The EPSRC and Research Councils UK have issued an invitation for proposals designed to launch the next phase of the Supergen Programme. This is the first of a two-stage process designed to launch the next phase of the Supergen Programme. Three new hubs will be set up:
This is part of changes to the Supergen programme following an independent review conducted from 30 August to 1 September 2016. The review panel made a series of recommendations:
- The Supergen programme needs more resource for the core elements of hubs, enabling their Principal Investigators or Directors to act as strategic leaders for the whole field
- The initiation of a resourced communication plan to strengthen outreach and communications
- Hubs should adopt a whole energy systems approach to understand the potential opportunities of their technology and understand how it affects the system
- More collaboration is required across hubs in cross-cutting areas, and particularly through the incorporation of the research areas of decarbonising heating and low emission transport to rationalise current research activities
- Clustering hubs under aligned areas where synergies in technology exist should be considered; it would allow shared skills, transferable fundamental knowledge and learning about similar problems to be shared
- An equality and diversity (E&D) strategy should be embedded at the level of the Supergen programme to support early career researchers and improve the balance of protected characteristics (such as age, disability, gender and ethnic background), across the research communities
The ESPRC responded to the proposals with an implementation plan. The key changes will be:
- EPSRC has increased and concentrated the funding. Leaders, in consultation with the research and stakeholder community, will decide how to divide funding and what areas of research to focus on.
- All new hubs will have a hub manager to coordinate communications and outreach, and will be able to outsource to find staff with the appropriate skills.
- All new hubs must think about their work in the context of the whole system and with the Government’s emerging Industrial Strategy in mind, and can use support from existing RCUK investments, such as UKERC, in this area.
- A central pot of flexible funding will be introduced for cross-hub challenges. The potential incorporation of the research areas of decarbonising heating and low emission transport will be considered in the next tranche of funding, due in 2018/19 following insights from the research community.
- The Wind and Marine hubs will be replaced by one Offshore Renewable Energy hub, following consultation with the community. This will offer an opportunity for the new hub to look at synergies between wind, wave and tidal technologies as well as building on current research in each area.
- EPSRC wants the Supergen programme to be a beacon for equality and diversity and early career research support. Terms and conditions will be introduced to reflect the RCUK E&D plan and EPSRC’s work in this area.
The EPSRC and Research Councils UK have also launched a competition to identify the appropriate ‘Research Leader’ for the Energy Network hub. The successful candidate will be provided with six months’ worth of funding and support from EPSRC (when required) to consult with the wider research community, build a multidisciplinary consortium and plan a programme of research. Only the successful candidate will be invited to prepare a full application for the Supergen hub and will need to submit this application soon after the end of the first stage six month grant. Up to £150K is available for this initial stage of the process, which will cover the six months that the successful applicant will build their consortia. This can be used to buy-out teaching (if required), fund networking activities, workshops and general admin support during this period. University employed industrial, non-academic (such as business development mangers) or other seconded staff are also welcome to apply.
The deadline for application is 20 April 2017. To read more, go to https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/
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