Latest news

Thaleia Zariphopoulou arrives as the Man Professor of Quantitative Finance. She will be based at the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance ... read more.

Mike Giles is invited to give a plenary lecture at the SIAM Conference on Parallel Processing and Scientific Computing to be held in Seattle, USA, 24-26 February 2010

The list of invited speakers for the next International Congress of Mathematicians, at Hyderabad in 2010 has now been posted.

There is a large Oxford contingent. Congratulations to

• Roger Heath-Brown
• Marc Lackenby
• Philip Maini
• Oliver Riordan
• Gregory Seregin
• Xunyu Zhou

1. EPSRC: Responsive Mode Funding
2. Royal Society: Wolfson Research Merit Awards (deadline: 23 October)
3. Royal Society: Research Grants (deadline: 26 October)
4. Royal Society: Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowships (deadline: 11 December)
5. Royal Society: Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (deadline: 12 December)

________________________________________


1. EPSRC: Responsive Mode Funding
EPSRC defines responsive mode funding as a flexible scheme with a large scale of projects supported ranging from small value, short term grants to multi-million pound research programmes. Key features of the responsive mode are: (1) there a no cloning dates; (2) no constraint on the filed of research as long as it falls within the EPSRC’s remit; and (3) research quality is the main criterion against which the proposals are assessed.

A useful description of responsive mode funding and a comprehensive guide to applicants can be found here. The EPSRC has published additional tips to be used when preparing the newly required Impact Plan that can be found here.

2. Royal Society: Wolfson Research Merit Awards
Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and DIUS, this scheme aims to provide universities with additional support to enable them to attract to this country, or retain, respected scientists of outstanding achievement and potential. Awards are made to the university and as such researchers must remain at the university named on the application.

The focus of the award is salary enhancement. Research expenses are also considered for research costs not suitable for Research Councils' research grants applications and for overseas applicants to support integration into the UK research and funding environment.

Eligibility: Applicants can be of any nationality and must hold, or be guaranteed, a permanent post at a UK university.  All applicants must have their basic salary wholly funded by the university.

Length of tenure: Five years funding after which the award holder continues with the permanent post at the host university.

Place of tenure: UK University.  Please note that these awards are made to the host university and cannot be transferred to another university.

Value: Salary enhancements have been made usually in the range of £10K to £30K per annum.

Website link: http://royalsociety.org/funding.asp?id=1127

Internal deadline: 16 October 2009.

3. Royal Society: Research Grants
This scheme provides ‘seed corn' funding for new projects initiated by research scientists at an early stage of their career (within the first 5 years). The objective of the scheme is to increase the availability of specialised equipment, consumable materials and services, and to support essential field research. The scheme also provides support for research in the history of science or to assist with publication of scholarly works in the history of science (subject category I), and we welcome any research proposal or publication in the area of Royal Society history.

A parallel round is available for current Royal Society University Research Fellows and Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellows who are beginning the second year of their fellowship in October. Subjects covered: All disciplines in which the Society will elect researchers to the Fellowship of the Royal Society

Eligibility: Applicants must be resident in the UK.  They should have postdoctoral level or equivalent status at the time of the application and have a permanent or limited-tenure position in an eligible organisation. An applicant who is a postdoctorate paid by a grant for which someone else is the principal investigator is not eligible. Applicants must play a major part and take a leading role in the project and not make its fulfilment more than marginally dependent on the services of postgraduate/doctoral students.
Length of tenure: The grant is for a period of 12 months

Place of tenure: UK University or not-for-profit research organisation (except for Research Council Institutes).

Value:  For all subject categories (A to I), up to £15,000 (including VAT) is available for the purchase of specialised equipment, essential consumable materials and services.  Up to £5,000 (including VAT) is available for the publication of scholarly works in the history of science.

Website: http://royalsociety.org/funding.asp?id=1128

Internal deadline: 19 October 2009.

4. Royal Society: Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowships
This fellowship scheme was established through the generosity of the Leverhulme Trust and seeks to provide opportunities for academic researchers to be relieved of all their teaching and administrative duties to enable them to concentrate on full-time research for up to one year.

Eligibility: Applicants must be of postdoctoral status or equivalent, hold a permanent post in a UK university and be at a stage in their career when they would particularly benefit from a period of full-time research.
Length of tenure: Between one academic term and one year.

