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neil@neilsandford.co.uk

Last updated: 03/02/2010

Support for Research and Development

Neil offers extensive experience of the way national and European research funding works, having contributed to the development of new funding programmes and the evaluation and review of proposals for funding.

Link: Proposal writing

Link: Outline of FP7

Link: Partnering

Link: Publications

Funding opportunities for research through the EC

Research Framework

The European Commission organises its support for research and development into multi-annual "Framework" Programmes. We are in the seventh of these (FP7) - which will invest around €50bn by 2013. This is R&D funding, complementary to the CIP (Competitiveness and Innovation Programme) which is about adoption and use of the results of research.

There are open calls for collaborative research proposals in the Energy and ICT themes.

Link: Outline of FP7

There are web-sites at the national and European levels that carry some information about the plans for FP7:

Open the CORDIS FP7 page in a new window

Open FP7UK (The UK's web-site for Framework Seven Research) in new window .

National research funding

Universities receive much of their funding through Research Councils. What is less well-known is that there are schemes for private sector researchers as well - mostly though the Technology Strategy Board. Exploring their web-site requires a combination of patience and serendipity, but if you are interested, the link is given below :

Open the TSB Competitions page in a new window

Proposal writing

Services offered to bidding consortia include proposal pre-evaluation and facilitation of consortium-building workshops. The selection process for funding proposals is highly competitive and Neil is well placed to help you improve your chances of success.

Link: More information about services for proposal-writers and EC-related training courses.

Link: More information about the "instruments" (contract types) available for Framework Seven.


Outline of Framework Programme Seven

FP7 consists of five types of activity under the following headings:

Cooperation
Aimed at supporting cooperation between universities, industry, research centres and public bodies across the European Union and throughout the world in areas of research, development and demonstration.
Ideas
Frontier research or "unpredictable and spectacular discoveries" releasing funding to teams of basic researchers (not consortia of partners) under the direction of a European Research Council.
People
Grants to enable people to embark on scientific careers and to retain and attract high quality researchers in europe, otherwise known as Marie Curie grants.
Capacities
Activities to develop and enhance the European Research Infrastructure, support for SMEs to outsource research and initiatives targetting specific regions and peripheral areas of the EU.
Joint Research Centre
Continued funding for Europe's "central" Research body.

Collaborative research

The most significant strand of FP7 is Cooperation with 65% of the budget. This in turn breaks down into nine themes in line with EU policies, with budgets ranging from €9bn down to €600m. Follow the link below for more information about the largest of the themes, ICT

Link: The ICT Theme


Partnering

Neil has co-authored guidance on "Partnering within Framework Programme Six IST Projects" with Charles Stubbs of ISTARIS.

Link: Further information and document download.

Consortia can also benefit from a boilerplate Memorandum of Understanding produced by Neil in conjunction with Jonathan Riley of Lawrence Graham Solicitors (Jonathan.Riley@lawgram.com)

Link: Download Word document (110Kb)


Publications

Neil has developed and delivered support materials commissioned by the Dept of Trade and Industry on locating the right area of Framework for your proposal, the evaluation process, proposal writing, exploitation of results and, more recently, on effective partnership.

The material on evaluation of proposals was turned into a highly popular roadshow event, "Surviving the Evaluation Process" delivered through promoters such as Innovation Relay Centres in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

More recently, he has produced a set of ten case-studies of the business benefits of collaborative research, published by DTI

Links: CDT ¦ Elysium ¦ in4tek ¦ KAJ-ISIS ¦ LaserScan ¦ Leslie Group ¦ Lumio ¦ OptionExist ¦ Televirtual ¦ Tunstall

See also: Usability - why Putting People Before Computers? ¦ Cultures - Why people from some countries get on better with us than others