Research Fortnight - 14/10/2015

Updated daily at www.ResearchProfessional.
com
Founded by William Cullerne Bown
14 October 2015
Climate finance: $40bn needed

for success in Paris - p4
British Academy Meet the new head p6

Nudge czar David Halpern is the most
influential researcher in Whitehall p22
BIS gets to work on its

2020 vision
BIS consults unions, but Johnson too busy to meet scientists

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has
begun implementing its BIS 2020 reform programme.
In future all applications for grants from the research
councils and the Higher Education Funding Council for
England will be offered through a common digital platform. The website is understood to be in the first stages of
construction. The decision to develop it was announced
at a closed meeting with unions on 6 October.
Also discussed was a plan to cut more than 4,000 of
the 12,000 jobs at BIS and its partner bodies. Job losses
are expected to take place in two to four years time.
As far as possible, compulsory redundancies are to be
avoided, Research Fortnight understands, and instead,
staff will be invited to leave under a voluntary scheme.
The reform programme will involve collapsing the
departments sites from 80 to just seven or eight centres of excellence and cutting by more than half the
45existing partner organisations.
The meeting was attended by senior BIS officials
and representatives of two trade unions: the First
Division Association, representing top civil servants,
and the Public and Commercial Services union. No
institution representing researchers was present.
Jennifer Rohn, a University College London cell
biologist who set up Science is Vital in 2010, says her
groups only contact with BIS has been a letter from
the science minister Jo Johnson saying that he was
too busy to meet. We never had this problem with
[former science minister] David Willetts, Rohn says.
Acting director of the Campaign for Science and
Engineering Naomi Weir says, The lack of transparency makes it look as if there is something to hide, and
that makes everybody very nervous.
The meeting was chaired by Howard Orme, BISs
director-general for finance and commercial. Also in
attendance were Gareth Davies, director-general for
knowledge and innovation, and Philippa Lloyd, director-general for people, strategy and higher education.
A negotiator at the union Prospect says that scrapping the number of sites to just seven or eight could
lead to a loss of expertise and many employees would
rather quit than be relocated. What is it going to hap-
by Cristina Gallardo
cgnews@ResearchResearch.com
pen to those who dont live within travelling distance

of the seven centres of excellence? Some of these
organisations have scientists and specialists. Weve
seen in the past that when other organisations have
relocated all their experienced staff have left and that
had a massive impact on their work, the source says.
Last week the chief executives of the research councils met for an all-day session. According to a source
close to the discussions, one scenario they considered
was how they would prepare for a merger into a single
research council. Another source said the prospect
of BIS leaving the seven separate research councils
untouched was minimal.
I just cant see the department continuing with
them doing things in their own way. Even if they harmonise the grant aspect of it, I cant see them leaving
all the rest alone, the source says.
David Walker, head of policy at the Academy of
Social Sciences and a former council member of the
Economic and Social Research Council, says that merging the seven councils may require primary legislation
[see View, page 20]. The Science and Technology Act
1965 stipulates that the research councils should
exist, Walker says, so chopping and changing them
could involve parliament, an option that Whitehall
ministers are said not to favour due to the slim
Conservative majority.
Kieron Flanagan, a senior lecturer in science and
technology policy at the University of Manchester, is
less sure. Previous rearrangements of the research councils have not needed to go through parliament, such as
merging two councils to create the
Every new opportunity
Science and Technology Facilities
for research funding
Council, and the creation of the Arts
from every sponsor in
and Humanities Research Council.
the UK, EU, US & beyond
Flanagan says BIS could potentially absorb functions carried out by
Every discipline
the research councils by issuing what
Every fortnight
Continued on page 4
IssueIssue
No. 465
No.
2 editorial
Research Fortnight, 14 October 2015

Edited by Ehsan Masood
news@ResearchResearch.com
Tel: 020 7216 6500
Fax: 020 7216 6501
Unit 111, 134-146 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3AR
Back to the future

Sajid Javid wants to take us back to the 1980s
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills intends to reduce its
annual operating costs by 350 million. It says it will do this by cutting
the number of partnership bodies in half and by reducing the sites on
which they operate from 80 to eight.
It is looking increasingly likely that this will entail some form of merger
between the research councils. The future of Innovate UK looks wobbly, too. Higher education will be reformed, with draft legislation due in
the coming weeks that will almost certainly mean a different role for the
Higher Education Funding Council for England, along with its oversight
of quality-related research funding.
The pace and the scale of change are unprecedented in recent times.
The paradox is that what is about to happen goes against Conservative
practice in the past 20 years. If BIS secretary of state Sajid Javid gets his
way, he will be undoing his own colleagues work in favour of the decades-old ideas of his heroine Margaret Thatcher.
Early readers of this publication will remember 1992 as the last such point
of change. It was the start of John Majors Conservative government, and
he moved science out of what was then the Department of Education and
Science into the Department of Trade and Industry, the forerunner of BIS.
UK researchers didnt just have to get used to a new overlord; they had
to learn a new language and find a new way to justify their existence.
The message was clear: science was no longer solely about pushing the
boundaries of knowledge. It was also about powering economies and it
had to work with business.
After 1997, New Labour ministers reinforced this philosophy. They
backed it with funding, with a 10-year plan and with institutions such as
Innovate UK to help companies access research knowledge.
That is the paradox of the current situation. Unlike New Labourand
unlike previous Tory luminaries such as Kenneth Baker, John MacGregor
and David Willettsin Javid we have a politician who claims to believe
the state has no business helping businesses, even science-based ones.
Of course, that is utterly disingenuous. As a former member of an industry
(banking) that has benefited from state largesse, he certainly knows better.
It is tempting to think that, as in the pre-1992 world, we have a
minister who instinctively would like to leave scientists to get on with
thingswith less money, but less interference.
In reality, scientists will lose their seat at the top table. Willetts eight
great technologies initiative was interpreted by many as the work of an
interfering minister. Perhaps it was, but its genius was to ensure that scientists had George Osbornes ear, and to keep science funding on an even keel.
Under Javid, science is in the worst of all worlds. He is close to the
chancellor but seems to have little interest in acting as advocate for those
his department represents. His speech to the party conference did not
once mention the S-word.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is not the only politician turning the
clock back. Javid, too, is stuck in the 1980s. Soon leaders of research
institutions will need tell him loud and clear that the year is 2015.
elsewhere
We have to proceed with these tax credit
changes because they are a very important
cultural signal. It is about creating a culture
where work is at the heart of our success.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt says cuts to
tax credits will encourage Britons to work
as hard as the Chinese and Americans. The
Guardian, 5/10/15.
It is Tory constituencies where the
proportion of young people going to university is already above 50 per cent. If
there are too many people going to university, Conservative areas are the culprits.
David Willetts, former Conservative universities and science minister, criticises the
stance of some of his partys colleagues who
seek to reduce the number of university students. Times Higher Education, 6/10/15.
Its like everything else from Jeremys
leadership campaign, it doesnt automatically become policy.
A member of the Labour shadow cabinet
comments on the fact that party leader
Jeremy Corbyns plan to scrap university
tuition fees might end up being shelved
without backing from Labour MPs. Financial
Times, 1/10/15.
If politicians do not fully understand or
appreciate what a jewel they have, they
risk throwing it away.
Andrew Hamilton, vice-chancellor of the
University of Oxford, speaks out, in his final
keynote speech before taking up the role
of president at New York University. Daily
Mirror, 6/10/15.
It couldnt have been a better choice in
terms of the lessons it offers Chinese
scientists.
Innovation studies specialist at Tsinghua
University in Beijing Xue Lan reacts to the
news that Chinese pharmacologist Youyou
Tu is one of the winners of this years medicine Nobel, despite never having won any
major awards in China. Nature, 5/10/15.
decade
Demos has been called
many things...But I can
honestly say this is the
first time weve been called
Stalinists.
James Wilsdon, who was then head of
science and innovation at the think tank
Demos, responds to a Research Fortnight
editorial that questioned the emerging
public engagement agenda.
whats going on 3
whats going on
Women in engineering: Time for quotas?
Naomi Climer, the Institution of Engineering and Technologys first woman president, says the
time is right for quotas to be enforced so that more women are hired by engineering employers.
Climer said that the proportion of women engineers in the UK has been less than one in 10the
lowest level in Europefor 30 years. She added that she was sceptical of quotas when she came
into the industry but now believes they should be tried.
Home secretary tightens screws on universities
University leaders are once more in the sights of home secretary Theresa May, who told the
Conservative Party conference that while she welcomes students coming to study in the UK, too
many of them stay in the UK after their visas run out. The vice-chancellors group Universities
UK pointed to Home Office research showing that levels of visa abuse in the sector are low. In
her speech May said, I dont care what the university lobbyists say: the rules must be enforced.
Defence spending to be investigated, again
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has launched an inquiry into strategic financial
management at the Ministry of Defence, which has the third largest departmental budget. The
inquiry, launched on 5 October, will also look at how the expected strategic defence and security
review could affect the departments finances. In 2010 the Public Accounts Committee found that
poor financial management had led to a 36 billion overspend over 10 years.
Research and union leaders clash over Scotland bill
Heads of Scotlands research institutions and union leaders have been giving evidence to the
Scottish Parliament on the proposed higher education governance bill. In a hearing on
6 October, the physicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,
said that she was concerned about the implication that there is interference and suppression
of critical thought. In contrast, Mary Senior, Scotland official for the University and College
Union Scotland, said a lack of transparency in Scottish universities was a real problem.
Students urge Warwick to evict secret BP archive
Students are calling on their chancellor Richard Lambert to shut down a BP archive housing the
energy firms historical records based at the University of Warwick. The students say the archive
is believed to include valuable research into renewable energy and that parts of it are not
accessible to the public. Student group Fossil Free Warwick launched its campaign on 5 October.
Essex to recruit a CSA
The University of Essex has said that it will appoint
a chief scientific adviser to help it tackle societal
challenges and improve university-government
relations. Essex will become the second UK
institution to have a CSA, following the University
of Southampton. Vice-chancellor Anthony Forster
said that the university would welcome applications
from candidates with a strong interest in policy and a
background in disciplines such as quantitative social
science or big data.
C O RRECTIO N
In an article on page 5 of the last issue

of Research Fortnight [RF464, 30/9/15],
we incorrectly attributed a study called
Information Practices in the Physical Sciences.
The study was in fact published by IOP
Publishing and the Research Information
Network. We would like to apologise for
this error, which has also been corrected on
www.researchprofessional.com and in the
online edition of Research Fortnight.
4 news
news
$40bn gap in climate funding

is yet to be filled
Rich countries still have some way to go before reaching
their target of $100 billion (65.1bn) each year to support poorer countries commitment to climate action,
according to a report from the OECD.
The report, Climate Finance in 2013-2014 and the
USD100 Billion Goal, was published on 7 October in the
run up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference
in Paris in December. The purpose of the meeting will be
to agree new global targets to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by 2020.
Unless the promised funds materialise, many developing countries are less likely to sign an agreement at
the Paris talks. The OECD report is a status check on the
amount of finance either promised or given to developing countries to help them cut emissions and to cope
with the effects of global warming. The report says that
in 2014, rich countries mobilised $61.8bn for developing countries. The figure includes funds from bilateral
agreements, multilateral institutions, export credits, as
well as money from private individuals and firms.
Some experts, such as Andrew Steer, president of the
World Resources Institute in Washington, DC, have welcomed funds raised so far as a positive step, but other
non-governmental organisations say the true figure is
much lower. Theres a tonne of fudging in there, says
Karen Orenstein, senior international policy analyst at
the environmental group Friends of the Earth. That figure counts private money, loans, things that will benefit
multi-national corporations, they shouldnt be counted
towards the $100bn, she says.
In a letter to the ministers of developed countries
published on the day of the OECD report, Friends of the
Earth and 111 other NGOs said that only public grants
should be counted towards the $100bn target.
An Oxfam spokesman also says that the top-line figures of the OECD report deserve a closer look, as only
a small share of the fundsjust 16 per cent in 2013 to
BIS reforms from cover

is called a statutory instrument. This is when a law can
be amended without being presented in parliament for
a vote. If there is no objection from MPs after 40 days,
the change is implemented. Flanagan says he thinks that
BIS is more likely to use this process to strip powers away
from HEFCE rather than from Research Councils UK.
Suppressing the RCUK umbrella organisation could
damage the prestige of UK research overseas and erode
the Haldane principle, Flanagan says.
by Lindsay McKenzie
lmnews@ResearchResearch.com
2014are dedicated to adaptation projects to reduce

vulnerability to climate change. Developing countries
urgently need support for adaptation projects but Oxfam
estimate public funding for them amounts to only $1bn
to $2bn a year. This must significantly increase, the
spokesman says, if the Paris deal is to deliver for those
on the front line of climate change.
Although the OECD report clearly calls the $61.8bn
sum an estimate, Raphal Jachnik, a climate finance
policy analyst at the OECD says that the figure is an accurate reflection of the best available data.
Part of the controversy relates to a lack of definitions. Rob Elsworth, a climate and policy analyst at the
Catholic Agency for Overseas Development says, The
OECD report set out to demystify what counts as climate
finance and its useful, but it does little to explain how
the money is benefitting the most vulnerable.
For example, one fund that was not counted in the
OECD report is the Green Climate Fund. This is the mechanism through which climate finance is supposed to be
distributed to projects in developing countries. Though
the fund became operational in 2014, it is yet to make
any decisions on which projects will be funded. On
5 October it was announced that the Green Climate Fund
had received $10.2bn in pledges but only $5.8bn has
actually been signed for. The GCF board is due to meet
on 2November to decide which projects will be funded,
which Elsworth says is a pivotal step. Where that money
goes and the kinds of projects that are funded by the GCF
board in November will set the tone for Paris.
Securing and organising climate finance before the
talks begin will be crucial to making progress, says
Elsworth. Developed countries must deliver on the
$100bn commitment so that negotiations can begin in
good faith.
RCUK is an important guarantee of autonomy and
lack of political interference in decisions, he says. It
would be much harder to demonstrate that decisions are
being taken at an arms length from government.
Flanagan also warns against the risks of a radical
reform of the research bodies. The structures are widely believed to have a lot to do with the dynamism and
strength of the UK science system, he says. It is possible that radical structural changes, if they are not done
very carefully, and are well thought through, would damage the system more than a cut.
news 5
Get behind EU, says referendum campaign

