EU Prize for Women Innovators

The European Commission has launched the second edition of the EU Women Innovators Prize to reward three women who have achieved outstanding innovations and brought them to market. The Prize aims to raise awareness of the need for more female entrepreneurs and to inspire other women to follow in their footsteps.

The contest is open to all women who have founded or co-founded their company and who have at some point in their careers benefitted from the EU’s research Framework Programmes (FP) or the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP).

Three prizes will be awarded in total:

  • First prize: EUR 100,000;
  • Second prize: EUR 50,000; and
  • Third prize: EUR 25,000

An independent panel of judges from business and academia will examine and select the three winners who will be announced in spring 2014. Full details of the eligibility and evaluation criteria are available through the competition website, which is indicated below.

The deadline for applications is 15 October 2013.

For full information please visit this link.

Update on ERC Calls for Proposals (2014)

The ERC Scientific Council has released a statement containing an indicative scenario as to how things will work from 2014, when FP7 closes and Horizon 2020 begins.

As the EU’s Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) will finish at the end of this year, the main ERC calls for proposals within FP7 are now closed. The next ERC calls will be made under the future programme, ‘Horizon 2020’, that will take over from FP7 for 2014 to 2020.

However, ‘Horizon 2020’ has not yet been adopted. As is normally the case during the transition from one framework programme to another, the schedule for the next ERC calls (and ERC Work Programme) is very likely to differ from previous years.

The ERC Scientific Council has discussed the issue and, based on the current state of play, it can provide the following possible scenario on a purely indicative basis:

  • Publication of the provisional schedule for the new calls (ERC Work Programme 2014), late in 2013;
  • Opening and submission deadlines of new ERC calls throughout 2014: – Opening and submission deadline for Starting grants; first and second quarter of 2014 – Opening and submission deadline for Consolidator grants; second quarter of 2014 – Opening and submission deadline for Advanced grants; fourth quarter of 2014
  • No further calls for Synergy grants in 2013 and 2014;
  • Normal schedule for Proof of Concept grants (one call with two deadlines in 2014). Although no final decision has yet been taken by the EU, the ERC Scientific Council provides, without any commitment, this provisional information for the convenience of the scientific community.

The ERC will do its utmost to make the transition as smooth as possible and provide the necessary continuity for the research community.

No further information is available at this stage on the calendar, budget or rules of the next calls. Stay informed on the ERC website and the Participant Portal.

FP7 Information Documents

The people at ICT KTN (a TSB funded not for profit organisation) have posted some documents and information that may be of interest to anybody applying for FP7 funding, and to those who wish to look forward to the next Framework, Horizon 2020.

Copies of the slide shows from recent presentations, which contain some very useful information, can be found at this link.

Their “Work Programme Driller” can be found here. This is useful for researchers wishing to evaluate ideas against the appropriate section of the Work Programme.

I hope you find this useful and of course, if you have any questions relating to FP7 or any other funding opportunity please do contact me.

Petition Against EU Funding Cuts

As you probably already know, cuts are being made by the EU to competitive funding avenues, such as research and innovation. Such funding is key to creating jobs throughout the EU, however they are instead choosing to focus on funding areas such as agriculture and cohesion, which will not generate nearly as many jobs and will certainly not see Europe supporting the ideas and science of the future.

Some suggest that the Horizon 2020 budget could fall below £70billion which, whilst it seems significantly more than the £55billion offered for its predecessor FP7, doesn’t take into account other increasing costs, such as rising inflation.

As the discussion the surrounding budget cuts to Horizon2020 continues, we can make our small voices heard by signing the following petition and getting involved.

http://www.no-cuts-on-research.eu/

http://www.yacadeuro.org

ICT European Funding Event in Oxford

From Future Networks to Energy New €400M EU Funding for R&D

 Date: Tuesday December 4th 2012
Time: 12:00 to 14:30
Venue: Magdalen Centre, Robert Robinson Avenue, Oxford, OX4 4GA

The Information Communication Technologies KTN,ICT National Contact Point, The Oxford Science Park and the Enterprise Europe Network are pleased to invite you to a FREE event to gain an understanding of future opportunities for European R&D funding for ICT.

This event is strongly recommended to those working in the following areas:

  •  Future networks
  •  PPP FI: expansion of use cases
  •  PPP FI: technology foundation extension and usage
  •  nanoelectronics/photonics
  •  scalable data analytics
  •  smart energy grids / ICT for water resources management
  •  technology enhanced learning
  •  future emerging technologies
  •  EU–Japan/Brazil research and development cooperation
  •  more efficient and affordable solutions for digital preservation developed and validated against public sector needs through joint pre-commercial procurement (PCP)

Register your attendance here: http://euro400moxford.eventbrite.co.uk/