Supporting an Essential Platform for the Knowledge Base David Harman

THE WHOLE EPSRC PICTURE Values are commitment ENERGY £220M DIGITAL ECONOMY £103M NANOSCIENCE THROUGH ENGINEERING £39M TOWARDS NEXT GENERATION HEALTHCARE £36M ESSENTIAL PLATFORM (Research) £866M OTHER CROSS COUNCIL THEMES* £26M SECURING THE FUTURE SUPPLY OF PEOPLE (Training) £592M TOWARDS BETTER EXPLOITATION (Knowledge Transfer) £482M *Living with environmental change (£9M) Global threats to security (£6M) Ageing: life-long health and wellbeing (£11M)

PROGRAMME STRUCTURE RESEARCH BASE Public Engagement Physical Sciences Materials, Mechanical & Medical Engineering Process, Environment & Sustainability Cross-Disciplinary Interfaces Research Infrastructure & International Information & Communications Technology Mathematical Sciences Programmes David Harman Philippa Hemmings Annette Bramley Kedar Pandya David Harman Neil Viner Jane Nicholson Peter Hedges

What………….is the Essential Platform › The Essential platform theme is the provision for a core of high quality research across the breadth of the physical sciences and engineering - its about keeping the UK’s knowledge up to date to be ready for current and emerging challenges

Why……………..the Essential platform › Future health of the UK research base will need research from across all physical sciences and engineering › Physical sciences and engineering developments contribute not only to the progression of themselves but also are significant contributors to opportunities in other areas

What are the aims …….. to develop a portfolio of activity that is based around › Investigator led research agendas › Ambitious, internationally leading research › Enabling Transformative research – creating space for testing out radical ideas and approaches, › Encouraging longer term thinking for groups who are contributing at the leading edge › Encouraging user collaboration where appropriate

How will we support these aims….. …….. By providing funding for  the responsive mode – the space for researcher led ideas  Signposting of emerging areas – encouraging activity in new or important topics  Platform and Programme grants – From April 2008 will be available across the whole portfolio  Researcher leaders of the future through first grants and Challenging Engineering  Helping to stimulate community/researcher led grand challenges

The Responsive mode › The space for researcher led ideas  Apply anytime  Proposals can be from 1 month to 48 months  Proposals can included industrial partners, cross disciplinary activities, funding for international visitors  Main assessment criterion is quality of research

Signposting of emerging areas – What it is… › Aim is to encourage activity in new or important topics › Signposting enables the introduction of an element of strategy into responsive mode

Signposting – why ?  To correct an in-balance in the responsive mode portfolio  To generate “the right” proposals in priority or deficient areas, without ring fencing a budget  To encourage the community to change direction  To ‘aid’ certain areas without having a managed call

Signposting – the how › A signposted area would be identified and communicated to the research community. › In a similar way to first grants, signposted proposals would be ranked separately in competition with each other, with no requirement to fund any. Quality would be maintained with tensioning against the main responsive mode list › The area would be signposted for at least 24 months

Encouraging longer term thinking…. › Platform and Programme grants – From April 2008 will be available across the whole portfolio

What is a Platform Grant ? › Provides leading groups with a base line of support giving the stability and flexibility to permit longer term research and take a strategic view of research › Award can be up to five years › Should be staff centric – in the range of staff months › Can include a travel element to enhance international links

Programme Grants › Support a suite of related research activities focussing on 1 strategic theme (expectation these will be primarily multidisciplinary) › Need to demonstrate  Strategic leadership and vision  Effective management  Added synergy › Up to 6 years funding › Tensioned with responsive mode › No right to follow-on funding

Support researcher leaders of the future › First grant scheme available – apply at any time within first two years of first appointment as lecturer › No longer a financial limit on what can be requested › Challenging Engineering is specifically focused on providing funding and developmental support for engineering researchers at an early stage of their careers.

Headlines  the responsive mode – the space for research led ideas  Signposting of emerging areas – encouraging activity in new or important topics  Platform and Programme grants – From April 2008 will be available across the whole portfolio  Researcher leaders of the future through first grants and Challenging Engineering  Helping to stimulate community/researcher led grand challenges

In Conclusion… › For the next three years there is space for all scales of activity within essential platform… › But encouragement to think  Longer term  Innovatively  Collaboratively