Tag Archives: innovation

Design in innovation: research development funding

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The AHRC is very interested in design innovation at the moment. This fund looks is particularly interesting because it supports speculative research.

Funding Body: AHRC

Scheme: Design in innovation: research development funding

Overview: This call is aimed at enabling groups of researchers, including academics, design practitioners, businesses and any other relevant non-academic organisations or individuals, to hold exploratory workshops, networking and collaborative activities, or conduct original research reviews, scoping studies or capacity building activities focusing on design in innovation.

The following areas were identified as being in particular need of academic investigation:

•the role of design in service innovation;

•the role of design in the innovation ecosystem;

•providing evidence of the impact of design.

Awards should last for a maximum of six months and should be completed by the end of October 2014.

Budget: Funding of up to £50,000 is available on full economic costs basis with the AHRC meeting 80% of the FEC

Deadlines: 31 October 2013

Further Information: http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Funding-Opportunities/Pages/Design-in-Innovation-Research-Development-Funding.aspx

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Royal Society Industry Fellowships

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The Royal Society, in collaboration with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, Rolls-Royce and BP, invites applications for its industry fellowships.

This scheme is for academic scientists who want to work on a collaborative project with industry and for scientists in industry who want to work on a collaborative project with an academic organisation with a university department or a not-for-profit research organisation.

It aims to enhance knowledge transfer in science and technology between those in industry and those in academia in the UK. It is anticipated that fellows will establish personal and corporate links between the two sectors in the UK as a foundation for their long-term future development.

The scheme provides the applicant’s basic salary while on secondment. The employing organisation continue to pay national insurance and pension contributions. Research expenses may be claimed up to the value of £2,000 per year.

All natural sciences, including agriculture, mathematics, biotechnology, environmental research, medical and engineering sciences, are eligible. Projects at any stage from fundamental science to industrial innovation will be supported.

Applications involving spin-offs or small companies are encouraged.

Awards can be for any period up to two years full time or four years pro rata.

Closing date 16 Oct 13 (Forecast)

For further information go to: http://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/industry-fellowship/

Funding focusing on Research combining Design and Innovation

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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

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Frost & Sullivan: These are the New Mega Trends that will Shape a Future Britain

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Frost & Sullivan: These are the New Mega Trends that will Shape a Future Britain

Exclusive analysis launched during Frost & Sullivan’s Growth, Innovation and Leadership (GIL) congress GIL 2013: Europe in London

LONDON – 10 April, 2013  In the future 81 % of us in the UK will be living in urban areas, there will be 200 million connected devices and one in four British citizens will be shopping online – the highest number in the world, per capita. The over 65s will represent one fifth of the population, becoming one of the largest consumer groups with increasing healthcare needs. The country’s South East region will grow to become the second largest region after London, accounting for 15.3 % of total GDP. This is how the UK will look like in 2025 in an exclusive analysis by Frost & Sullivan titled ‘New Mega Trends in the UK’.

In this new analysis Frost & Sullivan details and analyses 12 New Mega Trends that will drive growth and innovation in the UK. “These are new areas of growth in key industries that will help economic development, boost private sector investment and promote partnerships with overseas companies,” explains Frost & Sullivan Partner Sarwant Singh.

One of the most interesting and important Mega Trends in the UK will be Connectivity and Convergence. The UK will have 200 million connected devices (six for every household) by 2020 which means that the country is on the path to becoming a digital economy with new business models and digital innovation hubs. One of the major industries that has benefited from the proliferation of digital devices is retail. Retail in the UK is transitioning from brick and mortar supermarkets to virtual stores and online hypermarkets – merging both bricks and clicks.

The Bricks and Clicks Mega Trend is influencing most British retailers to transition from having a single/multiple channel to an integrated cross-channel model, merging physical and virtual forms of retailing. The UK will have the largest online retail penetration in the world as 26 % of all retail sales will be online by 2025. Over 80 % of entertainment products will be sold online by 2025. New retailing business models in the UK have also opened up new commercial opportunities for allied industries such as logistics. We are witnessing the introduction of innovative last mile options such as click and collect, addressing challenges associated with making urban deliveries, given the Mega Trend of Urbanization in Britain.

