JISC

Under this call, funding is available for technical rapid innovation projects addressing the following priority areas to support research (please see Annex E of the call documentation):

• Discovering, Representing and Publishing Information and Results – new methods for representing research results and enabling other researchers, businesses and the general public to actively use and engage with research data and results;
• Analysing Data and Performing Experiments – ICT tools and technologies for performing and capturing data-centric, simulation-centric and experimental-centric research;
• Communication and Collaboration – tools and technologies for enabling communication, collaboration and remote working;
• Managing Research and Research Projects – tools and technologies for administration, designing and managing of projects, modelling project resources;
• Actively Engaging Businesses and the General Public (Business Community Engagement) - Business Community Engagement (BCE) comprises knowledge transfer/exchange; employer engagement; public engagement and lifelong learning. See the JISC website for details of the JISC BCE programme.

These are short technical projects, lasting up to 6 - 9 months. Grants of £20,000 to £75,000 are available for individual projects, for up to 8 - 15 projects, at a total funding of £600,000 for this call.

The deadline for all proposals is 12 noon UK time on 11 November 2009. All projects are expected to start in early-mid January 2010 and must be complete by 31 October 2010.

Eligibility: Proposals may be submitted by HE institutions funded via HEFCE, SFC, HEFCW and DEL Northern Ireland, and by FE institutions funded via SFC, DCELLS Wales and DEL Northern Ireland. FE institutions in England that teach HE to more than 400 FTEs are also eligible to bid provided proposals demonstrate how the work supports the HE in FE agenda.

Further information about all of the above can be found in the full version of the call below. In order to further explain the priorities in the VRERI call, we have prepared a podcast. This podcast takes you through the most important paragraphs of the call. You can visit the VRE Programme page here or download the podcast directly here.