WSKEP news

Publication of draft 2016-17 Horizon 2020 Work Programmes

The European Commission has published draft versions of the Horizon 2020 Work Programmes for 2016-2017. The drafts are working documents that are not yet endorsed by the Commission. The drafts are published to provide potential participants with an insight into the priorities for the forthcoming Calls for Proposals. The pre-published versions can be downloaded here.

A new report from the UK Water Partnership, Droughts and Floods – towards a more holistic approach has just been published. It can be found here with an accompanying blog by the leading author Jim Wharfe.

The UK Water Partnership is now exploring how to take forward the recommendation for a more holistic environmental approach to flooding and drought research, innovation and implementation, including opportunities for a range of ecosystem-related markets.

KTN in collaboration with Innovate UK is pleased to announce a series of events to launch the 2016 Horizon 2020 work programme for Societal Challenges 2 (Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy) and 5 (Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials).

A series of five focussed events will take place during September and October and will offer the opportunity to:

• Gather information on the range of European funding options available in 2016 via Horizon 2020 
• Network with stakeholders already engaged in or seeking to engage in related areas.

The upcoming events are:

• European Brokerage Event: Circular Horizons 2016/17, 10th September 2015, London (Registration - waiting list)
• H2020 Nature Based Solutions – Re-greening cities information day, 30th September 2015, London Registration 
• Horizon 2020 Funding for Water Innovation, 1st October 2015, Manchester Registration
• Feeding a changing world - Horizon 2020 funding for resource efficient bio-based value chains, 13th October, Manchester (save the date)
• Solutions for a climate resilient world, 2nd November 2015, Exeter Registration

For further details about the events see here

Satellites for Food - Briefing and Consortia Building Event
07 October 2015
London

Innovate UK and NERC are to invest up to £3.75 million in collaborative R&D projects and relevant technical feasibility studies to stimulate innovation to improve the productivity of agri-food systems using satellite technology.

Leading Agriculture, Food and Space companies are coming together to build consortia for the upcoming Innovate UK competition on the use of satellites in the agriculture and food supply chains and the next Horizon 2020 agriculture calls. The event, on the 7th October, at the Congress Centre in London, will see around 150 delegates from different sectors come together to understand the challenges in the agriculture and food sector and what satellites can do to help.

For more details and registration, please see here:

Tuesday, 3^rd November 2015

Central London

Guests of Honour: Neil Hornby, Deputy Director, Flood Risk Management, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and David Rooke, Executive Director of Flood and Coastal Risk Management, Environment Agency

This conference will be a timely opportunity to assess the policy priorities for flood and coastal risk management in England. It follows the announcement of Government plans to invest £2.3 billion in flood defence projects up to 2021.

Sessions will evaluate the impact of planned funding and how it can be best targeted, as well as the latest progress of major schemes. There will also be discussion on the new Flood Re insurance scheme, currently due to begin operation from April 2016, that aims to ensure that those at highest risk of flooding can receive affordable cover for the flood element of their household property insurance.

For more information see here.

The 4th annual WWT Water Industry Technology Innovation Conference is taking place on 1st December in Birmingham.

More than 80 forward-thinking water industry professionals and innovators are now confirmed to attend.

Join them at WWT’s Water Industry Technology Innovation Conference to:

• Meet over 150 innovation professionals in the water industry from the UK and overseas
• Stay up-to-date with our first ever technology game-changers showcase to hear about new technologies with the potential to transform the water industry
• Panel discussions, interactive polling and plenty of opportunity for networking ensure your day is interactive as well as informative
• Hear from 15 different organisations and get their view on innovation in the water sector and what we can expect for the future
• CPD certification – all delegates receive a CDP certificate of their attendance for their own professional development

Find out more information here.

1st October 2015, Manchester

Information and Networking event: Horizon2020 funding for Water Innovation, with specific reference to the forthcoming calls for Societal Challenges 2 and 5.  

Join us, along with Enterprise Europe Network and Innovate UK, on 1st October 2015 in Manchester to:  

• gather information on the range of European funding options available in 2016 & 2017 via Horizon2020 related to water in the urban and agricultural environments. Learn how this route could be used to accelerate the development of a product or service or large-scale demonstration of emerging solutions;

• gain insight into what constitutes a strong consortium, how to structure your application and what assessors look for when deciding where to allocate funds;

• hear from successful UK applicants from the previous round of H2020 funding;

• network with stakeholders already engaged in or seeking to engage in the development of business solutions related to water in cities, food-chains and ecosystems

• pitch your ideas for projects in the area of water as it relates to food-systems, urban regeneration, resilience, urban re-naturing, international co-operation and healthy societies

• hear about specific focus on Mediterranean region and China  

More information can be found here.

