve them.

Further information on the prizes will be launched in the coming months www.nesta.org.uk

Reduced rate for EU funding training

Posted on June 25, 2013 by ejd2

The External Projects Team have been offered two places for a Moderngov training session on accessing European funding. The session will be held in London on 9th July. Full details of the programme are available by clicking this link http://www.moderngov.com/courses/sector-specific/accessing-european-funding-09-07-2013/. The reduced rate is £395 + VAT per delegate – please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk by 4pm Friday 28th June for details on how to secure this reduced rate. The External Projects Team will be running internal events on EU funding in the Autumn so if this course is of interest to you but you are unable to attend, please keep an eye out for further updates.

Funding opportunity for PhD students

Posted on June 17, 2013 by ejd2

The Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income countries (PEDL) programme has issued an Exploratory Grants Programme (EPG) call specifically for current PhD students. The ERG programme supports research related to private enterprise development in low-income countries which should contribute at least in part to the student’s planned doctoral dissertation. Applications in different aspects of private sector development will be encouraged. For information PEDL’s priority areas include – The dynamics of SMEs: Informality and entrepreneurship; the role of export-oriented industries in driving growth; Gender; fragile and conflict affected states; climate, environment and social compliance.

The upper limit of funding for ERG proposals is £35,000 with a deadline date of 1^st July 2013. Further information is available at http://pedl.cepr.org/content/special-exploratory-research-grant-calls.

ARMA (Association of Research Manager Administrators) Annual Conference 2013

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Josephine Beech

Jose Beech @ ARMA conference JUNE 2013

Jose Beech, External Grants Manager from the External Projects Team, led parallel session “505 The routes to funding success” on day 2 of this years National ARMA conference at Nottingham University. Margaret Bennett, External Projects Officer also attended to assist in facilitation. Over 55 people listened and participated in a interactive and insightful presentation on the barriers to successful funding and the strategies that can be implemented to encourage best practice.

The two day conference had a focus on “Strategies for Success” with 480 delegates attending daily plenary and parallel sessions. With over 2000 members ARMA has become an important voice for Research & Funding Managers, providing training, study tours and policy advice to HEFCE, BIS and RCUK.

Winner of prize draw!

Posted on June 13, 2013 by ejd2

Following the recent closure of the Research and Funding Blog survey, respondents choosing to leave their name were entered into a prize drawer for up to £200 towards their professional development. We are pleased to announce the winner is Dr Claire Gwinnett from Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Sciences. Simon Dyer from Youth Enterprise selected the winner from the draw at Wednesday’s Enterprise Exchange. We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone responding to the survey and attending the focus group yesterday. The team has had valuable feedback which we are now reviewing to inform our future blog developments.

Staffordshire University Research and Funding Blog

Tag Archives: Funding