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 reaching the end of the first year of the seventh of these (FP7) - which will invest around €50bn over the next seven years. This is R&D funding, complementary to the CIP (Competitiveness and Innovation Programme) which is about adoption and use of the results of research.

The third Call for Proposals in the ICT theme of FP7 has just closed. Good luck to all clients with proposals for this call. The next ICT call should open some time in November.

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 (OST's web-site for Framework Seven IST 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 DTI. Exploring the Innovation area of the DTI web-site requires a combination of patience and serendipity, but if you are interested, the link is given below and the key phrases you are looking for are:

The Technology Programme: The overall name for the funding channel in support of the UK's Technology Strategy
Collaborative Research and Development: Project funding for academic/commercial partnerships, organised into twice-yearly "competitions"
Knowledge Transfer Networks and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships: Partially-funded initiatives for knowledge transfer between commercial companies and universities and research centres
Grants for Research & Development: Grants for start-ups and smaller companies, in order to stimulate research (and development) that would not otherwise take place and encourage additional private-sector investment in the idea

Open the DTI Innovation, Research and Development 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.

Only develop proposals that have a strong "fit" with the funding programme
- understand what the EC is looking for
Build a strong consortium and develop a strong workplan
- with no evident weaknesses
Communicate your ideas clearly
- for a non-native reader of English

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

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
Health
Transport
Nano-science, Materials and Processes (NMP)
Security & Space
Energy
Food
Environment
Socio-economic research

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