Funding area:

• ACQUEAU Open Call is open to any project idea in the context of the water cycle and the Blue Book.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Proposals must involve at least two partners from two different participating countries.
• Proposals must have a strong market and exploitation orientation.
• The contribution from any given country must not exceed 70% of the total budget. In parallel, the contribution from any one partner (affiliated organisations count as one partner) must not exceed 70% of the total budget either.

Keys to Success:

• Contact and start negotiations with your National Funding Authorities in parallel to the Open Call process.
• Make sure your proposal is complete and respect ACQUEAU eligibility criteria
• Pay attention to the style of your proposal – it should be easy to read, clear, comprehensive and reflect the degree of innovation evident and the potential for successful exploitation.

Autumn Session 2015 Open

The Autumn session 2014 is now open.
The next cut-off deadline for Project Outline Submission is October 15th 2015, 17:00 CET. OPEN
The cut-off deadline for Full Project Proposal Submission is November 27th 2015, 17:00 CET.

The European Commission is organising a Stakeholder Partnership event on 20 October 2015 to facilitate networking, information exchange and cross-border partnerships of actors interested in addressing urban challenges through innovating with nature or by making innovative use of cultural heritage assets for regenerating cities.

In the autumn, under the Horizon 2020 Societal Challenge 5: 'Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials', work programme for 2016-17, the European Commission will launch new calls for large-scale demonstration projects in cities as living-labs for nature-based solutions for climate and water resilience and cultural heritage as a driver for sustainable development.

The stakeholder event will be an occasion for stakeholders from cities and regional authorities (mayors, planners etc.), the private sector (in the area of construction, landscape and building architecture, water management, insurance, etc.), civil society organisations, and of course research organisations to meet and discuss urban demonstration activities (urban living labs) and broaden the scope of cross-sectorial partnerships.

For further information and registration visit the Horizon 2020 website.

Announcement of Opportunity 2015- closing date 16 September 2015

NERC, the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) invite proposals for both research and research translation projects to the second call of the Sustainable Agriculture Research & Innovation Club. Approximately £5m of funding is available for this call, divided between research grants (£3·5m) and research translation grants (£1·5m). Proposals should aim to address the second key challenge identified by SARIC industry members - 'Predictive capabilities for sustainable agriculture' - as described in the scope section of the Announcement of Opportunity.

For more information visit the NERC website 

Research Councils UK (RCUK) and National Commission for Scientific Research and Technology (CONICYT) are pleased to invite applications to the RCUK-CONICYT Research Partnerships Call.

This initiative will provide funding for high-quality collaborative research projects between UK and Chilean researchers which contribute to the economic development and welfare of Chile and to developing countries more broadly. We invite proposals which address the following topics:

• Disaster Management
• Diet and health
• Education, Inequality and Social Reform
• Sustainable Aquaculture for Nutrition and Food Security

The objective is to deliver significant 2-3 year research funding for internationally competitive and innovative collaborative projects between researchers from Chile and the UK that will allow the pursuit of shared research interests.

Proposals within the themes listed above are welcomed from across the remits of the UK Research Councils. Recognising the multidisciplinary nature of the thematic areas, the development of interdisciplinary collaborations is particularly welcome.

For further information visit the RCUK website.

The outlook for August is for normal to below normal flows across England and Wales, with an increased likelihood of below normal flows in some groundwater-fed catchments of southern and eastern England. For England and Wales, the outlook for the next three months is similar to that for August The outlook for Scotland is uncertain in the coming months but normal to above normal flows are most likely in the south and east and normal to below normal flows in the north. Groundwater levels are likely to be normal to below normal in August throughout the UK. Over the next three months in parts of southern and eastern England below normal levels are most likely.

Further details can be found here.

July was an unsettled month and one of notable contrasts. Though temperatures cooled decisively thereafter, record‑breaking heatwave conditions characterised the 1st of the month. Following overnight temperature minima which exceeded 20°C in the south-east, Heathrow recorded 36.7°C, the warmest July day on record for the UK (in a series from 1853) and the hottest day in the UK since 2003. Throughout July, the north of the UK was generally wet and cool, whilst in southern areas conditions were predominantly dry although interspersed with intense downpours and thunderstorm activity. Rainfall for July for the UK was more than 150% of the long-term average and large areas of Scotland and East Anglia received more than twice the average July rainfall. Intense downpours over short durations led to surface water flooding in Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and eastern Scotland. Average river flows for July were above normal for most rivers in Scotland and Northern Ireland, notably so in a band from south-west to north‑east Scotland. Further south, river flows for some catchments in southern, central and eastern England were below normal, but generally were in the normal range elsewhere.

