WSKEP news

water@leeds has published findings from the EMBER project, a five year research programme which has collected evidence relating to the environmental impact of heather burning.  Publication on 1st October coincides with the first day of the 2014-15 moorland burning season.

This research is very relevant to the Upland Hydrology Group, and no doubt we could usefully consider its implications at a future meeting. 

The full report and accompanying press release are available here  

Principal Investigators and Co-Investigators should have received emails inviting them to register with the new Research Council reporting system, Researchfish, which replaces ROS(Research Outcomes System). The first thing to do is check that your projects have been migrated successfully. As part of the OpenARCC project, Fiona Hewer is keen to help PIs make the checks (no really!). From 16 October, Researchfish will be the only way to notify your funder about publications and other achievements. New outputs can be added to Researchfish at any time, but these can only be submitted by PIs during the annual submission round. The first submission round will close at 4pm on 13th November. For more information visit OpenARCC, or contact Fiona.

Innovate UK and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) are to jointly invest up to £1.3m to establish new Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) in or related to the Space sector to help UK companies to gain a greater share of the expanding global Space market.

This targeted competition for KTPs will support 10 to 12 KTP projects of between six and 36 months, helping to translate the UK's academic strengths in this area into commercial success.

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) will consider co-funding KTPs on an individual basis.

The competition will be open for applications until noon on 11 February 2015.

More information can be found here.

FRACTALS will start on September 2014 and will distribute a total grant support of 5,5 m€ to 50-60 SMEs to develop FI-WARE based applications for the Agricultural Sector. The FRACTALS Open Call will be launched at the end of November 2014, while the Call will remain open until the 28th of February 2015. The project partners are: The Development Fund of the Autonomous Province Vojvodina (SRB), ATOS (ES), National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR), DLO (NL), BioSense Center (SRB), Association of ICT Companies of Northern Greece (GREECE), Vojvodina ICT Cluster (SRB), YASAD Software Industrialists Association (TR) and Bulgarian Association of Software Companies (BG).

This support is going to be multi-dimensional in the sense that it aims to span beyond grant assistance to also include: (1) the technical capacity building of ICT SMEs and Web entrepreneurs with respect to developing applications based on the FI-PPP enablers and the achieved results from the first two phases, (2) the testing and validation of applications in an open innovation context (by involving end-users in the testing/validation assignment through a short of Living Labs environment), and (3) clustering and mentoring services related to entrepreneurship and venture capital finance. FRACTALS Call will be open to all European SMEs and Web entrepreneurs but will additionally focus on areas which are considered as “white spots” with respect to FI-PPP Phase 1 and 2 (Balkans, South East Europe).

The key European water-related umbrella organisations are jointly asking the Juncker Commission to prioritise water during the next 5 years due to its importance for EU’s economy, environment, and quality of life of the European citizens. These organisations increased their collaboration and coordination in the form of a European Water Alliance, with the objective of achieving a more coherent and thus more effective representation and visibility for water at the European Union level.

The first result of this cooperation is a joint ask to the Juncker Commission identifying key priorities for water. Its purpose is to promote a more informed and structured policymaking discourse on these matters, as well as to inspire members of the European Parliament to raise the importance of water with the Commissioners-designate in forthcoming hearings.

These issues are vastly complex, cross-cutting many fields of public policy, economic and market imperatives,and concerning major public and private investments for innovative development and maintenance. Therefore, action by and collaboration between all players in the innovation triangle are strongly required.

The Follow-on Fund will open on 23^rd September and will close at 16.00hr on 18^th December.

The Follow-on Fund is a 'proof of concept' fund to support the commercialisation of ideas arising from NERC-funded research. It 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 the fund has supported include technology licensing, launching technology-based products or services, selling know-how based consultancy services, and the commercialisation of NERC-funded datasets, amongst others.

As a pilot, the Follow on Fund has increased the amount that can be applied for.  Up to £250k (£200k at 80% FEC) is available for development projects lasting between 3 and 24 months (previously the call was limited to £125k 100% FEC for up to 12 months). The upper limits have been increased in order to provide projects requiring more time or funding with the very best opportunity to achieve commercial uptake of their research outputs.  

Together WRc, United Utilities, South West Water and the University of Manchester, with support from the Technology Strategy Board, are utilising distributed computing architecture to deliver true proactive water network management, with dynamic up to date models and scenarios run and decisions made in minutes, rather than hours or days. In practice this rapid availability of information means that, for example in the time it takes a field operative to park and lift a valve cover the customer impact of their potential activity is known to the operations centre and the field operative themselves.  

Over the next 18 months the technology, which is already being used at the University of Manchester, will be adapted and demonstrated through a large scale practical trial with the participating water companies. This will establish what can be achieved with this new approach when integrated with existing tools such as those currently used for network modelling.  At the end of the project participating companies will have access to software tools which integrate with existing systems and allow a true step change in how they approach network management.

WRc is looking for other water companies to join this exciting collaboration and benefit from the shared learning and ability to implement truly innovative network management in AMP6.

