18ALERT: Mid-Range Equipment Initiative
https://bbsrc.ukri.org/funding/filter/2018-alert-mid-range-equipment-initiative/
Deadline: 25th October 2018
Amount: Equipment over £200k including VAT. Total budget = £10m.
Duration: 12 months
Applications for mid-range equipment costing over £200,000 including VAT must enhance the capability of the UK research base in areas of science in BBSRC remit.
Applications will typically be from groups of researchers in one or more eligible institutions, for instrumentation to be deployed on a multi-project/multi-use basis.
Consideration of the broader impact the purchase of the equipment will enable is an essential part of the assessment process and should be addressed accordingly in the application.
BBSRC encourages:
- applications for equipment that is widely used and underpins capability in the priority areas in their Strategic Plan (although the call is open to all scientific areas within remit)
- applications that seek to pioneer the use of emerging advanced research technology
- applications that seek to utilise equipment in novel applications.
Collaboration and wide access to the instrumentation to users within industry, public sector and other research organisation is highly encouraged.
To encourage sharing the arrangements for managing access to the equipment and the prioritisation of its use should be fully described.
Award holders will be expected to put arrangements in place for providing advice and support to others wishing to assess the potential of the technology for their own research.
Value for money will be an important factor in assessment. Consequently, whilst contributions from the host institution(s) and/or other external sources are not mandatory, they are strongly encouraged and should be directed towards commitments to staff posts for the running and maintenance of the equipment, as well as for the training of users (where applicable). Please note that support for multiple items of equipment that could be funded individually or in clusters on research project grants are not eligible and will be rejected.
The 18ALERT call is for capital funding only. Applications that request any other costs apart from capital funding will be rejected.
Applicants are asked to provide details of the institutional environment into which the equipment will be integrated (for example existing facilities and related equipment, housing, technical and scientific support staff, plans for on-going management and maintenance of equipment).
There are no limit to the number of applications per HEI but Investigators can only submit one application as PI, although the can be part of a consortium while being PI in another application.
A research organisation may submit more than one application; however we encourage research organisations to discuss and prioritise their submissions given the limited budget available.
Three quotations are required where the cost of the equipment exceeds the OJEU threshold (£115k net of VAT and import duty, £138k incl. VAT).
Please inform Gwen Averley (gwen.averley@ncl.ac.uk) and Darren Airey (darren.airey@ncl.ac.uk) if you are thinking of applying to this call.
Please also discuss this with the Facilities Manager most likely to host the equipment as this is the usual route preferred by BBSRC.
Please ensure to read the full call summary (webpage) and guidance notes (pdf) available through the link above.