Month: April 2018

Funding Roundup – April 2018

BBSRC New Investigator Scheme, Deadline: 24 April 2018

See: https://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/filter/new-investigator/

 

BBSRC Industrial partnership awards

These support academic-led research projects and where industrial partners contribute in cash funding. The industry partners must contribute in cash at least equivalent to 10 per cent of the full project costs. Deadline: 24 April 2018

See: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/filter/industrial-partnership-awards/

 

BBSRC Stand-alone LINK programme, Deadline: 24 April 2018

This supports pre-competitive research projects including the collaboration between at least one company and one academic partner. Grants are worth up to £400,000.

See: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/filter/stand-alone-link/

 

BBSRC-Brazil (FAPESP) joint funding of research, Deadline: 24 April 2018

See: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/filter/fapesp-joint-funding-research/

 

INNOVATE: Innovation loans: manufacturing and materials readiness, Deadline: 25 April 2018

See: https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/116/overview

 

CBMNet Undergraduate Vacation Scholarship, Deadline: 27 April 2018

Up to £2350now available. See: http://www.cbmnetnibb.net/

 

Universal Biotech Innovation Prize, Deadline: 30 April 2018

 The Innovation Prize aims to promote innovation in the field of Life Sciences. The most innovative projects in the field of biotech, medtech and digitech will be awarded with a grant and a year of consulting services offered by Universal Biotech, with a combined value of €30,000.

See: www.universal-biotech-prize.com

 

Open Sector Competition

Deadline: 9 May 2018

UK businesses can apply for a share of £19 million for game-changing innovations with strong commercial potential that will significantly impact the UK economy. Projects should aim to lead to new products, processes or services (or novel use of existing ones) believed to be significantly ahead of anything similar available in the field. Proposals can come from any technology and any part of the economy. See: https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/120/overview

 

The 2018 #NewtonPrize call is now open, centring on partnerships in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. Start your application today! **Call closes 25 May** http://www.newtonfund.ac.uk/newtonprize/ 

 

Innovation Loans: April 2018 Open Competition, Deadline:6 June 2018

Innovate UK is to offer up to £10 million in loans to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Loans are for highly innovative late stage projects with the best game changing and/or disruptive ideas or concepts. There should be a clear route to commercialisation and economic impact. Your proposal can come from any technology (including arts, design, media or creative industries) and any part of the economy. See: https://apply-for-innovation-funding.service.gov.uk/competition/120/overview .

 

UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships scheme, Deadline: 7 June 2018

The Future Leaders Fellowship scheme (FLF) aims to develop, retain, attract and sustain research and innovation talent in the UK. Providing up to seven years of funding, for at least 550 early-career researchers and innovators, the scheme will tackle difficult and novel challenges. See: https://bbsrc.ukri.org/funding/filter/future-leader-fellowship/

 

H2020 2018-2020 Work Programme

See: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/news/horizon-2020-work-programme-2018-2020

For example – CE-BIOTEC-04-2018: New biotechnologies for environmental remediation

Scope: Proposals should include research and innovation for efficient and low cost remediation strategies using microorganisms by means of (bio-)electrochemical systems, or alternate systems that require minimum or zero external energy or chemicals. This topic is part of the EU-China flagship initiative on Biotechnology for Environment and Human Health, which will promote substantial coordinated and balanced research and innovation cooperation between the EU and China. Proposals requesting a contribution from the EU up to €5M would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately.

 

Bridging for Innovators (B4I), Deadline: March 2021

Bridging for Innovators (B4I) is a programme run by Science Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to support UK industry. It is designed specifically to help companies overcome difficult product, manufacturing or process performance issues by leveraging more than £2b worth of government investment in large scale scientific infrastructure. See: https://stfc.ukri.org/funding/research-grants/funding-opportunities/closing-calls/bridging-for-innovators-funding-programme/

FUNDING CALL: Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy in the Developing World

BBSRC has launched a call for proposals titled ‘Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy in the Developing World’ which may be of interest to our Network members.

 

The call is up to £5 million and aims to support a number of collaborative research projects addressing challenges relating to industrial biotechnology and bioenergy in the developing world.

 

This call will develop the potential to utilise different biogenic feedstocks (for example crop residues) for the purpose of generating multiple (valuable) products (for example energy, pharmaceutical/ chemical precursors and clean water) in a sustainable way using biotechnologies to help support economic and welfare activities in the developing world.

 

The call is funded from the UK government’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). As well as being scientifically excellent, research supported under it must meet the criteria for classification of expenditure as Official Development Assistance (ODA).