Contact: Leo Carswell - leo.carswell@wrcplc.co.uk - 01793 865131

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Environment Agency (EA) are seeking to appoint a policy placement fellow in each of the following areas:

• Impact of atmospheric pollutants on the current and future status of protected habitats;

• Nitrate from agriculture: moving from uncertain data to operational responses;

• Predicting and mitigating environmental impacts from low head Hydropower schemes.

This is an exciting opportunity for environmental science researchers to work closely with policymakers. Applications are invited from early and mid-career researchers, with 2-5 years post-PhD experience.  The awards will be jointly funded by NERC and the Environment Agency for a period of one year, on a full-time basis (although part time working will be considered). The placements will be based at the Environment Agency’s Bristol office or an alternative  EA office subject to agreement. Ideally, successful applicants should be in place by December 2014. 

The awards are managed under the NERC Policy Placement Scheme which aims to promote knowledge exchange between research organisations and public sector, increase the uptake of NERC research and provide partner organisations with research-informed evidence to develop and review policy, and offer researchers skills and career opportunities. 

Further details on the policy placement opportunity and application process are available at the NERC website  http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/available/schemes/placements/nerc-ea-policy-placements-2014.pdf

NERC invites you to a knowledge exchange workshop on the use of evidence reviews to facilitate evidence based environmental policy. This workshop is for anyone who wishes to learn more about the policy making process and the use of science and evidence within decision making. The workshop will describe the need for evidence reviews and provide examples of how these can be used to aid policy development. The workshop will also explain how participants can become more involved with evidence reviews including: how to undertake reviews for Defra (and network partners) and how to ensure reviews take note of the most up-to-date research, thus improving the impact of their own research. The workshop will share the experiences from a NERC knowledge exchange fellowship, along with policy makers and other researchers involved with providing research for policy. Speakers include:

• Dr Alexandra Collins - NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow
• Stuart Kirk - Leader of the Joint Water Evidence Group, Defra and the Environment Agency
• Dr Debbie Coughlin - Deputy Leader of the Joint Water Evidence Group
• Victor Aguilera - Evidence Programme Manager Water Availability and Quality, Defra
• Dr Neal Haddaway - Researcher at the Centre for Evidence Based Conservation, Bangor University and the Mistra Council for Evidence-based Environmental Management, Sweden
• Dr Nicola Randall - Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Agriculture at Harper Adams University

Details

Where: Room 808, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London, SW1P 3JR

When: 1:30 pm, 22nd October 2014

Duration: 2.5 hours

If you would like to book a place on the workshop please contact Alex Collins Alexandra.collins@imperial.ac.uk

ACQUEAU is pleased to announce that the deadlines for its next Open Call – Autumn Session 2014 are available:

• PO deadline: 01 October 2014
• FPP deadline: 09 November 2014
• Label assessment : 10 December 2014

If you have a project idea do not hesitate to contact your National Contact Point and the ACQUEAU offices.

Travel grants are available from the British Council under Researcher Links – Newton Fund:

http://www.britishcouncil.org/education/science/current-opportunities/travel-grants-2014

This is an advance notice of the opportunity which will go live on the 17th September 2014 on the NERC website.

NERC wishes to appoint a Knowledge Exchange Fellow in the area of infrastructure. The role of the Fellow will be to accelerate access to NERC knowledge, skills and data sets, enhancing the impact of NERC's investments and better demonstrating these impacts with infrastructure owners and operators in the transport, utilities, communications and environmental management sectors. Applications are welcomed on a part time basis for a period of up to 2 years. Ideally, the Fellowship will commence in late 2014/early 2015.

Increasingly, decision-makers are faced with the challenge of protecting infrastructure by making it as resilient as possible and mitigating the effects of increasingly extreme weather events. NERC believes there is a wealth of data, knowledge and expertise in the UK research base which could address this challenge, however this valuable resource is often not readily accessible and requires translation to be useable by decision-makers. The KE Fellow for Infrastructure will support the translation of science to assist infrastructure decision-makers with the challenge of managing environmental risks from climate change and extreme weather and generating tangible, real world outcomes that will demonstrate the value of NERC science in the wider economy.

This is a reminder that the closing date of NERC's inaugural Impact Awards is fast approaching.

There are four categories: Economic Impact, Societal Impact, International Impact and Early Career impact. There will also be an Overall Winner selected from the finalists, all of whom will be invited to the prize-giving ceremony in London on 27 January 2015.

Take this opportunity to get your environmental research impact recognised and rewarded. You can apply for an award yourself, or nominate someone else (with their approval). Just complete the online application form before the closing date 16:00 Wednesday 10 September 2014. Simply click here to find out more. If you have any queries relating to the awards or your application, please email nercawards@nerc.ac.uk.

This message is an advance notice of the opportunity which will go live on the 17^th September 2014 on the NERC website.

NERC, in partnership with the Future Cities Catapult (the FC Catapult), is seeking to invest in an early to mid-career academic with expertise in environmental data to explore the application of environmental datasets to innovative products, processes and services that improve the planning and management of city systems. This KE Fellowship opportunity will focus on translating environmental datasets within the NERC remit to a range of users associated with the FC Catapult’s work on urban innovation.

