Category: BBSRC

BBSRC Innovator of the Year 2019 Award: applications open now

Do you know a brilliant BBSRC-funded researcher that deserves recognition? Innovator of the Year is once again ready to recognise and reward impact from BBSRC’s research portfolio, from commercial success to influence on public policy, from breakthrough inventions to innovative solutions to global problems.

BBSRC relies on recommendations to highlight excellent researchers and encourage them to apply – either directly or by recommending them through our website. We encourage everyone to apply, from early-career researchers who are demonstrating promising impact to experienced academics with a lifetime’s work to celebrate.

Winners of each of the four categories – Commercial Impact, Social Impact, International Impact and Early Career Impact – will receive a £10,000 award, with a further £10,000 for the BBSRC Innovator of the Year winner. Awards will be presented at a high-profile event in London in May 2019.

Further information and links to the application and recommendation forms can be found on our website: http://bbsrc.ukri.org/innovator

The application deadline is 30th January 2019

BBSRC Funding – Apply now

We would like to draw your attention to the following BBSRC funding opportunities:

  1. BBSRC Follow-on Funding call – Deadline 10 Oct 18 – funding to help bridge the gap between BBSRC-funded research and its translation into practical application, including commercialisation. See https://bbsrc.ukri.org/funding/filter/follow-on/
  2. 18ALERT: Mid-Range Equipment Initiative – Deadline 25 Oct 18 – aims to enhance the capability of the UK research base in areas of the BBSRC’s remit through the purchase of mid-range equipment (over £200K incl. VAT). Equipment should benefit researchers in one or more institutions for deployment on a multi-project, multi-use basis. See https://bbsrc.ukri.org/funding/filter/2018-alert-mid-range-equipment-initiative/
  3. International Flexible Interchange Programme (I-FLIP) – Deadline 16 Oct 18 – for international exchanges of up to 12 months’ duration between UK and organisations that operate within countries on the DAC list. See https://bbsrc.ukri.org/funding/filter/2018-international-flexible-interchange-programme/
  4. Enterprise Fellowships – Deadline 31 Oct 18 – designed to encourage the development of a new business, building on previously funded BBSRC research to enable the recipient to concentrate on developing the commercial potential of the research. See https://bbsrc.ukri.org/funding/filter/enterprise-fellowships/

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/

Funding Roundup – Jan 18

This roundup include Research Council, Innovate and EU funding, regional funding, NIBB Network funding and some miscellaneous funding opportunities, as well.

Research Council, Innovate and European Funding

Networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (BBSRC NIBB) Phase II

Community meeting: 17.01.18.

Expression of interest deadline: 24.01.18 at 16:00

BBSRC, in association with EPSRC, has announced a call of up to £10 million to fund a second phase of Networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (BBSRC NIBB). They intend to fund a number of Networks, of varying scales, focusing on a broad range of fundamental and strategic challenges and questions facing the IBBE area. Networks will operate for up to 5 years and are expected to become self-sustaining beyond this.

See: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/filter/networks-in-industrial-biotechnology-bioenergy-phase2 .

 

INNOVATE: Open sector competition round 4

Innovate UK’s competition is open to the best business-led cutting-edge or disruptive ideas or concepts with a view to commercialisation. Total eligible project costs must be within the range £25,000 to £1,000,000. Projects may last between 6 and 36 months.

Deadline: 28th February 2018

KTN will be hosting briefing events for Innovate UK’s January 2018 sector competition for Health & Life Sciences and Emerging & enabling Technologies. Deadline: 28th March 2018.

Innovate UK is to invest up to £19 million to support innovation that offers significant changes in productivity and cutting-edge innovation. The competition has 2 strands, strand 1 is for health and life sciences projects and strand 2 is for emerging and enabling technologies projects. A further £12 million is available to fund Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs).

See: www.ktn-uk.co.uk/news/register-now-for-the-briefing-events-for-the-january-2018-sector-competition-for-health-life-sciences-and-emerging-enabling-technologies .

All projects must involve at least one SME, working alone or in collaboration with other organisations. Projects with costs over £100,000 must be collaborative and include a funded partner.  The competition will open on the 22nd January and you must apply before 28th March.  Further details about the scope of the competition will be available shortly.

KTN will be hosting a series of briefing events for the competition throughout January and February.  More information is available below regarding the strands and the briefing events.

 

Science Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Bridging for Innovators (B4I) is a programme to support UK industry in improving productivity . It started in 2017 and will end in March 2021.

See: www.stfc.ac.uk/funding/research-grants/funding-opportunities/closing-calls/bridging-for-innovators-funding-programme/ .

 

ESRC: GCRF New models of sustainable development: Transitions towards sustainable and inclusive societies

See: www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/funding-opportunities/gcrf-new-models-of-sustainable-development/ .

