The Translational Research Initiative (TRI) would like to bring to your attention the following funding opportunities, seminars, events, workshops and support opportunities. 

Funding Calls

MRC & BBSRC IAA Standard Call and Early Concept Awards - closing soon!

New funding and support opportunities are available from the Translational Research Initiative (TRI) and funded by UKRI through the MRCand BBSRC Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAAs). 

IAA grants are strategic awards aimed at accelerating the translation of discovery research towards impact, by supporting proof-of-concept studies, pump-priming and feasibility studies. IAA awards aim to accelerate development by providing locally administered, responsive and flexible funding to support preliminary translational work. IAA funds can also be used to support market assessment, development of business cases and access to external expertise. IAA awards are typically up to 12 months in duration and all projects must be complete by 31st December 2025. 

Prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss their proposal with the Translational Research Officer for your School prior to applying, or to email mvls-innovation@glasgow.ac.uk for general enquiries. 

MRC IAA

  • Development projects up to £80k in value, to support the progression of an innovation along the translational pathway. Projects typically up to 12 months in duration. 
  • Partnership projects up to £20k in value, to develop new academic and industry interactions and enable knowledge exchange, events, collaborative working and cross-sector skills flow as well as funds towards thematic partnering events and enterprise and/or industry secondments. 
  • Early concept projects up to £20k in value, to support translational projects at an early stage of development or to generate evidence to support a later stage translational award. These awards are intended to bridge the gap between discovery research and early-stage translation and are suitable for projects that are considered too early stage for a full IAA development award. Projects can be between 3-4 months in duration.
  • For more information, please see ourMRC IAA webpage.    

BBSRC IAA 

  • Development projects and partnership awardscan be up to £25k in value. Projects typically up to 12 months in duration.
  • Early concept projects up to £6.5k in value, to support translational projects at an early stage of development or to generate evidence to support a later stage translational award. These awards are intended to bridge the gap between discovery research and early-stage translation and are suitable for projects that are considered too early stage for a full IAA development award. Projects can be between 3-4 months in duration.
  • For more information, please see our BBSRC IAA webpage.

MRC and BBSRC IAA Mobility Awards 

  • Mobility awards from both MRCand BBSRC IAAs up to £10k in value to support the flow of expertise between academia & external partners. Mobility awards are flexible - they can be short and focused or can be a component of a larger project. Secondments can also be part time. The IAA will cover the salary costs for university staff seconded to external organisations for the time spent with the host. IAA funds can also be used to fund travel and subsistence costs, as well as other resources required by the secondment project. 
  • Early career researchers and technical staffare encouraged to apply to the current ECR-focused IAA Mobility Call by Tuesday 27th August 2024, 5pm. (See below for more details on this call).

Please see the links above for further guidance on eligibility and how to apply. 

Application forms must be submitted via email to mvls-innovation@glasgow.ac.uk. Please contact the TRI team giving your expression of interest as soon as possible. The team are here to help shape applications at an early stage and to signpost to appropriate support teams, such as the Contracts team and IP & Commercialisation team where necessary, to help ensure that your application meets the requirements necessary for IAA funding. 

Closing date for applications: Tuesday 24th September 2024, 11am.

 

Glasgow Knowledge Exchange (GKEF) funding calls - closing soon!

The University, through the Glasgow Knowledge Exchange (GKE) Fund, allocates funding to support knowledge exchange activities arising from research. The University has been investing in knowledge exchange and impact generation activities through the GKE Fund since 2012. Over that time, many exciting, innovative projects have been funded, meeting the scheme’s aims. You can see a few of the funded projects in video case studies on our website.

With the arrival of a full suite of UKRI Impact Acceleration Accounts, the GKEF has adapted a little. We now have 4 funding streams, 2 of which -- the Enabling Fund and Flexible Fund -- are now open for applications. Both these funds are aimed at supporting activity that is not eligible for IAA funding. For further guidance, see our website.  

The GKE Enabling Fund is to support UofG staff members at an early stage in their research independence to develop their potential and build leadership in impact generation, as well as build experience and a track record through the delivery of knowledge exchange and engagement projects. 

The GKE Flexible Fund is to support UofG staff members to exploit their research through the delivery of knowledge exchange and engagement projects. The Flexible Fund complements IAA funds by supporting projects that are not eligible for IAA funding. If you intend to apply to the GKE Fund, you must contact RiandE@glasgow.ac.uk to discuss your project idea prior to application submission. You can book a meeting using the link.

For more information about the scheme and how to apply, please visit the GKEF webpages. Please note that the application process is now 2 step: Expression of Interest and Full Application. Applicants MUST submit an EoI to be invited to full application. Full application deadline will be in early November.