The FC Catapult is a global centre of excellence on urban innovation with a remit “to assist UK businesses create the products and services that cities across the world need if they are to have a strong economy, a resilient environment and an improved quality of life”.  The FC Catapult is developing the Cities-Lab as a unique facility to harness big data and to test and validate solutions at city-scale. NERC and the FC Catapult are collaborating by jointly investing in this KE Fellowship to increase uptake and application of NERC environmental datasets and related research. The successful Fellow will add significant value by increasing the uptake of NERC environmental data in a way that enables development of innovative new products, processes and services that address the challenges and opportunities of the world’s cities.

Call for evidence: draft adaptation indicators

Closing date: Tuesday 30 September 2014

The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) carries out consultations and calls for evidence to gather the views of a wide range of climate change experts when developing its advice. The Adaptation Sub-Committee (run by the CCC) intends to use a set of indicators to prepare its statutory report on the National Adaptation Programme in 2015. The Committee is now requesting views on this draft set of indicators, specifically on how relevant and complete they are.

To respond to the call for evidence and for further information see: http://www.theccc.org.uk/media-centre/consultations/

ESRC launched the Nexus Network on Monday 9th June with the aim of fostering new connections across food, energy, water and the environment.

The Nexus Network has committed £500,000 to provide grants for pilot projects, blue-sky ideas, working papers and placements. An initial call for proposals has been issued, for a series of up to ten 'think pieces' or working papers, of no more than 8,000 words in length, which can help to scope and define nexus approaches, and stimulate debate across the linked domains of food, energy, water and the environment.

Closing date for applications: 4pm, 4 July 2014

For more information and how to apply >>

The effects of climate change are moving from the realm of simulation to stark reality. Understanding, managing and mitigating these effects is a critical endeavour for the global research community.

To support this effort, Microsoft Research is offering 40 Azure Awards, each with 180,000 core hours of cloud compute and 20 terabytes of cloud storage to help climate researchers. The deadline for the Climate Data Initiative call for proposals is 15th June 2014, and Microsoft Research are soliciting researchers to simply submit a short (3-page) proposal online with the first word of your proposal being 'CDI'. As part of this Microsoft are also offering their FetchClimate environmental information cloud platform for researchers to deploy, and customise, for making their own data as easy to access as finding a hotel or coffee shop on a map.

The next deadline for Microsoft Research's regular bi-monthly call for proposals is also 15th June, and proposals can be from any domain. Microsoft Research are already supporting over 200 projects worldwide which are now exploring how Microsoft Azure can help in environmental science, machine learning, social sciences, life sciences, humanities, computer vision, urban computing, big data, streaming data and internet of things projects. They awarded 47 new projects in our April round of proposals and are looking forward to receiving new proposals. Please read the FAQ for extra tips and information on how to apply online..

For further information >>

'Performance of Water Utilities beyond Compliance' is a report published by the European Environment Agency (EEA) prepared in cooperation with WssTP, IWA , EWA , EUREAU, the European Commission, and benchmarking networks, which collectively represent approximately 70,000 utilities providing water for around 400 million people.

The data used in the report represents the water using habits of approximately 50 million people. Hans Bruyninckx, EEA Executive Director, said about the report: "There are few resources more vital than water. Despite huge improvements in the way we treat it, transport it and dispose of it, there are still severe environmental impacts. Water utilities can play a major role in making Europe's water use more efficient, so it would be good to have more data to compare their environmental performance."

The report aims to help the EU achieve its aims to use resources more efficiently. There is a lot of information on whether utilities and countries have complied with legislation, but less is known on the more specific details – how much water is wasted, how much energy is used in water treatment, and so on. Such information is useful to improve 'resource efficiency', a major policy goal in Europe.

Performance of Water Utilities beyond compliance Report >>

NERC and BBSRC invite proposals for both research and research translation projects to the first call of the Sustainable Agriculture Research & Innovation Club (SARIC).

Approximately £5m of funding is available for this call, divided between research grants (£3.5m) and research translation (£1.5m).

Proposals should address the first key challenge identified by SARIC industry members: Resilient and robust crop and livestock production systems.

The call for research translation proposals will close on 29 July 2014.

The call for research proposals will close on 11 September 2014.

For further information >>

On behalf of the programme funders, NERC is inviting applications from early-career researchers who wish to develop their understanding of Goal 1 of the Valuing Nature programme by developing their research expertise in a different discipline and addressing the aim of the Valuing Nature programme by improving our understanding and questioning of: i) the complexities of the natural environment in valuation analyses; ii) the wider societal and cultural value of ecosystems services; iii) the links between ecosystem stocks and tipping points; iv) how the values of ecosystem services change as tipping points are reached and exceeded; and v) critical levels of natural capital that avoid abrupt and damaging ecosystem change.

It is expected that up to three Fellowships may be awarded to support environmental researchers to develop social science (including economic) expertise, and for social scientists (including economists) to gain natural science expertise, in relation to these goals. Funds of up to £900k (80% FEC) are available in support of this call and applications are invited for proposals of a maximum of 36 months duration.

For further information >>