SBRI Healthcare are pleased to announce that the next funding competition will launch on 24 June 2019. Companies and organisations are being invited to bid for funding to develop solutions to challenges in:

• Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), including the following sub-categories:
  • Detection and Prevention
  • Intervention and Invasive Investigations
  • Efficiency of CVD pathway

• Integrated Care and Social Care, including the following categories:
  • Improve effective data sharing system across the care network
  • Reduce social care workforce pressure

SBRI Healthcare is funded by NHS England to develop innovative products and services that address unmet health needs. Phase 1 is intended to show the technical feasibility of the proposed concept. The development contracts placed will be for a maximum of 6 months and up to £100,000 (inc. VAT) per project.

This Competition has been supported by the following AHSNs: Health Innovation Network South London, Innovation Agency AHSN for the North West Coast, South West AHSN and Health Innovation Manchester, but applications are invited from across England.  Briefing events with clinicians for interested companies will take place in London on 01 July 2019 and Manchester on 10 July 2019.

The deadline for applications is 14 August 2019 and details on the Competition and how to register to the briefing events are available on the SBRI Healthcare website.

Please use the SBRI Healthcare logo attached for your communications.

If you are planning to advertise this via Twitter, we would be grateful if you could use the following format if possible:

@SBRIHealthcare launches new competition for #CardiovascularDisease #SMEs http://bit.ly/1NH6q0b

@SBRIHealthcare launches new competition for #IntegratedHealthAndSocialCare #SMEs http://bit.ly/1NH6q0b

Please feel free to contact us (sbri@LGCGroup.com) if you have any questions.

BBSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC

Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Travel Grants – International Travel Award Scheme

https://bbsrc.ukri.org/funding/filter/2019-ecology-evolution-infectious-diseases-travel-grants/

Deadline: 30^th September 2019

Funding of up to £5,000 per award is available to help scientists add an international dimension by making and establishing contacts with international counterparts in the area of ecology and evolution of infectious diseases.

To help UK researchers develop transdisciplinary partnerships in ecology and evolution of infectious diseases research areas.

This scheme is open to proposals involving collaboration with the USA, China and/or Israel only.

Funding is available to support collaborative activities:

• To establish first contact type activities that require short-term travel support; and
• To allow researchers to travel outside the UK to initiate transdisciplinary collaboration and prepare transdisciplinary proposals with an intention to submit for the next Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases programme.

Funding is limited to travel and subsistence costs only.

UKRI reserve the right to curtail this scheme, should higher numbers of applications than anticipated be received.

Please ensure to read the scheme guidance notes available through the link above.

4 November 2019, 4pm

Centres of Excellence in Neurodegeneration (CoEN) 2019 call: Pathfinder 4

https://mrc.ukri.org/funding/browse/coen-2019/pathfinder/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
https://www.coen.org/call-for-proposals-2019.html

The Network of Centres of Excellence in Neurodegeneration (CoEN) is an international initiative involving research funders in Canada, France, Flanders, Germany, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Slovak Republic, Spain and the UK.

The overall aim of the initiative is to build collaborative research activity in neurodegeneration research across borders, focusing on adding value to the expertise and critical mass already established within national centres of excellence (CoE), in order to accelerate progress in understanding the mechanisms of disease as well as the identification of new therapeutic approaches.

The 2019 call for Pathfinder projects is being launched by six of the nine CoEN members:
•    ANR (France)
•    CIHR (Canada)
•    DZNE (Germany)
•    ISCIII (Spain)
•    MDS (Italy)
•    MRC (UK).

This Pathfinder call sets out to encourage the community to think “outside the box”, to stimulate new and unconventional approaches and creative solutions to the challenges of neurodegeneration research by undertaking high-risk/high-payoff research.

To maximise the potential for innovation, the scientific remit for Pathfinder awards is broad in scope from basic to clinical to health services and policies as well as to social aspects of neurodegenerative diseases.
Projects may include studies to illuminate our understanding of neurodegenerative mechanisms or create technological advances to support novel diagnostic or therapeutic approaches.
Projects using existing dataset to test innovative hypothesis are also welcome.
Connectivity with research in related areas, such as inflammation and sensory neuroscience, or vascular and mental health is encouraged, as is outreach to experts in the fields of physical and computational science or industrial partners within the consortium or foreseen follow up collaborations.

Within the remit of this call, neurodegeneration applies to:

• Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias,Huntington’s disease,
• Parkinson’s disease (PD) and PD-related disorders,
• multiple sclerosis,
• motor neurone diseases,
• prion disease,
• spinocerebellar ataxia,
• spinal muscular atrophy.

The type of neurodegenerative disease research to be supported include:

• cutting edge basic, translational and/or clinical studies;
• novel reductionist systems;
• innovative disease models;
• systems biology/medicine;
• proof of concept for new therapeutic approaches;
• supportive technological development.

It is expected that projects will combine the research strengths across CoEs in at least two partner countries to provide a true value-added collaborative effort that will advance our approach to neurodegeneration research.
Projects will address issues which would not readily be funded through the standard grant mechanisms of the CoEN partners, and it is expected that in addition to collaboration across CoEs, projects may also serve to provide a platform for future collaboration with industry.

N.B. Applications are restricted to joint bids from investigators within identified CoEs (a list of identified CoEs and eligible institutions for partner countries is available here: https://www.coen.org/fileadmin/Dateien/editors/COEN/Call_2019/National_CoEs.pdf).
Each CoE may have internal rules concerning which investigators are eligible to apply.

All bids must be submitted through the relevant CoE director, with the exception of Canadian and Italian applicants.

All applications must be accompanied by letters of support from the respective Director of each CoE included in the proposal who must verify the eligibility of researchers from their respective CoE and outline what contributions the applicant(s) make to the centre

The total funding available for this call is approximately £3.6 million (from six participating countries).
CoEN awards made through this call will be funded through national agencies supporting the relevant components of collaborative projects.
For UK-based activity, this funding will be provided by the MRC through the Neurosciences and Mental Health Board which has £1 million available to support successful UK groups.

The call and associated peer review will be administered by the MRC.
The closing date for submissions is Monday 4 November 2019 at 16:00 (GMT +1).
Applications will be assessed by an international scientific review panel in January 2020 and funding decisions will be communicated in March 2020.

For full details see the COEN website

https://www.coen.org/call-for-proposals-2019.html

4 September 2019, 4pm

MRC-AMED Infectious Disease Research Collaboration

https://mrc.ukri.org/funding/browse/mrc-amed-idrc/mrc-amed-infectious-disease-research-collaboration/

The Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) and the UK MRC are pleased to launch a call for proposals for UK-Japan collaborative research into infectious diseases.
This jointly funded initiative is aimed at fostering collaborative links between researchers in the UK and Japan.
Joint applications (by parallel submission) are invited from researchers based in the UK and Japan.

This call is particularly aimed at those who are in the early stages of their careers.
Therefore it is expected that applications will be made by eligible early career researchers or by established researchers who explicitly wish to encourage the career development of their postdoctoral researchers.
It is hoped that the partnerships established through these awards will lead to the development of long-term collaborative research programmes that will be competitive for international funding.

Specific objectives that underpin the UK-Japan research collaborative initiative in infectious disease are to promote:

• partnerships between UK and Japan investigators in fields of biomedical, health and clinical research
• the exchange of scientists, particularly early career scientists,
• knowledge or methodology exchange,
• complementary access to facilities / resources / equipment
• stronger opportunity for collaborative research and catalyse further synergy.

This call aims to support early career researchers develop fruitful international collaborations in the field of infectious diseases. Within this broad field we would particularly like to encourage applications which tackle the more challenging issues of infectious diseases including 1) priority viral outbreak pathogens; 2) research providing mechanistic insight into latency/persistence/resistance in infectious diseases; and 3) research exploring the host infection interface, particularly at key barrier sites eg blood-brain barrier.