The grassroots group Scientists for EU is urging
researchers to back its campaign to keep the UK in the
European Union. If the UK leaves the EU, scientists will
face reduced access to funding and facilities, and fewer
visiting researchers, the group says.
The campaign group, officially launched on 9 October,
says science has an important role to play in the EU referendum, which is scheduled to take place by the end of
2017. The groups backers want scientists to speak up
about the importance of science, innovation and technology to the UK economy; how the EU boosts national
innovation capacity; and the importance of international frameworks in tackling grand challenges.
Its really important that scientists get involved in
the European referendum, says Julian Huppert, former
Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge and a member of
Scientists for EUs advisory board.
Scientists sadly have a reputation for not getting
engaged with big issues like this, says Huppert. But I
dont want to see people who care about internationalism,
who care about our relations with Europe, who care about
the support that we get for science and research here, to
see us accidentally walking out of Europe and realising
too late that they should have done something about it.
Huppert urges scientists to get involved, contact
people, go to events, encourage other people to realise
how much harm it would do [to leave the EU].
Former Royal Society president Martin Rees has also
backed the Scientists for EU campaign, saying that if scientists dont act now to make their voices heard, they could
news
in brief
CRUK launches 100m fund

Cancer Research UK is launching
what it says are the biggest and
most ambitious cancer grants in the
world. The 100 million Grand Challenge Award fund will
offer international, multidisciplinary teams the chance to
win up to 20m in funding over five years. Eligibility criteria for the grants include having a strong link to the UK,
where at least a quarter of the grant would have to be spent.
Environmental diplomat
James Bevan, the British high commissioner to India,
has been appointed as the next chief executive of the
Environment Agency. Bevan will take up the post on 30
November, succeeding Paul Leinster. The agency is an
executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by
the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
NERC taps Deloitte
The Natural Environment Research Council has highlighted
the social and industrial impact of the research it funds in
a report published on 8 October. The report by consultancy
by Lindsay McKenzie
lmnews@ResearchResearch.com
wake up to a nightmare scenario, in which Scotland

leaves the UK in order to join the EU, further isolating
researchers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Anne Glover, former chief scientific adviser to the
president of the European Commission, is another supporter. She says if the UK left the EU, We might find
ourselves in a difficult position. She points to the example of Switzerland, which compromised its access to EU
funding by voting for tougher immigration controls.
However Julia Reid, the UKIP MEP for South-West
England and a former research scientist says that the UK
has nothing to fear from leaving the EU.
I cant imagine that other universities or research
establishments in the rest of the EU would want to stop
collaborating with the UK, Reid says. There are more UK
universities in the world top 50 than any other European
country, she says, adding, We have strong collaborative
links with China, India and the United States. Reid says
she is certain that EU researchers will want to continue
collaborating with the UK should it leave.
I dont see how not being part of the EU would stop
us making more discoveries, Reid says. If we werent
contributing 350 million a week to the EU then wed
have more money to spend on research.
Asked if shed heard of plans for a campaign for scientists against the EU, Reid said not at the moment,
adding perhaps I need to get together with some other
scientists and launch one.
firm Deloitte says the council has spent an average of 12.8
million a year on research on environmental risks. This
funding, the report says, has helped to reduce flood damage by up to 10 per cent and saved an estimated 23lives a
year through improved data for weather forecasts.
Global biodiversity body struggles to raise funds
The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Services has said it needs to secure a further
$14million if it is to function as planned. To date national
governments, the UN and intergovernmental organisations have pledged a total of $27.2m, the IPBES has said
in a statement. Another $13.6m is needed to fund the
IPBESs planned four-year work programme.
Portes quits NIESR
Jonathan Portes, a former Cabinet Office chief economist
and an outspoken critic of chancellor George Osbornes
deficit reduction strategy has stepped down as head of
the National Institute for Economic and Social Research.
A NIESR statement said Portes left his job by mutual
consent and with immediate effect.
6 news
i n t e r v i e w a l u n e v a n s
The new face at

Carlton House Terrace
Alun Evans, chief executive of the British Academy, tells Cristina Gallardo how the
learned body is preparing to make its presence felt in the nations life.
Research Fortnight could have found Alun Evans pounding the pavements near his home in preparation for
Aprils London Marathon. Or we could have met at
Queen Mary University of London, where he is working
towards his PhD in modern political history. But for this
interview, we met at the British Academys offices in
Londons Carlton House Terrace, where he has been chief
executive since July 2015, replacing the long-serving
Robin Jackson.
Evans seems to relish juggling job, marathon training
and PhD. I dont get stressed out. I set myself three or
four key areas and focus on them, he says. Running is
very good discipline, it forces you to work very hard and
often early in the morning.
In his first three months as chief executive, Evans has
outlined the four areas on which he would like the academy to concentrate. The first is to ensure the institution
gets a good spending review settlement on 25 November,
without cuts to its 27-million annual budget.
Some people are dreadfully pessimistic, he says. I
dont doubt it is going to be tough but I believe, from
discussions and from what one reads, that the Treasury
and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
understand that science and research contribute to the
economy. Five years ago everybody thought we would get
a really bad settlement and we got flat cash. I dont think
the outcome this time will be as bad as some of the most
pessimistic people are expecting.
At the same time, Evans is aware that
Alun Evans
there is more pressure on the academys
2015 Chief executive,
limited funds. Application success rates
British Academy
for grants from the academy are between
2012-2015 Director,
Scotland Office
5 and 8 per cent. If the academy did
2010-2012 Secretary,
see an increase to its funding after the
Detainee Inquiry, led
spending review, this would be used to
by the former commisgive out more grants instead of launchsioner of the Intelligence
ing new schemes, he says.
Services, Peter Gibson
Evans, a former senior civil servant
2009-2010 Head of
strategy, Department
with more than 25 years experience in
for Business, Innovation
government, does have some red lines.
and Skills
One is the possibility of a merger of the
1998-2000 Head of
Arts and Humanities Research Council
strategic communicawith the Economic and Social Research
tions, 10 Downing Street
*
*
*
*
*
Council. Ive often seen that a merger leads to upheaval, uncertainty for the staff, no particular cost savings in
back-office expenditure, and often it does not achieve its
aim, he says.
Once the uncertainty of the spending review is over,
Evans wants to focus on getting the academys fellows
more involved in providing evidence to policymakers.
This mission was much in evidence during his inaugural
lecture on 16 September when, speaking in a personal
capacity, he called for full devolution for Scotland as the
best way to keep the UKs nations together. Before joining the academy, Evans served as director of the Scotland
Office for three years. He says that home rule would allow
Scottish universities greater freedom, while still being
part of the UK research framework.
Asked if such strong views might cause divisions within the academy, Evans says that he welcomes debate.
The academy does not have an opinion on the Scottish
independence movement, but that does not mean it does
not have a voice and a responsibility to put the evidence
out there and let people make up their mind, he says. I
put forward my own view, based on evidence, and I cant
think of anything better than if someone else wants to
put forward their own slightly different view.
Evans agenda also includes increasing equality not
only in terms of gender, but in terms of age and location too. I want to make sure we attract the brightest,
youngest academics without lowering standards, and
that we dont favour the golden triangle of Cambridge,
Oxford and London, he says.
Looking to the future, Evans has two ambitions. On
the personal front he plans to complete his PhD thesis
on the changing role of the private office system in the
UK civil service over the last 50 years, perhaps writing a
book based on its conclusions. For the British Academy,
his ambition is to do more to communicate its value. We
have been too modest in the past about what weve done.
We should be more confident and proud of what we stand
for, he says. We have an enormous convening power in
the sense that we have this fellowship that can support
policy-making but the average person on the street does
not know it. We need to change that.
More to say? Email comment@ResearchResearch.com
funding opportunities
Research Fortnight
14 October 2015
every new opportunity every discipline
deadlines
focus points
Opportunities from previous issues of

Research Fortnight, listed by closing
date. European Commission and
associated funders marked EU.
Issue no. 465
MOD big data for defence

The Ministry of Defence
and the UK Defence
Solution Centre, as part
of the Defence Growth
Partnership Innovation
Challenge, invite
proposals for their SBRI
autonomy and big data
for defence competition.
The budget is worth up to
2million [7].
BBSRC/NERC network
The Biotechnology and
Biological Sciences
Research Council, in
partnership with the
Natural Environment
Research Council, invites
proposals for a sustainable
intensification community
network. Funding is worth
up to 240,000 [8].
Downy mildew species
The Agriculture and
Horticulture Development
Board invites expressions
of interest to tender for its
call on aerial oomycetes
advancing knowledge
of Bremia lactucae and
Peronospora farinosa
spinaciae for the UK salad
industry. Projects may
receive up to 80,000
each per year [12].
NIHR commissioned calls
The Department of
Health's National Institute
for Health Research invites
proposals under its health
services and delivery
research programme [15].
no t t o be
p ho t oco p ie D
For subscriptions call +44 20 7216 6500
Each entry is followed by a Web id
October
interdisciplinary
22 AHRC/ESRC
research grants 1185933

AHRC/ESRC interdisciplinary innovation awards 1185931

British Council/ScotGov/Hong
Kong Research Grants Council Hong
Kong-Scotland partners in postdoctoral research 1186094
NERC follow-on fund 260695
NERC innovation projects 210931
Royal Society of Edinburgh Cormack
astronomy small outreach grants
256984
Wellcome seed awards in science
1182811
American Epilepsy Society research
and training workshops 210385
CRUK population research committee programme grants 1157920
EU Committee of the Regions of the
European Union multiple framework
services contract on area of freedom, security and justice 1186780
CRUK population research committee project grants 255324
CRUK population research postdoctoral fellowship 1163643
Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund junior
research fellowships 172146
RCUK/CONACYT research partnerships call Mexico 1186888
Scottish Universities Insight
Institute knowledge exchange
programme 259198
South African National Research
Foundation/South African Department of Science and Technology/Newton Fund SA-UK bilateral
research chair in political theory
1186583
British Library National Life Stories
Goodison fellowships 1181245
British Society of Interventional
Radiology bursaries 1171687
EU European University Institute
Jean Monnet postdoctoral fellowships 192263
European University Institute Max
Weber fellowships 198537
Royal Society of Chemistry researcher mobility grants 1178948
23
25
of So Paulo Research
26 BBSRC/State
Foundation joint call in advanced
biofuels 1182489

EU Directorate-General for Climate

Action study on assessment of potential carbon leakage in the early
part of the third trading phase of EU
emissions trading system 1186889
NERC/So Paulo Research Foundation sustainable gas futures
1183617
RAEng/Leverhulme Trust senior
research fellowships 255075
BBSRC/ESRC/NERC/Defra/FSA/
ScotGov resilience of the UK
food systems in a global context
1185402
British Infection Association travel
awards 204736
Defra/DFID Darwin fellowship
awards 261004
Helmholtz Association Helmholtz
international fellow award 1178621
Innovate UK quantified self competition 1186810
British Renal Society kidney
patient research partnership grants
1186130
EPSRC UK interconnected test-beds
to support a research and innovation internet environment 1186719
Innovate UK stratified medicine
connecting the UK infrastructure
1186015
Innovate UK/EPSRC advancing
the commercial applications of
graphene 1186491
Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research target validation
pilot awards 209121
Michael J Fox Foundation for
Parkinson's Research therapeutic
pipeline programme 1168556
National Multiple Sclerosis Society/
American Academy of Neurology
John Dystel prize for MS research
201692
Royal College of Ophthalmologists
Ethicon Foundation fund 178875
BBSRC innovator of the year awards
254549
Children with Cancer UK funding
to support the development of collaborative research 1178886
King Baudouin Foundation/Ernest
Solvay fund call for projects for
individuals 1173781
King Baudouin Foundation/Ernest
Solvay fund call for projects for
organisations 1173782
MOD/MI5/Government Communication Headquarters/MI6 security for
the internet of things 1186250
27

28

29

Online Funding Search

For full details of every funding opportunity, visit
www.ResearchProfessional.com
Online subscribers can view full details of any funding opportunity by
simply searching for the Web id number as free text in a funding search.
Funding search
Free text: 1234567 x
Search
National Science Foundation collaborative research in computational neuroscience 192853

AHRC anniversary essay competition
the way we live now debates one to
four 1185413
Autonomous Province of Trento research and development services in
the context of the NYMPHA project
1186788
British Association for Cancer
Research/CRUK student awards
207881
CERN doctoral student programme
259952
EU Directorate-General for Maritime
Affairs and Fisheries development
of innovative, low-impact offshore
fishing practices for small-scale vessels in outermost regions 1186005
EU Directorate-General for the Environment LIFE preparatory projects
1180293
ESRC centres for doctoral training in
new forms of data 1186797
ESRC doctoral training partnerships
1186792
ESRC/BBSRC centres for doctoral training in biosocial research
1186794
European Brief Therapy Association
research grants 1170211
European Society for Paediatric
Infectious Diseases small grant
awards 201148
European Society of Cardiology
Heart Failure Association heart
failure nurse training fellowship
1175667
Motor Neurone Disease Association
biomedical research project grants
253402
Royal College of Paediatrics and
Child Health Sir Peter Tizard
research bursary 1181302
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh ophthalmology major project
grants 213203
Royal College of Surgeons of
Edinburgh ophthalmology small
research support grants 213202
Royal Society of Chemistry outreach
fund 1165016
Smithsonian Institution Astrophysical Observatory Submillimeter array
postdoctoral fellowships 190023
University Association for Contemporary European Studies collaborative research network funding
1175706
Wellcome intermediate clinical fellowships 259574
Wellcome postdoctoral research
training fellowships for clinicians
1173654
American Society of Agricultural
and Biological Engineers
international food engineering
award 200939
British Neuroscience Association
postgraduate prize 254871
British Society of Animal Science
Alan Robertson fund for animal
genetics 208673
British Society of Animal Science
Sir Kenneth Blaxter scholarship
208678
Castle Studies Group small projects
fund 254918
30
31
8 funding opportunities
uk
highlights
New opportunities from UK-based funders.
Conferences and meetings

The United Kingdom Environmental Mutagen Society invites applications for the
following opportunities:
bursaries for established scientists,
which cover travel expenses, the conference registration fee and standard accommodation costs up to 1,000.
Web id: 1187070
grants to fund a workshop or meeting,
up to 10,000 each. Web id: 1187071
No deadline [1]
Agricultural engineering
The Douglas Bomford Trust invites applications for its student award scheme.
This encourages students of agricultural engineering to achieve appropriate
qualifications and to go on to successful
careers in the industry. Awards are worth
up to 1,500 each over one year.
Web id: 1186980
Email: enquiries@dbt.org.uk
Deadline: 1 November 2015 [3]
Grazing forage crops