Two pre-application information sessions will be held. The first, in person, on Wednesday 14th August 2024 at 11am – 12noon – please register here. The second via Zoom, on Thursday 29th August 2-3pm – please register here. For more in-depth discussion and support in formulating a project and application, an EoI application writing workshop will be held on Wednesday 4th September 2024 from 10am-12noon- please register here. If you have any further questions regarding this scheme, please contact us at RiandE@glasgow.ac.uk. We look forward to hearing from you!

Deadline for Expressions of Interest (EoIs): Tuesday 24th September 2024, 11am

 

BBRC Follow-on fund (FoF) Round Two

The next round of BBSRC Follow-on Fund (FoF) is now open to applications and will close on Tuesday 15th October.

FoF is designed to help researchers maximise the commercial, economic, and societal benefits of their research. Projects must draw upon current or previous BBSRC research investment, which includes BBSRC IAA awards. More information can be found on the UKRI Funding Finder page here. We will also be holding an applicant webinar on Tuesday 20th August 1-2pm, where we will speak more about the programme and the application process. The link to register for this webinar is here. 

We are always happy to speak to anyone who is thinking about making an application to FoF, to arrange this or to ask a question, please contact the FoF inbox at fof@bbsrc.ukri.org.

 

Rosetrees Translational Fellow Award 2024

The Rosetrees Trust are delighted to announce the imminent launch of the Rosetrees Translational Fellows Award 2024.

Aim: The aim of the Rosetrees Translational Award is to catalyse translational research that has the potential to deliver patient benefit within 5 to 10 years. Funding can be used to cover the additional costs associated with the translation of research.

Funding: The award is for £150K over 2 years and can be used across a broad spectrum of research.

Eligibility: Candidates must already have a career establishment/development fellowship from the ERC, UKRI, Royal Society or Wellcome Trust. Applicants will need to demonstrate that the objectives of their proposal to Rosetrees are unique and distinct to that of their career establishment/development fellowship.

Dates: Submissions will be accepted from August 19th-September 30th 2024. Successful applicants will be notified in December 2024.

Further details can be found on our website https://rosetrees.org.uk/translationalfellows/

Applicants are encouraged to contact Vineet Rajkumar at Rosetrees if you have any questions.

Seminars and Webinars

School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing (SMDN) Innovation, Engagement and Enterprise (IEE) Seminar Series

We are delighted to announce a new Seminar Series for Innovation, Engagement and Enterprise (IEE) within the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing. This series will enable you to find out more about IEE activities being undertaken across our School and MVLS, including help and support available.

We are all involved in undertaking innovative work in so many areas including teaching, scholarship, clinical, research, administration and technical activities. This seminar series is to celebrate, recognise and showcase all the amazing work our colleagues are involved in. These sessions will be fortnightly (approximately), online live on Teams. Typically, the format will be 20 minutes presentation, followed by 10 minutes of a Q&A with the speaker. 

Speaker: Mr David Shields, Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon, QEUH; Honorary Clinical Associate Professor

Talk Title: Innovations in Orthopaedics - Trials, tribulations, fractured plans and replacement parts 

When: Tuesday 1st October 2024, 1.30 - 2.00pm

Where: Microsoft Teams - Please use this link to join.

Orthopaedics has its origins in setting of bones, some many hundreds of years ago. Since then, innovation has been steady, however aside from a few large advances (many of which are only attributable to other healthcare disciplines, e.g. antibiotics) the principles have remained unchanged since the second world war. Whilst partnering with industry and implant manufacturers has helped develop the zeitgeist, a simultaneous increase in regulatory frameworks has stifled the ability of a clinician to translate innovative ideas to the improvement of patient care. This short talk aims to outline some of the opportunities and hurdles of clinician-driven innovation in orthopaedic surgery. 

 

The Living Lab: Healthcare Innovation Symposium

Join our Healthcare Innovation Symposium, where delegates from across academia, industry, and healthcare will come together to explore cutting-edge developments, emerging opportunities, and key challenges in the healthcare innovation landscape. The symposium will highlight the Living Laboratory’s unique collaborative ecosystem, showcasing the importance of cross-sector partnerships in driving innovation and the adoption of new technologies.

Attendees can expect engaging sessions around MedTech opportunities and advancements, strategies for generating evidence and its role in accelerating adoption, and insights into Living Laboratory assets and initiatives designed to drive innovation in Glasgow and across Scotland. We are also excited to introduce the Health Innovation Hub, which is set to further enhance the collaborative ecosystem and strengthen Glasgow’s position as a global leader in healthcare innovation.

Additionally, the symposium will offer valuable networking opportunities and interactive workshops, igniting innovation and nurturing groundbreaking ideas to accelerate innovation into healthcare and improve patient outcomes. 

