Category: NIBB News

Funding Roundup

Here are the latest details of funding opportunities within the NIBBs and elsewhere.

Business Interaction Vouchers (BIVs)

AD Network have a number of BIVs still available. Deadlines: 30 June, 30 September, 31st December. See http://www.anaerobicdigestionnet.com/funding

Metals in Biology have an open call for applications for £10k BIVs which will enable them to use any residual vouchers not awarded in the final (16th) round.  Please get in touch ASAP if you have an idea for a project relevant to the aims of the Metals in Biology Network/industrial biotechnology and bioenergy and we will let you know if there are any vouchers available. The vouchers will be for up to 2 months duration and work must be completed by 31 December 2017. 

NProNet – BIV Deadline: 2nd Friday of every month

Biocatnet – See: http://biocatnet.com/funding/biv/ .

HVCfP still has ~£75,000 BIV funding to award before January 2018.

The Catalysis Hub also has £10K BIVs available. See: www.ukcatalysishub.co.uk/interaction/Business_Interaction_Vouchers_BIV .

 

Proof of Concept Funding

HVCfP – £80,000 POC. Call deadline: 30th August 2017 on “Industrial biotechnology processes to develop high-value products from plants: utilising open-access scale-up and biorefining centres”. Full details and the application form are available at https://hvcfp.net/funding/.

C1 Net – C4 x £50,000 for ‘Advancing the Exploitation of C1 gas Fermentation’. Deadline: 30th June 2017. See their website.

Metals in Biology –  One £10k PoC award relevant to the aims of the Metals in Biology Network and industrial biotechnology and bioenergy. The PoC award will be for up to 2 months duration and work must be completed by 31 December 2017.  There must be an industry partner and all applicants must join the Network. See website.

IBCarb – Projects should be £20,000 at 100% FEC (i.e. £16,000 at 80% FEC) maximum value. See:  http://ibcarb.com/funding/  Deadline: 30th June 2017

NPRONET – 4th Call now open. Application form is now accessible via the members area of the NPRONET website. Deadline: 1st September, 2017.

Also…

Future Fuels for Flight and Freight Competition (F4C)

The F4C was launched on the 27 April 2017 by the Department for Transport (DfT) to promote the development of an advanced low carbon fuels industry within the UK, including supplier capabilities and skills in relevant technologies, while maximising value for money for the taxpayer. Register by 30th June 2017.

For more information visit:

http://ee.ricardo.com/en/transport/case-studies/f4c

Royal Society Translation awards

The Royal Society Translation Awards are for scientists who wish to investigate the potential to commercialise an aspect of their research.  See:  https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/royal-society-translation-award/

Maximum Award: Up to a maximum of £50,000

Closing Date: 6 July 2017

Newton Fund UK-India industrial waste challenge – closes 11 Oct 17

Innovate UK and Research Councils, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), are investing up to £8 million in projects that use cutting-edge solutions to reduce industrial waste in India.

Projects should address reducing industrial waste and pollution, and improve value recovery from waste using biotechnology in one or more of these 5 sectors:

  • leather/tanning/textiles
  • municipal solid waste
  • paper and pulp
  • sewage
  • sugar cane

The total project grant will not exceed £2 million per project for UK partners. Match funding will be made available for Indian project partners by the Government of India. Projects should last between 30 months and 3 years.

Important dates

Final date for UK registration: midday 11 October 2017

Submission of full application: midday 18 October 2017

Further details on the call can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/funding-competition-uk-india-industrial-waste-challenge-2017/competition-guidance-uk-india-industrial-waste-challenge-2017

 

There is also a workshop on 12th July in York, UK which is open to UK and Indian delegates:

 

https://www.ktn-uk.co.uk/events/uk-india-newton-fund-industrial-waste-challenge-2017-academic-to-business-partnering-workshop

C1NET Conference – Chemicals from C1 Gas, Nottingham – 5-7th November 2017

This free, two-day conference will bring together academic and industrial partners to identify and address key challenges in the study of those organisms able to grow on C1 compounds and commercially exploit them as platforms for chemical manufacture. The programme will include talks from invited speakers from academia and industry, as well as from selected submitted abstracts and will showcase presentations from C1net POC grant winners. See: http://www.c1net.co.uk/Events.html .