Further details can be found here.

NERC and India's Earth System Science Organisation (ESSO) - Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) jointly invite proposals for research on sustaining water resources for food, energy & ecosystem services in India. This collaboration is supported by the Newton-Bhabha Fund, established by the governments of the UK and India to provide a framework for increasing research and innovation collaborations that support sustainable economic growth, and builds on existing NERC-MoES activities, notably Changing Water Cycle and Drivers of Variability in the South Asian Monsoon.

Proposals are sought for collaborative research projects involving UK and Indian researchers. This collaboration will support 3 case studies, and applicants are invited to submit a proposal for an interdisciplinary research project focused on the main hydrological processes and how they interact within one of the 3 case study regions: the Himalayas, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, or Peninsular India.

Up to £3m is available from NERC for this call with up to £1m (80% FEC) available for the UK contribution to each of the case studies, which will be matched by MoES in terms of research effort.For more information visit the NERC website. 

Closing dates:

Notification of Intent to submit: 16:00 BST (15:00 UTC) on 7 September 2015

Full Proposals: 8 October 2015

KTN in collaboration with Innovate UK has announced a series of events to launch the 2016 Horizon 2020 work programme for Societal Challenges 2 (Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy) and Societal Challenges 5 (Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials).

A series of five focussed events will take place during September and October and will offer the opportunity to:

• Gather information on the range of European funding options available in 2016 via Horizon 2020 
• Network with stakeholders already engaged in or seeking to engage in related areas.

The five thematic events will cover the following:

• Resource efficient business models and the circular economy, 10th September, London 
• Nature Based Solutions – Re-greening Cities, 30th September, London 
• Water innovation, 1st October, Manchester
• Feeding a changing world - Resource Efficient bio-based value chains - farm to fork, non-food crops, BioBased products and waste treatment, 13th October, Manchester
• Solutions for a climate resilient world, 2nd November, Exeter

Full details on the planned events including registration (where open) are available here.

NERC is inviting the environmental science community to submit new ideas for strategic research. NERC is seeking ideas for research challenges that should be priorities for strategic research investment through either highlight topics or strategic programme areas. NERC would welcome ideas from both researchers and those who use environmental science research. For more information, please click here.

Ideas for new strategic programme areas should be submitted by 21 September 2015 while ideas for new highlight topics should be submitted by 19 October 2015.

Closing date for full proposals: 16:00 on 24 September 2015

NERC is inviting proposals for Pump Priming and Pump Priming Plus grants to its International Opportunities Fund (IOF). The IOF scheme provides resources to NERC-supported researchers to allow them to forge long-term partnerships with overseas scientists that add value to current NERC-funded science. IOF grants are pump-priming, to help stimulate novel research collaborations. Mature research collaborations should apply to NERC's Standard or Large Grant schemes, which allow for overseas project partnerships, or to other appropriate sources of funding.

Proposals for IOF Pump Priming grants may request funding of a maximum of £40k (at 80% FEC) for up to two years duration.

Proposals for IOF Pump Priming Plus grants may request funding of a maximum of £320k (at 80

NERC invites existing researchers to apply for internships of up to six months, based in business, policy and civil society organisations. The intern can spend between 80% and 100% of their time embedded in the partner organisation. The internship should be completed by 30 April 2016. Earliest start date is 1 November 2015.

Interns will explore and demonstrate how partners can make use of NERC funded scientific knowledge, data, models or other tools to understand and manage their impacts and/or dependencies on the environment. Projects may involve one or more business, policy or civil society partner and one or more researchers. Applications should be in the NERC Innovation Priority Areas of:

• Infrastructure
• Risk management
• Sustainable food production
• Environmental data
• Natural resources

For further information visit the NERC website.

The Green Infrastructure Innovation Projects call is having an information and brokerage event on 24 September in central London to provide information about the call and to facilitate contact between academics and representatives from non-academic organisations. Please register here.

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), along with the Environment Sustainability and Energy Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (ESED), are inviting applications from UK scientists to attend a jointly organised workshop on Improving Understanding of Potential Environmental Impacts Associated with Unconventional Hydrocarbons in Washington DC on 5–6 November 2015.

The deployment of hydraulic fracturing technology to exploit shale oil and gas reservoirs in the USA and now potentially in the UK has raised a number of environmental concerns. This workshop brings together researchers in the USA and the UK to learn from each other to identify the areas of major environmental uncertainty, the focused scientific research questions that need to be addressed, and the opportunities for innovation and translation of existing research within this area.

Further information can be found here.