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, via its beef and lamb division, invites proposals to tender for its
call on grazing stock on forage crops. The
tenderer will demonstrate the potential of
grazing within arable systems and provide
up-to-date guidance on managing stock
within these systems. The project is estimated to be worth up to 60,000.
Web id: 1187035
Email: liz.genever@ahdb.org.uk
JRF district heating

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation invites
proposals for a project on district heating
and whether it is delivering affordable
and sustainable energy. Funding aims
to understand how housing associations
manage the development of district and
communal heating and assess how efficient these schemes are, as well as to
identify where they are most efficient
and suggest improvements. The budget
is worth up to 85,000.
Web id: 1187054
Email: christine.appleton@jrf.org.uk
JRF poverty
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation invites
proposals to carry out an evidence review
on psychological, social and cultural factors in decision making are linked with
certain aspects of poverty in the UK.
The budget is worth up to 40,000 over
six months.
Web id: 1187005
Email: phillipa.fairburn@jrf.org.uk
MOD big data for defence

The Ministry of Defence, via the Centre
for Defence Enterprise and the Defence
Science and Technology Laboratory, and
the UK Defence Solution Centre, as part
of the Defence Growth Partnership Innovation Challenge, invite proposals for
their SBRI autonomy and big data for
defence competition. Funding supports

proof-of-concept research projects with
innovative component technologies and
techniques that acquire, process, visualise and analyse data that can be used to
support decision-making for both human
and autonomous systems. The budget for
phase one projects is worth up to 2million, which aims to fund a number of
projects for up to six months. Each project
may receive up to 100,000, though there
is no cap on funding.
Web id: 1187076
Email: cde@dstl.gov.uk
BBSRC/NERC network
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, in partnership
with the Natural Environment Research
Council, invites proposals for a sustainable intensification community network.
This aims to fund a community-led network to encourage and facilitate highquality, systems-oriented research
relevant to the sustainable intensification of agriculture, with an emphasis on
multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and
transdisciplinary approaches. The budget
is worth up to 80,000 per year for up to
three years.
Web id: 1187038
Contact: Amanda Read
Email: sustainable.agriculture@bbsrc.
ac.uk
Efficiency of emergency care

NHS England, under the small business
research incentive healthcare, invites
applications for its reducing pressure on
urgent and emergency care competition.
This aims to develop products that will
help patients, clinicians and managers
deliver high-quality and efficient urgent
and emergency care. Phase one projects
are worth up to 100,000 each over six
months.
Web id: 1187091
Email: sbrienquiries@hee.co.uk
Innovate UK urban spaces

Innovate UK invites submissions for its
innovation in urban spaces competition.
Funding aims to encourage innovation
around smart urban spaces across the
themes of engaging spaces, active citizenship and urban travel. A total of four
businesses may receive up to 35,000
each.
Web id: 1187078
Email: support@innovateuk.gov.uk
EPSRC small grids

The Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council and the Korea Institute
of Energy Technology Evaluation and
Planning invite expressions of interest
for their call on collaborative research
between the UK and Korea in smart grids.
This supports collaborative research projects in the field of smart grids, with a
focus on the following two key areas:
microgrids; virtual power plant concepts
and ideas. EPSRC provides up to 2 million, with equivalent funding available
from KETEP, with the aim to fund two
projects. Projects should last for up to
three years.
Web id: 1187089
Email: justin.obyrne@epsrc.ac.uk
Downy mildew species

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, via its horticultural division, invites expressions of interest to
tender for its call on aerial oomycetes
advancing knowledge of Bremia lactucae and Peronospora farinosa spinaciae
for the UK salad industry. Funding supports a programme of work that aims to
improve the knowledge, identification
and control of downy mildew species
affecting lettuce and spinach. Projects
may typically receive between 50,000
and 80,000 each per year, starting from
1 June 2016.
Web id: 1187015
Email: cathryn.lambourne@ahdb.org.uk
Implants in animal models

The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of
Animals in Research (NC3Rs) invites
proposals on the refinement of the use
of chronic implants in neuroscience
studies with macaques. Proposals should
focus on one or more of the following
areas: reducing infection; improving
integration and stability; improving
surgical outcomes; avoiding surgically
implanted devices. The budget is worth
500,000, and projects should last for
no more than 36 months.
Web id: 1187017
Email: enquiries@nc3rs.org.uk
Deadline: 7 December 2015 [13]
Potato research collaboration

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, via its potato division,
invites proposals for its research partnership for management of rotations, soil
structure and water. Funding aims to
support a collaborative research partnership which should devise and implement
a new programme of research projects
on soils and water, focusing on potatoes.
One grant, worth 300,000 per year over a
maximum period of five years, is provided.
Web id: 1186978
Email: alice.sin@ahdb.org.uk
NIHR commissioned calls

The Department of Health's National
Institute for Health Research invites
proposals under the commissioned funding stream of its health services and
delivery research programme. Proposals are sought on the following topics:
improving the quality of care in care
homes by care home staff; use of GPs in
and alongside emergency departments.
NIHR programmes fund higher education
institutions at the maximum of 80 per
cent of full economic cost and may fund
non-HEI institutions up to a maximum of
100 per cent of costs.
Web id: 1186977
Email: hsdrinfo@soton.ac.uk
UK-South Africa fellowships

The National Research Foundation, in
collaboration with the Department of
Science and Technology and the United
Kingdom Academies, invites applications for its fellowships for early-career
researchers from the UK. These aim to
promote the engagement of UK fellows
across all disciplines of physical, natural
and social sciences and the humanities,
with South African researchers and to
foster long-term relations between UK

early career researchers and the South
African research base. Up to 30 fellowships of up to ZAR330,000 (15,900)
each are available.
Web id: 1187004
Email: zikhona.lose@nrf.ac.za
Deadline: 11 January 2016 [15.1]
BBSRC-Ireland funding
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Science
Foundation Ireland invite applications
for their joint research funding. This supports applications that cut across national
boundaries and involve international
collaborative teams led by researchers
from the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
Web id: 1186965
Email: inca@bbsrc.ac.uk
Deadline: 13 January 2016 [16]
Primate conservation
The Primate Society of Great Britain's
conservation working party, on behalf
of the Born Free Foundation, invites
applications for a conservation grant.
This primarily supports a primate range
state national, working in the field on a
project involving endangered primates
or human and non-human primate conflict resolution. The award is worth up
to 1000.
Web id: 1187049
Contact: Caroline Harcourt
Email: cwp@psgb.org
Deadline: 28 February 2016 [17]
uk
other
Renewed opportunities from funders based
in the UK.
Breast cancer tissue bank

Breast Cancer Now invites applications
for its tissue bank. This initiative enables
academic researchers in the UK or Ireland
to utilise the tissue bank's holdings for
breast cancer research purposes. The
costs of supplying materials to be used
on Breast Cancer Now-funded research
projects are covered.
Web id: 1173882
Email: tissuebank@breastcancernow.org
No deadline [18]
Heart research awards

The British Heart Foundation invites
applications for its clinical research leave
fellowships. These enable NHS staff to
undertake dedicated PAs in research in
a recognised UK centre of excellence in
cardiovascular medicine. Awards may be
for up to one year full time or up to three
years part time. They include reimbursement of reasonable costs to cover relinquished PAs, and research consumables.
Web id: 164984
Email: research@bhf.org.uk
No deadline [19]
Parasitology fieldwork
The British Society for Parasitology invites
applications for its international training
and fieldwork award. This aims to give
parasitologists at an early stage in their
careers the opportunity to undertake
international fieldwork or to visit overseas institutions. The society provides
support of up to 1,500, which should
funding opportunities 9

cover the costs of travel and subsistence
for no less than two weeks.
Web id: 1163824
Email: info@bsp.uk.net
No deadline [20]
EPSRC travel grants

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The Engineering and Physical Sciences

Research Council invites applications for
its overseas travel grants. These enable
visits to recognised non-UK universities
and industrial organisations, in order
to study new techniques and develop
international collaborations. There is no
limit on the funding amount or length of
the grant. In addition to travel and subsistence, the principal investigator may
request funds to cover their salary and
indirect costs. Visa costs are also eligible.
Web id: 203311
No deadline [21]
Orthopaedics prize
The Royal Society of Medicine invites
abstracts for its orthopaedics president's
prize papers. These recognise original,
not previously published work in orthopaedics. Three prizes, worth between
200 and 600, are available.
Web id: 202575
Email: orthopaedics@rsm.ac.uk
Deadline: 28 October 2015 [23]
Finance fellowships
The Bank of England invites applications
for the Houblon-Norman and George fellowships. These promote research into,
and disseminate knowledge and understanding of, the working, interaction
and function of financial business institutions in Great Britain and elsewhere,
and the economic conditions affecting
them. The total amount distributed in
any one year rarely exceeds 120,000.
Fellowships are tenable at the Bank of
England and last between one month
and one year.
Web id: 207896
Email: ma-hngfund@bankofengland.
co.uk
Immunology travel
The British Society for Immunology
invites applications for its travel awards.
These enable members to attend scientific
meetings or visit laboratories for specific
short-term activities, such as collaborative research or to learn new techniques.
Awards are worth 500 for travel within
the UK, 700 for European travel and
1,000 for intercontinental travel.
Web id: 256395
Email: s.green@immunology.org
Air quality travel award

The Institution of Environmental Sciences
invites applications for the Ian McCrae
travel award. This enables air quality
professionals to attend a conference or
training course in the UK or abroad. The
award is worth up to 1,000.
Web id: 1167309
Email: info@the-ies.org
ScotGov school behaviour

The Scottish Government invites tenders
for its research on behaviour in Scottish schools. The tenderer will provide
a clear and robust picture of behaviour
in publicly-funded mainstream schools,

and of current policy and practice in
relation to managing behaviour, in order
to inform future guidance and national
policy development on behaviour and
relationships in Scottish schools. The
contract is tenable for nine months.
Web id: 1186188
Email: stuart.livingstone@scotland.
gsi.gov.uk
MOD enduring challenge

The Ministry of Defence's Centre for
Defence Enterprise and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory invite
proposals for their enduring challenge
competition. Funding supports innovative, proof-of-concept research projects
across a wide range of areas related to
military technology and defence systems.
Awards are worth between 40,000 and
100,000 for three to nine months. The
total budget is worth 3 million.
Web id: 1175661
Email: cde@dstl.gov.uk
ScotGov clinical research

The Scottish Government's Chief Scientist Office invites applications for the
NHS Research Scotland career researcher
fellowships. These support NHS-funded
clinical staff, such as qualified doctors, nurses, allied health professionals,
pharmacists, biomedical and clinical
scientists, and public health specialists, in developing a research career
within their post by contributing to and
conducting clinical research. Fellowships
cover direct salary costs of the fellow
and include a grant of up to 500 for
research training for a maximum period
of three years
Web id: 1181984
Email: karen.ford@gov.scot
RAEng engineering exchanges

The Royal Academy of Engineering invites
applications for the Newton research
collaboration programme. This facilitates international exchanges between
engineering researchers in the UK and
their counterparts in Brazil, Turkey and
Malaysia for three to 12 months. Awards
are worth 2,000 per month.
Web id: 1181861
Email: sarah.plumb@raeng.org.uk
Senior fellowships
The British Academy and the Leverhulme
Trust invite applications for their senior research fellowships. These enable
mid-career scholars to have one year's
research leave by providing funding to
cover the costs of replacement teaching.
Fellowships are provided on a non full
economic cost basis.
Web id: 1161251
Email: posts@britac.ac.uk
Healthcare and life sciences

The William Harvey Research Institute at
Queen Mary, University of London invites
proposals for fellowships under the William Harvey International Translational
Research Academy programme. These
enable translational, multidisciplinary
researchers to undertake postdoctoral
placements at various host organisa-
tions in order to develop their skills and

knowledge in the field of life sciences and
healthcare. A total of 175 fellowships are
available. Fellowships include a travel
allowance of 1,875 (1,400) per year
and a grant worth 18,750 per year for
research costs.
Web id: 1177359
Email: x.sandin@qmul.ac.uk
Animals in research prize

The National Centre for the Replacement,
Refinement and Reduction of Animals in
Research (NC3Rs) invites nominations for
its 3Rs prize. This recognises an original
contribution to scientific and technological advances in the 3Rs in medical,
biological or veterinary sciences published in a peer-reviewed journal within
the last three years. The prize consists
of a grant of 18,000, plus a personal
award of 2,000. Highly commended
entries receive a 4,000 grant and 1,000
personal award.
Web id: 186582
Email: 3rsprize@nc3rs.org.uk
Built environment award

The Chartered Institute of Building invites
nominations for its master's dissertation
award. This recognises research undertaken by postgraduate students, and
promotes the importance of advanced
research skills by enabling students to
pursue specialised careers. Two awards
are offered, worth 1,000 and 500
respectively.
Web id: 1177862
Email: iandrawards@ciob.org.uk
Wellcome science grants

The Wellcome Trust invites applications
for the following grants:
biomedical resource and technology development grants, worth up to
1.5million for up to five years.
Web id: 1163336
multi-user equipment grants, worth
up to 1.5million for up to five years.
Web id: 1163337
Email: sciencegrants@wellcome.ac.uk
Public engagement prizes

The Royal Society of Edinburgh, supported by the James Weir Foundation,
invites nominations for its prizes for
public engagement. These recognise and
promote excellence in the field of public
engagement throughout Scotland.
Web id: 1161562
Contact: Anne Fraser
Email: afraser@royalsoced.org.uk
Scottish history grants

The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
invites applications for the Gunning jubilee gift grant. This enables experts to
visit museums, collections or materials of
archaeological science at home or abroad
for the purposes of Scottish-related historical investigation and research. The
grant is worth up to 2,000 over three
years, however larger grants may be
provided.
Web id: 158429
Contact: Simon Gilmoue
Email: director@socantscot.org
British Academy awards
The British Academy invites applications
for the following opportunities:
Neil R Ker memorial fund, with grants
worth up to 2,000 each. Web id: 182097
Stein-Arnold exploration fund, with
awards worth up to 2,500 each.
Web id: 182064
Email: grants@britac.ac.uk
Nesta digital R&D

Nesta, in collaboration with the Arts
Council Wales and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, invites proposals
for its digital research and development
fund for the arts in Wales. Funding enables arts organisations to undertake
innovation projects using digital technology as a tool to help improve audience
reach and engagement or develop new
business models. Up to eight successful
applications will receive 5,000 each to
use for for the next phase of the programme, which will run from February to
April 2016. At this second stage, funding
of up to 75,000 will be available for full
projects.
Web id: 1175051
Email: information@nesta.org.uk
Arthritis PhD scholarships