Jobs Opportunities – Severn Wye Energy Agency Ltd – Biogas and more

There are currently two positions available at the Severn Wye Energy Agency. The first is for a project manager in the biogas team, based within reasonable travelling distance of Llandrindod Wells – details are here: Advert PM_biogas. The second is for a Project Worker based in Gloucestershire, details here: Project Worker Advert 2017. Closing date for both jobs is 15 Jun 17.

High Value Chemicals from Plants Workshop ‘Utilising genetic resources in R&D’, York, 13 Jul 17

This half day training event on 13th July 2017 in York is an opportunity to gain an overview of the Nagoya Protocol and associated EU Regulations which have significant implications for the way R&D using certain plant and microbial materials should be conducted. This informal, participatory event will include a variety of interactive learning approaches. See further details and book your place at https://hvcfp.net/events/utilising-genetic-resources-in-rd/

The Chemistry and Biology of Natural Products XI 2-Day Graduate and Early Career Symposium, University of Warwick – 29/30th June 2017

This symposium is open to everyone working in the field of natural products, from microbial genetics to synthetic chemistry, and we particularly encourage PhD students and postdocs to present their work with talks and posters.

NPRONET and BIOCATNET are sponsoring this event. Registration is FREE and it includes two lunches, a wine reception/dinner and prizes for best talks and posters.

See: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wcibb/meetings/chemistryandbiologysymposium

Part-time MSc – Carbon Foot-printing and Life Cycle Assessment – Open to 6 Jan 17

Would you like to learn about LCA methodology?

A part-time MSc module on Carbon Foot-printing and Life Cycle Assessment will be delivered entirely online by Bangor University from January through to April 2017, drawing on freely available online calculators and the latest research to demonstrate application of LCA to evaluate bioenergy and bio-based product value chains, and their interaction with food production. This module is part of the Industrial Biotechnology MSc, and BBSRC Advanced Training Partnership. Anyone wishing to enrol on the full Bangor or Aberystwyth MSc courses that this module sits within may also be eligible for the new English postgraduate loan. Registration now open, until 6th January 2017.

See: http://www.atp-pasture.org.uk/en/study-options/distance-learning-modules/carbon-footprinting-and-life-cycle-assessment .

See also the module on On- Farm Anaerobic Digestion (AD) – May 2017.

EC Horizon 2020 call: greening the economy. Apply now, closes 7 Mar 17.

The European Commission invites proposals for its H2020-SC5-2017 Greening the economy – single stage call which closes 7 Mar 17.

Proposals may address the following topics:

  • climate services, including SC5-01-2017 exploiting the added value of climate services, SC5-02-2017 integrated European regional modelling and climate prediction system and SC5-04-2017 towards a robust and comprehensive greenhouse gas verification system
  • towards a low-carbon Europe, including SC5-06-2016 pathways towards the decarbonisation and resilience of the European economy in the timeframe 2030-2015 and beyond
  • raw materials, including SC5-13-2017 new solutions for sustainable production of raw materials
  • earth observation, including SC5-18-2017 novel in-sit observation systems
  • nature-based solutions for territorial resilience, including SC5-32-2017 biodiversity scenarios
  • water, including SC5-33-2017 closing the water gap

The indicative budget for this call is €124 million. See the H2020 Participant Portal: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/index.html, under the ‘Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials’ work programme (Societal Challenges Pillar).

Want to hold a meeting to put a bid together – contact us! We have funds to assist.

