Tag Archives: poverty

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.

CEDEFOP tender to conduct a study on how low-educated and low-skilled workers from a low socio-economic background think about education and continuous learning.

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The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training invites proposals for a narrative of career-related and labour-market-related learning of low-skilled workers. The tenderer shall conduct a study to investigate how low-educated and low-skilled workers with a low socio-economic background think about education and continuous learning. Funding is worth up to €300,000 over 18 months.

 The study will investigate how low-educated/low-skilled workers with a low socio-economic background think about education and continuous learning. The inquiry will be based on a collection of individual narratives that should bring out attitudes, aspirations and expectations towards learning. This research on low-educated workers prone to the risk of unemployment and social exclusion intends to uncover the potential among individuals to re-engage in learning and become socially upwardly mobile. The results of the study will be used to inform Cedefop’s research agenda on the topic of how adult and work-based learning can help people to better manage careers and working-life transitions, to set the stage for future analyses, and to pave the way for policy recommendations.

 The closing date is 18th January 2013.

 http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:374347-2012:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0

 For further information, please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk

 

Joseph Rowntree Foundation Calls for Proposals

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September 2012, the JRF launched a new four-year programme to develop an anti-poverty strategy for the UK. The aim is to create a set of costed, evidence-based, anti-poverty strategies for all age groups in each of the four nations of the UK.
For the current calls for proposals, where interventions appear promising, the JRF will incorporate them into the anti-poverty strategies for the UK.  Current calls include:

Further details are at http://www.jrf.org.uk/funding, please contact externalprojects@staffs.ac.uk if you are interested.