Visit to Edinburgh by UK European Health National Contact Point, 3rd June 2011

In the summer of 2011, the European Commission will launch its next calls under the Health theme of Framework Programme 7's Cooperation programme. To support applicants to these calls, the UK's National Contact Point for the EU Health theme, Victoria Brewer, will be visiting the University of Edinburgh on 3^rd June 2011. During her visit, Victoria will give a presentation on the future of the Health theme, advice on lobbying for call topics, and hints and tips on preparing proposals for the upcoming calls (HEALTH.2012). Victoria will also be available to meet briefly with individual researchers to discuss their planned funding applications.

Presentation details Date: Friday 3^rd June 2011 Time: 9:30-11:30am Venue: Lecture theatre A, Chancellor's Building, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (map http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/buildings/chancellors-building) Information on travelling to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh is available at http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/hospitals/InfirmaryMap.pdf Eligibility: Researchers and administrative staff with an interest in the Health theme. Please note that the Health theme does not provide funding for PhD students.

Booking: Please book via MyEd (http://www.myed.ed.ac.uk/ <http://www.myed.ed.ac.uk/>)or by contacting Emma Glior(emma.gliori@ed.ac.uk <mailto:emma.gliori@ed.ac.uk>; 0131 651 4055)

Details of individual meetings ('surgeries') Date: Friday 3^rd June 2011 Venue: Seminar room 4, Chancellor's Building, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (map <http://www.ed.ac.uk/maps/buildings/chancellors-building>).

Information on travelling to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh is available at http://www.nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk/hospitals/Infirmary_Map.pdf Eligibility: Researchers who are interested in making an application to the Health theme. Please note that the Health theme does not provide funding directly to PhD students.

Booking: Please email Emma Gliori (emma.gliori@ed.ac.uk <mailto:emma.gliori@ed.ac.uk>) to request a surgery slot, giving a brief summary of what you wish to discuss and any time between 1 and 3:15pm on 3^rd June that you are not available.

JISC Grant Funding Call for Projects in Developing Digital Literacies

JISC Innovation Programme: Call for Projects in Developing Digital Literacies

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) invites institutions to submit funding proposals for projects to support the development and implementation of institutional approaches to digital literacies across the entire workforce and including students.

Total funding of up to *£1,000,000 *is available for 10 to 12 two year projects funded at up to *£100,000 each*.

The deadline for proposals is *12 noon UK time on Wednesday, 8 June 2011.*

It is envisaged that bidders will be notified of the outcome of the evaluation process in the week commencing 4 July 2011.

The successful projects will be expected to start work mid July 2011.

The work is to be completed by 31 July 2013.

A briefing event will be held online via Elluminate on Thursday 12 May 2011 at 10 am. Further details are given in paragraph 4 of the call document (at link below).

*Eligibility*

Proposals may be submitted by HE institutions funded via HEFCE, SFC, HEFCW and DEL Northern Ireland, and by FE institutions funded via SFC, DCELLS Wales and DEL Northern Ireland. FE institutions in England that teach HE to more than 400 FTEs are also eligible to bid provided proposals demonstrate how the work supports the HE in FE agenda.

Further information can be found at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2011/04/grant411.aspx

JISC Grant Call 03/11: Digging into Data Challenge

Deadline for applications is *16^th June 2011*.

The Digging into Data Challenge is sponsored by funders in the UK, Netherlands, USA and Canada. The Challenge is targeted to the humanities and social sciences and aims to address the following four goals

- to promote the development and deployment of innovative research techniques in large-scale data analysis that focus on applications for the humanities and social sciences;

- to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers in the humanities, social sciences, computer sciences, library, archive, information sciences, and other fields, around questions of text and dataanalysis;

- to promote international collaboration among both researchers and funders;

- to ensure efficient access to and sharing of the materials for research by working with data repositories that hold large digital collections.

Projects have to be international -- you need to have teams from at least two of the four different countries funding the call. Funding is for 6-24 months, and you need to complete projects by 31^st January 2014. For the UK part of the project, funding of up to £100,000 is available (more if you involve more than one UK institution).

You can view examples of funded projects at http://www.diggingintodata.org/Home/AwardRecipients2009/tabid/175/Default.aspx.

Further information: JISC, the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), along with five international funding bodies, invite institutions to submit proposals for the Digging into Data Challenge. There is a UK specific addendum which can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2011/03/diggingintodata.aspx and should be read in conjunction with the main request for proposals available on the Digging into Data Challenge web site at http://www.diggingintodata.org/.

The deadline for receipt of final proposals in response to this call will be *23:59 (Greenwich Mean Time) on 16 June 2011*. Late proposals will *NOT* be accepted. Details of how to submit are in the main proposal.

Funding for eligible institutions in the UK is available for projects starting from January 2012 and lasting between 6 and 24 months. All projects must be completed by 31 January 2014.

