Internal News

1. EPSRC: Career Acceleration Fellowships (internal deadline: 7 September)
2. EPSRC: Leadership Fellowships (internal deadline: 14 September)
3. Leverhulme Trust: International Networks Awards (internal deadline: 15 August)
4. UKERC: UK Energy Research Centre – Call for Proposals (internal deadline: 27 August)
5. EPSRC: Software for Science Town Meeting – Call for Expression of Interest (closing date: 11 September)
6. Submission of research grant applications not exceeding £20k (and with no associated staff cost)
7. ResearchResearch.com training sessions
8. EPSRC: Consultation on the future of SUPERGEN


EPSRC: Career Acceleration Fellowships (internal deadline: 7 September)
The EPSRC has released the 2010 call for Career Acceleration Fellowships. EPSRC offers Career Acceleration Fellowships annually to provide up to five years funding to talented researchers at an early stage of their career. The expectation is that fellows will have established an independent career of international standing by the end of the award.
Full first drafts (a complete application form with the required attachments, CV, list of publications, case of support) should be submitted to Research Facilitation by 7 September.
More information for this call is available here.

EPSRC: Leadership Fellowships (internal deadline: 14 September)
The EPSRC has released the 2010 call for Leadership Fellowships. EPSRC offers Leadership Fellowships annually to provide up to five years funding to talented researchers with the most potential to develop into the UK’s international "research leaders of tomorrow". The expectation is that fellows will have established themselves as leading researchers of international standing in their area by the end of the award, as well as demonstrating leadership within their research community and institution.
Full first drafts (a complete application form with the required attachments, CV, list of publications, case of support) should be submitted to Research Facilitation by 14 September.
More information for this call is available here.

Leverhulme Trust: International Networks Awards (next internal deadline: 15 August)
These awards support collaborations which enable a Principal Investigator based in the UK to lead a research project where its successful completion is dependant on the participation of relevant overseas institutions. Networks should be newly-constituted collaborations. The geographical distribution of the proposed Network should reflect locations directly linked to the theme: for example, to the habitat of an animal; the native country of an artist; a local social or political system, or the contribution of a specific scientific facility unavailable elsewhere.
Applications for research on any topic within the entire array of academic disciplines are eligible for support. However, an exception is made for areas of research supported by specialist funding agencies and in particular for medicine.
There is no deadline for the submission of an outline application. Evaluation of outline applications takes approximately 12 weeks. Deadlines for submission of full proposals are 1 September 2009, 1 December 2009 and 21 March 2010; internal deadlines for full proposals are: 15 August 2009, 15 November 2009 and 5 March 2010.
More information for this call is available here.

UKERC: UK Energy Research Centre- Call for Proposals (internal deadline: 27 August)
The UK Energy Research Centre is issuing the first Call for Proposals under its £4.5m Research Fund. We are seeking proposals from universities or other institutions eligible to hold Research Council awards in three topic areas:
•    Spatial aspects of bioenergy development in the UK
•    Local and community governance of energy
•    Carbon capture and storage: realising the potential

Consortium bids will be considered. Projects should normally be started by 1 April 2010 and are expected to last between one and two years. The research supported will form an integral part of UKERC's research programme.
More information about this call and guidelines for submitting proposals can be found here.
External deadline is: 17 September 2009; internal deadline is: 27 August 2009.

EPSRC: Software for Science Town Meeting – Call for Expression of Interest (closing date: 11 September)
Computational Science and Engineering is increasingly recognised as a vital component of scientific enquiry, alongside experiment and theory. EPSRC’s Research Infrastructure Programme recognises the importance of having the necessary software in place to enable computational science and engineering. In recent years, EPSRC has been able to increase the level of support available for software development, and intends to continue to build on this. EPSRC would now like to give the computational science and engineering community the opportunity to input on how best to implement this strategy.
EPSRC will be holding a one day meeting to discuss priorities for funding in software to enable computational science and engineering in Bristol on 27 October 2009. Closing date for expression of interest to attend the Town Meeting is: 11 September 2009, 4pm.
More information is available here.

Submission of research grant applications not exceeding £20k (and with no associated staff costs)
Under current arrangements, research grant applications to external bodies seeking funds not exceeding £10k (where no associated staff costs are being sought) are not required to be submitted via Research Services for institutional review and authorisation. Following consultation with Divisional and Departmental colleagues, it has been agreed that this threshold will be increased to applications not exceeding £20k (again where no associated staff costs are being sought) with effect from 1 August 2009. For further details see the submission of research grant applications note* (Word, 53 KB).