Symposium Registration Page - Symposium Poster Guidance Page

When: Wednesday 6th November, 9:15am - 4:15pm
Where: Queen Elizabeth Teaching and Learning Centre, 1345 Govan Rd, Glasgow G51 4TF

 

Intellectual Property (IP) Skills Webinars

The highly popular webinar series on intellectual property is back with a new focus on IP skills. Find out more here. Last year we held a series of highly popular talks about the basics of intellectual property. This year we decided to shift focus onto practical skills that are essential for any innovative or entrepreneurial researcher.

Turning research outcomes into new businesses, products, and services is one of the primary ways in which the University of Glasgow delivers meaningful social, economic, and environmental impact beyond academia. IP is critical to this activity – many potential industrial partners and investors will only collaborate or provide funding with appropriate IP protection in place. This means IP is of enormous and growing importance for generating impact. This new series of talks will explore IP skills that are critical for generating impact: freedom to operate, prior art, IP discovery, IP safety, IP value, and IP strategy.

These talks will be led by highly experienced patent attorneys from Mewburn Ellis. Ample time will be devoted to questions and discussion. These talks are open to all members of the University community, but people who have not previously contacted the IP & Innovation Team are especially welcome. The first in this new series of webinars will be held on Wednesday 9th October 2024, 12 - 1pm.

You can sign up for all the IP skills webinars in the series on these links:  

  • #1 of 7: Richard Johnson will explore the basics of IP protection and its role in generating impact. Get your free ticket here 
  • #2 of 7: Graham Forrest will explore freedom to operate. Get your free ticket here 
  • #3 of 7: Nathan Zhang will discuss prior art searching and its role in generating impact. Get your free ticket here 
  • #4 of 7: Niles Beadman will discuss IP discovery and capture. Get your free ticket here 
  • #5 of 7: Sean Jauss will discuss ensuring the safety of your IP. Get your free ticket here 
  • #6 of 7: Dan Thornton will discuss understanding IP value. Get your free ticket here 
  • #7 of 7: Eleanor Maciver  will explain what a commercially driven IP strategy is. Get your free ticket here

Events and Workshops

Research Impact and Policy Training from CoSS - all researchers invited

The Knowledge Exchange and Impact Team in CoSS are pleased to announce the launch of our Autumn semester training and development programme, and we invite researchers from all Colleges to these trainings. We have two core offerings:

Policy Engagement Trainings:

  • Foundations of Policy Engagement: 24th Sept, 22nd Oct (online): This training will introduce researchers to the role of policy engagement in their impact work; including how to consider your work’s ‘policy relevance’, how to identify key policy actors and stakeholders (including those beyond government and parliament), some key ways to understand the policy agenda and how to start writing for a policy audience. This training focuses on policy engagement at the local, Scottish and UK levels.
  • Political Engagement (Scotland and UK): 29th Oct: This training dives deeper, with a focus on engagement with Scottish and UK Parliaments. We detail some of the key mechanisms for mobilising research evidence and how to get started.

Research Impact training series is delivered from the viewpoint of social science (primarily) but much is relevant for all researchers. In particular, tools for planning impact and evidencing it:

In response to feedback from researchers, we are excited to introduce three new sessions this semester:

  • Introduction to REF Impact (in collaboration with the REF team in the Research Services Directorate): 26th Sept
  • Maximising Grey Literature Impact (in collaboration with the library team): 16th Oct, 25th Oct
  • Research Impact & the Global South: 21st Nov 

All sessions are now open for booking through Inkpath. We encourage you to register early, done via Single Sign On. For more details, including dates, times, and registration links, please visit our College intranet page: Knowledge Exchange and Impact Training. Please contact Sarah Weakley (Sarah.Weakley@glasgow.ac.uk) or Eleanor MacPherson (Eleanor.MacPherson@glasgow.ac.uk) if you have any questions.

 

LEAP Programme

The LEAP programme at AberInnovation campus in Wales is open to entrepreneurs and early-stage enterprises (<1 year old) from across the UK, and offers grant funding (between £30-£50k), tech support, mentoring and other resources. The remit scope is:

  • Human food & nutrition
  • Animal feed & nutrition
  • Environment
  • Food systems or supply chains

For more information, please visit https://aberinnovation.com/development-hub/leap. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 8th October 2024, 12 noon. If you have any queries about the application form or application process, please email leap@aberinnovation.com.

 

SULSA: Life Sciences Pitching Bootcamp

Interested in turning your research project into a business idea in the future and learning key entrepreneurial skills in a fun and relaxed environment?

Then join our Life Sciences Pitching Bootcamp in Glasgow on Wednesday 23rd October!