Place of tenure: Normally the applicant's own university, or any university or not-for-profit research organisation in the UK.  This includes industrial research organisations in the UK, approved by the Council of the Royal Society and the Leverhulme Trust.

Value:  The Fellow's employing institution will be reimbursed for the full salary costs for the applicant (up to the equivalent of the minimum point on the lectureship scale as paid by the host university).  Research expenses up to a maximum of £2,500 are also available.

Website link: http://royalsociety.org/funding.asp?id=1124

Internal deadline: 7 December 2009.

5. Royal Society: Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships
The Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship scheme supports excellent scientists and engineers at an early stage of their career. The Royal Society invites in particular female candidates to apply for an opportunity that is designed to help successful candidates to progress to permanent academic positions in the UK.  Each fellowship offers: • The possibility of holding appointments on a part-time basis or converting from full-time to part-time and back again to help match work and other commitments, such as parental or caring responsibilities etc. • The possibility to claim back time spent deferring the fellowship and/or working part-time at the end of the fellowship. • The possibility of claiming some funds for family support where these can be justified on scientific grounds, e.g. the cost of child care during a conference or collaborative visit abroad. • The option of participating in a mentor scheme and of networking with other Dorothy Hodgkin Fellows.

Eligibility: Applicants are expected to be at an early stage of their career. As an example, applicants could have had one or two post doc positions. Applicants who have not yet submitted their PhD must have done so by 1 October 2010 and, if offered an appointment, cannot take it up until a successful result has been received. The latest date the award can be deferred to is 1 January 2011.
Persons holding a permanent post in a university will not be considered (includes UK).

Length of tenure:  A maximum of 4 years' funding is guaranteed.
Place of tenure:  Fellowships must be held in a UK University or not-for-profit research organisation (except for Research Council Institutes).

Value:  Provides funding to cover the research fellow's salary costs, estates costs and indirect costs. Under the full economic costing model, 80 per cent of these costs will be met by the Royal Society. Research expenses (up to £13,000 for the first year and up to £11,000 annually thereafter) will also be provided.

Website link: http://royalsociety.org/funding.asp?id=1122

Internal deadline: 21 December 2009.

We are pleased to announce the following awards:

A Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Dr Brian Stewart.

Individual Teaching Development Awards go to Professor Charles Batty, Dr Jackie Stedall and Dr Robin Knight.

A Teaching Development Award goes to Dr Jackie Stedall and Dr Cath Wilkins.

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-oppor…

Congratulations to John Ball, who has been awarded the Royal Society's Sylvester Medal, and to Marcus du Sautoy, who has won the Michael Faraday Prize.

Further info available.

Pólya Prize - awarded in recognition of outstanding creativity in, imaginative exposition of, or distinguished contribution to, mathematics within the United Kingdom

The Pólya Prize is awarded to Professor Roger Heath-Brown, of the University of Oxford, for his many contributions within analytic number theory, and his dynamic application of analytic methods in wide-ranging investigations of problems spanning number theory and arithmetic geometry.

Throughout his career, Heath-Brown has regularly produced papers that have resolved long-standing problems or have presented novel techniques that have decisively changed the landscape. He has been able to devise variations of well-established techniques that permit conclusions going well beyond what was previously thought to be possible. In consequence, he is responsible for many of the sharpest conclusions available in the most important problems stretching across analytic number theory and beyond.

Naylor Prize and Lectureship - awarded in recognition of work in and influence on Applied Mathematics or the Applications of Mathematics; or lecturing gifts

The Naylor Prize and Lectureship in Applied Mathematics is awarded to Professor Philip Maini, of the University of Oxford, in recognition of his contributions to, and influence on, the field of mathematical biology.

In recent years, mathematical biology has experienced very rapid growth, and has established itself as an area that is driving the evolution of much new mathematics, as well as having an increasing impact on the biological sciences. Maini has been at the forefront of many of these developments. Many of the problems that he studies necessitate the formulation and analysis of new models, requiring him to bring to bear both knowledge of the relevant biology and mathematical skills. He is unsurpassed by his peers at the art and science of formulating tractable mathematical models of complex biological processes.

Whitehead Prize

A Whitehead Prize is awarded to Dr Cornelia Druţu, of the University of Oxford, for her work in geometric group theory.