ResearchResearch.com training sessions
Research Services are continuing to run regular hands-on training sessions and 1-hour lunchtime demos for ResearchResearch.com at OUCS. These training sessions, which concentrate on how best to use this online funding opportunities information service to locate research funding, have proved to be popular and helpful for academics, departmental administrators, postdoctoral researchers and postgraduates at the University. Free training sessions are still available over the summer:

3-hour hands-on training sessions: (Book online)
•    Wednesday, 22 July, 9.15 am - 12.15 pm
•    Tuesday, 18 August, 9.15 am - 12.15 pm

Short lunch-time sessions: (Demonstrations only, but covering the same topics. Book online)
•    Tuesday, 4 August, 12.30 - 1.30 pm, OUCS

EPSRC: Consultation on the future of SUPERGEN
The SUPERGEN initiative is the primary delivery mechanism for sustainable energy research funded by EPSRC as part of the Research Councils' Energy Programme. In 2011 the current round will begin to come to an end, with the final projects ending in 2013. EPSRC are holding a consultation with the academic and user community to discuss the future shape and direction of the programme and to assess the research themes that could by covered by SUPERGEN in the future. For further details please see the EPSRC website.








More information on current and past funding opportunities on: https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/research/research-facilitation/funding-opport...

1. EPSRC Economic Impact Plan: New requirements and changes to proposal form
2. EPSRC Managing Demand: Amendments to policy for repeatedly unsuccessful applicants
3. EPSRC Peer Review Survey: Outcomes and Changes
4. EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellowship: (internal deadline: 14 July 2009)
5. London Mathematical Society: Conference Grants



1. EPSRC Economic Impact Plan: New requirements and changes to proposal form
From 21 April 2009, applications for EPSRC funding will need to address the issue of the potential economic impact of research grants. The wider context is the drive on the part of HM Government to demonstrate value and return for its public investment.
EPSRC has replaced the beneficiaries section of the application form with two new sections:
• Impact summary: this is to explain who may benefit from the research, how they may benefit and what will be done to make sure they have the opportunity to benefit.
• Academic beneficiaries: this is to explain how the research will benefit other researchers in the field. Up to two pages impact plan should be submitted with the application form.
Applicants will also need to write a new two-page Impact plan in addition to the case of support. The plan is specific to users and beneficiaries of the research who are outside of the academic research community and should expand on the information in the impact summary
Information and guidance on how to prepare an impact plan are available here.

2. EPSRC Managing Demand: Amendments to policy for repeatedly unsuccessful applicants
EPSRC has introduced changes to the grant application process in order to reduce the volume of applications as a whole. The new measures concern changing the rules on the resubmission of proposals and the introduction of a temporary 12-month exclusion for repeatedly unsuccessful applicants.
• From 1 April 2009 EPSRC no longer accepts uninvited resubmissions of proposals.
• From April 2010 EPSRC is introducing a 12-month cooling-off period for repeatedly unsuccessful applicants. EPSRC will allow unsuccessful applications who have: (i) three applications as PIs over two years in the lower half (below 50%) of the applicant field, and (ii) personal success rate below 25% to submit only one application over the subsequent 12-moth period.
Click here for more information on new rules on the resubmission of proposals.

3. EPSRC Peer Review Survey: Outcomes and Changes
In 2008 EPSRC ran a survey to gather information from stakeholder in academia and industry on the suitability of the current peer review process and suggestion for improving the process. Overall, the current process is seen favourably by the vast majority of the research community. Some actions, however, where identified for the improvement of the process. Actions include:
• Reviewer forms will be redesigned to make them clearer and to make the links with the assessment criteria more explicit.
• Strengthening guidance for panels.
• Improving the process followed by panels.
• Establishing a new EPSRC peer review college to increase focus on performance management and to offer opportunities for training and networking.
Results of the EPSRC Peer Review Survey are available here.

4. EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (internal deadline: 14 July 2009)
EPSRC Postdoctoral fellowships enable talented new researchers to establish an independent research career shortly or immediately after completing a PhD. They provide funding to cover the fellow’s salary and a small amount of travel and subsistence, equipment and consumables. The fellowships last for up to three years.
Candidates should have an ‘Oxford sponsor’, a faculty member supporting the application and prepared to assist in the application process. Full first drafts should be submitted to Research Facilitation by 14 July.
More information for this call is available here.

5. London Mathematical Society: Conference Grants
The current upper limit for grants is £6,000. This normally covers support for: the principal speakers (up to £4,000); research students (up to £1,000); participants from the international short visits scheme or from the former Soviet Union (up to £1,000).
Award amount max: £6000
Internal deadline: 1 September 2009.
More information for this call is available here.


More information on current and past funding opportunities on: https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/research/research-facilitation/funding-opport...

Vicky Henderson and Sam Howison organise a workshop on "Liquidity - Modelling, Recent Crises and Challenges", 24th - 25th June 2009

A few people have asked if it would be possible for the course material system to accept plain TeX in addition to LaTeX for the automatic compilation. We are now happy to report that this feature has been implemented and plain TeX users don't need to (and shouldn't) submit a PDF anymore.