International Exchange with China

This fund is for scientists who want to stimulate new collaborations with leading scientists in China through either a one-off visit or bilateral travel. Similar schemes are also available for Taiwan and Ireland.

Funding Body: Royal Society

Scheme: International Exchanges Scheme- China cost-share programme

Overview: This stimulates new collaborations within the natural sciences between scientists in the UK and China.

The UK applicant must apply to the Royal Society and the Chinese applicant must apply to NSFC. Both applicants must have completed a PhD or have extensive experience at an equivalent level. They must hold a permanent or fixed term contract in an eligible organisation in their respective countries. The participation of junior scientists is encouraged.

Budget: The Royal Society provides up to £12,000 for the UK team’s airfare to China and the Chinese team’s subsistence whilst in the UK. Up to £2,000 of this amount may be spent on research expenses and consumables. An additional £12,000 equivalent is available from NSFC to the Chinese team’s airfare to the UK and the UK team’s subsistence whilst in China.

Deadlines: 21 October 2014 (this call repeats annually)

Further Information: https://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/international-exchanges/

 

Royal Society priorities include

  • Promoting science and its benefits
  • Recognising excellence in science
  • Supporting outstanding science
  • Providing scientific advice for policy
  • Fostering international and global cooperation
  • Education and public engagement

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Fund an international academic to work at Staffs Uni

If you know a star academic working abroad that you would like to work at Staffordshire University for two years, this fund from the Royal Society and British Academy should be of interest.

Researchers can work in a broad range of fields including natural and social sciences and humanities.

Funding Body: Royal Society and the British Academy

Scheme: Newton International Fellowship

Overview: The Royal Society and the British Academy invite applications for the Newton international fellowship. This enables early-stage postdoctoral researchers from all over the world to work in the fields of natural and social sciences and the humanities at UK research institutions. Contact between the applicants and their UK sponsor must have been established prior to application.

Applicants must have a PhD and up to seven years of active full time postdoctoral experience. They should be working outside the UK and be competent in oral and written English. UK citizens may not apply.

Budget: The fellowship lasts for two years and provides £24,000 per year for subsistence costs, up to £8,000 per year for research expenses and a one-off payment of up to £2,000 for relocation expenses. In addition, fellows may receive up to £6,000 per year for up to 10 years following the tenure to support networking activities with UK-based researchers.

Deadlines: 10 March 2014 –This is an annual call

Further Information: http://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/newton-international/

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Funding for Staff Exchanges

The European Commission are running a final round of funding under the Marie Curie Fellowships.  They help academic staff in different countries to develop their experience, or bring new expertise to Institutions. The three types of fellowships are open to all kinds of research areas.

IIF –International Incoming Fellowships -Experienced researchers outside the EU carry out high level research in an EU institution for 2-3 years –These are useful if you know someone from outside Europe that you would like to bring to the UK to work at the University.

IEF-Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development – Experienced researchers develop a long term training plan enable them to advance significantly in their career. They go to a host organisation in Europe for 12-24 months. An interesting way for Staffordshire University to get involved with these might be if you know someone in another European country that you would like to get over to the UK.

IOF –International Outgoing Fellowships for Career Development – Experienced researchers carry out high level research in countries outside of the EU for up to three years. These projects might be of interest if you feel you wish to work in a different country for a number of years, you will need to know where you want to work.

You have until 14 August 2013 to apply.

Applicants will need a clear project idea, as the EU is looking for quite detailed bids. However, if your project idea is well defined, it is a relatively straightforward application process.

The funds do not cover University overheads. It is essentially a flat rate payment to the staff doing the exchange and flat rate payment for a management fee.

Staffordshire University has not made as much use of these funds as we could have done, we don’t have any applications in the pipeline at the moment, whereas Keele University are looking at submitting fourteen bids! The External Projects Team is able to support with bid writing, but advise that you start working it up as soon as possible, if you are interested in applying please email externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk. If you don’t think you are ready to apply for this round it is expected that similar funding opportunities will be available next year in the in new Horizon 2020 programme.

Further details: http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/about-mca/actions/index_en.htm

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Funding opportunity for PhD students

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 1st July 2013.  Further information is available at http://pedl.cepr.org/content/special-exploratory-research-grant-calls.