Learn about the spin out process with Wellspring before delving into how to prepare the perfect pitch to turn your research project into an exciting business venture with Converge, Scotland’s leading entrepreneurial challenge. Applicants will be asked to provide a draft pitch which you will workshop during the event before getting your chance to impress our friendly dragons with your refined pitch. As with all SULSA activities we welcome scientists from across the breadth of life sciences research from animal, plant, human and microbe science!

Open for PhD and Postdoctoral Researchers with spaces reserved on a first come first serve basis. Spaces will be limited so apply now!

 

NIHR Programme Grants for Applued Research (PGfAR) - Devolved Administration OutreachEvent (Scotland)

In the autumn of 2023, the NIHR opened available funding to health and social care researchers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (the Devolved Administrations) as well as England. The Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR) and Programme Development Grants (PDG) funding schemes are excited to welcome applications from the Devolved Administrations (DAs).

In order to reach more interested researchers and answer any questions specific to each DA, the PGfAR and PDG team are hosting a series of in-person outreach events. These will give researchers a chance to hear more about the remit of PGfAR and PDG funding, what makes a competitive application and ask questions. These will be full day event and the afternoon sessions will give researchers the opportunity to have a one-to-one session with a member of the PGfAR committee to discuss their application ideas and receive feedback. Please note that further details about the event will be sent out closer to the date.

 

EPSRC Health Data for Research workshop

This EPSRC workshop will provide guidance and links to resources available to help researchers with accessing, sharing and using health data. There will also be a chance to discuss challenges and opportunities in the health data space. For any questions about this event, email healthcare@epsrc.ukri.org.

When: Tuesday 24th September 2024, 10am - 1.30pm

Where: Online (please register here) - Registration for this event will close when registrations reach 250 people, due to limits on online workshop capacity.

 

Surveys

MVLS Public Engagement Reporting 2023-2024

The MVLS Engagement Team have created an online form to collect data on all public and community engagement activity delivered by MVLS staff and students. You can find the form here. We are seeking to collect data on engagement events, activities & projects from across the college - including information on the type of engagement, audiences, delivery teams, and any impacts of the engagement. We encourage all staff involved in public and community engagement to submit data using the form, so that we can create an accurate picture of the engagement work happening across the college.

Please read the following instructions before submitting the form:

  • Please provide information on all public & community engagement projects you have delivered, managed or organised over the past academic year – from August 1st 2023 – July 31st 2024. This includes schools engagement.
  • Please submit one form per unique project, event, or activity. Longer term projects (like a yearlong series of events) can be submitted as one form if appropriate – please use your judgement on how to split things up.

If anything is unclear or you have any feedback on the form, please email mvls-engage@glasgow.ac.uk.

 

Research and Innovation Workforce Survey (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

This is the UK wide Research and Innovation (R&I) Workforce Survey, conducted by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) on behalf of the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

This survey is your chance to help shape UK government R&I policies and government funding decisions. This survey covers the full diversity of occupations in the R&I workforce, including trainee or experienced researchers, technicians, engineers, R&I leaders and managers. The questions in this survey are crucial for understanding how the R&I workforce is affected by government policy, and will help government and funders make decisions based on evidence.

Please fill in this short survey if you are a researcher or innovator – whether you create new knowledge or adapt or apply others’ innovations. We welcome views from all specialisms, whether you work in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), the humanities, arts or social sciences; and whether you work in the private, public or non-profit sector. The survey should take about 15 minutes to complete. You will not be able to save your answers, so please ensure you have enough time to complete it in one go. If you need any more information about this survey before you participate, please visit the information page on gov.uk.

TRI Support

Clinical 1-to-1 drop-in sessions

The TRI are offering a translational research regulatory support scheme, aimed to provide interested researchers with personalised regulatory support from expert consultants. This initiative is funded by the Wellcome Trust and provides applicants with the opportunity to attend a 1-1 session with therapeutics and clinical device regulatory experts, who can provide tailored guidance and support on the regulatory requirements of clinical translational projects. Interested researchers are invited to submit a short application along with their questions to Dr Michaela Petaroudi, and successful applicants will be invited to attend an online meeting with the regulatory consultant. In case further support is needed, eligible researchers will be offered with the option to attend a follow-up session.    

Who should attend? This event is open to all University of Glasgow research staff of all levels, who are actively involved in translational projects and have identified specific areas where regulatory support or advice is required.  

When? Drop-in sessions are now available on-demand. Please email Dr Michaela Petaroudi to book or to register interest. 

Case Studies and Information

Translational Case Studies

MVLS Informational Videos

MVLS Translational Research Initiative Management Team (TRI MT)   

 

College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences

University of Glasgow

Translational Research Initiative

Email: mvls-innovation@glasgow.ac.uk 

First published: 18 May 2021

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Related Links

Translational Case Studies

MVLS Informational Videos

Contact:

mvls-innovation@glasgow.ac.uk 

Translational Research Initiative