*Eligibility *

Proposals may be submitted by HE institutions funded via HEFCE, SFC, HEFCW and DEL Northern Ireland, and by FE institutions funded via SFC, DCELLS Wales and DEL Northern Ireland. FE institutions in England that teach HE to more than 400 FTEs are also eligible to bid provided proposals demonstrate how the work supports the HE in FE agenda.

Other organisations eligible to apply for ESRC and AHRC funds are also permitted to act as lead institutions for Digging into Data proposals and details are below.

In addition to Higher Education Institutions funded by the four Higher Education Funding Councils, ESRC has recognised a number of organisations as Independent Research Organisations (IROs). See link below for the organisations and their eligibility to access directive or responsive modefunding: http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/research/Pages/Eligibilityforrcs.aspx.

A list of Independent Research Organisations recognised by the AHRC, and therefore eligible to act as lead institutions, can be found on the AHRC website: http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/tools-and-resources/research-reso urces/data-services/NDS/.

Marie Curie Fellowships - call now out

The latest Marie Curie Fellowships call is now out. The deadline for applications is 11th August 2011.

Marie Curie Fellowships are for postdoctoral research in any subject (not just cancer research - a common misconception). They pay your salary and other costs for up to two years. There is no specific cut-off in terms of experience, but applicants are usually fairly early on in their postdoctoral career. You don't need an existing academic job to be eligible to apply.

The most important characteristic of this scheme is that you have to move country. There are three ways in which you can do this:

* Move from one EU country to another. * Come from outside the EU into the EU. * Go from inside the EU to outside the EU (but come back for a year at the end - no running off forever to shiny America or sunny Australia).

Eligibility

You need to have at least a PhD or four full-time years of experience of doing research at an equivalent level. Nationality restrictions also apply in some cases:

* Moving from one European country to another: You can be any nationality to apply for an Intra-European Fellowship. However, you cannot have spent more than 12 months out of the last 3 years living or doing research in the country to which you wish to move. (Holidays and national service don't count in this 12 months.) * Coming from outside the EU into the EU: You can, again, be of any nationality - you just need to be coming from outside the EU. Again, however, the 12-months-in-3-years rule applies. * Going from within the EU to outside the EU: You need to either be a national of an EU country or to have lived and worked in the EU for at least the last 5 years (measured at the time of the deadline).

Returning from career breaks

A relatively new characteristic of the scheme is the 'career restart' option. This is open to people who had a research job for at least 12 months before taking their career break. 'Career restart' applications are considered under a separate panel to try and ensure equal opportunities.

Money

The scheme pays a salary, relocation costs (EUR 700 a month for someone without a family), and research and training expenses (EUR 800 a month).

Further information

* Call webpage (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.FP7CallsPage)

Software Development for Grand Challenges in the Chemical Sciences

Expression of interest: This joint EPSRC/NSF workshop will explore software development for Grand Challenges in the Chemical Sciences. Closing Date: 18-04-2011

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/open/softdevgrandchall/Pages/default.aspx

JISC call 01/11: Digital infrastructure

As you may have seen already, JISC issued call 01/11 "Digital infrastructure: Embedding usability & improving the uptake of resources & tools; & enhancing campus-based publications" towards the end of February. The deadline for applications is *30^th March 2011.

Funding of up to £500,000 is available for projects helping to embed usability within institutional practice, develop adaptable and learnable user interfaces for research tools and develop new publishing platforms.

Scottish institutions can lead on bids. Depending on the theme addressed, applications can be from single institutions and/or consortia. There is no stated limit on how many proposals a single institution can lead on.

More information is available at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2011/02/usability.aspx

Wolfson Research Merit Awards Call for Nominations

We would like to announce the latest call for nominations to the Wolfson Research Merit Awards scheme.

This scheme was established in 2001 to provide universities with additional funding to attract to this country or, retain here, scientists of outstanding achievement and potential.

The scheme, jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, has been hugely successful and we currently have approximately 200 award holders appointed across all the natural sciences and hosted at a range of UK institutions, including all Russell Group and a majority of the 1994 Group institutions.

We are looking to encourage nominations from science departments in your University to ensure the continued strength and competitiveness of academic science in the UK. The scheme should be attractive to those institutions looking for extra assistance in recruiting or retaining high calibre mid to senior career level researchers. We would particularly welcome applications from outstanding female researchers.

Please note that award-holders must hold a permanent post at the university at the time of starting the award and be wholly funded by the university. However, the post does not need to have been confirmed at the time the nomination is made.

The salary enhancement is usually in the range of £10K to £30K per annum. Universities should clearly be supporting nominees at a level commensurate with their experience and achievements. Research expenses are also considered for research costs not suitable for Research Councils' research grants applications and for overseas applicants to support integration into the UK research and funding environment.

The next deadline is 10th March 2011 and decisions will be made available by June 2011.

To discuss potential nominations please contact me on the following details (email: seniorfellowships@royalsociety.org<mailto:seniorfellowships@royalsociety.org> or telephone: 020 7451 2653). Further information is also available on http://royalsociety.org/Wolfson-Research-Merit-Awards/.

Donna Lammie Scheme Manager - Grants

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