[UK] Challenging Engineering - EPRSC
Challenging Engineering is a high priority for the EPSRC Engineering Programme,as it is specifically focused on providing funding and developmental support forengineering researchers at an early stage of their careers.
Up to £6 million is available for this call and we hope to fund up to 6
awards under Full Economic Costing (FEC) to support the development of a research group for a period of up to five years. Successful applicants will beencouraged to apply for other EPSRC grants.
Challenging engineering is now in its third year with two activities run in each of the previous years:
- Exploration Funding calls and Exploring the Future events
.
- Exploration funding has supported 11 projects and 12
individuals with large grants of up to £1 million to build their
research groups - Exploring the Future is an event to enhance the creative skills of 60 Engineers, improve their interactions with EPSRC and
support their career development
Exploration Funding is intended to:
Identify and support future engineering research leaders from an
early stage of their careers
- Put the focus onto individuals who show a high level of creativity in their research and plans to develop their research group, as an
alternative to specific project-based research proposals - Judge applicants on their vision, leadership, creativity and skills rather than track record
- Build an Exploration Group that will exploit creative research and
design based on the most recent discoveries in science, leading to
entirely new products, processes and services
Exploration will require outreach to other research groups with appropriate basic scientific expertise, enhanced national and international networking, and the establishment and maintenance of strong links with industry and users.These guidelines provide information about the Third Call for Exploration Funding under the Challenging Engineering Initiative.
The technical focus of this call is on increasing the creative linkage of engineering research to more basic mathematical, physical, chemical, biological and social sciences, as well as to end-users such as industry, so that novel
scientific and engineering research may stimulate even more and broader discoveries and their applications.
Challenging Engineering - Interfaces: Bringing Ideas to Life
EPSRC firmly believes that engineering research, coupled to the latest discoveries in science, can lead to important new knowledge and new, previously impossible, products and services that can benefit society. By providing support for researchers at an early stage of their careers, Interfaces: bringing ideas to life aims to:
- Support talented engineering researchers with the ability to:
- Rapidly develop innovative new research directions by interacting
with users and working with the basic sciences - Facilitate and develop relationships and collaborations between
engineers and mathematical, physical, chemical, biological and
social scientists, - Enable Exploration Groups to act as advocates for the Engineering & Physical Sciences by working with us to hold workshops or other events, and take a responsibility for the public engagement in such research.
How to Apply
Each university may submit up to two applicants against this call. Applicants must be eligible to hold an EPSRC grant and belong to a research organisation eligible to apply for responsive mode funding – see the EPSRC Funding Guide for eligibility of organisations and investigators.
Applicants should be within 10 years of completing their PhD and probably in their first university funded academic post. Applications are welcomed from candidates who wish to re-establish themselves in research after a career break or other
period of absence from active research. Enquiries about eligibility can be made through the contact below
Applications may include co-investigators if they are from a different discipline and are establishing a link with the basic sciences by participating in the project.
Your proposals should comprise a stand alone, eight-page case for support in the usual 2 plus 6 format, with signed letters of support from project partners where appropriate, and a letter of support from your Head of Department. You should also supply an additional one page justification of resources
You should submit your proposal using the Research Councils’ Joint electronic Submission (Je-S) System (https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk/). When adding a new proposal, you should select Council ‘EPSRC’, document type ‘Standard Proposal’ and the ‘Standard’ Scheme. On the Project Details page you should select the ’Challenging Engineering, Interfaces: Bringing Ideas to Life’ Call. Details of which Research Organisations have registered to use Je-S are available from http://www.pparc.ac.uk/jes/jes1/RODetails(Web).pdf.
Please remember to allow sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process between submitting your proposal to them and the Call closing date. EPSRC must receive your application by 4 pm on Thursday 1 March, 2007.
Guidance on the types of support that may be sought and advice on the completion of the research proposal forms are given on the EPSRC website(http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/ResearchFunding/HowToApply/default.htm) which should be consulted when preparing all proposals.
Assessment Criteria
Through a case for support and an interview applicants must demonstrate how they address the aims of Exploration Funding and Interfaces: bringing ideas tolife. Applicants should demonstrate:
Exploration Funding
- leadership and a long-term vision for their research group,
- evidence of the inter-personal skills required to manage a diverse range activities and to involve users and researchers in different areas,
- an appreciation of the role of creativity and adventure in their research,
- an interest in public participation in science, engineering & technology research.
Interfaces: bringing ideas to life:
- their plans to identify opportunities from new scientific discoveries and how they might be exploited,
- a willingness to look in new directions and to exploit knowledge from the basic sciences,
- a set of goals describing what they will have achieved by the end of the funding period.
- plans to actively seek applications of research outputs along with a clear process by which they will establish and maintain links with industrial users.
Management, Creativity & Risk
Your management arrangements will need to reflect the adventurous nature of your proposal providing room for creativity while identifying and managing risk
Industrial & User Outreach
To reflect the importance of applicability of research outputs to users, letters of support from established or potential industrial partners should be included where appropriate. The case for support should also make clear your processes to involve users or industry during the term of the Exploration Funding. Normally, a one page diagrammatic workplan is required. For this call, you are free to decide whether or not this is the most appropriate way of explaining your management plans
Institutional Support
Proposals should be accompanied by a letter of support from the university. This should describe what commitment the university is making to the development of the Exploration Group, why they are choosing to support this application and how they made the selection.
Given the level of support from EPSRC, it is expected that this letter will indicate a long-term strategic level of support from the university and a commitment to the career of their nominee and their research group.
The commitment of the university to support the applicant will be a major factor as to whether the applicant is invited for interview or not.
Assessment
Applications will be short-listed by a panel of peers. Up to twelve short-listed applicants will then be invited to an Exploration Day, which will consist of presentations by the applicants and an interview with a panel of experts & users. Short-listed candidates will have the chance to respond to comments by the panel
prior to interview at the Exploration Day. Further guidance on the Exploration Day will be provided to the short-listed applicants.
EPSRC Contacts
If you have any enquiries about this call please contact:
Dr Katie Finch
Associate Programme Manager
Engineering Programme
katie.finch@epsrc.ac.uk
01793 444097
or
Dr Mark Hylton
Associate Programme Manager
Engineering Programme
mark.hylton@epsrc.ac.uk
01793 444277
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