Arthritis Research UK invites applications for its PhD scholarships. These are
awarded to university departments for
projects that have clear relevance to the
aims of Arthritis Research UK and provide
training in research in a multidisciplinary
environment. Studentships are awarded
for up to four years and provide a stipend,
UK tuition fees, a travel grant for conference attendance and coverage of running
costs up to a maximum of 10,000 per
year. Students may also apply for a travel
bursary to another institute, preferably
abroad.
Web id: 257133
Contact: Clare Farmer
Email: research@arthritisresearchuk.org

Web id: 207742
Email: secretary@benhs.org.uk
CRUK research travel award

Cancer Research UK invites applications
for its research travel award. This enables
postdoctoral researchers to work with
research groups in the UK or overseas
and develop their own career, introduce
new skills or techniques to their current
research group, or establish or develop
collaborations between research groups.
The award is worth up to 6,000 for a
period between two weeks and three
months.
Web id: 254193
Email: richard.oakley@cancer.org.uk
Surgery travel award

The Royal College of Surgeons of England
invites applications for the Ronald Raven
Barbers' award. This enables a surgeon
to travel abroad to learn a new surgical
technique or procedure, of which they can
make use on return to the UK, to benefit
their patients. Two awards, worth up to
2,500 each, are available for projects
normally lasting one academic year.
Web id: 213936
Contact: Linda Slater
Email: lslater@rcseng.ac.uk
BBSRC awards
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council invites applications for the following opportunities:
State of So Paulo Research Foundation joint research funding.
Web id: 1159811
industrial partnership awards.
Web id: 251458
new investigator scheme.
Web id: 255092
responsive mode research grants.
Web id: 255097
stand-alone LINK programme.
Web id: 1186962
NIHR translational medicine
Design history grant
The Department of Health's National

Institute for Health Research invites
applications for its research professorships. These enable early-career academics to spend a fixed five-year period
on translational research at professorial
level, and to facilitate strong research
leadership and develop research capacity in areas critical to accelerating the
transfer of research ideas into improved
health. Each award includes a postdoctoral appointment, research running costs, a
travel fund, access to the NIHR leadership
programme and the opportunity for a sabbatical, as well as the basic salary costs
of the individual plus indirect costs. Up to
five professorships are available.
Web id: 1163547
Email: nihrresearchprofessorships@
nihrtcc.org.uk
The Design History Society invites applications for its research publication
grant. This assists researchers engaged
in design history with the publication of
their research in research-based outputs
such as peer reviewed journal articles or
books published by a university press or
museum institution. A total of 3,000 is
available annually. Grants are worth up
to 1,000 each.
Web id: 208229
Contact: Elli Michaela Young
Email: designhistorysociety@gmail.
com
Entomology awards
The British Entomological and Natural
History Society invites applications for
the Maitland Emmet research fund and
grants. These support research on insects
and spiders with reference to the British
fauna. Grants are worth up to 500 each.
Funding covers travel costs.
18th-century studies
The University of Oxford's Bodleian
Libraries, in partnership with the British
Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies,
invites applications for its research fellowship. This enables a member of BSECS
to take a one-month residence in Oxford
for research in the special collections
of the Bodleian Libraries on any topic
related to the 18th century. The fellowship is worth up to 1,000.
Web id: 257164
Email: bookcentre@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
UK-Middle East fellowship

The Academy of Medical Sciences invites
applications for the Daniel Turnberg travel fellowships. These enable biomedical
researchers to undertake short-term visits
to the UK or the Middle East to further
their research experience and learn new
techniques. Fellowships are worth up to
3,500 each over four weeks, including
airfare and a subsistence allowance. This
year, the academy also offers a small number of three-month fellowships, which are
worth up to 9,000.
Web id: 258026
Email: turnberg.fellowships@acmedsci.
ac.uk
AHRC international placements

The Arts and Humanities Research Council
invites applications for the following
fellowships, under its international placement scheme:
short-term fellowships at the Harry
Ransom Center, which provide up to 750
towards travel, visa costs and a monthly
allowance of 1,200. Web id: 1183123
short-term fellowships at the Huntington Library, which provide up to 750
towards travel, visa costs and a monthly
allowance of 1,200. Web id: 1166330
short-term fellowships at the National
Institutes for Humanities in Japan, which
provide up to 800 towards travel, visa
costs and a monthly allowance of 1,200.
Web id: 1166333
short-term fellowships at the Shanghai Theatre Academy, which provide up
to 600 towards travel, visa costs and a
monthly allowance of 1,200.
Web id: 1182821
short-term fellowships at the Smithsonian Institution, which provide up to
600 towards travel, visa costs and a
Web id: 1183124
short-term fellowships at the Yale
Center for British Art, which provide up
to 600 towards travel, visa costs and a
Web id: 1183125
short-term fellowships at the Library
of Congress, in collaboration with the Economic and Social Research Council, which
provide up to 600 towards travel, visa
costs and a monthly allowance of 1,200.
Web id: 210956
Email: ips@ahrc.ac.uk
Bodleian libraries access

The University of Oxford's Bodleian
Library, in collaboration with the Georgian Group and the British Society for
Eighteenth-Century Studies, invites
applications for the Dunscombe Colt
research fellowship. This enables a member of the Georgian Group to visit the special collections of the Bodleian Libraries
in order to support research relating to
architecture or material culture from the
18th century. The fellowship is worth up
to 1,500 for a one-month visit.
Web id: 1176709
Email: bookcentre@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
STFC awards
The Science and Technology Facilities
Council invites applications for its innovations partnership scheme. This aims
to transfer technology and expertise
developed through STFC funding to the
marketplace in partnership with industry

and other academic disciplines. Up to
120,000 is available for each mini IPS
project, and up to 360,000 is available
for each standard IPS project.
Web id: 258660
Email: tracey.mcguire@stfc.ac.uk
Physics awards
The Institute of Physics invites nominations for the following awards:
Born medal and prize, worth 3,000
(2,200).Web id: 160145
Bragg medal and prize, worth 1,000.
Web id: 1164750
early-career awards, worth 1,000
each. Web id: 160158
gold medal awards, worth 1,000
each. Web id: 160120
the Isaac Newton medal, worth
1,000. Web id: 174695
the Kelvin medal and prize, worth
1,000. Web id: 1164751
subject awards for distinguished
research achievements in a particular
field, worth 1,000 each. Web id: 174689
Occhialini medal and prize, worth
3,000. Web id: 1161144
Email: awards@iop.org
Neuroscience awards
The Biochemical Society invites nominations for the Thudichum medal. This
honours scientists who have made outstanding contributions to neurochemistry
and related subjects. The award is worth
2,000.
Web id: 172592
Email: rowena.mitchell@biochemistry.
org
British Academy prizes

The British Academy invites applications
for the following prizes:
the Brian Barry prize in political science, worth 2,500. Web id: 1173890
the Wiley prize in psychology, worth
5,000. Web id: 1165620
Email: prizes@britac.ac.uk
Prehistoric archaeology
The Prehistoric Society invites applications for its research fund. This supports
research into prehistoric archaeology in
any part of the world. Grants are normally
worth between 100 and 1,000 each.
Web id: 198688
Email: prehistoric@ucl.ac.uk
Medieval archaeology
The Society for Medieval Archaeology invites applications for its research
grants. Awards worth up to 1,000 are
available to members for research in
medieval archaeology and Viking studies,
for attendance at relevant conferences or
for study tours.
Web id: 1166699
Contact: Dawn Hadley
Email: d.m.hadley@sheffield.ac.uk
Renaissance studies awards

The Society for Renaissance Studies
invites nominations for its book prize.
This encourages original research on any
aspect in the field of Renaissance studies
jobs 11
Jobs
Policy, Management & Support plus Expert Committees
Highlights
Temporary Editorial Researchers
Funding Content (two posts)
20,000 pro rata
*Research
Closing date: 1pm, 16/10/2015
Details: For an application pack
and a short editorial test, please
send your CV and covering letter
to Yael Moscou. Interviews will
be held shortly after the closing
date. Please note that only
successful applicants will be
contacted.
Email: yael.moscou@
researchresearch.com
Editorial Researcher Funding
Content (two posts, one with
Dutch and one with Swedish
language skills) 20,000 pro
rata
*Research
Details: For an application pack
and a short editorial test, please
send your CV and covering letter
to Yael Moscou. Interviews will
be held shortly after the closing
date. Please note that only
successful applicants will be
contacted.
Email: yael.moscou@
researchresearch.com
Experienced Researchers
Programme ARD 2020
Cosmetosciences (2 posts) NS
LE STUDIUM Loire Valley
Institute for Advanced Studies
Closing date: 31/10/2015
Contact: For scientific and
technical questions please
contact Dr Aurlien Montagu Scientific Relations Manager
Email: aurelien.montagu@
lestudium-ias.fr
Tel: +33238211486
Training Manager
NS
International and Scientific
Affairs Department,
Centre for Genomic Regulation
Details: Applications must
include a presentation letter
addressed to Dr Michela Bertero,
a full CV and two contacts for
further references, and be
submitted online at:
http://recruitment.crg.eu
For more details and the complete
list of jobs, please visit:
www.researchresearch.com/jobs
14 October 2015
Peer-review loyalty scheme takes off

Getting researchers to contribute to peer review
is becoming increasingly hard. But Andrew
Preston, a physicist from New Zealand, has come
up with an idea that he says is reinvigorating
the process.
Alongside his lifelong friend Daniel Johnston,
Preston has founded Publons.com, a website that
publishes peer reviews while crediting active peer
reviewers. The system is easy, he says: the more
papers you review and the higher the quality of
these reviews, the more credits you win. You can
even add them to your CV.
The site is becoming popular. In two years it
gained 46,000 registered users, most in the United
States and Europe. More than 200,000 reviews have
been notified to Publons. It was funded through
200,000 from angel investors in New Zealand.
Part of our goal is turning peer review into
something that is good for your career and that
can help your reputation in the field, Preston
says. For somebody that has grown up with the
internet, it is strange that it takes so long to get a
paper published and [that] as an author, you dont
really have any relationship with peer reviewers.
Preston says Publons benefits both early-career
researchers and journal editors. Researchers can
perfect how to do reviews by reading others, while
editors have access to more reviewers.
The first iteration of Publons focused on getting
researchers to post comments to papers that were
already published and sitting on journal websites.
But Preston and his team soon realised that the real
business was in publishing peer reviews themselves.
So, how does it work? Preston says that the
process starts in the same way as traditional
publishing: a journal asks a researcher to peer
review a manuscript. However, once the review is
complete, if the reviewer is a member of Publons,
he or she can notify the website of the review and
by Cristina Gallardo cgnews@ResearchResearch.com
decide whether or not to upload it to Publons.

If a reviewer decides to upload, they can then
choose whether to sign the review or leave it
anonymous. Retaining anonymity doesnt lose the
reviewer any credit.
We put a lot of thought into the privacy
policy, Preston says. We dont allow information
contained in a manuscript to be put in Publons
before the manuscript is published. Authors can
object to the publication of a review of one of their
papers, Preston adds, but so far authors responses
have been very positive.
In return, peer reviewers receive one point
for each pre-publication review, and two more
points if they can get the journal to confirm the
review was actually done. To improve the quality
of reviews, Publons makes it possible for other
researchers to endorse them. Each endorsement
means the reviewer gets an extra point.
So far, Publons has integrated with more than
100 journals around the world, which are part of
publishing groups such as Wiley, SAGE, the openaccess publisher DPI Journals, Cambridge University
Press and the American Society of Microbiology.
Working with the journals has allowed Publons
to attract many more of what Preston calls
mainstream researchers, in addition to those
strongly in favour of open-access policies. The
main driver behind the websites popularity is word
of mouth and the concept of merit, Preston says.
Any credit system is only useful if everybody
believes it is, like money, Preston says. At the
beginning the scores played a much smaller role,
but users have started to get much more excited
about being rewarded, he says. Our wish for the
future is to spread the word to as many publishers
and researchers as possible.
Fifteen extra skills needed to get that post-PhD job

Universities will not teach you everything you
need to enjoy a successful career, says Anna
Harrison, an architectural designer and business
consultant based in Melbourne. In her ebook
From Scholar to Dollar, she outlines the 15
steps that helped her to get a PhD on her second
attempt and land a successful career in industry.
Harrison says that, in many ways, the book is
like a couch-to-5km training plan for students
and early-career researchers delving into the job
market. According to Harrison, universities are
in the market of teaching scholars a specific set
of skills. As the level of specialisation increases
through the progression of degrees, the breadth
of the range of skills that students are taught
necessarily decreases.
The universities are trying to fill the gap
through early-career development programmes,
but these are necessarily limited in their ability to
by Cristina Gallardo cgnews@ResearchResearch.com
offer any tangible or practical advice, she says.

