WSKEP news

Please note two calls for running activities at the EuroScience Open Forum event in Manchester next year. Please note the deadline is 31st of July so time is short. The EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) is an interdisciplinary meeting of researchers, industry and business professionals, politicians, innovators, science journalists and the media. The 2016 edition of ESOF will take place in Manchester. Proposals are invited for stimulating sessions that will address the key opportunities and challenges for businesses looking to exploit breakthroughs in science.

Please see the website for further details.

NERC invites proposals for the second round of highlight topics, a route for funding strategic research. Highlight topics focus strategic research on defined subject areas, and will be delivered through independent projects.

The highlight topics in this call are:

• Evolutionary biotic response to environmental change: limits to adaptation
• Coastal morphology: coastal sediment budgets and their role in coastal recovery
• Quantifying climate risk for adaptation and resilience planning
• Closing the global methane budget
• Reducing uncertainty in the integrity of potential carbon capture and storage sites

NERC has allocated £16m to this call and a maximum of £4m (cost to NERC) is available per highlight topic. There are more highlight topics than funding is available for, so not all highlight topics will necessarily result in funded grants. This is to ensure that only the very best research is funded.

Notification of intent to submit a proposal must be received by 16:00 on 21 September 2015.

Proposals must be submitted via the research councils' Je-S system by 16:00 on 8 October 2015.

Please see the Announcement of Opportunity for full details. 

The European Commission is organising an Information Day on 21 September in Brussels on 21 September 2015 to present the 2016 work programme of Horizon 2020’s societal challenge 5: “Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials”.

Further information, including a draft agenda and registration can be found here.

CliMathNet, the Royal Meteorological Society and the Royal Statistical Society are jointly running a small focussed workshop on the use of statistical techniques for senior climate scientists.

This course is aimed at climate scientists at the Principal Investigator level and will include lectures/workshops on statistical modelling, inference, Bayesian methods and risk and uncertainty and will include time for discussion of particular problems raised by the participants regarding climate variability and change on global, regional and local scales.

CliMathNet have provided funding for the course, and the Royal Statistical Society are kindly providing a venue, therefore, this course is free to attend, although we do ask that delegates register in advance to attend. The meeting will start at 10am at the Royal Statistical Society in London, and lunch will be provided. Registration is available at this website.

The outlook for July is for below normal flows across much of England and Wales, with the possibility of notably low flows in some areas. In north-western areas of the UK including north-west England, July is likely to see normal flows. This pattern is likely to persist over the next three months, although it is likely that river flows will return to normal across Wales. For groundwater, levels in July are most likely to be normal or below normal, and this is likely to continue over the next three months.

Further details can be found here.

Overall, June was dry, especially in parts of south-east England, and sunnier than average. Monthly average temperatures were fairly typical for June but it was slightly warmer than average in the far south-east and there were some warm spells, with heatwave conditions developing through the final days and extending into early July. As expected for the time of year, soil moisture deficits (SMDs) climbed steeply and, correspondingly, the seasonal recession of river flows and groundwater levels continued, leading to some notably low late June river flows. Across most of England the year so far has seen below-average rainfall, particularly in parts of central southern England and along the east coast, and this is reflected in moderate runoff deficiencies and below-normal groundwater levels. However, the water resources situation remains favourable for the summer, with reservoir stocks just above‑average at the national scale (partly reflecting the wet May) and moderately below at some impoundments in southern England.

Further details can be found here.

Outline proposals are invited for a new funding opportunity as part of the Science for Humanitarian Emergencies and Resilience (SHEAR) research programme, funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and NERC. SHEAR is a 5 year international, interdisciplinary programme which aims to support improved disaster resilience and humanitarian response by advancing monitoring, assessment and prediction of natural hazards and risks across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and through working with users, bring this into use in reducing the impacts of disasters.

This call is for Research Consortium Grant outline proposals, which will provide an opportunity for the world's best researchers to undertake large-scale, complex and interdisciplinary end-to-end research addressing one of the two main themes of SHEAR:

• World-leading research into hydrological controls on landslide hazard in South Asia as part of multi-hazard risk assessment and building towards early warning systems.

• Flood and drought risk assessment, modelling and forecasting in Sub-Saharan Africa; including better understanding the multifaceted and complex drivers of risk and building toward more risk-based monitoring and warning systems.