The UK will follow the global pattern of cities – not countries – driving wealth creation in the future. As mentioned, around 81 % of the total population in UK will live in urban centres. London accounted for 20 % of UK’s GDP in 2011 and could contribute about 25 % in 2020.  This rapid rate of urbanization will compel companies to target cities as their growth markets, with most UK cities also expected to become the micro manufacturing hubs or digital hubs of the country by 2025. Urbanization will also influence companies to become more rational and optimal in their operations, creating a new ‘smarter’ UK.

Smart is the new green. This Mega Trend will see smart initiatives replacing green concepts in many parts of the UK. For example, smart technology will find its way into most homes, with nearly five million broadband homes expected to have at least one smart home system by 2017, generating £1 billion in digital revenues. Smart Mobility will save millions of pounds from reduced congestion as more door-to-door integrated mobility solutions are introduced. A key aspect of dispensing any smart initiative would centre on smart grids which are expected to increase energy efficiency by 30 %. Nearly 43 million Smart Meters are expected to be installed in 30 million UK homes by 2019 generating £14 billion to Britain by 2020.

The study also reveals many Social Trends. For example, one out of five people in the UK will be aged over 65 by 2020. The 65+ group is expected to contribute £77 billion to the British economy by 2030 (from £42 billion in 2011), with spending power to increase to £130 billion in 2030 (£78 billion in 2011). Future opportunities from Social Trends include new services and solutions in Healthcare, and neighbourhoods for aging citizens with new technologies such as robotic care for the elderly. Health, Wellness and Wellbeing in fact would become a key Mega Trend for the UK as preventive care becomes more important and relevant to its aging society. The future of Healthcare will be focussed more on wellness and well-being that define mind, body and soul.  This will create new opportunities in e-health, regenerative medicine, personalized medicine, health kiosks, tissue engineering, nutraceuticals, healthcare tourism, cybernetics, and non-invasive surgery.

With multiple growth opportunities, the UK is undoubtedly at one of its most crucial development stages of this decade. In addition to identifying these Mega Trends, Frost & Sullivan also provides insights on the implications of these trends on the UK through its Macro to Micro analysis. The ‘Macro to Micro’ scenario analysis carried out by Frost & Sullivan presents the micro impact of each Mega Trend on a business and helps design the company’s future strategy for product and technology planning in Britain. Urbanization, for example, at the micro level, creates many investment opportunities in smart infrastructure and new market / business opportunities for innovative products targeting urban households.

To know more about ‘New Mega Trends in the UK to help shape you’re Research Strategies then please contact Naomi Arblaster n.arblaster@staffs.ac.uk

 

Final Eco-Innovation Call Launched

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The European Commission has launched the final call for the Eco-Innovation Fund. This is not a brilliant fund as it only covers 50% of costs. But could be worth looking into if work is already being developed around this theme.

 Funding body: European Commission

Scheme: Eco-Innovation

Overview: The Eco-Innovation initiative is designed to support projects on the first application or market replication of eco-innovative techniques, products, services or practices which have already been technically demonstrated with success but which, owing to residual risk, have not yet entered the market.

The priorities for this year’s call are:

•           Materials Recycling;

•           Sustainable Building Products;

•           Food and Drink Sector;

•           Water; and

•           Greening businesses.

Deadlines: 05/09/2013

Budget: Grants for successful projects cover up to 50% of the eligible project costs, and this call has a total budget of €31 million.

Website: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eco-innovation/apply-funds/call-proposal/index_en.htm

 An Information Day on the 2013 call is also taking place in Brussels on Monday 27 May. Registration can be done via the web page above.

NESTA’s new Social Innovation Fund

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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

 

Looking to promote your work?

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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/).

EU Prize for Women Innovators

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The European Commission has launched the second edition of the EU Women Innovators Prize to reward three women who have achieved outstanding innovations and brought them to market. The Prize aims to raise awareness of the need for more female entrepreneurs and to inspire other women to follow in their footsteps.

 

The contest is open to all women who have founded or co-founded their company and who have at some point in their careers benefitted from the EU’s research Framework Programmes (FP) or the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP).
 
Three prizes will be awarded in total:

  • First prize: EUR 100,000;
  • Second prize: EUR 50,000; and
  • Third prize: EUR 25,000

An independent panel of judges from business and academia will examine and select the three winners who will be announced in spring 2014. Full details of the eligibility and evaluation criteria are available through the competition website, which is indicated below.
 
The deadline for applications is 15 October 2013.