EPSRC call for feasibility studies in energy – closes 5 Jan 17

Up to £3m is available for this call, with a cap of £200k for each proposal. Proposals should examine a topic within EPSRC’s Energy remit (e.g. Bioenergy), review past and current activity, and identify key research challenges that need to be addressed. The proposed research must be novel, innovative, have the potential to lead to high impact outcomes and strengthen the UK’s position in within the international energy community. Submissions towards this call must also demonstrate collaborations with established energy groups/organisations (academia, industry, non-governmental organisations, Government etc.) who are willing to support the research proposal and provide a potential route for exploitation. More information can be found on their website.

Tender for Industrial Biotechnology Landscape Report Provision (by 20 Jan 17 at 1200 hrs)

BACKGROUND
BBSRC, with support from EPSRC, have committed £18M to fund 13 unique collaborative networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy (BBSRC NIBB). The BBSRC NIBB foster collaborations between academia, industry, policy makers and NGOs in order to find new approaches to tackle research challenges, translate research and deliver key benefits in Industrial Biotechnology (IB). Each network has a particular focus area, mainly within the UK, but with interest to build international links. These multidisciplinary networks will drive new ideas to harness the potential of biological resources for producing and processing materials, biopharmaceuticals, chemicals and energy.

Four NIBBs (CBMNet, BIOCATNET, C1Net and P2P) are commissioning this project with the aim of mapping the strengths of the entire UK Industrial Biotechnology sector. The focus of the project should be on research and development through to commercialisation with additional focus on Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4-7. The target audience for the report are UK funders and The Government.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
The report will provide the following:
1. A concise, critical synopsis of the relevant reports and roadmaps assessing and analysing UK Industrial Biotechnology and BioEnergy (IBBE) (see below for a list from a previous report; the list is not exhaustive), the report should cover the last 5 years. This exercise should identify any limitations in the existing studies and not simply summarise what is already known.
2. A detailed analysis of the current UK landscape in IBBE. Mapping the key capabilities (strengths and weaknesses e.g. research, technologies, scale up technologies) across the UK IBBE sector, including research organisations and small, medium, and large companies.
3. Critical evaluation of the current state of the UK IBBE sector, including its capacity to commercialise research.
4. A benchmark assessment of the UK IBBE industry compared to that of the top performing competitors (for example USA, Canada, Brazil, Malaysia and Germany).
5. Identify UK IBBE success stories and projects that provide examples of best practise for translation of research into commercial application (Case Studies).
6. Identify IBBE areas in which the UK could have a competitive advantage in terms of inherent resources (feedstocks), infrastructure (plant and buildings), innovation (expertise), enterprise and funding systems. This should include an assessment of whether and how IBBE-related IP generated in the UK is exploited in the UK.
7. Identify and assess options for an IBBE translation framework to support future commercialisation of IBBE research in the UK. This should include an assessment of various forward looking mechansims to encourage adoption of innovative solutions by industry by removing/mitigating risk.
8. Horizon scanning to identify emerging technologies and trends that will impact on a range of sectors and drive the future of IBBE in the UK.
9. Provide an evidence-based roadmap and policy recommendations for the developing key IBBE activities in which the UK has existing strength and capacity that provide a solid and credible foundation on which to build a competitive world-class UK IBBE sector.
If you would like to tender for this report or for more information, please see https://in-tendhost.co.uk/sheffield

The tender reference number is 1526/DM and the closing date for responses is at 12 noon on Friday 20th January 2017. To view the tender notice and access the documents, please hover over “Tenders” and click on “Current” and from there click “View Details”, finally please click on the “Express Interest” button where, after registering to use the site, you will be able to download the relevant details. Please also be aware that all correspondence’s & tender returns should be conducted through the In-tend site.
Contact Us

For any enquiries about our network, please contact:
Dr Jen Vanderhoven
Network Manager, CBM Network
jen.vanderhoven@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 (0) 114 2229766
University of Sheffield, E100 Addison Building, Firth Court, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN