Innovate UK ‘AgriTech Catalyst round 8: agriculture and food systems innovation’ call is currently open, details can be found here.

The aim of this competition is to increase the pace of development and scale of uptake of agricultural and food systems technology and innovation in Africa by:

• farmers
• other food systems actors such as manufacturers, processors, retailers, distributors and wholesalers

Agriculture and food systems are changing rapidly, which has important consequences for diets. Uptake of new technology and innovation in this area is low in developing countries, particularly Africa.

Your project proposal must show benefits to African country agriculture and food systems in order to contribute to healthy, safe and nutritious diets. It must clearly demonstrate a research or innovation component.

The call mandates a maximum number of submissions for lead and partner organisations so we’re therefore are required to implement an internal demand management process.

If you’re interested in applying please could you complete the attached EoI form and email to jayshree.johnstone@ncl.ac.uk by COB on 26 April 2019.

IUK AgriTech Catalyst 8_Internal EoI

The NIHR has recently relaunched round 2 of its fellowship schemes. https://www.nihr.ac.uk/our-research-community/NIHR-academy/nihr-training-programmes/fellowship-programme.htm

Two schemes are now open to applications:

NIHR Doctoral Fellowship – https://www.nihr.ac.uk/our-research-community/NIHR-academy/nihr-training-programmes/fellowship-programme/nihr-doctoral-fellowship.htm

Deadline: 18/6/19 (1^st stage)

3 years’ support for 50-100% FTE

This Fellowship supports individuals to undertake a PhD in an area of NIHR research.

Clinical applicants are able to include up to 20% clinical time as part of the Fellowship, to ensure the maintenance of their clinical competence whilst undertaking the Fellowship.

NIHR Advanced Fellowship – https://www.nihr.ac.uk/our-research-community/NIHR-academy/nihr-training-programmes/fellowship-programme/nihr-advanced-fellowship.htm

Deadline: 4/6/19 (1^st stage)

2-5 years’ support for 50-100% FTE

This Fellowship will be at post-doctoral level and aimed at several specific points of a researcher’s career development. These being:

• individuals who have recently completed or about to be awarded a PhD but haven’t yet established themselves as independent researchers.
• individuals starting to establish themselves as independent researchers or those already established as independent researchers but not yet recognised as an international leader in their field.
• individuals looking to transition into applied health research from a basic science background
• those looking to re-establish their research career following a significant career break.

For Round 2 of the Fellowships Programme (opens April 2019), Partnerships Fellowships are available at the Advanced level with the following charity partners:

• Castang Foundation
• Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Charitable Trust
• Moorfields Eye Charity
• MS Society
• The Dunhill Medical Trust

Jointly funded Partnership Fellowships:

• allow researchers the opportunity to maintain and build a relationship with both the NIHR and Charity Partner.
• enable researchers to engage with and receive valuable input from patient groups, making the most of the public and patient engagement/involvement opportunities available.
• provide greater research exposure through a variety of media and communication channels.

Applicants interested in applying for a jointly funded Partnership Fellowship should contact the relevant charity partner to discuss their research area of interest before they apply.

NIHR Academy Strategic Themes

As part of the creation of the NIHR Academy, the following broad Strategic Themes have been identified which represent key priority areas for the NIHR Academy.

Applications received under these Themes will still have to meet the same quality threshold required for funding, but will be given priority if the number of fundable applications exceeds the maximum that can be funded.

The Themes are:

• Social care
• Public health
• Mental health
• Health data science

NIHR Themed Calls

In addition to NIHR Academy Strategic Themes, the Fellowships programme will also be participating in two NIHR wide Themed Calls, which were launched 1st October 2018.

They are:

1. Improving the outcomes of health and social care for frail people and their carers (Applications by default will also fall within the Social Care Strategic Theme highlighted above).
2. The management of chronic pain.

All applicants should discuss their applications with the RDS and their local Fellowship support.

Anyone wanting assistance with writing their application can also contact Gwen Averley and Darren Airey, NJRO.

Clinical applicants should contact the Clinical Academic Office for support.

Please ensure to read the full call guidance document found through the links above.

Direct link here: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/our-research-community/NIHR%20ACADEMY/Fellowships/Doctoral%20and%20Advanced%20Fellowships%20Round%202%20-%20Guidance%20Notes.pdf

20 June 2019, 4pm

ESRC/AHRC/WWCW Approaches to Understanding and Measuring Wellbeing

https://esrc.ukri.org/funding/funding-opportunities/approaches-to-understanding-and-measuring-wellbeing/

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), in partnership with the What Works Centre for Wellbeing (WWCW), are pleased to invite proposals for innovative research projects that focus on a wide range of methodologies and approaches to understanding and measuring wellbeing.

They welcome proposals that will look at a vast range of definitions of wellbeing, as well as different methodological approaches to the measurement of wellbeing.

This could include debate and comparative study around different understandings and views of ‘wellbeing’ in addition to investigating different methodologies to utilising data resources to inform the measurement of wellbeing in varying contexts.

The aim of this call is to fund a project that will consider a wide range of methodologies and approaches to the understanding and measurement of wellbeing in varying contexts, including but not limited to the following:

• Understanding and measurement of life satisfaction and its relationship to other measures of wellbeing (eg happiness, anxiety, mental health problems, social capital) and the appropriateness of this measure for different population groups (eg those with learning disabilities)
• Capturing/measuring the distribution of wellbeing across different populations (accounting for wellbeing inequalities, relationship between wellbeing and economic, social and political inequalities, measuring the wellbeing of future generations, indirect impact on the wellbeing of others)
• Exploring how macro-level goals for wellbeing can be translated to apply across multiple jurisdictions and policy areas eg the devolved nations as well as specific sectors and agencies
• Consolidating the understanding and measurement of wellbeing in different contexts to derive recommended frameworks with metrics (including at the community level, within the work context)
• Understanding wellbeing across the life course and identifying the significance of transition points, including the potential consequences and impacts of different life events.

Proposals should involve a diverse range of perspectives and disciplines from across the social sciences and the arts and humanities.

The successful team will be expected to work closely with the WWCW Hub and any existing research projects.

Applicants can apply for up to £550,000 (100%fEC) of which UKRI will contribute 80%.

They intend to fund one grant.

Applicants are invited to submit a full proposal via the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) System no later than 16:00 on 20 June 2019.
A shortlisting panel meeting will be held in June and interviews will take place in July.
Funding decisions will be communicated to applicants by the end of August 2019.
The successful grant must start by 15 November 2019.

Catherine Cookson Foundation

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/executive/office/responsibilities/CatherineCooksonFoundation.htm

The Catherine Cookson Foundation was set up by the generosity of the late Dame Catherine Cookson to support academic initiatives within the University.
It has been able to make a valuable and distinctive contribution through a wide variety of awards.
The Foundation is happy to consider applications from staff and students of the University.

An annual call for applications is made in the Spring Term for consideration by the trustees at an annual meeting in June/July each year, however, if there are funds available, the Vice-Chancellor and President is also happy to hear at any other time about possible projects requiring support and which meet the criteria below.

Small grants, normally in a range between £500 and £5000, are made on a one-off, non-recurrent basis to projects where the Trustees consider their intervention will make a significant difference between success and failure, and where there are no other obvious routes to obtain significant support.
See list of previous award winners to get a flavour of the type of projects that have been supported already.
Unfortunately the Trustees are not able to consider applications for PhD study or applications which are of a standard research grant format, the latter should be directed to the relevant research council.

The criteria used in selecting projects for support are, that they:

• should be of modest size;
• should be the type of activity in which Dame Catherine Cookson herself might have had an interest;
• should have no obvious alternative source of support, or be the sort of project where support from the Foundation could be pump-priming for other financial help;
• should have local interest;
• should be of benefit to students.

It is a condition of any grant that a final report on the project is submitted to the Trustees.
This should take the form of an A4 document, two pages in length, listing original objectives and saying to what extent they have been met together with a statement of how much was received from the Foundation and how it was spent.
If a final report is not forthcoming within a reasonable time, the Trustees reserve the right to request the return of the funds.

The closing date for the annual call for applications is 5pm on Friday 21 June 2019.

The application form is available here and should be made in the form of a single pdf document (combining application form, supporting statement and cv if appropriate) and submitted to Sam.Taylor1@ncl.ac.uk

CRUK-EPSRC Early Detection Innovation Sandpit and Award

https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/funding-for-researchers/our-funding-schemes/early-detection-innovation-sandpit-and-award

Deadline: 23^rd May 2019, Workshop held on 14 – 17^th July 2019

Amount: £100k

Duration: 1 year

In partnership with EPSRC, Cancer Research UK administers the Early Detection Innovation Sandpit and Award which aims to catalyse new multidisciplinary collaborations to drive forward earlier detection of cancer.

Their goal is to improve deployment of early cancer diagnostics to the population, recognising that the innovations made at this sandpit workshop will likely be upstream of clinical impact.

Applicants attend an intensive and interactive three-day residential workshop where they have the opportunity to:

• Network and form new collaborations spanning diverse research areas and organisations.
• Work in broad, multidisciplinary teams to generate new and innovative research ideas.
• Pitch projects for seed funding to test the feasibility of their ideas.

The theme for the July 2019 workshop is applying robotics and robotic technologies for diagnostic delivery and cancer early detection. Research ideas developed at the workshop should:

• Consider how robotic technology could aid in diagnostic delivery/guidance.
• Aim to minimise invasiveness of diagnosis (e.g. through localised imaging, real-time histopathology/biopsy).
• Improve speed and precision of the diagnostic workstream, simplify delivery, lower costs.
• Explore opportunities for both cancer detection and delivery of treatment, if necessary.

Applicants from a wide range of disciplines are eligible including those working in the fields of cancer biology, healthcare professionals, computer scientists, mathematicians and statisticians, engineers, physical scientists, and those working in the digital and technology space.

Applicants must be:

• Creative, open-minded, and able to work effectively as part of a team.
• Willing to engage with those working in other disciplines from a variety of backgrounds, and other key stakeholders.
• Able to attend all three days of the workshop  in Oxfordshire, 14–17 July 2019.
• Based in the UK.

Applications from those working in clinical technologies, control engineering, human-computer interaction, image and vision computing approaches which have not previously been explored in cancer detection and from people representing organisations (large or small) that will contribute new expertise and new thinking in early detection research are particularly welcome.

Accommodation and meals are provided for the workshop, as well as standard class travel costs.

Teams who successfully pitch proposals at the workshop will receive seed funding for one year to cover the costs of pilot/feasibility studies (up to £100K).

Please ensure to read the full call text and workshop specification available through the link above.

Belmont Forum Collaborative Research Action: Climate, environment and health – Improving understanding of climate, environment and health pathways to protect and promote health

https://mrc.ukri.org/funding/browse/belmont-forum/climate-environment-and-health/

https://nerc.ukri.org/research/partnerships/international/belmont/ceh/#xcollapse4

Deadline: 6^th May 2019, Expressions of interest

Amount: €10.59 million for up to 10-12 projects. UKRI has committed £3m to the total

UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) partners: NERC, MRC & ESRC are participating with international partner organisations through the Belmont Forum in a new collaborative research action (CRA) in ‘Climate, environment and health’.

12 funders from 8 countries.

Expressions of Interest for multilateral, inter and transdisciplinary research projects that will investigate where significant uncertainties exist that are barriers to action; address complex climate, ecosystem and health pathways to determine processes underlying causal links; and foster the use of scientific information and climate-related decision support tools to better inform planning and enhance resilience. Such research will improve understanding of the pathways between climate, environment and health to support resilience and readiness of the health sector to respond to climate challenges.

The following themes are within the call remit:

• food systems and nutrition
• heat and health
• climate-sensitive infectious diseases.

This is an international, transdisciplinary call for proposals with the aims to:

• foster global transdisciplinary teams of natural (including climate), health and social scientists and stakeholders to co-produce world-leading research;
• increase knowledge of the complex linkages and pathways between climate variability and change and associated impacts on the environment, on exposure pathways for health, and on human behaviour and well-being; and
• provide useful information, scientific evidence and effective tools to support policy and decision-making for planning across various timescales related to climate, environment and health.

The intended outcomes and impacts are to improve planning, preparedness and response to health impacts that are climate driven.

Additionally, research outputs should be used to target prevention, adaptation or development measures that provide significant population health benefits.

Projects should employ a transdisciplinary, stakeholder-based participatory approach across a wide range of relevant disciplines to co-design and co-deliver research that meets the needs of users and bridges the knowledge gaps of climate impacts on health, particularly in relation to under-studied environmental exposure pathways. Projects are not restricted in their geographic focus- applicants should justify their choice according to the research challenges and needs of stakeholders.  Projects that seek to address the knowledge gaps and challenges in LMICs are welcome.

This CRA call is a two-stage process:

Expressions of interest will be assessed for eligibility according to the transnational criteria and against the scope of the call.

