Applied Collaborative Research Award
Aim of the awards
The programme seeks to seed a number of collaborative research projects between academics in southern England and Southern California and develop valuable lasting relationships between academics and deliver real benefit in terms of research excellence and exploitation.
These collaborations are expected to harness the combined expertise and unique assets of our Institutions, to accelerate the flow of innovative technology and processes through to the market for the benefit of both regions.
The programme will fund travel awards and workshops to stimulate interaction between academics and will also fund larger bid development awards to enable researchers to build robust collaborative bids to research funding organisations.
Discipline Focus
The May 2006 programme launch trip involved 10 senior academics and 6 research support staff from the SETsquared Universities attending over 100 meetings with academics at UCI and UCSD. The recommendations from the visit were discussed at a subsequent SETsquared Board meeting and it was agreed that the majority of pogramme resource should be focused on developing opportunities in three areas:
i) Bio-engineering and Stem Cells
ii) Wireless
iii) Sustainable Environments
It was felt that these areas provided most tangible opportunities for long term collaborative applied research success between the six institutions. Other PI to PI collaborative opportunities were also identified beyond the three themes and therefore it was also agreed that some limited funds should be made available to encourage collaboration outside the sub themes.
Researchers from each of the Universities have been selected to champion each sub theme through a steering group:
i. Bio-engineering and Stem Cells Steering Group:
- University of Bath Julian Chaudhuri
- University of Bristol Anthony Hollinder
- University of Southampton Richard Oreffo
- University of Surrey Alan Dalton
- UCSD Andrew McCulloch
- UCI Peter Donovan
Jenni Solbe of University of Bath’s Research and Innovation Services team will be the chief coordinator of the sub theme.
ii. Wireless Steering Group
- University of Bath Peter Johnson
- University of Bristol Joe McGeehan
- University of Southampton Lajos Hanzo
- University of Surrey Barry Evans
- UCSD Pamela Cosman
- UCI Gene Y. Tsudik
Phil Costen of University of Surrey’s Research and Enterprise Support team will be the chief coordinator of the sub theme.
iii. Sustainable Communities Steering Group
- University of Bath Gary Hawley
- University of Bristol Nishan Canagarajah
- University of Southampton George Attard
- University of Surrey Ravi Silva
- UCSD Paul Linden
- UCI TBC
Nick Smailes of SETsquared will be the chief coordinator of this sub theme.
Awards
International Travel Awards are available for a fixed amount of £1,750 to cover the costs of travel, subsistence and accommodation. Travel awards will enable initial or accelerated relationship building with the aim of bringing about applied collaborative research between researchers at our respective Universities.
Bid Development Awards are also available for up to £20,000. These are likely to cover such activities as bid writing, project management, bid coordination, short secondments and bid related travel. While the majority of these awards are for bid development a small amount will be available for limited proof-of-concept work, especially where a concept is being developed for industry collaboration. Around eight bid development awards will be made a year. Only bids generating funding for applied research will qualify e.g. the research has potential commercial application or is close to commercialisation.
Qualifying projects will contain the following:
one or more researchers from SETsquared universities
AND one or more researchers from UCI and/or UCSD
AND one or more industrial partners (that may be based anywhere)
or
one or more researchers from SETsquared universities
AND one or more industrial partners based in Southern California.
AND (optionally) industrial partners (based anywhere)
or:
one or more researchers from SETsquared universities
AND one or more academics from UCI and/or UCSD
Bids including more than one researcher from SETsquared Universities will be viewed favourably.
Where appropriate, projects can include academics from other Universities outside the SETsquared Partnership, UCI and UCSD.
Examples:
- Building on existing collaborative research between SETsquared Universities and Southern Californian Universities where commercial partnership is now appropriate.
- Integrating industry or researchers from Southern California into existing academic-industry collaborative research programmes. The programme would seek appropriate industrial companies based in Southern California and/or UCI or UCSD academics to participate in existing academic-industry collaborative research programmes operating in South England such as the 3CR and MobileVCE programmes.
- Introducing industry or researchers from Southern England to existing Southern California collaborative research programmes. By identifying collaborative research programmes that already exist in Southern California and, where the programmes constitutions allow, brokering introductions to these programmes for SETsquared university researchers, and/or corporates based in Southern England. E.g. Cal IT2.
- Seeding new applied research programmes by targeting SETsquared university academics already involved in applied research and seeking to link them to appropriate academics in Southern California or targeting UCI or UCSD academics already involved in applied research and seeking to link them to appropriate academics from South England.
Details on the application process and application form.
