£80m for collaborative R&D
£80m earmarked for collaborative technology research projects via competitive applications
The stated money, announced by the secretary of state during his budget address to parliament, is the latest round of the UK Government's £370 million technology programme.
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The minister responsible for trade and industry, Mr. Alan Johnson, said, “I am delighted to announce the latest £80 million competition for collaborative R&D under the Technology Programme. This will help to fund new collaborative research in vital areas underpinning our technology strategy, such as low carbon energy technologies and innovative manufacturing processes.”
The funding from will support collaborative research and development in seven key technology areas identified by the technology strategy board as critical to the UK's growth.
The competition and publication of medium term strategies opens this month. The strategies will provide a focus and create a dialogue for taking forward activities in areas where UK business can succeed. As each area evolves, new challenges and opportunities will emerge through research, networking, regulation, standards and measurements and procurement.
Mr. Johnson added, “The Technology Strategy provides a long term approach to meet the Government's continued investment in cutting edge technologies, focused around business' own priorities for the competitive challenge ahead.”
“Sustainability in energy and the environment, R&D in buildings, low carbon technologies and renewable technologies all featured in the budget speech and are included in this latest collaborative R&D competition.”
The collaborative R&D competition is open to business and academic collaborators, including universities, other higher educational (or research) institutions, their spin-off companies and other research bodies.
Barcelona goal: 2.5 percent of GDP to be spent on R&D
A national technology strategy and supporting funding programme was one of the recommendations from the Innovation Report, December 2003, and its role was strengthened in the government's 10-year science and innovation investment framework, July 2004, with the aim of helping increase R&D intensity in the UK (R&D as percentage of GDP) to reach 2.5 percent by 2014.
Spring 2006 technology priority areas
Design engineering and advanced manufacturing:
Management of complex fluid flow conditions – allocation £12m
This call will support efforts to model, measure, manipulate and control fluid flow in a range of environments where the challenges could be posed by the nature of the environment under consideration and/or the fluid. Projects seeking funds should address identified needs covering:
• Measurement and prediction of flow conditions (steady and unsteady)
• Methods for reducing emissions or noise
• Flow management within confined environments
• Managing confined environments using fluid flow
• Integration of fluid dynamics (computational fluid dynamics) and mechanical dynamics
• (Computer aided engineering) simulation tools
• Methods for structure generation, preservation and process uniformity
• Improved models of multiphase flow
Design engineering and advanced electronics and photonics:
Novel technologies for low-cost, high efficiency electronics and lighting systems – allocation £9m
Organic electronics is an emerging field that is poised to disrupt the world of electronic circuits and displays. Semiconducting polymers have the great advantage that they can be inkjet printed directly onto large substrates without the need for the very expensive vacuum deposition equipment used for fabricating silicon semiconductors. Polymers can also be produced that emit light and form the basis for polymer light emitting diode lamps and displays which have the potential to be much lower cost and more energy efficient than current technologies.
Related to this are other promising solid state lighting technologies, particularly those based on inorganic LEDs, which are already the most efficient sources of coloured lamps for signage and traffic lights, and are likely to displace conventional white light sources for general lighting over the next decade.
An indicative £9million of funding has been allocated in this competition to support collaborative research and development projects that address the development of organic electronics and applications, and technologies for high efficacy solid-state lighting systems.
In assessing projects for funding support, emphasis will be placed on projects that address identified needs with the potential for significant improvements and efficiencies in:
Low-cost organic electronic devices: this could include the development of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays and lamps, polymer thin-film transistor (TFT) arrays, RFID tags, and thin-film organic photovoltaic cells. Technologies for low cost flexible electronics manufacture, including printing polymeric semiconductors and other electronic materials
Solid-State light source technologies: this includes high-brightness, high efficiency devices, particularly white-light sources for illumination. Improved efficiency-packaging techniques for next generation lighting systems: this could include energy-efficient and thermally efficient packaging and systems for architectural lighting and luminaires. Emphasis will be placed on projects that address clearly identified applications and specific user needs that can demonstrate commercial potential and also wider benefits. Applicants are therefore encouraged to include at least one 'end-user' in their consortia.
Emerging energy technologies:
Low carbon energy technologies – allocation £15m
Research and development is required to address each of the key stages in hydrogen-deployment: production, distribution and storage. For example, improvements to the efficiency of hydrogen production on a small scale (either using electrolysis or reformation) would allow the cost competitive production of hydrogen at retail sites, greatly facilitating the introduction of hydrogen powered vehicles.