Participating funding agencies will also verify suitability for national funding according to their respective criteria.

Expressions of interest which fail at this stage will be notified that they are ineligible to submit a full proposal (deadline 23^rd July).

Proposals must be eligible to receive funding from at least three participating partner organisations established in three different countries and should include researchers from the natural sciences (including climate), health/medical sciences, social and economic sciences or humanities, as well as societal partners (such as public health organisations and civil society organisations). Researchers from countries not supported by any of the partner agencies can participate in the research project at their own expense.

Further details on eligibility and how to apply are provided within the ‘call text’ on the Belmont Forum: Grant Operations website.

The EoI form and guidance is available on the BFGO site: https://bfgo.org/opportunity/index.jsp#ceh2019

Please ensure to read the full call guidance documents, accessed via the links above.

180525 UB19 RFA v10

Holly Davidson (RFDM, SAgE) and Craig Clark (ARFDM, HaSS) will be running RESEARCHconnect training sessions, starting on 14 May (details here).

Newcastle University subscribes to RESEARCHconnect, an extensive database used by staff to identify funding opportunities.

We are running training sessions to provide staff with:

• Knowledge of what RESEARCHconnect is
• An understanding of the importance and usefulness of using RESEARCHconnect
• How to find funding opportunities relevant to their research interests using RESEARCHconnect
• A demonstration of RESEARCHconnect
• How to use various bespoke aspects of RESEARCHconnect, including how to set up ‘saved searches’, which send latest funding opportunities direct to a user’s email address
• An opportunity to ask questions about RESEARCHconnect

The workshop programme consists of:

• An overview of what RESEARCHconnect is
•   A demonstration on how to use RESEARCHconnect
• A question and answer session

You can access further details and sign up by clicking here.

Anyone who cannot attend this event but would like to know about RESEARCHconnect can find a webinar here: https://internal.ncl.ac.uk/medical/research/grantguide/

If you are in FMS and do not have an account or have problems accessing your account, please contact Gwen Averley or Darren Airey.

2019-03-11_Turing-AI-Fellowships_Briefing-Note_F

This will be of interest to those working with AI in the Humanities and Life Sciences.

Please note the internal deadline is Sunday 17th and interested parties should contact elena.gorman@ncl.ac.uk to discuss their suitability and next actions.

A flyer is attached above with further details of the scheme and process.

The Alan Turing Institute recently launched its first call for Turing AI Fellowships. Approximately 3-5 Fellowships are available through this call.

To help us manage this activity within Newcastle University, I’ve produced a briefing note (attached). Please may you distribute this information however you see fit within your School/Department?

Key points to note are:

• The Turing has invited applications from disciplines including mathematical sciences, statistical sciences, computational sciences, and engineering, as well as life sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
• The University is able to support a maximum of 3 applications.
• The 3 shortlisted applicants will need to work with colleagues from the relevant faculties/schools to produce costings (please note the short timeframe for this).
• Each application must be accompanied by a letter of intent, to be signed by the head of the host school.
• The timeframes are very short (see the submission deadlines below).
• More details about the Fellowships are available in the Call Document and FAQs.

Key dates are:

Please see email below and the following web link: https://www.medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/grants/emergingleadersprize

The Medical Research Foundation invites applications for the 2019 Emerging Leaders Prize in antimicrobial resistance.

The Emerging Leaders Prize is intended to celebrate the achievements of outstanding researchers who have made an impact in their field and demonstrated their potential to be a research leader of the future. The prestigious prize will be awarded to recognise the work of up to five emerging research leaders who have made significant contributions to research on antibacterial and anti-fungal resistance.

This funding opportunity is now open and details can be found on our website: Emerging Leaders Prize Antimicrobial Resistance Application.

The Medical Research Foundation will award up to £200,000; a top prize of £100,000 will be awarded and smaller prizes of various amounts.

To apply, please see the guidelines for applicants and application form on our website.  The completed application and any queries should be sent to: research@medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk

Key dates:

Deadline for Submission: 12:00 Friday 31 May 2019

Interview and Panel Review: September 2019

Funding Decision: September 2019

Feedback on Funding Decision: October 2019

Please pass on to relevant department and interested colleagues.

This information has been sent to you following an online search for interested parties. If you do not wish to receive updates or information from the Medical Research Foundation about any of our funding calls in the future, please do let us know.