The winners of the previous edition of the Prize were:

  • Dr. Gitte Neubauer (Co-founder and Vice-President for Research Operations of CELLZOME – recently acquired by GlaxoSmithKline) whose groundbreaking research into chemo-proteomics is driving her company’s work on new, better targeted drugs against inflammatory diseases and cancer;
  • Fabienne Hermitte (Co-founder IPSOGEN, Senior director, Research and Development – Regulatory Affairs) whose work made her company a pioneer in personalised healthcare diagnostics, which allow more individualised treatments for cancer patients; and
  • Ilaria Rosso (Co-founder ELECTRO POWER SYSTEMS, Vice- President of IP Policy and Public Funding Programmes) whose company developed the first self-recharging hydrogen fuel cell system for backup power – a clean, renewable alternative to lead-acid batteries and diesel generators.

The following conditions need to be fulfilled:

  1. The contestant must be a woman.
  2. The contestant must be a resident of an EU Member State or a Countries Associated to the Research Framework Programmes
  3. The contestant must be the founder or co-founder of an existing and active company.
  4. The company has been registered before 1 January 2011.
  5. The annual turnover of the company was at least EUR 0.10 million in 2011 or 2012.
  6. Either the contestant as a natural person or the company founded/co-founded by the contestant have received or is receiving funding from the European Union or the European Atomic Energy Community Research Framework Programme, or from the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP).

Full details:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/index_en.cfm?section=women-innovators

Reports on the State of the Innovation Union and UK Innovation Performance

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The European Commission has published a report entitled “State of the Innovation Union 2012”. This provides a summary of progress made at national and EU level towards achieving the goals of the Innovation Union flagship initiative, which is the EU policy framework governing research and innovation until 2020.

The Commission has also published series of separate shorter reports on individual EU countries’ research and innovation and performance, including the UK.

State of the Innovation Union report

The report was published alongside the 2013 Innovation Union scoreboard, on which UKRO reported last week (see the article indicated below). The report’s findings are grouped into the five key parts of the Innovation Union initiative, which are:

  • strengthening the knowledge base and reducing fragmentation;
  • getting good ideas to market;
  • European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs);
  • maximising social and territorial cohesion; and
  • leveraging policies externally.

The first section includes analysis of the progress made during 2012 on delivering the European Research Area (ERA), and on focusing EU research funding on Innovation Union priorities. On the former issue, the report states that the conditions are not yet in place for achieving the ERA by 2014 (one of the key goals of the Innovation Union). However the Commission’s Communication on the ERA Framework issued in July 2012, and the work required of EU Member States and the Commission to put in place its recommendations, should enable significant progress to be made during 2013.

On focusing EU funding programmes on Innovation Union, the report states that: “In line with the ambition set out in the Innovation Union, Horizon 2020 marks an important break from the past, with funding having a more challenged-based approach, simpler rules for participants, and more effective delivery of results”. This section of the report also analyses the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) with respect to the Innovation Union priorities.

Report on UK research and innovation performance
The report on UK performance in research and innovation, which analyses the progress made towards achieving the Innovation Union goals, includes sections on:

  • the UK’s scientific and technological strengths;
  • investments in knowledge;
  • policies and reforms on research and innovation;
  • economic impact of innovation;
  • upgrading the manufacturing sector through research and technologies; and
  • global competitiveness.

The summary includes the following analysis:

  • “The UK shows overall innovation performance above the EU average. There are particular strengths in human resources, venture capital, international and public-private co-publications, and entrepreneurship…. The presence of several world-class universities, a significant proportion of young doctoral graduates, and competitive strengths in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and digital technologies have helped achieve this strong performance. However, there are relative weaknesses in research and innovation investments by firms, the creation of intellectual assets, and SMEs introducing innovations. The UK economy has several distinctive characteristics that represent actual or potential sources of competitive advantage in the innovation sphere, including a world-leading science base and information infrastructure”.

The full report on the UK is here.

http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation-union/pdf/state-of-the-union/2012/countries/united_kingdom_2013.pdf#view=fit&pagemode=none

Innovation, Internationalisation and Sustainable Growth

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Join ECD and partners in sharing valuable lessons to influence and improve performance in areas of Innovation, Internationalisation and Sustainable Growth.

On 23rd April there is an event at Birmingham Science Park to mark the success of the District+ Programme and support delegates in making the most of ongoing funding and business opportunities in Europe.

Further information is available on the flyer here: Innovation Internationalisation Sustainable Growth.  The following link has registration information: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/5865203983#.

If you are interested in this event but unable to attend please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk who can provide feedback.