The book addresses skills such as achieving
clarity in writing and improving public speaking
skills. It also provides extensive advice on how to
network more efficiently. For instance, Harrison
recommends that PhD students and early-career
researchers connect with people who hold the
positions they aspire to, that they learn to make
effective introductions, and even overuse the
name of someone youve just met in the first few
sentences of conversationso you wont forget it.
Harrison also draws attention to physical
appearance. Dressing well is a critical part of
creating your post-degree career identity, she
says. Remember to dress to look like who you
want to become post degree, and not like who you
currently are (a starving student).
12 jobs
POLICY MANAGEMENT &
SUPPORT VACANCIES
Research Administrator
31,342-37,394
Faculty of Science, Deanery,
Open University
Email: science-recruitment@
open.ac.uk
NIHR School for Public Health
Research Manager (0.5 fte)
41,430-48,873 pro rata (inc
LW)
Research Department of
Clinical, Educational and Health
Psychology,
University College London
Contact: Sharinjeet Dhiman
Email: s.dhiman@ucl.ac.uk
Technology Transfer Associate
26,537-30,738
Innovation and Enterprise,
University of Kent
Email: jobs@kent.ac.uk
Commercialisation Manager
40,847-45,954
Enterprise Services,
University of the West of Scotland
Email: jobs@uws.ac.uk
Research Administrator
29,800-33,860
Department of Epidemiology and
Biostatistics, School of Public
Health, Imperial College London
Closing date: 12am, 25/10/2015
Contact: Dr Elizabeth Hayes
Email: e.hayes@imperial.ac.uk
Enterprise Officer (Funding)
32,600-37,768
Innovation and Enterprise,
University of Kent
Email: jobs@kent.ac.uk
Tel: 01227 823033
Research Integrity and
Governance Manager
36,309-45,954
Research and Innovation
Services,
University of Southampton
Email: recruitment@
southampton.ac.uk
Research and Integrity Officer
(Policy and Ethics)
28,695-35,256
Services,
Email: recruitment@
southampton.ac.uk
The Cure Parkinsons Trust is seeking

applications from researchers working
towards curing Parkinsons
The Cure Parkinsons Trust (CPT) funds research into agents and technologies with the potential to slow, stop,
reverse or prevent Parkinsons within 5 years. Applications for funding may be submitted by appropriately
qualified scientists or clinicians based in an accredited university or hospital in any country worldwide or by
commercial organisations.
Applications sought for projects in the range of 50K - 200K and clinical trials up to 1 million.
Research Integrity Officer

(Ethics and Clinical Governance)
28,695-35,256
Services,
Email: recruitment@
southampton.ac.uk
Tel: 023 8059 2421
Research Support Coordinator
33,353-40,313
MRC Clinical Trials Unit,
University College London
Contact: Mags Thomason, Clinical
Operations Manager
Email: m.thomason@ucl.ac.uk
Research Development Bid
Writer
27,864-31,342
Research Engagement &
Innovation Services,
Swansea University
Contact: Recruitment
Email: jobs@swansea.ac.uk
Head of Research
56,482-59,913
Research Centre,
Bishop Grosseteste University
Email: recruitment@bishopg.
ac.uk
Research Grants Officer

20,781-24,057
Finance Department,
Heriot-Watt University
Closing date: 11.59pm,
30/10/2015
Email: hr@hw.ac.uk
Tel: 0131 451 3022
Research Programme Manager
Integrate Project (0.6 fte)
38,511-45,954
School of Geography and the
Environment, University of Oxford
Email: hr@ouce.ox.ac.uk
Tel: 01865 285082
Planning and Governance
Manager (Innovation, Impact
and Business)
c. 32,000
Research Support,
University of Exeter
Email: jobs@exeter.ac.uk
Business Development Manager
38,511-45,954
Wolfson School of Mechanical,
Manufacturing and Electrical
Engineering,
Loughborough University
Contact: Human Resources
Email: webrecruitment@lboro.
ac.uk
Advertise your
vacancies or funding
opportunities
*Research Fortnight reaches thousands
of professionals in the academic research
community every issue.
As the leading publisher of UK research
funding opportunities, an invaluable source
of research policy news and an essential
resource for academic vacancies, *Research
Fortnight is an ideal publication for advertising
funding, jobs and events.
Deadlines for quarterly applications, are

early February, May, August and October
For further details on how to apply, and full details of our
application process, and deadlines visit our website
www.cureparkinsons.org.uk
Tel: 020 7487 3892
Email: cptinfo@cureparkinsons.org.uk
Charity number: England and Wales 1111816 and Scotland SCO 44368
With a range of options to suit every budget,

we can help you find the right people in the
right places today.
For a no obligation chat around your

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jobs 13
The EARMA Annual Conference 2016 is in Lule, Sweden

from 20th to 23rd June in cooperation with the Lule University of Technology.
CONFERENCE THEME:
NEW HORIZONS IN RESEARCH MANAGEMENT

Call for Topics/Abstract Submission is now open on: www.earmaconference.org
EARMA Supporting Research

for our Common Future.
Experience the EARMA Annual Conference in 2016 on

Midsummers in Northern Sweden where the sun will never set!
EarmaA5Advert.indd 1
Looking for a
new job?
02/10/2015 14:13
Policy Research Programme:

Call for Applications
Youll find a wide range of

research and academic
management and support roles at
www.researchresearch.com/jobs
Plus you can register for free
email alerts and get new
vacancies sent directly to your
inbox every week.
The Department of Health Policy Research Programme

invites applications in the following four areas:
1. Improving Choices for Care: A Strategic Research
Initiative on Implementation of the Care Act 2014
2. Evaluating the Care Certificate: A Cross-Sector
Solution to Assuring Fundamental Skills in Caring
3. Radiation Protection Research Initiative
4. Tobacco Control Measures in England:
Secondary Analyses to Monitor Trends and
Outcomes
Please visit the Policy Research Programme
Central Commissioning Facility website at
www.prp-ccf.org.uk to access the research
specifications, application form, guidance notes
and closing dates for the above calls.
14 jobs
Policy and market intelligence for university decision-makers

Looming public spending cuts threaten the very existence of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Quality Assurance Agency and all of the research councils.
Meanwhile the government is developing the Teaching Excellence Framework that aims
to link the ability to raise tuition fees in England to the ability to demonstrate high-quality
teaching. Coping with such constant change can be exhausting.
*HE is designed to help. As a subscriber you gain:
8am Playbook
A highly readable weekday briefing on the day ahead in higher education, plus a review of
the morning papers.
Hot Topics
In-depth coverage of major events from the moment the news breaks with updates as
more information becomes available. Includes a briefing suitable for internal circulation
plus a round-up of reactions and analysis from our team of experienced academics and
observers.
News
Succinct and timely analysis of political developments and market shifts in higher
education to keep you on top of current and emerging trends.
Parliamentary Monitor
Daily updates of all relevant parliamentary activity in the national and devolved
administrations.
Policy Watch
Concise coverage of major events, briefing documents and other policy outputs with
analysis of their implications for universities.
*HE Grid
An online event listing and planning tool to coordinate your universitys representation at
key higher education gatherings.
Take a FREE trial subscription

Try *HE for free with a trial subscription.
Simply contact aw@researchresearch.com, telephone 020 7216 6500
or visit: info.researchprofessional.com/he/free-trial
*Research Professional, Unit 111, 134-146 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3AR
info.researchprofessional.com/he/free-trial

and recognises significant accomplishments by members of the society. The
prize is worth 500.
Web id: 1166021
Colour bursaries
The Society of Dyers and Colourists invites
applications for its bursaries. These support students wishing to develop their
knowledge related to colour education
through either academic or professional
study. Bursaries are worth up to 500 each.
Web id: 1174163
Email: edu@sdc.org.uk
History and archaeology

The Sussex Archaeological Society invties
applications for the Margary research
grants. These assist with the costs of
research into the history or archaeology of East and West Sussex, including
regional projects of which the study of the
two counties forms a significant component. Grants are worth up to 1,500 each.
Web id: 1171501
Contact: Luke Barber
Email: research@sussexpast.co.uk
Geomorphology awards
The British Society for Geomorphology invites applications for its research
grants. These support scientific activities
and research related to geomorphology.
Grants are worth up to 1,000 each.
Web id: 207743
Email: bsg@geomorphology.org.uk
Political research prize

The European Consortium for Political
Research invites nominations for the
Jean Blondel prize. This recognises the
best thesis in the field of political science
and political thought, including international relations, political theory and
public administration. The prize is worth
1,000 (740). The consortium covers
expenses to attend the prize giving at the
consortium's joint sessions of workshops,
including travel and accommodation.
Web id: 1161075
Email: mtaylor@ecpr.eu
Wellcome engagement
The Wellcome Trust invites expressions of
interest for its international engagement
awards. These support innovative public
or community engagement projects that
explore biomedical research or health in
Africa and Asia. Each award is worth up to
30,000 for up to three years.
Web id: 211201
Email: pegrants@wellcome.ac.uk
Leukaemia grants
The Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund invites
applications for its research support
awards. Awards cover capital funding,
equipment and clinical care.
Web id: 212835
Email: info@kklf.org.uk
Primate conservation
conservation working party invites applications for its conservation grants. These
support research of benefit to primate

conservation and primate conservation
education. Grants do not typically exceed
1,000.
Web id: 212839
Email: cwp@psgb.org
Conservation fellowship
The Clothworkers' Foundation invites
applications for its conservation research
fellowship. This enables a senior conservator to pursue a research project
sabbatical for two years with the support from their organisation, whilst their
post is back-filled by a recently qualified
conservator. The fellowship is worth up
to 80,000.
Web id: 1158084
Email: foundation@clothworkers.co.uk
Deadline: 4 March 2016 [84]
Captive primate welfare

Captive Care Working Party invites applications for its captive care grants. These
assist research of benefit to primate welfare in captivity and education projects
about captive primate welfare. Grants do
not typically exceed 1,000 and tend to
be in the range of 500 to 750.
Web id: 212382
Email: ccwp@psgb.org
and 1,200 each and are tenable for up

to one year. They cover expenses related
to tuition fees only.
Web id: 1183737
Email: admin@stapleytrust.org
Hellenic/Aegean studies
The British School at Athens invites applications for the Vronwy Hankey memorial
fund for Aegean studies. This helps with
expenses relating to research in the prehistory of the Aegean and its connections
with the east Mediterranean. Grants are
worth up to 1,000 each.
Web id: 201543
Contact: Tania Gerousi
Email: school.administrator@bsa.ac.uk
Deadline: 1 April 2016 [90]
Plant pathology
The British Society for Plant Pathology
invites applications for its MSc project
bursary fund. This enables MSc students
who are unable to find other sources of
funding to complete the research element
of their course. Bursaries are worth 200
per week for up to 17 weeks and 500 in
total for consumables.
Web id: 1171891
Email: education@bspp.org.uk
Respiratory medicine
The British Society for Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology invites applications
for its research and scholarship grants.
These support research and scholarship
projects that contribute to the advancement of oral pathology. Grants are worth
up to 1,000 each.
Web id: 205261
Email: max.robinson@ncl.ac.uk

abstracts for its respiratory medicine
young investigator prize. This recognises
the best abstracts on clinical or scientific
research related to the respiratory system. The trainee prize is worth 500 and
the student prize is worth 250. Both
prizes also include one year's membership
to the society.
Web id: 1160165
Email: respiratory@rsm.ac.uk
Anthropology awards
Paediatric endocrinology
The Royal Anthropological Institute

invites applications for the Ruggles-Gates
fund for biological anthropology. This
supports research in biological anthropology with focus on human population
biology, human genetics, human ethology and palaeoanthropology. Grants are
worth up to 1,000 each.
Web id: 202840
Email: admin@therai.org.uk
The European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology invites abstracts for its travel
grants. These enable junior delegates,
such as fellows in training, postdoctoral
and PhD students, to participate in the
society's annual congress. Grants are
worth up to 500 each.
Web id: 1171946
Oral/maxillofacial pathology
Critical care prize

submissions for its critical care student
elective prize. This financially supports
students who are undertaking an elective
or overseas observership related to critical care medicine as part of a recognised
course component. The prize is worth
up to 1,000 and includes one year's
membership to the society.
Web id: 1177533
Email: critical.care@rsm.ac.uk
Postgraduate grants
The Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust
invites applications for its postgraduate grants. These support individuals
pursuing postgraduate degrees in any
subject, as well as courses in medicine
or veterinary sciences taken as a second
degree. Grants are worth between 400
Textile history grants

Pasold Research Fund invites applications for its MA grants. These enable
MA students based at UK universities to
undertake research related to textile history, including dress, fashion, conservation, economic, social and cultural history
of textiles and clothing, and history of
textile technology. Grants are worth up
to 500 each.
Web id: 201138
Contact: Amy Evans
Email: pasold.research@warwick.ac.uk
Animal science award

The British Society of Animal Science
invites applications for the Murray Black
award. This supports all branches of animal science and particularly welcomes
proposals that cover the role of domestic
and wild animals and their science in the
enhancement and maintenance of the
rural environment. Grants normally range
from 500 to 1,500 and may be used for

travel to conferences, for specified study
tours or to participate in research, or to
undertake specific short research programmes or other activities to enhance
skills and experiences.
Web id: 201135
Email: bsas@bsac.org.uk
Geology bursaries
The Geological Society invites applications for its distinguished geologists
memorial trust bursaries. These assist
geologists in the early years of their
career, particularly those in industry, with
professional development. Each bursary
is worth up to 2,000 which may be used
to cover travel costs or to gain personal
experience.
Web id: 1170921
Email: chartership@geolsoc.org.uk
Learning disability prize

The Royal College of Psychiatrists invites
submissions for the Brian Oliver prize.
This recognises the best research undertaken in the psychiatry of learning disability, in the form of a literature review
or an original piece of work. The prize is
worth 500.
Web id: 204754
Contact: Kitti Kottasz
Email: kkottasz@rcpsych.ac.uk
Costume history bursary

The Costume Society invites applications
for its conference student bursary. This
enables students to attend the society's
annual three-day conference. The bursary
offers full attendance at the conference
including accommodation, meals, and
all visits and activities in the conference
programme.
Web id: 1170349
Email: awards@costumesociety.org.uk
Deadline: 30 May 2016 [98]
African history
The Royal Historical Society invites applications for the Martin Lynn scholarship.
This supports a postgraduate historian
pursuing research on African history. The
scholarship is worth up to 1,000.
Web id: 205708
Contact: Melanie Ransom
Email: m.ransom@royalhistsoc.org
Deadline: 13 June 2016 [99]
History of science
The British Society for the History of Science invites applications for its master's
degree bursaries. These support students
undertaking master's courses in the history of science, technology or medicine.
Four bursaries, each worth 4,000, are
available.
Web id: 1171881
Underwater technology
The Society for Underwater Technology
invites applications for its educational
support fund. This supports high calibre
postgraduate students who are either
starting or continuing a degree related
to one area of marine science, underwater technology or offshore engineering.
Awards are worth up to 4,000 for a full
academic year.
Web id: 1179742
Email: cheryl.ince@sut.org
Physiotherapy bursary
Pelvic, Obstetric and Gynaecological
Physiotherapy invites applications for
the Margie Polden memorial bursary. This
enables a physiotherapy student with an
interest in the field of women's health,
obstetrics and gynaecology to attend
the association's annual conference. The
bursary funds conference fees and accommodation, but does not cover travel costs.
Web id: 148304
Email: ruthhawkes@uk-consultants.
co.uk
Deadline: 1 July 2016 [102]
Soil science fellowship

The British Society of Soil Science invites
applications for the David S Jenkinson fellowship. This enables scientists to travel
from the UK to a collaborating laboratory
overseas in the field of soil science. The
fellowship is worth up to 5,000.
Web id: 1168862
Email: admin@soils.org.uk
Deadline: 31 July 2016 [103]
Leukaemia research
Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research and
the Academy of Medical Sciences invite
applications for their clinician scientist award. This enables PhD-qualified
haematologists in training to combine
postdoctoral research with specialist
training. The award provides up to four
years support at specialty registrar grade.
Web id: 193087
Contact: Emil Kazounis
Email: ekazounis@beatingbloodcancers.
org.uk
Deadline: 1 August 2016 [104]
Socio-legal studies grants