 

Funds can be requested for up to three years and projects must be completed by 1 February 2022. Applications must not exceed a maximum of £2 million (at 100% of their full economic cost).

 

Applications must be submitted via the Je-S system by 6 June 2018, 16:00

 

Further information can be found on the BBSRC webpage here:

https://bbsrc.ukri.org/funding/filter/industrial-biotechnology-bioenergy-in-the-developing-world/

Don’t Miss the 7th LCEDN Conference: 30 May to 1st Jun, Holywell Park, Loughborough

Registration is here.

The 7th LCEDN conference is intended to harness involvement of the LCEDN with the UK government Department for International Development’s Transforming Energy Access (TEA) programme by opening the research theme up to the low carbon transition/energy access community. The focus of this conference will be to examine what is meant and intended by the word ‘transformation’, used in the widest sense – all transformative aspects of energy for development are open to consideration.

The conference will be run in collaboration with the TEA Research Partnership Development Consortium (RPDC) with the intention of showcasing and feeding into the consultations with RPDC partners from across the world; it therefore represents a fantastic opportunity for LCEDN members to better understand the TEA programme and contribute to it.

The daily programme will begin with two plenary sessions on Transforming Energy Access (Wednesday 30th) and Innovation and Technology Development (Thursday 31st) and the Friday (1st) will begin with an Under the Grid plenary which we will be combining with an online webinar run by our colleagues at Smart Villages.

There will also be a series of break-out sessions on themes integral to energy transformation, such as Waste; Planning and Energy Access; Community Resilience (ecology, migration etc.); Value Chains (local manufacturing, mineral extraction, assembly etc.); Innovative Finance; Transdisciplinarity in energy research (publishing, working practices, career development etc.) and Energy Justice Revisited (taking forward some of the debates from the last conference).

In addition there will be an Energy Catalyst Companies Showcase and a session on Innovative Businesses and Community Projects From the Global South and we are particularly interested in getting entrepreneurs and commercial actors (from large, medium or small businesses) to attend the whole conference to interact with the research/NGO/policy community to better inform us of their research needs. The LCEDN is particularly anxious to attract entrepreneurs from the Global South to explain their projects, products and needs.

Lastly, there will as usual be plenty of opportunity to discuss the future direction of the LCEDN and since we expect a good blend of people from the NGO, commercial and policy sector (especially our colleagues in DfID) this conference will be a fantastic opportunity to network discuss your current and future involvement in low carbon energy transitions in a friendly and exciting environment.

 

Invitation to take part in research project: Utilisation of energy crops from contaminated land

Background

The Supergen Bioenergy Hub’s current research project focuses on evaluating the full value chain where biomass is grown on contaminated land, is pretreated and then converted to bioenergy, including the assessment of the environmental, economic and social impacts of this strategy.

We invite you take part in this research by completing a questionnaire to help us better understand current knowledge, practices and perceptions of the use of contaminated lands and to define the sustainability aspects of land remediation and energy recovery from biomass grown on such sites.

You are invited to participate in this research because of your expertise in the field of energy, environment and land use.

Questionnaire

Please click here to proceed to the questionnaire or copy the web address into your browser https://goo.gl/forms/9c7sMoq9cLCRW2Ht1. Completing the online questionnaire will take approx. 20 minutes.

If you would like to contribute beyond this questionnaire or have any questions, please contact mirjam.roeder@manchester.ac.uk. Please feel free to circulate the questionnaire to colleagues working in this field.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer this questionnaire and supporting the Supergen Bioenergy Hub.

Plant Powered (MFC) Camera Trap Challenge – 10K on offer, deadline 30 Apr 18

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the Arribada Initiative and OpenPlant have launched a competition for designing and prototyping a plant-MFC (microbial fuel cell) system able to power camera trap in remote locations.

All the details are available in this link: https://www.wildlabs.net/plant-powered-camera-trap-challenge

Take up the challenge – there is £10k on offer. Deadline 30 Apr 18.

£5 million project to develop the bioeconomy across Yorkshire, Humber and Tees Valley

The THYME project will build on the existing expertise and innovation in the region in a new collaboration between the Universities of York, Hull and Teesside. Those involved in the three year project say the funding will boost the region’s economy, create jobs and deliver major environmental benefits. In partnership with regional industry, Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and the wider community, the THYME project (Teesside, Hull and York – Mobilising Bioeconomy Knowledge Exchange ) has three key themes:

  • Transform:Produce high-value products from bio-based wastes and by-products
  • Convert: Re-purpose industrial sites for bio-based manufacturing
  • Grow: Increase productivity by reducing waste and energy use, adding value to by-products and developing better products using industrial biotechnology.

 

The full press release can be read on the University of York website