Research areas of interest include:

• the pathogenesis of lethal viruses, such as the Ebola virus, Lassa virus, or tick-borne viruses
• mechanistic insight on latent and persistent infections
• exploration of host infection interface eg central nervous system infections by blood-brain barrier failure, transplacental infections or mucosal-gut barrier
• drug resistant pathogens
• development of new treatment measures, therapeutic agents, vaccines or therapeutic strategies concerning any of the above.

The use of novel strategies, computational/informatics using ‘big data’ and multidisciplinary approaches or advanced techniques within a project are encouraged but should be well articulated.

AMED and MRC will jointly provide bi-lateral support for up to 3 years to intensify productive collaboration in infectious disease research between UK and Japan’s leading researchers.

It is anticipated that 8 awards will be jointly supported and the total funding available to support these 8 projects over 3 years will be approximately £1.2 million = 180 million JPY (£600,000 from the MRC and 90 million JPY from AMED).

Each jointly planned UK-Japan project will receive a maximum award of £75,000 from MRC, plus 11.25 million JPY from AMED in total for the three year period (that is £25,000 MRC plus 3.75 million JPY AMED per annum, over the three year period.)

For full details see https://mrc.ukri.org/funding/browse/mrc-amed-idrc/mrc-amed-infectious-disease-research-collaboration/mrc-amed-guidance-for-applicants/

14 November 2019, 4pm              3 September 2019 (call opens)

pre-announcement of Second UKPRP funding call and information and networking event

https://mrc.ukri.org/funding/browse/ukprp2/second-call/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

Under the second call, they are looking to complement the current portfolio of UKPRP investment and anticipate proposals in the areas listed below.
The list is not exhaustive, and they welcome proposals outside of the areas provided that they complement the current portfolio.
See the first round UKPRP Consortium and Network awards here: https://mrc.ukri.org/news/browse/25-million-funding-awarded-to-leading-disease-prevention-projects/

• preventing poor mental health and promoting mental wellbeing
• reducing health inequalities (where this forms the primary focus of the application)
• social and economic determinants of health and wellbeing
• food systems, unhealthy diets and obesity
  (They are aware of existing research funding schemes on food systems and influences on diet. Given the importance of this research challenge, the UKPRP would welcome proposals addressing this area.)
• developing interventions in specific ages including on issues relating to ageing, and in occupational settings
• fostering the use of evidence in decision making in local government
• urban environment, including transport systems and air quality
• using green and blue space for improving population health and preventing NCDs
• using digital technologies and social media to deliver interventions, and exploiting large-scale datasets and linkage to routine datasets.

New knowledge and fresh approaches to preventing NCDs can be delivered more effectively through assembling expertise and insights across diverse academic disciplines and users (including policymakers, practitioners, the third sector, industry, the public) and by taking a complex systems approach. We are therefore keen to engage a range of disciplines, including those that have not traditionally been involved in NCD-prevention research, in the second funding round. We would welcome applications from research teams including expertise from outside of what is generally perceived as the public health arena: for example, engineers, geographers, architects, designers, systems scientists, transport planners, lawyers and linguists. Proposals could be led by researchers from these disciplines and/or be in partnership with disciplines typically involved in population health research but should be co-produced with users to deliver proposals that are relevant to policy and practice.

The application process will include outline and full proposal stages.
Applicants whose outline consortium proposals are selected for progressing towards the full application stage will each receive a Consortium Development Grant (CDG) which is a fixed-term (six month) award of up to £50,000 to build linkages between diverse consortium members and to co-produce research ideas and the full application.
Applicants whose outline network proposals are successful will each receive time (six months) to develop their initial network membership and full proposals detailing plans for building a new multidisciplinary community around their chosen NCD-prevention challenge.

An information and networking event will be held in London on 24 September 2019 to communicate the priorities of the second call, to describe the application process, and to provide opportunities for networking between researchers across academic disciplines and with end users to explore research collaborations.

They invite Expressions of Interest from both research academics and users to attend an information and networking event on 24 September 2019 about the UKPRP’s second funding call.
While attendance at the event will not be essential for applying to the call, they encourage you to submit your interest to attend.
Presentations and other materials from the event will be made available online to support all applicants in preparing their outline applications.

