Monthly Archives: October 2019

Call to Attend Workshop on Adolescence, Mental Health and the Developing Mind

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The MRC, AHRC and ESRC have launched a Call for Expressions of Interest to attend a workshop on
Adolescence, Mental Health and the Developing Mind on 22 November 2019.

Expressions of Interest to be submitted by 31 October 2019
This workshop will launch a major new cross-council partnership in Adolescence, Mental Health and the Developing Mind which will support multidisciplinary research and innovation in an area of strategic importance aligned with UK government policy research priorities. The programme will be jointly delivered by the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Activity supported through this programme will help to provide a better understanding of how genetic, physiological, psychological, social and cultural factors across the life course shape the adolescent mind; of how they interact to influence, both positively and negatively, lifelong mental health, educational attainment, identity, social relationships and behaviour; and of the key concepts and values involved in these explanations, such as mental health/illness and autonomy. Research will address complex, multifactorial problems that cut across a number of policy domains, requiring engagement of wide-ranging stakeholders and active coordination. This integrated approach is intended to generate better interventions to promote good mental health; accelerate translation of research into policy and practice in education, healthcare and other public services; promote young people’s life chances; and strengthen young people’s involvement in research and innovation.

To launch the programme the research councils will be holding a facilitated workshop to engage the breadth of relevant research communities and stakeholders, communicate their ambitions and forge new multidisciplinary networks.
The workshops will consist of a mixture of presentations from UKRI, keynote talks, stakeholder engagement and knowledge exchange, opportunities to meet other researchers and facilitated discussions of key challenges and opportunities for research. The research councils intend to:
• Communicate the scope and ambitions of this initiative
• Foster cross-disciplinary networking and knowledge sharing
• Facilitate interactions with key stakeholders, including policy makers, health, social care and education sectors, young people, carers and those with lived experience of mental health problems
• Explore research and methodology challenges, including opportunities for innovation and novel approaches.

Those who wish to attend a workshop must complete an expression of interest form by the deadline of 31 October 2019 (16:00).
Venue to be confirmed (London or Birmingham)
Applicant will be notified of outcome of EoI on 8 November 2019
Places are limited to approximately 100 attendees.

If anyone applies and gets a place on this workshops, I’d be grateful if you could let me know (lorraine.smith@ncl.ac.uk)

ESRC New Investigator Grants – Next Internal Panel November 2019

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ESRC – Call specification

ESRC – FAQs

ESRC – Jes guidance

Newcastle University – ESRC New Investigator Grants

The next internal panel to consider applications to be submitted to the ESRC New Investigator Grant scheme will meet in November 2019.

New Investigator Grants form one element of ESRC’s support for early career researchers and the scheme is specifically aimed at supporting those looking to make the transition to an independent researcher through managing their first major research project. Full details can be found on ESRC’s website at: https://esrc.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/new-investigator-grants/

The call is open to high-quality candidates from anywhere in the world who have a maximum of four years’ postdoctoral experience and the support of an eligible UK research organisation. Grants ranging from £100,000 to £300,000 full Economic Cost (fEC) can be awarded, with grants between 3 and 5 years.

The call is open to applicants both with and without a permanent academic post, but they must have strong support from a host UK institution. This includes a mentor, and provision of career development support which includes a programme of activities tailored to the needs of the applicant covering project management, methods development, KE activities and impact training, and international networking.

Proposals are welcomed across the full disciplinary range of the social sciences and at the interface with the wider sciences, however the social sciences must represent at least 50 per cent of the research focus and effort.

Following the previously agreed protocol (see the attached paper), all applications to be submitted to this scheme will go through an internal selection panel. Candidates are required to submit a 6 page case for support (following ESRC guidance), a 2 page pathways to impact, a 2 page CV and a 2 page mentor CV. Applications must have full support of the Research Director and Head of School to be put forward to the internal panel.

All documents for the panel should be submitted to Wendy Davison (wendy.davison@ncl.ac.uk). The deadline for submission of documents for the internal panel is 12pm (noon) on Friday 1st November 2019. Applications submitted after this deadline will be required to submit to the following panel (March / April 2020).

Attached is the current most up to date guidance.

Anyone who is interesting in applying can contact Gwen Averley, Lorraine Smith, or Darren Airey for support and guidance.

Butterfield Awards in Medicine and Health 2020

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Butterfield Application Form

2020 Butterfield Referee Report Guidelines

2020 Butterfield Awards Criteria

We are writing to let you know that we are once again inviting applications for grants in medicine and health under our Butterfield Award Programme.

The principal intention of the programme is to enable researchers, practitioners, policy makers and voluntary sector workers in Japan and the UK to share experience and advance knowledge and good practice, and to facilitate UK-Japan professional exchanges and small-scale collaborations.

Applications can be in any relevant field of medicine and health. Projects in the economics and management of healthcare, public health and the interface between medical and social care are particularly welcome.

Grants are not available to fund laboratory consumables and equipment nor for the purely clinical costs of joint research projects but are intended, for example, to help towards travel and living expenses of such research collaborations, or towards seminars, conferences, workshops or publications.