Submission of an outline proposal is mandatory in order to participate in the funding round at the Full Proposal stage. To view the full Announcement of Opportunity document, and to download the outline proposal form, please visit the NERC website. 

The Space for Smarter Government Programme (via the UK Space Agency) is making up to £700,000 (inc VAT) available for new innovative technology solutions that contribute towards its goals of helping the public sector create sustainable operational services from satellite data and enable smarter, more efficient operations, reduce risk and enhance policy making.

A key goal of the programme is to also make use of existing investment in space and allow UK government to become first, intelligent customers for satellite products and services that could generate economic growth through export.

Operational users and their user requirements must be identified. Space for Smarter Government Programme (SSGP) can assist in identifying appropriate end users.

This competition is particularly looking for new solutions that will lead to satellite-enabled services for the public sector in any of the following challenge areas:

• Natural Hazard Risk Management
• Environment
• Local Authorities and or Devolved Administrations
• Other

The competition will have two phases. Phase 1 has a total budget of £700,000 (inc VAT) and is intended to show the technical feasibility of the proposed concept. The development contracts placed will be for a maximum of 5 months up to £80,000 (inc. VAT) per project.
Phase 2 contracts are intended to develop and evaluate prototypes or demonstrators from the more promising technologies in Phase 1, and it is anticipated that funding will be up to £500,000 (inc VAT) for each Phase 2 contract for up to 12 months.

Event Briefing
A webinar was held on 7 July 2015, and you can now download the presentation from that event. During the webinar, a number of questions were raised and answered and they can be viewed here.

How to Apply
The deadline for applications is 12.00 noon on 16 September 2015. In order to apply you must register with the SBRI for the competition by 12.00 noon on 9 September 2015 here.

 
When you register you will be sent login details for the FTP site where you will be able to download the guidance documents, you will also be sent an application form with an assigned reference number. You will need this reference number for all subsequent enquiries.

Questions related to the Challenges themselves should be addressed directly to John Vesey or the SSGP team at ssgp@sa.catapult.org.uk
The application forms are suitable for ONE application only. If you intend to submit more than one application, or have any other questions about the application process please request further information from the Business Support Group using the contact details below.

NERC is inviting proposals that address the issues and opportunities around green infrastructure (GI) in the planning and investment decisions that are made by local policymakers, local planners and organisations responsible for developing the built environment (construction, house builders, developers).

Project proposals submitted in this current round (deadline Thursday 22 October 2015) are expected to start by 1 January 2016 and to last for up to two years. A maximum of £125k (£100k at 80% FEC) may be requested. Smaller, targeted activities of three months upwards are also welcome and NERC anticipates seeing a range of requests within the £125k limit, reflecting the range of potential projects and activities.

Full details can be found on the NERC website. 

The Innovation Projects Open Call will fund projects that increase and accelerate the uptake and impact of NERC funded research outputs by supporting translational and knowledge exchange activity which delivers direct tangible and demonstrable benefits to end users, particularly businesses.

Funds will be used to support projects which focus upon generating user applicable outputs from past and/or current NERC supported research and which translates them into outcomes that achieve impact.

The Innovation Projects Open call will open on 14 July 2015 and close on 22 October 2015. This call will allow proposals for up to £125k at 100% FEC (£100k NERC contribution at 80% FEC) for up to 24 months, starting in April 2016. NERC anticipates seeing a range of requests within the £125k limit/24 month limits, reflecting the range of potential projects and activities.

For further information visit the NERC website. 

The Follow-on Fund is a 'proof of concept' fund to support the commercialisation of ideas arising from that NERC-funded research.

This funding picks up where research programme and discovery science (responsive mode) grants leave off and enables those research outputs to be further developed so their commercial potential can be realised.

Examples of activities funded include technology licensing, launching technology-based products or services, selling know-how based consultancy services, and the commercialisation of NERC-funded datasets. Proposals are invited for projects pursuing any of these approaches or, indeed, others.

The Follow-on Fund will open on 14 July 2015 and close on 22 October 2015. This call will allow proposals for up to £125k at 100% FEC (£100k NERC contribution at 80% FEC) for up to 12 months, starting in April 2016.

For further information visit the NERC website. 