If you would like to attend this event, please submit an expression of interest form outlining your expertise and interests.
Please submit your expressions of interest and any queries to MRC.EventsandCommitteesTeam@mrc.ukri.org
​The closing deadline for expressions of interest is 25 July 2019.

8 November 2019, 5pm

Retina UK / Macular Society PhD Studentship

https://retinauk.org.uk/research/for-researchers/

Proposals must have direct relevance to macular dystrophies (preliminary application not required) .

There is one 3 year PhD studentship, up to £120,000, available.

There is no limit to how many applications one University may make.

The application form is available from the URL above, applications are to be emailed to grants@RetinaUK.org.uk

See the Retina UK Research Strategy here:

https://retinauk.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/103024-Research-Strategy-FINAL.pdf

and that for the Macular Society here:

https://www.macularsociety.org/sites/default/files/downloads/Macular%20Society%20Research%20Strategy%20April%202016.pdf

TRDF: Transformative Research Technologies

https://bbsrc.ukri.org/funding/filter/2019-tools-resources-development-fund/

Application deadline: 17 September 2019

Duration: 6 and 18 months duration

Amount: not expected to exceed £150,000 (£187,000 100% FEC), £3m budget for scheme.

The 2019 TRDF call aims to pump prime the next generation of cutting-edge enabling research technologies with the potential for transformative impact in life sciences research (both biological and biomedical).

It will support applications for early stage technology development and research into the development of novel techniques and technologies based on new advances in fundamental engineering, physical and life sciences that have the potential to enable transformative step changes in research capability.

A fast-track peer review process will operate to enable researchers to respond rapidly to emerging challenges and opportunities.

Scope

The aim of the call is to support the early-stage development of cutting edge, high-impact transformative research technologies based on new advances in fundamental engineering, physical and life sciences which are essential to sustaining the vibrancy of life sciences discovery research in the UK.

This call intends to support small and short ‘high risk/high reward’ pilot studies directed towards development of a new technology where little to no preliminary data exists.

The outcome of the application does not necessarily need to be a fully-fledged tool, but could be demonstration of proof-of-concept, or production of a prototype for further development.

The scheme is aimed at transformative technology development across a broad range of disciplines and to enable interdisciplinary collaborative working.

Projects may have relevance to core bioscience and/or Technology Touching Life (TTL), a cross-Council initiative to champion research at the interface between the scientific remit of UKRI-BBSRC, UKRI-EPSRC and UKRI-MRC.

Applicants are advised to contact the office to discuss their application and/or if they are unsure whether their application would fit the scope of the call (email address at bottom of this email).

Requirements

Applications are expected to focus on one or more of the following:

• Transformative technology development that has the potential to result in innovative and potentially disruptive new technological capabilities applicable to the life sciences. This includes technologies with potential broad utility across both biological and biomedical research communities, as well as technologies that may only have utility within one research community
• New advances in engineering and physical sciences research that aim to establish proof-of-concept with a clear trajectory towards a new life sciences research technology in the short term
• Radical innovation that has the potential to deliver a step change in current technological capabilities in aspects such as accuracy, precision, resolution, throughput, and breadth of application to facilitate new research discoveries
• New software tools and algorithms to address key data analysis challenges in life sciences research. These must demonstrate genuine innovation and originality.

All applications are expected to outline how the research might deliver a substantial improvement versus the current state-of-the-art applicable to the relevant field(s) of research and how the project could broadly enable new avenues of life sciences discovery research.

Applicants must also outline the extent of the potential impact outside of their own specific research programme.