The Socio-Legal Studies Association
invites applications for its PhD grants
scheme. The scheme aims to support
work for which other funding sources are
not available and to encourage sociolegal research initiatives in a practical
way. Funding includes PhD fieldwork and
small research grants. The overall budget
is 15,000 and grants are worth up to
3,000 each.
Web id: 192717
Contact: Jess Guth
Email: admin@slsa.ac.uk
Deadline: 31 October 2016 [104.1]
Paediatric awards
The European Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
invites applications for the following
awards:
the Charlotte Anderson travel award,
worth 3,000 (2,200). Web id: 1169273
paediatric nutrition research award
for young investigators, worth 30,000.
Web id: 1169280
Email: espghan@associationhq.com
Chemistry awards
The Royal Society of Chemistry invites
nominations for the following awards:
applied inorganic chemistry award,
worth 2,000. Web id: 255905
bioinorganic chemistry award, worth
2,000. Web id: 255914
environment, sustainability and ener-

gy division early-career award, worth
2,000. Web id: 256085
the Nyholm prize for education, worth
5,000. Web id: 1164977
organic stereochemistry award, worth
2,000. Web id: 256268
organometallic chemistry award,
worth 2,000. Web id: 256287
the S F Boys A Rahman award, worth
2,000. Web id: 211185
organic industrial chemistry award,
worth 2,000. Web id: 256248
physical organic chemistry award,
worth 2,000. Web id: 256233
materials for industry Derek Birchall
award, worth 2,000. Web id: 256221
toxicology award, worth 2,000.
Web id: 256199
sustainable energy award, worth
2,000. Web id: 256163
the Sir George Stokes award, worth
2,000. Web id: 256151
the John B Goodenough award, worth
2,000. Web id: 256098
the Sir Edward Frankland fellowship,
worth 2,000. Web id: 256093
environment prize, worth 5,000.
Web id: 255975
the De Gennes prize, worth 5,000.
Web id: 255972
creativity in industry prize, worth
5,000. Web id: 255965
Adolescent psychiatry prize

The Royal College of Psychiatrists invites
submissions for the Gillian Page prize for
specialist registrars and specialty trainees
STs 1-6. This recognises the best research
project, review of a particular topic or a
study of a clinical innovation in order to
promote progress in adolescent psychiatry. The prize is worth 500.
Web id: 179679
Contact: Stella Galea
Email: sgalea@rcpsych.ac.uk
Pharmacology awards
The British Pharmacological Society
invites nominations for the Wellcome
gold medal. This is awarded for contributions to pharmacology, based mainly
on research achievements. The award is
worth 2,000.
Web id: 159898
Email: pt@bps.ac.uk
Deadline: 15 March 2017 [114.1]
Political science award

The European Consortium for Political
Research invites nominations for its lifetime achievement award. This recognises
a scholar who has made an outstanding
contribution to European political science. The award is worth 5,000 (3,700).
Web id: 209000
Contact: Marcia Taylor
Email: mtaylor@ecpr.eu
research groups and students to extend

their network and engage in scientific discussions related to biosciences by holding
research seminars. Funding covers travel
expenses, accommodation and meals.
Web id: 1187067
Contact: Heidi Trmnen Persson
Email: heidi.t.persson@scilifelab.uu.se
The tenderer will track EU investment in

past poverty-related neglected diseases
R&D and assess how corresponding technologies and innovations are being translated in a resource for achieving universal
health coverage. The contract is worth
750,000 (552,200) over 14 months.
Web id: 1187080
EU pesticide exposure
Fellowships in Poland
The European Food Safety Authority invites tenders for the provision of a
review of the published exposure data on
pesticides for residents and bystanders,
and for environmental risk assessment.
The tenderer will collect all published
data in the last 25 years on resident and
bystander exposure to pesticides, daily
air concentrations of substances based
on vapour pressure, drift values from
spray, seed and granular applications and
dislodgeable foliar residue. The budget
is worth 250,000 (184,100) over 12
months.
Web id: 1187003
Email: efsaprocurement@efsa.europa.eu
The National Science Centre Poland invites

applications for its Polonez research fellowships. These enable researchers to
conduct basic research at an institution
in Poland. Fellowships provide a monthly
salary and mobility allowance of 4,350
(3,200), a family allowance of 300 per
month for fellows whose families stay in
Poland for at least three months, and
a research grant between PLN80,000
(13,900) and PLN160,000 depending on
the length of the fellowship and research
area. Fellowships last either 12 or 24
months.
Web id: 1187082
Contact: Agata Mendrek
Email: polonez@ncn.gov.pl
EU reshoring
The European Foundation for the
Improvement of Living and Working
Conditions invites tenders for the establishment of an European reshoring monitor. The monitor will capture structured
information on individual reshoring cases
and provide regular reporting on the
phenomenon of reshoring in the EU,
on the kinds of activities involved, the
reasons for the reshoring of the production in question and the employment
consequences of reshoring decisions.
The contract is worth 130,000 (95,700)
over 36 months.
Web id: 1187020
Contact: Lidia Jankowska
Email: osutenders@eurofound.europa.
eu
EU apprenticeships & skills

Cedefop invites tenders for the following
contracts:
a cross-national overview of apprenticeships, worth 250,000 (184,100)
over 14 months. Web id: 1187000
skills utilisation and formation
learning cultures in enterprises, worth
300,000 over 18 months.
Web id: 1186998
Email: c4t-services@cedefop.europa.eu
EU rotary wings
New opportunities from European funders,

excluding funders based in the UK
The European Defence Agency invites

tenders for its call on interoperability
in forward aeromedical evacuation with
rotary wings. The tenderer will conduct
a study which includes analysis of operational requirements and capabilities,
identification of interoperability opportunities and recommendations for improvement of forward aeromedical evacuation
with rotary wings. The contract is worth
100,000 (73,600) over eight months.
Web id: 1186992
Email: procurement@eda.europa.eu
Biosciences seminars
EU poverty and health
The Science for Life Laboratory invites

nominations for guest speakers at the
Svedberg seminar series. This enables
The Directorate-General for Research and

Innovation invites tenders for a study on
poverty-related and neglected diseases.
europe
highlights
EU H2020 innovative medicines

The Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint
Undertaking invites applications for its
sixth call for proposals. This call supports
prospective, pre-competitive pharmaceutical research and development projects
on innovative medicines. The indicative
duration for projects under topics 1, 2
and 4 is 60 months, and 24 months for
topic 3 projects. The indicative contribution from industry consortia is 46.5
million (34.2m), and the IMIJU budget
is 46.5m.
Web id: 1186923
Email: infodesk@imi.europa.eu
Hypertension research
The European Society of Hypertension
invites proposals for its Servier research
grants. These are awarded for the best
research proposal in the field of hypertension and related diseases with a focus
on end-organ damage, surrogate markers and bio-markers. The grant is worth
30,000 (22,100).
Web id: 1186567
Contact: Giuseppe Mancia
europe
other
Renewed opportunities from European
funders, excluding funders based in the UK
Humboldt awards
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation invites nominations for its research
awards. These enable scientists and scholars from all disciplines and countries,
with internationally recognised academic
qualifications, to conduct an original
research project in close collaboration
with an appropriate colleague in Germany. Each award is worth up to 60,000
(44,200), with additional funding for
costs such as language courses or travel.
Web id: 184274
Email: info@avh.de
No deadline [125]

Paediatric nursing
The European Society of Paediatric and
Neonatal Intensive Care invites applications for the following opportunities:
educational grants, worth up to 500
(370) each. Web id: 255601
fellowships, worth up to 1,000 each.
Web id: 254743
Email: info@espnic-online.org
Collaborative travel
The Karolinska Institutet and Mayo Clinic
invites applications for their collaborative
travel awards. These provide support for
transportation and designated housing
at the host site for the proposed period
of collaborative interaction. The award
budget will be determined based on the
proposed travel duration and considering
available institutional housing options
and airfare.
Web id: 1187059
Email: fonder@ki.se
EU advanced computing access

The Partnership for Advanced Computing
in Europe invites proposals for its call
on project access (tier-0). This enables
researchers to access Partnership for
Advanced Computing in Europe facilities
to conduct large-scale, computationally
intensive projects of high scientific quality
that would not otherwise be possible or
productive. Each proposal may be based
on a one-year schedule, or on a two- or
three-year schedule for multiyear projects.
Web id: 1162792
Email: peer-review@prace-ri.eu
Nursing travel grants

The European Society of Cardiologys
Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and
Allied Professions invites applications for
its travel grants. These enable members
of the CCNAP to attend the annual ESC
congress or the EuroHeartCare meeting.
Each grant is worth 500 (370).
Web id: 1175669
Deadline: 11 December 2015 [129.1]
Danish fellowships
The Lundbeck Foundation invites applications for its fellowships. These enable
young researchers to establish or develop
their own research groups within biomedicine. Fellowships are worth DKK10
million (986,800) each over five years.
Web id: 1170144
Contact: Ulla Jakobsen
Email: application@lundbeckfonden.
com
Vision research award

The Champalimaud Foundation invites
nominations for the Antnio Champalimaud vision award. This recognises basic
or clinical research that has led to a major
breakthrough in the understanding or the
preservation of vision. The award is worth
1 million (736,400).
Web id: 206992
Email: award@fchampalimaud.org
Allergy fellowships
The European Academy of Allergy and
Clinical Immunology invites applications
for its research fellowships. These support
the research and training of EACCI junior

members in a European country outside
their own. Fellowships are worth 5,000
(3,700) for short-term visits over three
months, 10,000 for medium-term visits
over six months and 20,000 for longterm visits over 12 months.
Web id: 1157993
Contact: Viviane Knerr
Email: education@eaaci.org
Cardiology mentorship
The European Society of Cardiology
invites applications for its postdoctoral
mentorship award. This enables mentees to have dedicated time with their
selected mentor, meet new colleagues
and be exposed to a different learning
environment. One award worth 2,000
is available.
Web id: 261120
Email: councils@escardio.org
Organismal biology
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
and the Max Planck Society invite nominations for the Max Planck research awards.
These recognise excellent scientists and
scholars who are expected to continue
producing academic achievements in international collaboration. The 2016 award
will be conferred in the field of organismal
biology, with a particular focus on sensing the environment. Awards are worth
750,000 (552,200) each.
Web id: 203105
Email: mpf@avh.de
Atherosclerosis awards
The European Atherosclerosis Society
invites nominations for its young investigator awards for outstanding publications. These recognise distinction shown
by publications that contribute to the
advancement of knowledge in the field
of atherosclerosis and linked metabolic
disturbances. One prize is awarded for
clinical research and one prize is awarded
for basic research. Each recipient will
receive 2,000 (1,500) and be invited to
make a short presentation at the annual
EAS conference.
Web id: 188335
Email: office@eas-society.org
Diabetes research
The European Foundation for the Study
of Diabetes and Novo Nordisk invite
applications for their diabetes research
in Europe programme. This supports initiatives in all areas of diabetes research,
to rapidly diffuse acquired knowledge
and to facilitate its application. Grants
are worth up to 100,000 (73,600) for
basic research and up to 400,000 for
clinical research.
Web id: 1157979
Email: foundation@easd.org
Rheumatism travel bursaries

The European League Against Rheumatism invites applications for its scientific travel bursaries. These enable first
authors of an accepted abstract for oral or
poster presentation to attend the annual
EULAR congress. Bursaries include free
registration to the congress, three nights'
hotel accommodation and 350 (260)
for travel and living expenses.

Web id: 258492
Green chemistry grants

PhosAgro, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
and the International Union for Pure and
Applied Chemistry, invite applications for
research grants under their partnership
in green chemistry. These enable young
scientists to carry out innovative, scientific and collaborative research projects
in green chemistry that advance scientific knowledge. Grants are worth up to
US$30,000 (19,600).
Web id: 1177485
Contact: Maciej Nalecz
Email: green.chemistry@unesco.org
CERN engineering fellowships

The European Organisation for Nuclear
Research invites applications for the following fellowships:
junior engineering fellowships.
Web id: 206707
senior engineering fellowships.
Web id: 1161477
post-career break fellowship.
Web id: 1176979
senior fellowships in experimental
and theoretical physics. Web id: 206706
Exchange with Germany

The Baden-Wrttemberg Stiftung invites
applications for its programme for university students. This enables students from
Baden-Wrttemberg universities to gain
experience at overseas partner universities, and students from foreign universities to study in Baden-Wrttemberg.
Funding is worth up to 1,200 (890) per
month over three to 11 months.
Web id: 1180067
Contact: Ulrich Track
Email: studierende@bw-stipendium.de
Computing fellowships
The European Research Consortium for
Informatics and Mathematics invites
applications for the Alain Bensoussan fellowship programme. This enables earlycareer scientists to conduct research at
leading European centres outside their
own country. Fellowships last for 12
months and provide a monthly allowance worth up to 3,550 (2,600) and
travel expenses. Fellows must spend at
least one week visiting another ERCIM
member institute.
Web id: 254572
Email: fp-info@ercim.eu
rest of world
Opportunities from funders outside of the
UK, Europe and the US.
Production research grants

The Mazak Foundation invites applications for its commendation programme
for research papers. This provides commendations for research papers in new
technologies related to the machine tool
industry and machine tools.
Web id: 192922
Email: mazak@lilac.ocn.ne.jp
Deadline: 30/11/2015 [143.1]
US studies fellowships
The United States Studies Centre at the
University of Sydney invites applications for its visiting scholar fellowships.
These enable academics to take leave
from their home institutions in order
to spend time at the centre in Sydney.
Fellowships include a stipend worth
up to AU$35,200 (16,500) each, as
well as an office, access to the university library, assistance in travelling to
Australia, and finding housing. Each
fellowship is tenable for a duration of
two to 12 months.
Web id: 1172161
Email: ussc.applications@sydney.edu.au
UN studies awards
The Academic Council on the United
Nations System invites applications for
its dissertation fellowship award. This
recognises student ACUNS members who
are writing graduate-level dissertations
on topics related to the UN system. The
award is worth US$1,500 (980) and
winners may receive an extra US$650
to register for and travel to the ACUNS
annual meeting.
Web id: 194748
Email: admin@acuns.org
Deadline: 14/01/2016 [145]
usa
nih
Opportunities from the National Institutes
of Health. Recurring NIH calls include the
next closing date only.
Phase III clinical trials for the spectrum

of Alzheimer's disease and age-related
cognitive decline (R01)
NIH ref: PAR-16-364
Web id: 1187086
Pilot clinical trials for the spectrum of
Alzheimer's disease and age-related
cognitive decline (R01)
NIH ref: PAR-16-365
Web id: 1187088
BRAIN initiative: foundations of noninvasive functional human brain
imaging and recording bridging scales
and modalities (R01)
NIH ref: RFA-MH-16-750
Web id: 1186991
Characterisation
of
mycobacterial
induced immunity in HIVinfected and
uninfected individuals (R21)
NIH ref: PAR-15-360
Web id: 1187033
Impact of the use of glucose monitoring
and control technologies on health
outcomes and quality of life in older
adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D) (DP3)
NIH ref: RFA-DK-15-028
Web id: 1186993
Integrative neuroscience initiative
on alcoholism (INIA) consortia
(collaborative U01)
NIH ref: RFA-AA-16-004
Web id: 1161369
18 funding news
usa
other
US funding opportunities available to UK
researchers.
American Academy of Neurology Michael

