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 .

 

Funding Roundup – December 2017

APEX Awards

The APEX award scheme offers established independent researchers, with a strong track record in their respective area, an exciting opportunity to pursue genuine interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven research to benefit wider society. See: www.royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/apex-awards/ .

Deadline: 14th December 2017.


Royal Society Research Grants

This scheme provides seed-corn funding for early-career scientists for research within the Society’s remit in the life and physical sciences. Grants are worth up to £20,000 each over one year. Closing Date: 19th December 2017. See: https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/research-grants/ .

 

ERC Consolidator Grant

Worth a look whilst they are still available. See: https://erc.europa.eu/funding/consolidator-grants . Deadline: 15th February 2018.

 

David Clarke Fellowship

The David Clarke Fellowship is co-funded by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) and

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). At least one fellowship will

be awarded per year. The research focus of the fellowships must be interdisciplinary across the Energy theme See: www.epsrc.ac.uk/files/skills/david-clarke-fellowship/ .

Don’t forget about the AD Network’s Business Interaction Vouchers (closes: 31 Dec 17) and our final Proof of Concept (closes: 15 Jan 18). More information on our website.

 

The Rank Prize

Are you working in crop science? The Rank Prize offers opportunities for support like their Travel awards £7,500 (Deadline: 29th January 2018) and Vacation Scholarships £2,500 (Deadline: 14th February 2018). See: http://www.rankprize.org/ .

Another BIV delivers! A new tool for AD energy requirements

The AD Network funded the University of Southampton and IEA Task 37 (UK) to produce a new program based modelling tool for anyone interested in modelling an AD system. At its simplest, it can be used to calculate potential biogas (and electrical) output for a system, but it is also sophisticated enough to calculated wider energy use and production across a whole system.

The model includes a wide variety of potential AD feedstocks, but users are also able to enter their own values. It is also possible to compare scenarios and to export all the information as a .CSV in order to further manipulate the outputs.

A really useful tool and it’s FREE. Download it from the Bioenergy and Organic Resources Research Group website.

Another BBSRC BIV Completed – Food Waste Net

Fiberight and Southampton have just completed a BIV project on ‘Recovery of food waste from municipal solid waste (MSW)’ during pulping, with funding from the BBSRC FoodWasteNet NIBB (www.foodwastenet.org). The aims of the work were to test an alternative separation technology for Fiberight’s innovative MSW-based sugar platform process, and determine how much food waste can be recovered from different stages. The sidestreams can then be tested for their potential to produce energy and higher-value products. The process is thus a key part of a waste-based biorefinery.

Permastore Tanks and University of Southampton complete first BIV

The Environmental Labs at the University of Southampton have just completed our first Business Interaction Voucher (BIV) project in conjunction with Permastore Ltd. The work involved development of a test procedure for materials to be used in advanced anaerobic digestion applications, including at thermophilic temperatures and in harsh conditions where the process may become unstable or fail. Testing was based on continuous simulation in 35-litre anaerobic digesters, and has provided comprehensive data that would not be available from simple batch tests. An innovative side-stream ammonia stripping system was used to control digestion parameters and provide a wide range of reactor conditions. This BIV was funded by BBSRC through the Anaerobic Digestion Network.

Information on all the work done in the Environmental Labs can be found on their Facebook page.

You too can benefit from such funding for academic help: see www.anaerobicdigestionnet.com/funding for more information.