Exclusions

Proposals in the following areas will not be accepted:

• Platform technologies that are generically applicable to multiple research domains, rather than life sciences research
• Applications with a focus on answering a research question instead of developing cutting-edge technology to do so. These applications could be better suited to Responsive Mode
• Incremental adaptations/improvements of technologies where previous proof-of-concept has already been demonstrated, including applications with existing technologies already in use for comparable areas of life sciences
• Medical/clinical devices (being developed for end-point clinical utility rather than basic research purposes) and Healthcare Technologies (including biomedical engineering for diagnostic or therapeutic application)
• Large scale infrastructure, or direct application of off-the-shelf technology to research.
• Community databases and data infrastructures. These applications could be better suited to the Bioinformatics and Biological Resources (BBR) Fund
• Technologies for translational applications. The focus for this call is on technologies for the discovery research community
• Applications that exceed the cost and/or duration limits described for this call (see below).

Applicants are strongly advised to contact development.fund@bbsrc.ukri.org if they are unsure whether their application would fit the scope of the call.

Please ensure to read the full call guidance notes and FAQ available through the link above.

Internal Expression of Interest for Round 4 of the UKRI Future Leader Fellowships is now open.

https://www.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/future-leaders-fellowships/

This cross-UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) scheme will support early career researchers and innovators with outstanding potential in universities, UK registered businesses, and other research and user environments including research councils’ institutes and laboratories.

The Future Leader Fellowship (FLF) scheme welcomes applications from both UK and international applicants and individuals should use the person specification to assess and justify their suitability. The support of the institution will be a critical component of all fellowships which will enable the fellow to transition to or establish their research/innovation independence in any area supported by UKRI.

The objectives of the scheme are:

• to develop, retain, attract and sustain research and innovation talent in the UK
• to foster new research and innovation career paths including those at the academic/business and interdisciplinary boundaries, and facilitate movement of people between sectors
• to provide sustained funding and resources for the best early career researchers and innovators
• to provide long-term, flexible funding to tackle difficult and novel challenges, and support adventurous, ambitious programmes.

These Fellowships support applicants from diverse career paths, including those returning from a career break or following time in other roles. Applications are encouraged from those wishing to work part-time in order to combine the fellowship with personal responsibilities.

The support offered will be long-term and flexible and will provide comprehensive package, including the fellow’s salary and justified research, staff and training costs, with seven years of support available on a 4+3 model, with a review in year four.

As per previous rounds, an internal selection process for nominations will be conducted.

The internal deadline is midday, 8^th July 2019.

Applicants must have the support of their School before applying. Please contact your Institute Director to discuss your application as soon as possible.

Candidates should submit the following:

1. A title of the proposed fellowship.
2. Identification of which Research Council remits the proposed fellowship aligns to.
3. The UKRI FLF CV template.
4. A list of relevant peer-reviewed research publications.
5. A statement on your primary area of research or innovation (up to 200 characters).
6. A statement on the research focus of the fellowship proposal (up to 2000 characters).
7. A detailed description of the 7-year programme of research (up to 4000 characters total) This should consist of a detailed description of the 4 year programme (3000 characters) and a description of activities in years 5-7 (1000 characters).
8. A description as to why the FLF is suitable for you, how will this fellowship change your career and where you see yourself at the end (up to 1000 characters).
9. Describe how you have previously demonstrated leadership skills and what steps you will take to become a Future Leader (up to 1000 characters).
10. An outline of your independent funding obtained to develop your ‘transition to independence’ and, if holding a tenured Faculty position, what full-time equivalent research time you have had in that post as well as what funding obtained to develop independence. Please note: if successful, Fellows’ full working time will be committed to these Fellowships. Fellows would not be expected to be spending more than in the region of six hours a week (pro-rated for part-time Fellows) on these other commitments (or undertaking up to two sessions a week in the case of Clinical Fellows) during the first two years of the Fellowship.
11. For administrative purposes only and to ensure you receive the appropriate support for the development of your fellowship proposal could you please answer the following questions:

• Does Newcastle University own the preliminary research results, data, process or technology (Background IP) that you wish to use as a basis for the research programme in the fellowship? [Yes/No]
• Does any element of the research programme involve NHS staff, NHS patients or NHS premises? [Yes/No]

Applications should be submitted to Dr Clare McCann clare.mccann@newcastle.ac.uk