S Pessin stroke leadership prize
Web id: 205210
American Academy of Neurology movement disorders research award
Web id: 205211
American Academy of Neurology Norman
Geschwind prize in behavioural neurology
Web id: 205213
American Academy of Neurology Potamkin prize for research in Pick's, Alzheimer's and related diseases
Web id: 205215
American Academy of Neurology wShelia
Essey award for ALS research
Web id: 205224
Institute for Aegean Prehistory petrography internship at the INSTAP Study
Center for East Crete
Web id: 1169650
Institute for Aegean Prehistory research
grants
Web id: 207823
JILA visiting fellows programme
Web id: 255853
Library of Congress Henry A Kissinger
chair in foreign policy and international
relations
Web id: 186475
National Academy of Education/Spencer
postdoctoral fellowship
Web id: 207076
Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation
research grants
Web id: 168830
Commonwealth Fund Harkness fellowships
Web id: 1171963
Melanoma Research Alliance young
investigator awards
Web id: 1172989
Stanford University Andrew W Mellon
fellowship
Web id: 153912
Holocaust Memorial Museum Jack,
Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for
Advanced Holocaust Studies fellowships
Web id: 205623
Smithsonian Museum Conservation
Institute interdisciplinary postdoctoral
fellowship in stable isotope sciences
Web id: 1176980
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Joshua C Taylor fellowship
Web id: 156016
policy diary
December
2 Universities UK: Equality and
Diversity in HE, London.
http://rsrch.co/1LtpB9b
9 WHEF: Scientific Infrastructure
in the UK Investment Criteria,
Partnerships and Policy,
London.
http://rsrch.co/1IoDx6b
Praxis Unico: Fundamentals of
Software Commercialisation,
Loughborough. To 11.
http://rsrch.co/1OpPJXR
Universities UK: Enhancing the
Student Experience, London.
http://rsrch.co/1QA4PJj
12 EPSRC: Council Meeting, London. To 13.
ttp://rsrch.co/1GuHPY9
January
14 WSPF: Developing Regional
Powerhouses in England
Infrastructure, Economic Development and Skills, London.
http://rsrch.co/1GsFn6N
20 Universities UK: Strategic Fundraising for HE Leaders, London.
http://rsrch.co/1UQLuUY
26 AMRC: Essential Research Management, London.
http://rsrch.co/1gcWHls
Universities UK: Innovation
in Teaching and Learning,
London.
http://rsrch.co/1J7lQEC
February
23 AMRC: Developing New Funding
Schemes, London.
http://rsrch.co/1UQIjMW
Universities UK: Developing
Your Access Agreement 201718, London.
http://rsrch.co/1FHV3hR
25 WBF: The Future for Biometric
Data and Technology in the UK,
London.
http://rsrch.co/1LeFGzQ
WHEF: Extending the Global
Reach of UK Universities
Policy Priorities, London
http://rsrch.co/1MOMiX9
March
1 WHEF: The Future for the Catapult Network, London
http://rsrch.co/1LhAUG8
EPSRC: Council Meeting,
London. To 2.
http://rsrch.co/1G7t0IJ
Universities UK: International
Higher Education Forum 2016,
London.
http://rsrch.co/1iIZc0b
10 WHEF: The Changing Shape of
Higher Education Admissions
and Next Steps for Policy on
Widening Participation, London
http://rsrch.co/1BlQVaO
British Academy names

postdoc fellows
The British Academy has awarded 45 postdoctoral fellowships
for 2015. Among the three-year projects are an evaluation
of a prison-based education programme in which prisoners
and university students learn together, an exploration on the
origin of Arabs and early Islam, and a research project asking
whether having children is detrimental to health.
Mammalian synbio centre launched in Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh opened the UK Centre for
Mammalian Synthetic Biology, one of three research centres
to be created with 32 million from the research councils and
capital investment from the UK government on 7 October. The
centre is funded by the Biological and Biotechnology Sciences
Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council and the Medical Research Council.
Imperial and MIT team up to fund risky ideas
Imperial College London and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology have launched a joint programme to fund
blue-sky research. Both universities have allocated an initial
$300,000 (198,000) to the programme, which will support
small-scale experiments, prototypes and travel costs. In a
statement issued on 5 October, the institutions said that
if the scheme was successful, they would significantly
increase their financial support.
Nesta launches Welsh fund for the digital arts
Innovation agency Nesta has launched a fund to help Welsh
arts organisations make the most of digital technologies. The
Digital Innovation Fund for the Arts in Wales, announced on
1 October, will select eight projects to receive 5,000 plus
business support to form a team and develop their ideas over
three months. Follow-on funding worth up to 75,000 will be
available for some of the projects.
CRUK boosts cancer centres
Cancer Research UK has announced the recipients of its Centres
Network Accelerator Awards. Four institutions will share
15million from the programme, which provides infrastructure
support to encourage collaboration and boost bench to
bedside science. University College London received 5m to
advance immunotherapy research, the University of Leicester
received 1.7m to improve drug development through
structural biology, and Queens University Belfast received
3.9m to develop image analysis techniques for solid tumours.
The Francis Crick Institute won 4.2m to support experimental
cancer research and create Clinical Research Fellowships to
unite research centres in London.
Innovate launches 10m nutrition scheme
Innovate UK has opened a 10-million competition to cut
sugar, salt and fat in food and drink. Funding will support
collaborative projects on a variety of food types, including
packaged and pre-prepared foods. In a white paper, Innovate
UK said that food companies had been trying to improve
the nutritional content of their products for years but they
faced technical barriers that could only be overcome by
collaborative research.
europe 19
europe
Priorities for Horizon 2020s

midterm review come into focus
Oversubscription, the use of impact criteria and the poor
performance of new member states are set to dominate
discussions of Horizon 2020 as its 2017 midterm review
approaches, European Parliament officials have said.
During the summer, the European Commission was
grilled by MEPs on Horizon 2020s progress, through
a series of 40 questions submitted in July by 24 MEPs
led by Christian Ehler, a German Christian Democrat. By
5 October, the Commission had answered two-thirds of
questions, addressing MEPs concerns about success
rates, evaluation, overhead rates, the open data pilot
and time-to-grant.
The exercise reflects the MEPs determination to
enhance their legitimacy and gain a stronger hand
in upcoming negotiations with the Commission on
the Horizon 2020 programme and its successor. MEPs
submitted the 40 questions only after seeking the
information through unofficial channels and being
stonewalled by the Commission, Parliament sources said.
The negotiations, which will commence in 2016, are
likely to be energised by what the MEPs regard as serious problems with Horizon 2020 in its first two years.
Oversubscription is expected to be the number one priority. The programmes overall success rate dipped to
14per cent in 2014, compared with 20 per cent across the
whole of Framework 7, and this has sparked fears that top
institutions will simply seek funding elsewhere. Potential
solutions to this problem include increased use of twostage applicationsused for less than 10 per cent of calls
europe
in brief
by Laura Greenhalgh
lgnews@ResearchResearch.com
at presentto save researchers time, or changing the

wording of calls to make them more prescriptive.
On 25 September, the Commission launched a survey
of its own to get feedback from participants. The survey floated the possibility of drastic measures, such as a
sharp reduction in the length of application periods, as
a way to deter applicants. However, the Commission has
indicated that it may prefer to wait and see if success
rates improve naturally.
A second red-flag issue will be the dominance of
countries in Europes west and north. The Commission
has revealed that 87 per cent of funding in 2014 went
to the EU15 group of older members, and only 5.5 per
cent to the 13 newer membersan imbalance that has
become worse since Framework 7, despite measures
aimed at widening participation.
Lobby groups have also expressed concern about the
increased role of impact criteria in evaluation and the
dominance of applied research, after industry increased
its budget share from 25 per cent under Framework 7 to
28 per cent in 2014, while university participation dropped.
The Commissions survey closes on 23 October,
and a discussion document on the midterm review is
expected by the end of 2015. A Parliamentary working
group involving members from the industry, research
and energy committee will prepare a paper of its own at
around the same time.
Ministers question Junckers

commitment to R&D
Science ministers from eight
member states have written to the
European Commission to express concern over a perceived
lack of importance of R&D in the 2016 work programme.
Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia
and Spain signed the letter, sent on 28 September. They
called for more references to the importance of R&D in
policies on the digital single market, energy, industrial
development and the EUs international standing.
OECD calls for more data training

A lack of sufficiently qualified scientists is getting in
the way of the potential benefits of big data, the OECD
has said. In a report published on 6 October, the OECD
said that data specialists accounted for just 1 per cent of
total employment in 2013 in all OECD countries except
Luxembourg. In Portugal, France and Turkey the figure had dropped below 0.1 per cent. The OECD said that
potential solutions included ensuring that data curation
plans formed a part of grant agreements and introducing
national education programmes on data skills.
Advisers tell IPCC to simplify reports

An advisory group has said that the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change should write shorter, more
digestible outputs to mitigate against climate change
being overshadowed by more immediate crises. The IPCC
task group suggested that interim reports could help to
broaden perspectives on climate change and stop the
sheer volume of data in multi-year assessments from
bamboozling policymakers.
India formally joins SKA

The Indian government has signed an agreement with the
governing body of the Square Kilometre Array telescope to
make the country an official member of the international
project. The National Centre for Radio Astrophysics in Pune
will oversee Indias participation. Ratan Kumar Sinha, secretary of the Indian Department of Atomic Energy, signed
the agreement on 5 October. Phil Diamond, director general of the SKA Organisation, attended the event.
20 view
v i e w f r o m t h e t o p d a v i d w a l k e r
RCUK is ripe for Javids shears

Speaking at the Institute for Government last month,
cabinet secretary and head of the civil service Jeremy
Heywood said that part of his job was to deal with crosscutting issues, giving the government a semblance of
joined-up-ness.
Science wasnt on Heywoods list of hisand, presumably, David Cameronspreoccupations. But in
Heywoods occasional meetings with chief scientific
adviser Mark Walport, its a racing certainty that they
talk about coordination.
What is the pointto paraphrase Walports argument
when he pushed for the commissioning of Paul Nurses
review of the research councilsof a Government Office
for Science that doesnt run science? Solving Walports
problem is beneath Heywoods lofty responsibilities, but
hes sure to have had a word with Martin Donnelly, the
permanent secretary at the Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills.
But civil servants, as Heywood is the first to admit, dont
control the political agenda. Whitehall expected a coalition
after Mays election but instead its Cameron. More accurately its chancellor George Osborne, since its around him
that politics revolve in the run up to Novembers spending
review. It makes a fascinating case study in British central
government, unless you are a likely victim of the cuts and
reorganisation set to afflict the BIS empire.
Business secretary Sajid Javid may not have much
in common with science minister Jo Johnson, but they
would agree that the main ambition for UK science and
higher education is money, meaning growth and profitability. They dont mind academics talking of excellence;
its a proxy for monetising laboratory and seminar value.
And they would see the institutional landscape of BIS as
bulky, complicated and not fit for purpose.
So the question isnt just about cuts. Javid has
decreed that BIS be exemplary in this regard, even if the
headline on the science budget is flat cash. Its whether
the administrative undergrowth is cleared with pruning
shears or a flame-thrower.
Look at the flora: individual research
councils, Innovate UK, the funding councils. Ministers at BIS see a
chance to save cash and abolish quangos, a cherished Tory objective. The
recently leaked BIS 2020 strategy says
Javid wants a big cut in the quango
count, with higher education bodies in
England the first to go.
The research councils, though, are
statutory; the Science and Technology
Act 1965 and subsequent legislation
say they should exist, so chopping and
Ministers
at BIS see
a chance to
save cash
and abolish
quangos, a
cherished Tory
objective.
changing them could involve parliament. Whitehall,

including its ministers, is deeply averse to unnecessary
bills, because of the risk of defeat with a majority as
small as Camerons.
Research Councils UK, by contrast, is in play, as
Whitehall likes to say. It is not a legal entity, belonging
instead to that branch of the constitution called prerogative powers. In lay terms, this means government
departments and their agencies can do more or less what
they like. So RCUK behaves like a separate quango, runs
a website and appoints its first executive director, in the
shape of Hilary Reynolds, but has no formal existence.
Its easy to dispatch.
Another reason why RCUK must be a likely sacrifice
is that for the past half century science policy has oscillated around two poles. One is application: how to link
science to innovation and technology while reserving
space for fundamental research. The other is coordination: how to prevent specialisms from zooming off on
their own trajectories. The Tories aim for more coordination to secure better application.
Since 1965, weve had science advisory councils, the
Advisory Board for the Research Councils and, since
2002, RCUK. Walport isnt the first chief science adviser
or equivalent who has pronounced this mechanism inadequateinsufficient to underpin cross-disciplinary work
and too remote from science policymaking.
Walports dissatisfaction lay behind the commissioning of Nurses review. But the review has, it is said, been
superseded by the election.
Within weeks, Javid had asked management consultants McKinsey to give him their gardening plan for the
BIS jungle. Predictably, the McKinsey proposals could see
RCUK, Innovate UK and the funding councils rationalised.
Science once had its own government department.
That is an option again. Javid wants no more industrial
policy. Regional economic policy and, increasingly, student loans belong to the Treasury.
BIS wont be abolished; Cameron didnt do big
machinery changes under the coalition and is no keener now, not least because chopping departments cuts
prized political jobs. So that leaves BIS, cleansed and
rationalised, as the de facto department for science,
absorbing research council administration where it has
not been further outsourced as well as possibly much
of the residual funding council function. The research
councils remain, statutory shells. RCUK disappears.
More to say? Email comment@ResearchResearch.com
David Walker is head of policy at the Academy of Social
Sciences and a former council member of the ESRC. He was
the founding editor of the Guardian Public magazine.
view 21
palacios-callender & roberts view from the top
Help academic diasporas seed