Innovate UK, Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Malaysia Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) are to invest up to £14.4 million in collaborative research and development projects to stimulate innovation in response to Malaysia's urbanisation challenges.

This competition focuses on finding new commercial solutions to challenges that Malaysia is facing as climate change increasingly impacts upon its cities and its urbanisation trajectory, with the solutions expected to emerge through the translation of existing, excellent research.

• Guidance for applicants for this competition 

The aim of the competition is to bring together companies (small-to-medium-sized companies and/or larger businesses), research and technology organisations, academics, public sector bodies and charities from Malaysia and the UK for the joint industrial research to develop innovative products, processes or services that meet critical challenges existing within the following five sectors:

• health and well-being
• improving environmental resilience and energy security
• future cities
• agritech (used to solve explicit urban food and nutrition issues)
• digital, innovation and creativity

This investment from the UK side has been made possible through the UK Department of Business, Innovation and Skills-managed Newton Fund: www.newtonfund.ac.uk.

The goal of this competition is to find innovative solutions, through a collaborative consortium-driven approach. The principal market a project must consider is Malaysia.

Projects must be collaborative, involving both UK and Malaysian participants. There must be a minimum of one UK business, one UK research organisation, one Malaysian business and one Malaysian research organisation in each project.

On the UK side, projects can be business-led or research organisation-led, and should preferably involve other non-business partners. The lead partner should be able to demonstrate a clear route to commercialisation of the proposed product/s or service/s, and should have a primary focus on the translation of research and/or knowledge.

Given the heavy focus on translation of research, research organisations' participation can be up to 50% of total project costs. Small or micro businesses could receive up to 70% of their eligible project costs, medium-sized businesses 60% and large businesses 50%.

For each project we expect the total UK and total Malaysian participant project costs to be £1m-£1.75m on each side, although we would consider projects outside of this range. Projects should last 24-34 months.

The competition involves a two-stage application process.
This competition opens on 30 June 2015.
Applicants must register by noon UK time 30 September 2015. The deadline for expressions of interest is at noon UK time on 7 October 2015.

There will be a briefing webinar for potential applicants. Further details will be provided on this webpage and @NewtonFund.

The ARCHER Leadership call is a call for applications for direct access to the UK's national supercomputing facility ARCHER for computationally intensive individual projects (>100,000 kAU or 6666667 core-hours on ARCHER) for a maximum of 24 months, from academic and non-academic research groups.

The resource is for pre-competitive research only and the research area must lie within the remit of either the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) or the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). This call is for compute resource only, including core Computational Science and Engineering support as provided by the ARCHER Service to all users. However, no additional support for staff or consumables can be applied for. Thus applicants must demonstrate substantial high performance computing expertise within their team in order to be considered for funding.

Full call information and documentation can be found here.

The closing date for application is 21st September 2015

The Global Food Security (GFS) programme is hosting a community building event in light of the call launch for applications to the ‘Resilience of the UK food system in a Global Context’ programme. This programme has been co-designed by BBSRC, ESRC, NERC, Defra and FSA in partnership with wider stakeholders to address the major food security challenge.

This event aims to bring together researchers from biological, environmental and social sciences and representatives from policy, industry, NGOs and other relevant stakeholders to provide insight on the call themes as well as encourage development of partnerships and collaborative proposals in food security and resilience.

Further information on this event and registration can be found here.

The Valuing Nature Programme funding call on Managing the Environment to Improve Human Health and Wellbeing will be open towards the end of June 2015 – see pre-announcement here.   

To support this the Valuing Nature Programme Coordination Team are running an event on 14 July 2015 at Austin Court in Birmingham from 10:30 to 16:00.

Information on how to sign up for this meeting is available here.

NERC, AHRC and ESRC are hoping to release funding for this call. It will provide an opportunity for natural and social scientists, and arts and humanities researchers to form substantial interdisciplinary research collaborations which aim to increase our understanding of the role biodiversity and ecosystem processes play in human health and wellbeing.

The focus of the call will be on understanding the value of the natural environment for human health (physical and mental) and wellbeing within and across the following three areas:

• natural hazards and extreme weather events
• human exposure to pathogens and natural aquatic toxins
• urban ecosystems.

Who is this event intended for?