Further background information is attached, and for examples of the kind of projects that have received our funding, our Annual Reports list Butterfield awards made each year and provide examples of the kind of projects that have received our funding in the past. These Reports can be viewed on our website www.gbsf.org.uk, where you can also download the Butterfield Programme application form: http://www.gbsf.org.uk/grants/butterfield-awards-in-medicine-and-health/

The deadline for applications is 15th December 2019 for projects beginning no earlier than 31st March 2020.

Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require clarification of the procedures, the award criteria, or should you wish to discuss with us the eligibility of a particular project. Please note that proposals that do not fulfil our special Butterfield Award criteria may still be eligible for funding under our regular programme of grants within the medicine and health category. You may apply to the regular programme, on our standard application form, should you consider your project unsuitable for a Butterfield Award.

UKRI Citizen Science Exploration Grant – public engagement

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Call open: 1 October 2019 – 12 November 2019

Please could those who are interested read the call guidance documents available on the website: https://www.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/citizen-science-exploration/

Citizen science can potentially add value to a project, yet embedding citizen science methods into the routine way that science is done requires capacity building approach. Therefore, UKRI is offering the opportunity to apply for up to £20,000 to allow researchers to develop pilot projects to build citizen science capacity into their work.

Up to 20 successful application will be awarded but these projects must be conducted between 16 December 2019 and 30 April 2020. Potential successful projects (but not limited to) might include:
• Exploring options for crowdsourced data collection
• Small pilots to test whether working with volunteers to analyse existing datasets can add value to the project
• Open/inclusive innovation – exploring options for companies and research to involve those who will benefit from the research in the development and testing of products
• Collaboration with communities to test approached to co-designing research questions
• Digital innovation pilots in citizen pilots in citizen science, with a focus on testing or extending the functionality of existing tools
• Exploring innovative approaches that focus on removing the barriers to public participation in research such as overcoming the challenges of volunteer management

To develop such project, successful applicant will be expected to undertake activities such as capacity building work, small proof of concept pilots, and or collaborative workshops to explore project ideas, data sources or volunteer opportunities.

Eligibility
• Lead applicant must be an active UKRI grant holder (active grants are classified as any UKRI grants that are ongoing between the date of application and 16 December 2019)
• Non-UKRI grant holders may participate in this grant if they are partnering with a lead applicant who is an active UKRI grant holder
• Applicants should be undertaking research that is related to one of UKRI’s key strategic areas of research and innovations
o Digital economy
o Energy
o Global Food Security
o Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance
o Technology Touching Life
o Urban Living Partnership

For further information on this call please see UKRI’s website

Pre-announcement of call and Expression of interest for workshop participation closes: 13th October 12:00pm

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13 October 2019, 12:00pm
BBSRC-led UKRI call: Transforming the UK food system for healthy people and a healthy environment call and workshops
https://bbsrc.ukri.org/funding/filter/transforming-the-uk-food-system/
https://mrc.ukri.org/funding/browse/spf-food-system/spf-food-systems/

UKRI will shortly announce a call for research to fundamentally transform the UK food system, by placing healthy people and a healthy natural environment at its centre.
Proposals will be invited for interdisciplinary consortia to take a food systems approach, linking healthy and accessible diets with sustainable food production and supply to help drive food system transformation.

This challenge will require collaboration across multiple disciplines, for example agri-food, environmental, nutritional and social sciences (including expertise in soil science, crop and animal production, aquaculture, biodiversity and ecosystem services, systems engineers, data science, agricultural economics, food science, food manufacturing, food markets, nutrition, biomedical and clinical science, epidemiology, economics, behavioural, social and political science). It will also require collaboration with multiple stakeholders, for example government, industry and civil society.

This programme will address health, environmental and social challenges simultaneously, and will bring together researchers and stakeholders to provide evidence for multi-pronged and simultaneous action across the food system.

This is the first call of a wider £47.5 million interdisciplinary research programme led by the Global Food Security Programme (GFS) and supported by UKRI’s Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF).
The call is administered by BBSRC, and partners include ESRC, MRC, NERC, Defra, Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC), Public Health England (PHE), Innovate UK and Food Standards Agency (FSA).

Workshops
Two workshops will be held to communicate more details about the research call and facilitate networking.
Attendance at the workshop is not mandatory for applicants to the research calls.

• Manchester (city centre) Monday 21st October
• London (central) Friday 25th October
Workshops will run from 10:30 – 16:30 on both days.

Expression of interest for workshop participation closes: 13th October 12:00pm

Attendance will be confirmed by: 15th October (Manchester event) and 17th October (London event)

How to apply
• To express your interest in attending one of the workshops please complete the key survey at https://app.keysurvey.co.uk/f/1438509/109e/
• With limited space available, UKRI reserve the right to manage attendance to ensure an appropriate balance of expertise and institutional representation.
• Attendees are encouraged to get in touch to discuss accessibility or attendance needs.

If anyone applies and gets a place on one of these Workshops, I’d be grateful if you could let your Research Funding Development Manager (RFDM) gwen.averley@ncl.ac.uk know.