international collaborations
We all benefit from the knowledge created by the free
movement of scientists and engineers. But the asymmetric flows caused by researcher mobility and migration
create problems as well as opportunities. Dysfunctional
states left behind by economic and technological globalisation are the sources of Europes humanitarian
crisis. In particular, the movement of researchers from
the global south to the north can exacerbate poverty in
countries drained of their best and brightest.
But migrating researchers do not necessarily sever
ties with their homeland. One of usMiriam PalaciosCallenderis a case in point. I have a foot in both
worlds. My grandchildren are British, but I was born and
educated in Cuba, before emigrating as a postdoc.
During almost 20 years of biomedical research, mostly
in the UK, I tried to help scientists in Cuba by sending
second-hand laboratory equipment and helping with
grant applications. Most of the time politics got in the
way, as well as the lack of understanding of how both the
destination and the country of origin might benefit from
those exchanges.
The experience left me wanting to find out about other
emigrant Cuban scientists and engineers, and to explore
how they might strengthen scientific capacity in Cuba
through collaboration and diplomacy. In 2012, I moved
to the University of West London, and began a PhD in
social science looking at the mobility and networks of
Cubans working in European science and technology.
I studied 103 Cuban researchers active in Europe, chosen at random. Of these, 74 were at institutions in the
top 500 of the Academic Ranking of World Universities.
Collectively during their careers they had collaborated
with 990 institutions in 57 countries. A surprisingly large
number of researchers56had co-authored at least one
paper with colleagues in 34 Cuban institutions.
Some people have argued that policies to hinder the
mobility of scientists and engineers would encourage
education and development in poorer countries. But this
ignores the real problem of insufficient internal investment or external support. More effective is to allow
market forces to work and then reinvest in the home
country, harnessing the goodwill of emigrant researchers. Sharing then becomes investment.
Cultivating networks among the academic diasporas
offers an obvious way for a country to improve its scientific
Miriam Palacios-Callender and Stephen Roberts are research
associate and associate professor, respectively, at the school
of computing and engineering, University of West London.
capacity. Long-term residency and greater mobility in the

developed world has taught researchers in the diasporas
to understand the triple helix of academia, government
and industry. They are part of international scientific
teams and have learned to work with people from other
cultures and religions. They also have local knowledge
that can help their home countries to develop their own
triple helices, which is essential for fast economic growth.
Brazil, Russia, India and China are already seeking to
counter the effects of brain drain by creating mechanisms
and policies to build scientific and technological cooperation and collaboration with nationals working abroad.
Host countries, by assisting the academic diaspora
networks in their midst, can also make a significant
and highly cost-effective contribution to international
development. Some promising examples already exist:
in Belgium, the VLIR-UOS programme supports research
partnerships between universities in Flanders and the
global south at every level from the individual to the
institutional level. After training in Belgium, international researchers return to their country of origin with
a budget to create their own labs.
The VLIR-UOS project, however, does not make a
special effort to engage expatriate researchers. In
this regard, the gold standard is the Swiss Network of
Scientific Diasporas. This scheme, led by the cole
Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne has sought to
transfer knowledge and skills between Colombian,
Indian and South African researchers in Switzerland
and their countries of origin. The effort has produced a
toolkit to assess good practice for skilled migrants and
scientific diasporas, and built links between academia
and policy-making. This is an international knowledge
network at its most effective.
When emigrant researchers build professional links
with their homelands, it is not just
to the benefit of the nations they left
behind. It also creates research and
growth opportunities for their current employers. This is one reason
that the University of West London,
for example, trains PhD students
from developing countries and has
built strong ties with Africa and
Asia. The time is ripe for other UK
institutions to come up with their
own innovations in this area.
Something to add? Email comment@ResearchResearch.com
More effective is
to allow market
forces to work and
then reinvest in
the home country,
harnessing the
goodwill of
emigrants.
22 analysis
analysis
The nudge manifesto
Nudge unit boss David Halpern might be the Cameron governments most influential
researcher. He spoke with John Whitfield about bridging academia and policy.
The walk from Charing Cross station to David Halperns
office retraces his journey through government. First,
theres Admiralty Arch on Trafalgar Square, where as
a member of Tony Blairs strategy unit Halpern sought
to inject behavioural thinking into policy, only to be
sidelined when a paper on reducing obesity led to newspaper headlines about a coming fat tax.
Moving down Whitehall, one passes Downing
Street, where Halpern spent four years in the Cabinet
Office running the Behavioural Insights Team, a.k.a.
the Nudge Unit. The units formation attracted a fair
amount of ridicule but its interventions were successful enough that Halpern was made national adviser to
the What Works centres, which aim to bring evidence to
public servants. He is now arguably the most influential
researcher of David Camerons premiership.
Last year, the BIT was spun out as Behavioural
Insights Ltd, a social purpose company owned jointly by
its employees, government and the innovation charity
Nesta. It is housed in an office block on Greycoat Street,
10 minutes further on across Parliament Square.
The task of a social purpose company, it transpires,
is to put itself out of business. That would be wonderful, says Halpern, when I ask whether the spread of
behavioural expertise could mean increasing competition. HM Revenue and Customs, he notes, now has a
behavioural team bigger than the original BIT. Were
not trying to build some giant business empire. If we
could live in a world where 70,000 civil servants deeply understand human behaviouroh my God, I would
love to have that problem.
To hasten that end Halpern has just published a
book, Inside the Nudge Unit. Its an introduction to the ideas behind the use of
David Halpern
behavioural science in government and a
manifesto for an experimental, evidence2013-present National
adviser, What Works
based approach to policymaking. While
centres
there have been a number of books from
2010-present Chief
American practitioners of nudge theory
executive, Behavioural
including White House advisers Richard
Insights Team
Thaler and Cass Sunsteinthis is the first
2008-2010 Director,
account of its use in the UK.
Institute for
Government
Its also a history of Halperns time
2001-2007 Chief anaworking inside the machine, albeit, one
lyst, Prime Ministers
suspects, a PG-rated one. We continue
Strategy Unit
to work with many bits of government,
1996-2001 Lecturer,
so you have to be a bit discreet, Halpern
University of
says. He writes, for example, that the BIT
Cambridge
*
*
*
*
*
found itself up against Parliament; 70,000 civil servants across the UK; five million public servants; and of
course the media and public, but he declines to name
any individuals.
In fact, what the books biographical elements most
resemble is the story of a successful start-up. This might
be partly a bid to surf the cultural energy of the tech
industrys creation myths, in which a small team of
geeks disrupts a vast but sluggish incumbent. But it also
surely reflects the reality of getting research applied to
policy. Halperns recipe for influence, while including
intellectual rigour, also makes clear that networking,
marketing, and the location of your office are all crucial.
Thats a lot to ask of an individual academic who
thinks her work might be relevant to policy. Whats
needed, says Halpern are bridge institutionslike the
BIT, the What Works network, and the national academiesthat can bring policy and research together. The
Greycoat Street sign-in book reveals the BITs links to
both worlds, showing visits in recent days with people
from the Cabinet Office, Home Office and the University
of California, Berkeley. We are weak on these bridge
institutions in the UK, Halpern says. The academic
and the policy worlds are too far apart. Its unrealistic to
think people are going to bump into each other.
In seeing himself as a conduit rather than an oracle,
Halpern positions himself differently to those government advisers whose job it is to wrestle with complex
and technical questions so that politicians and civil
servants dont have to. For one thing, he hardly uses
the word advice. The only time the concept crops up in
our conversation is when he mentions the BITs own
academic advisory panel.
The aim instead is to design experiments and present
their findings in a way that puts the user in control, as
with the Educational Endowment Foundations toolkit,
which summarises educational research findings for
classroom staff. This might involve simplification, in the
form of mnemonics or star ratings, but not prescription.
Another feature of the BIT is that, while its office was
at the centre of government, its work happened downstream, at the level of policy implementation rather
than design. An economist might advise on the optimal
rate of income tax; the nudge unit tweaked letters to
Inside the Nudge Unit: How small changes can make a
big difference is published by WH Allen (20).
get more people to pay up on time.

This is not new in itself; governments treat research
as a tool all the time, which is why they fund work on
weapons, crops and medicines. Whats notable about
nudging and evidence-based policymaking is that they
aim to engineer the practice of government itself. The
BIT is a tech company after allone that sells psychological and social technology.
Like other technologies, this raises the potential for
whats known as dual usethe possibility that a piece
of knowledge could be put to either beneficial or detrimental ends. Halpern acknowledges the risk, and its
been a real issue. In the book, he declares changes to
job centre interviews that improved employment rates as
his proudest moment at the BIT. But there has also been
controversy, which is not mentioned, about the teams
involvement in psychometric tests given to jobseekers.
One aim of Inside the Nudge Unit is to encourage
debate about the use of behavioural science in government, says Halpern. There are real controversies and
unease, so youve got to be open and straightforward.
Its not for the nudgers to set their own agenda. Its
important that be set by democratically elected governments or directly through the public.
That said, although the book describes some of the
political hurdles to implementing Halperns approach,
readers could be forgiven for thinking that everything
the BIT was allowed to try came off. In the final pages,
Halpern writes that the units trials yielded a positive
result about 80 per cent of the time, but he doesnt go
into detail about the unsuccessful 20 per cent.
This reluctance to discuss failure was criticised in an
otherwise positive report in 2014 from the House of Lords
science and technology select committee. We would
emphasise the importance of publishing information
on approaches which have not worked, as well as successes, the committees chairman John Palmer wrote in
a letter to Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin.
Thats been rectified, says Halpern, with the team
using the period of purdah before this years election
to catch up on publishing. Since that report weve put
out a huge number of results. There arent many bits of
the government community that have tried to lay out
quite so clearly what it is they do, including things that
didnt work.
Even so, the teams criteria for success come from
government rather than academia. In terms of research
papers and publications, its not a priority for us,
because that is not our primary impact, says Halpern.
Some of the things that we publish and we wrestle with,
many of the leading journals would think completely
uninteresting. They might say Thats very neat, you
did that little tweak and you were able to bring forward
200 million extra revenue or get that many people back
into work, but why is it theoretically interesting?
view 23
Perhaps leaving Downing Street, and the demands of

government image management, has made transparency easier. Asked about the effect of the change, Halpern
says that as well as opening up a wider range of clients
both domestically and internationally, its made it easier to retain and develop staff, as people tend to change
jobs every 18 months in government.
Theres also the opportunity to move into new areas.
I draw Halperns attention to a whiteboard bearing a
scribbled list of policy topics left over from a previous
meeting, including social care/housing, immigration? and corruption?
These are some areas that were trying to think
about in new and fresh ways, he says. There are really
interesting areas that are getting on to the absolute
heartlands for economists. As someone whose own discipline is psychology, I quite enjoy that were able to
revisit classic areas, issues like productivity and economic growth, and bring something new to the table.
Another word on the board is obesity. Halpern is
clearly keen for a rematch with the problem that torpedoed his first engagement with government. In the
UK alone were spending 10 billion a year on diabetes
and cutting off 130 limbs a week as a result. That is
a really deeply fascinating issue, and clearly behavioural, he says.
Halperns efforts to marry nudging with New Labour
may haveas he put itflopped, but they taught valuable lessons. Previous battles get seared on your soul,
he says. He learned to make sure your early examples
are things the government will care about. Dont overpromise at the beginning, try to quietly do the work and
get some results before you start shouting about it.
Inside the Nudge Unit shows how well that tactic
worked. It concludes that the methods that it describes
and advocates have taken permanent root in UK government. But as Halpern also says, we are totally just
scratching the surface at the moment. We dont really
know whether most of what is done by goverment and
public service is actually effective.
The closer he gets to the centre of policy and the more
disruptive his proposals become, the more scratchresistant that surface is likely to get.
A post-retirement, post-watershed
account of what its like to come up
against the intellectual conservatism
of the Treasury, or the lobbying might
of the food industry, would be worth
reading. Forced to bet, Id put a small
amount on the incumbents seeing off
the geeks. But, given what Halperns
achieved so far, only a small amount.
Something to add? Email comment@
ResearchResearch.com
There are real

controversies
and unease,
so youve got
to be open and
straightforward.
24 interesting if true
interesting if true
Neanderthal justice In a science budget press conference on 29 September, Royal Society president Paul
Nurse said ministers would have to be Neanderthals
to make deeper cuts after five years of flat cash for
research. Asked if perhaps he wasnt being fair to the
Neanderthals, Nurse replied: Obviously not, because
Neanderthals would have not caused so much damage!
are using the word in the sense of pretty serious, pretty

practical, pretty inspired, pretty important and pretty curious.
L iterary pleasure More than 200 English literature
undergraduates at the University of Sheffield will be
taking part in a compulsory course Critical and Literary
Theory, which includes a lecture titled The Art of
Masturbation. Lecturer Fabienne Collignon justified the
title saying: There is an affinity between literary pleasure, self-scrutiny and auto-eroticism. We wonder what
kind of homework will be involved.
Bored teenager More evidence of Sajid Javids questionable commitment to higher education and research comes
from the opening to this years Conservative Party conference on 5 October. A beaming skills minister Nick Boles
interviewed Josh, an articulate apprentice with defence
technology firm QinetiQ. So why did you decide to do
an apprenticeship, the minister inquired. Because, said
Josh, the alternative was a degree in theoretical astrophysics, and after three years of study, I wouldnt be
overly interested in theoretical astrophysics anymore.
Duality The BBC described him as British. The Guardian

called him Scottish. This years economics Nobel laureate Angus Deaton is in fact a dual UK-US national. He
appears to have been part of the 1980s brain drain moving from the University of Bristol to Princeton in 1983.
#Prettysillytitle Energy company EDF thought it was

onto a winner with its Twitter campaign to attract more
women into STEM careers. But an almighty backlash
greeted the campaign, which was specifically aimed
at younger women. The reason? Its choice of hashtag
#PrettyCurious. Matters were made worse when a spokesman tried to explain: Its not about being pretty. We
Taking no prisoners In a story worthy of a Hollywood film,

the award-winning Harvard debate team lost a debate
on education this week, to three criminals residing in
the maximum security Eastern New York Correctional
Facility. To say the verdict was a surprise would be an
understatement. They caught us off guard, one of the
Harvard students told The Wall Street Journal.
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