This event is open to academic researchers who are interested in applying for the funding call, and to potential end-users of this research: businesses, policy-makers or practitioners.

The event will provide an opportunity to hear more about the call and to:

• Take an active part in the developing Valuing Nature Network through participating in discussions and networking sessions
• Hear expert opinion on the challenges of interdisciplinary working and co-delivery with end-users
• Put questions direct to funders in a question and answer session
• Network with potential collaborators from other discipline areas or as end-users of research.

Further Information

If you would like to attend this event please register here.  Because the number of places are limited we may need to restrict the number of people attending from any one institution.

Further background information on the Valuing Nature Programme is available on the new Valuing Nature website (www.valuing-nature.net), including reports from the web survey and scoping meeting and input from the Business Interest Group that are being used to help shape the Announcement of Opportunity for this call.

To receive updates on the Valuing Nature Programme please sign up to become part of the Valuing Nature Network here.

NERC invites existing researchers to apply for internships of up to six months, based in business, policy and civil society organisations. The intern will usually spend between 80% and 100% of their time embedded in the partner organisation and applicants can be at any career stage. PhD students must be in their second year and working within the NERC remit.  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

Please see the Announcement of Opportunity.

The outlook for June is for normal to above normal flows in northern parts of the UK, and normal to below normal flows further south. The three month outlook also suggests a broad contrast  between northern and western areas, where normal flows are most likely, and southern and eastern areas where there is a higher chance of below normal flows. For groundwater, the current situation is likely to continue through the summer; groundwater levels are likely to be predominantly in the normal range but with below normal levels in parts of southern and north-east England.

The annual UK information day will take place on 21September 2015 in London at The Natural History Museum

The main focus of the event will be the integrated activities (IA) calls for Research Infrastructure (RI) networks. 

These calls are aimed at existing national RIs wishing to network with other RIs in their field across Europe. Each proposal must offer transnational access to users as well as networking and joint research activities for the RI.

Find out about:

Starting communities: Up to €5 million available for groups not previously funded; two stage application process; open to all!

Advanced communities: Up to €10 million available for groups that have received previous IA funding; one stage application process; specific topics will be defined in the work programme.

Closing date: 30 March 2016

There will also be a presentation about the E-infrastructures calls which will support implementation of the European policies on open research data, data and computing intensive science, research and education networking, high-performance computing and big data innovation.

-          User-driven e-infrastructure innovation: closing 31 March 2016

-          Platform-driven e-infrastructure innovation: closing 20 September 2016

Registration link to follow.

NERC, BBSRC and ESRC are hosting a workshop to launch the 2015 call for applications to the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Innovation Club (SARIC).

The second SARIC call will focus on the theme 'predictive capabilities for sustainable agriculture'. The call aims to provide decision makers with the ability to forecast, interpret and respond to potential threats to UK crop and livestock production systems. This will be achieved by harnessing the potential of observational technologies (e.g. earth observation, mapping, sensors) and analysis technologies (e.g. modelling, big data and analytics), and by combining observations with models to improve predictive capability for sustainable agriculture in the UK at a range of scales. Around £5m is available in this call. For the full Announcement of Opportunity, go to the BBSRC website.

Workshop programme

10:00 – Welcome and introduction

10:10 – Scope of the call and key challenges from an industrial perspective

12:00 – Elevator pitches from academia and industry

13:00 – Lunch

13:30 – Surgery sessions and networking

16:00 – Close

How to register

To register, follow this link.

• On registering, potential applicants may request a speaking slot for an elevator pitch.
• Potential applicants may also request a surgery session with members of SARIC to refine their ideas. Allocation of these will be on a first come, first served basis due to limited time available.

Water surprises. Water tests and taxes us. Its complex attributes promote learning, teaching and understanding, which are also key ingredients in the promotion of peace-making. That it has many forms may explain why we see water either disjointedly or synergistically. Water is flow, depth, volume, timing, energy, food, physical sustenance, mental recovery, poison, warmth and natural habitat. Water combines and divides. It is withdrawn, leaked, stored and discovered. It is engineering, economics, law – and more; water supports nature, lives and livelihoods. Water is highly transitional and perspectival; depending on where you are, when and who you represent, you’ll see water in markedly different ways.

For the full article visit the world peace foundation website