The Technology Strategy Board is investing up to £8m in collaborative research and development. They are looking for projects that stimulate innovation across the key enabling technology areas of advanced materials, biosciences, electronics, sensors and photonics, and information and communications technology.
Additional funding may be available from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), in line with the scope of this competition, for projects that contain a significant, high-quality academic research component, and contribute to the achievement of the relevant research council’s strategic objectives.
We are seeking innovative proposals that aim to build on recent technological discoveries or breakthroughs, in the context of significant and identifiable technological risk, and that have broad applications across a wide range of market opportunities and needs.
Proposals must be collaborative and business-led, with projects including one lead partner and at least one other project partner. At least one project partner must be an SME. We expect to fund mostly industrial research projects, in which a business partner will generally attract up to 50% public funding for their project costs (60% for SMEs). We expect projects to last between 12 and 24 months, and to range in size from £250k to £500k.
This is a two-stage competition that opens for applicants on 19 August 2013, with a deadline for completed expressions of interest of noon on 2 October 2013.
Scope:
The technological scope of this competition is closely aligned with the core technologies outlined in our new Enabling Technologies Strategy.
All projects must contain a significant and identifiable element of technological innovation and risk (ie some uncertainty as to how significant technical limitations or barriers can be overcome). We are keen to encourage multi-disciplinary innovation based on recent technical developments or breakthroughs that could have applications in a range of markets. This can include taking a known technology into new application areas, where the significant technical challenges to be overcome are clearly described in the proposal.
We generally expect projects to be at the industrial research stage. Projects may include some work packages of industry- oriented basic research or experimental development, provided they are clearly shown to be an essential part, but not the main focus, of the innovation project.
We expect most projects to start from the ‘proof of concept’ maturity level and to work towards the ‘demonstrator’ level. The projects must align with one or more of the following technology areas. Where a proposal cuts across more than one technology area, the application must indicate the primary area of innovation and risk.
Advanced materials
- Sustainability and materials security
- lightweight materials, applied to vehicles, structures and devices to reduce energy consumption and emissions, and increase efficiency
- materials with reduced environmental impact through life (including materials for packaging applications)
- nanotechnology-enabled materials and functionality
- substitution approaches to reduce the use of less sustainable materials or those that may become restricted or banned under EU REACH regulations
- materials that help us use the world’s resources more sustainably, for example bio-based and natural materials and composites.
Materials for energy
- materials for cheaper and more efficient energy storage and management (chemical, biological, electrochemical, electrical, mechanical, thermal)
- materials for energy transmission/distribution
- materials for high-durability energy generation.
High value markets
- integration of new materials, coatings etc, for example for sensing and electronics applications
- materials to survive in aggressive environments with extremes of temperature, corrosion, erosion or stress
- bio-based materials. Biosciences Characterisation and discovery tools
- commercial application of sequencing technologies focusing on genomics
- phenotyping technologies
- integration of ‘omics technologies
- development of biological imaging systems, biosensors, probes/markers, diagnostic platforms.
Production and processing
- metabolic engineering
- novel manufacturing processes for producing biological products and novel biological production systems
- formulation and delivery approaches for biological products including biopharmaceuticals and functional foods.
Bioinformatics
- approaches to organising, filtering and interpreting biological data, including biological system modelling, data visualisation, and user-centred design
- electronics, sensors and photonics
- electronics, sensors and photonics technologies underpin innovations and competitiveness in diverse market sectors, including healthcare, transport, energy, space and the built environment. The following areas are in scope for this competition.
Photonics
- photonic devices and systems providing innovative advances in functionality, performance or size or cost reduction.
- Sensor systems
- devices and systems that measure a physical quantity and convert it into actionable information.
Plastic electronics
- also known as printed, organic or large-area electronics. The innovation can be in any part of the value chain, including devices, systems, manufacturing, architectures, testing and measurement or modelling tools.
Electronic systems
- a combination of computer hardware and software designed for a particular application device.
Power electronics
- applying solid-state electronics to develop devices and systems to efficiently control and convert electrical power.
ICT
Big data exploration
- designing data exploration systems for non-ICT specialists across different sectors, perhaps exploiting simpler user interfaces (see below)
- automated and intelligent data cleansing and semantic annotation
- exploring various types of data across application areas or sectors
- reducing the cost of high-fidelity visualisation.
Simpler user experiences
- going ‘beyond the screen’ – moving from traditional keyboard, mouse and screen to more immersive with machines (for example haptics, speech and gesture
- recognition, emotion sensing)
- improving the user experience of immanent pervasive computing
- changing the software paradigm for existing applications
- meeting the changing expectations of users
- showing how multiple co-operating devices can create a joined-up, quality experience for the user.
Confidence in deploying internet- distributed systems
- interoperability
- data resilience, tracking and storage
- identity assurance.
Advanced, modern software engineering
- better tools and languages to support new approaches, such as inherent parallelism, design of new user interface paradigms
- holistic design methods that focus on autonomous/ intelligent/ machine learning systems, where machines rather than people are making complex and less deterministic decisions
- supporting organisations that can better prepare the UK’s talent base for the future ICT industry.
See general guidance on how projects are funded
