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NERC and the University of Cambridge (UCam) (from its HEIF allocation) are together providing funds to establish a new Innovation Centre for the Environment, located at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in West Cambridge. The aims of the Centre are to strengthen and build new collaborative ties between BAS and UCam and to develop business-related research. The Innovation Centre should host collaborative projects likely to lead to innovations in research, training and enterprise.

In order to stimulate ideas for the Centre, and to establish topics in which the Centre may need to invest funds for equipment or facilities, UCam and BAS are now launching this call for short bids for innovative collaborative projects.

Each bid must involve proposers at both BAS and UCam, and represent a new collaboration, or a new strand of an existing collaboration that would not have been possible without this investment. It may represent a research project, or a scoping/feasibility study, likely to lead to work being carried out in the Innovation Centre. Altogether £300k is currently available for this call, and it is expected that up to 10 projects of varying sizes will be funded. The eligible expenses include staff costs, consumables, travel, events and similar costs. Estates and indirect costs are not an eligible expense. The funds must be spent by 31^st July 2015.

While the primary aim of this call is to stimulate innovative science between BAS and UCam, the panel will particularly welcome applications that also indicate involvement and / or leverage of commercial, voluntary sector, policy or external academic partners.

Expression of Interest Deadline:  Friday 13^th September 2013.

Please register your intention to apply by sending an email to researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk with names of proposers and title of the proposal. There is no selection at this stage. The purpose is to identify likely number of proposals, disciplines / topics and names of proposers to help with the composition of the Review Panel.

Full Proposal Deadline: Friday 27^th September 2013

Proposals should be sent to researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk and should include, in 2 pages:

(i) Names and affiliations of proposers
(ii) The project description with background and references
(iii) The expected outcomes and prospects for further innovation
(iv) Actual or potential involvement of other partners beyond BAS/UCam
(v) Funds requested and breakdown per category of expenditure

(vi) The track record of each proposer, and their history (if any) of previous collaboration (additional ½ page).

In a supplement to each proposal, bidders can, if they choose, outline the case for any new facility (perhaps housing a piece of major equipment) that would enhance or enable further work in the topic of their bid. Cases associated with the successful bids will be considered in designing facilities that use the £3M capital available to BAS.

The supplement to the proposal should be up to 1 page long and should outline any associated equipment and facilities that the proposers would like to see housed in the Innovation Centre, including approximate costs. For new equipment or facility, a case needs to be made that these will enhance the success of the Innovation Centre.

Queries should be addressed to researchstrategy@admin.cam.ac.uk in the first instance.