Tag Archives: RCUK

RCUK’s Statement on International Collaboration Post Brexit

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Research Councils UK have released a statement of their position on international collaboration post the EU Referendum (6 July 2016).

The statement is a robust assertion of RCUK’s commitment to enabling and facilitating UK research collaboration across Europe and the rest of the world and its determination to work with Government to ensure that the UK is well placed to maintain its place as a leading research nation. It also states RCUK’s commitment to supporting researchers and students from EU nations currently working in the UK and its advocacy of the value of researcher mobility.

RCUK will continue to work to ensure that UK researchers have access to leading research infrastructure and facilities wherever they are located in the world and confirms that the UK’s participation in major European partnerships that are not part of EU institutions (e.g. CERN, ESO, ESA) will not be affected by the Referendum decision.

In the immediate term, whilst the UK remains a full member of the EU, RCUK encourages researchers to apply for European funding schemes as normal and asserts that the Research Councils will honour existing commitments and obligations through EU funded programmes.

The RCUK’s statement can be found in full at:

http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/media/news/160706/

 

Research Councils to Capture ORCID IDs

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The Research Councils announced last week that they have become members of the Jisc UK ORCID Consortium and that JeS will be ready to start capturing ORCID identifiers (ORCID iDs) in early 2016.

This news is the culmination of several years of engagement between the Research Councils and Jisc to understand how they can improve the flow of information across the higher education sector. In a joint Research Councils UK (RCUK) and JISC report published earlier this year, ORCID iD was identified as the leading standard for a researcher identifier.

Benefits to You as a Researcher

The ORCID iD gives a unique digital identity which can be kept throughout your career, allowing you to keep an on-going record of your scholarly activities even if you change research organisation or leave academia. In the short-term, an ORCID iD should ensure correct assignment of research outputs by allowing them to be unambiguously linked to their creators. It also increases the chances that a researcher’s work is discoverable. In the longer term, it should bring about efficiency improvements by saving time and duplication in grant applications and enhanced reporting of research outputs to funders as well as improved analysis of outcomes.

Further information about the benefits of using ORCID are outlined in the RCUK blog. The announcement on the Jisc website can be found here.

RCUK Research Policy – DPhil Internships

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RCUK logoResearch Councils UK (RCUK) have launched a policy internship scheme for PhD students to enable them to gain experience of how research can inform policy making.

Research Council Policy Internships provide an opportunity for PhD students funded by the UK Research Councils (e.g. EPSRC) to work for three months in one of a selected group of highly influential policy organisations (e.g. The Royal Society). Successful applicants have the opportunity to work on a policy topic of interest to both the student and the organisation, by producing a briefing paper, participating in a policy inquiry and organising a policy event.

A 3 month extension will be added to the current DPhil funding to account for this, and internships must start before the end of the funding period.

The application deadline varies from depending on the specific Research Council, with EPSRC holding an 18th August 2015 deadline

To find out more – Click Here
To find out more about the EPSRC specific call – Click Here

Digital Economy “Researcher in Residence” Programme

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The Digital Catapult’s vision is to rapidly advance the UK’s best digital ideas from concept to commercialisation to create new products, services, jobs and value for the UK economy. The areas of interest relevant to Computer Science include:

  1. Personal Data
    Helping to overcome the challenges of creating trust in the use of personal data.
  2. The Internet of Things
    Including being a convening force in creating large scale Internet of Things demonstrators.

The Digital Catapult and the RCUK Digital Economy (DE) Theme will shortly announce a call for research residencies at the Digital Catapult Centre in London. There will be two types advertised:

Junior Residencies: these will enable early career researchers to develop their existing research interests within a user-led project in conjunction with the Digital Catapult. Holders will be based in the Catapult or a relevant user organisation full or near full-time. Projects will be user-centred and focused on impact generation, whilst also feeding back user experience to the DE research community.

Senior Residencies: targeted at exceptional researchers with a significant track record in relevant areas for the Digital Catapult. Holders will be expected to help shape Catapult projects, provide thought leadership, and drive the creation of new activities, on either a full time basis or via a series of short secondments to the Catapult.

The programme will open for applications shortly, with the closing date for the first round round at the end of June.

To find out more, and recieve notifications/updates – Click Here
To find out more about the digital catapult – Click Here

 

RCUK: Pathways to Impact – Update

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As described in the Research Support Newsletter at the end of January, RCUK have updated their Pathways to Impact criteria and information.

The purpose of Pathways to Impact is to encourage applicants to explore, from the outset, who could potentially benefit from their work in the longer term and consider what could be done to increase the chances of their research reaching beneficiaries. RCUK has now reviewed this approach in consultation with representatives from the academic and user communities. As a result of comments and feedback RCUK has reaffirmed its commitment to Pathways to Impact and will require a clearly thought-through and acceptable Pathways to Impact statement as a condition of funding in the future.

This harmonisation of approach across the Research Councils is important in the broad innovation landscape and RCUK will continue to engage with the other key research and innovation funders to ensure alignment of purpose and approach to deliver the best exploitation of UK research.

This change will take effect for peer review panels which take place after 1st April 2015.

To find out more about the changes – Click Here
For the updated Pathways to Impact summary guidance – Click Here (PDF)
For Oxford University’s guidance on a good Pathway to Impact section – Click Here