 

NERC Large Grants call

Grants range between £1.2 million and £3.7m at 100 per cent full economic cost, with a duration of up to five years. Deadline 13th March 2018

See: www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/available/researchgrants/large/ .

 

Horizon 2020 Calls

Horizon 2020 is the EU’s €77 billion research and innovation funding scheme running from 2014 to 2020. BEIS has further clarified Horizon 2020 underwrite for UK participants.

  • Blue Growth – aims at sustainably harvesting the potential of resources from seas, oceans and inland waters for different uses and across the range of marine and maritime industries.

Deadline: 13th February 2018

  • Eurostars – Open to all projects in all technology areas and market fields, but projects must have a civilian purpose.

Deadline:  1st March 2018

  • Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for sustainable and competitive agriculture, forestry, agri-food and bio-based sectors – SMEs can play a crucial role in developing resource-efficient and cost-effective solutions to secure sufficient supplies of safe, healthy and high quality food and other bio-based products. Various deadlines.

Regional Funding

Bristol Sustainable Energy Research Fund

There is a fund of £10K available to support researchers wishing to investigate or evaluate the relationship between people and energy. Research should produce insight that contributes to the development of a more sustainable, equitable and democratically accountable energy system in the South West of England. Unusually this is not limited to academic applicants provided there is a demonstrable publication history. Closing date: 31st January 2018. See: www.bserf.org.uk/guidance-for-applicants .

BDC ERDF Funding for bio-based innovation

The Biorenewables Development Centre (BDC) has secured further ERDF funding to help Yorkshire businesses grow through bio-based innovations. The BDC is offering 120 pre-funded projects, value £1000, for eligible local businesses by 2018.

See: www.biorenewables.org/service/funded-support-for-regional-smes/ .

NIBB Network Funding

C1Net

Final BIV Call Closes 31st May 2018. See: www.c1net.co.uk/Funding.html .

FoodWasteNet

Final BIV call closes on 28th February 2018. There is still funding available for up to 7 projects (of up to £10,000). See: http://www.foodwastenet.org/ .

HVCfP

Final BIV round closes 16th January 2018. See: https://hvcfp.net/ .

PHYCONET Secondment funding

Deadline:  1st February 2018.

It is worth keeping track of various grants and awards available in the sector. For example, Bio-start is an annual competition designed to commercialise the engineering of biology. See: www.bio-start.uk/#competition .

Other Funding

L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women In Science Awards

The Fellowships are tenable at any UK or Irish university or research institute to support a 12-month period of early career research in any area of life, physical and computer sciences, engineering and mathematics. See: www.womeninscience.co.uk .

Deadline: 16th February 2018

Royal Academy of Engineering Industrial Fellowships

These enable early- and mid-career engineering academics to conduct a collaborative research project in an industrial environment. Fellowships are worth up to £30,000 each and are tenable for up to six months full-time or 12 months part-time. Deadline: 5th February 2018

Royal Academy of Engineering: Research Chairs and Senior Research Fellowships

These aim to strengthen the links between industry and academia by supporting academics in conducting use-inspired research that meets the needs of industrial partners.

Deadline: 6th March 2018

See: www.raeng.org.uk/grants-and-prizes/support-for-research/research-chairs .

Defra Farm Productivity Grants

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has opened a £40 million grants scheme for investment in farm technology and equipment to boost farm productivity. Grants are available under the Countryside Productivity Scheme. See: www.gov.uk/government/news/environment-secretary-opens-40-million-fund-to-boost-farm-productivity .

 

BBSRC Industrial Partnership Awards (IPAs)

These encourage and support collaboration between academic research groups and industry. IPAs are academic-led, responsive mode grants that have significant industrial involvement and industry partner(s) contributes in cash at least equivalent to 10% of the full project costs. For example with a £550,000 award, industry would contribute £50,000.

See: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/innovation/collaboration/industrial-partnership-awards/ .

Application deadline: 4th Oct 2017

Funding for Mid-Range Capital Equipment over £200K

This supports the purchase of research equipment through the 17ALERT call for investigators that seeks to pioneer the use of emerging advanced technology and seek to utilise equipment in novel applications.

The principal investigator must be resident in the UK and an academic employee at the lecturer or equivalent level at an eligible organisation. Instrumentation should be deployed on a multi-project or multi-use basis and must enhance the capability of the UK research base in areas of science in BBSRC remit.

The capital equipment budget is £10 million. Applicants can seek capital funding for equipment over £200,000 including VAT, including limited installation and maintenance costs

Closing Date: 14th Sept 2017.

See: www.bbsrc.ac.uk/funding/filter/2017-alert-mid-range-equipment-initiative/ .