Distribution, whether by road or by pipeline adds substantially to the cost of delivered hydrogen, and hydrogen embrittlement is a significant issue. The currently commercial methods for storing hydrogen (compressed gas or cryogenic liquid) do not provide sufficient on-board capacity to provide vehicles with the range demanded by consumers, so R&D on solid state hydrogen storage materials is required.
Fuel cells remain too costly, except for niche applications, and improvement to stack lifetimes are required in order for fuel cells to compete with the well developed incumbent technologies for power generation and automobile propulsion. Development of novel, durable and lower cost materials, manufacturing processes and components for hydrogen storage, hydrogen electrolysers and fuel cell systems.
Sustainable production and consumption:
Energy efficiency technologies - £12m (includes building design and controls and manufacturing processes)
Renewables
Wave and tidal stream: Funding is available to help further understand and improve the prospects for wave and tidal stream energy. Of particular interest, in order of priority will be: proposals for the development and evaluation of generic technologies such as installation techniques, operation and maintenance techniques, mooring or fixing techniques and so on likely to contribute to cost reductions or performance enhancements of marine energy facilities. Preference is for such proposals to include collaboration with one or more leading device developers.
Offshore wind: Proposals are sought for R&D projects that will accelerate cost reductions across all elements of the offshore wind farm value chain.
Microgeneration/photovoltaics: Many microgeneration technologies are well understood mature technologies. However this competition invites proposals that seek to tackle barriers to the development of a whole systems approach to integrating microgeneration in buildings.
Bioenergy: The development of viable, cost-effective fuel supply chains, and the subsequent use of energy crops in conversion processes, is essential to any substantial and long-term development of bio-energy in the UK.
Information and communication technology:
Data, scientific and medical visualization for innovative products and services –allocation £9m
This call will support research focused on the development of the software and systems needed to create virtual, augmented and mixed reality environments with a view to providing innovative solutions for data, scientific, technical and medical visualizations and e-learning environments for training and education in all markets.
Proposals will be expected to develop software solutions, integrate innovative software with existing hardware and/or develop prototypes for new application areas.
Examples include:
Augmented group presence, group management and sharing support in training or learning environments; tools to assist innovative design and for creativity in products.
Tools to visualize and investigate the operation of complex systems and high-level information management. The competition should be of particular interest to the medical, vehicle, aerospace and construction sectors, alongside the creative industries and a broad range of science-oriented industrial companies.
Advanced visualization can also be applied to generic business challenges such as risk and supplier-product visualization.
Technologies that may feature in successful applications include:
• Computer graphics
• Remote visualization, image processing, shared augmented reality, use of wearables, haptics and audio
Other programmes include:
• Bioscience and healthcare
• Exploitation of plant and microbial bioscience for industry - £4m safety
• Biomarkers for pharmaceutical development - £8m
Advanced Materials:
Materials for extended first use and re-use - £9m
The technology programme competition for collaborative research and development projects will also formally open for applications in May with a series of partnering events and applicant briefings with the support of the Research Councils, Regional Development Agencies and Devolved Administrations (see link below).
These events allow delegates to find out how the collaborative R&D priorities fit within the governments technology strategy and about the priorities in the Spring 06 competition, including the competition requirements and the application process.
Fast track applications
Following feedback and review of the collaborative R&D competitions to date, this competition will include additional application routes to the standard two-stage process, for fast track applications (optional for projects of less than £250k support) and a large projects track for all projects seeking in excess of £8m.
Applicants for projects that seek £250,000 or less of support may choose to be assessed against the programme criteria in a ‘fast track’ process or in a two-stage process. Typically, fast track projects will be industry led and of no more than two years duration. Fast track projects are likely to involve fewer collaborators and modest academic involvement. Applicants have to use the ‘outline’ application form and applications assessed in a single-stage process. It is envisaged that up to £3million of the funding for this technology area will be allocated to supporting these projects.
Key dates
The competition opened at the launch event at the Barbican Centre, London on 26 April 2006. The deadline for registering varies with each programme (see links for further details), but as an example:
• you intend to submit an application: 12 June.
• deadline to submit an application: 19 June.
• applicants should expect a decision by 7 August.
• Successful applicants expected to accept or decline any grant offer by 9 October.
• Successful applicants expected to start their project by 8 January 2007.
Competition events
4 May: Technology programme partnering event, Guoman Towers, London
10 May: Technology programme partnering event, Midland Hotel, Manchester
For more information and to register for these events, click here. More details about the Technology Programme, the Spring 06 Collaborative R&D competition, events and how to apply can be accessed Editor@TheChilli.com
