Quick Reference. Future Manufacturing Platform Grants

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1 Quick Reference Please note that you must read the full Call document for guidance before submitting your proposal Future Manufacturing Platform Grants Call type: Invitation for outlines Closing date: 09 August 2016, 16:00 Funding Available: Up to 10M will be available for supporting Platform Grants. How to apply: Outlines followed by invited Full proposals. Assessment Process: Outlines will be considered by EPSRC staff at an internal sift meeting. Invited full proposals will undergo peer review, followed by prioritisation at an interview panel. Key Dates: Activity Date Deadline for Outline Proposals 09 August :00 Sift Panel Early September 2016 Deadline for Full Proposals Early November 2016 Interview Panel February 2017 Funding decision Late February 2017 Grant start date 01 April 2017 Contacts: Central Dr Richard Bailey Senior Portfolio Manager Manufacturing the Future Theme , Gerard Davies Portfolio Manager Manufacturing the Future Theme , Page 1 of 14

2 Future Manufacturing Platform Grants Call type: Invitation for outlines Closing date: 09 August 2016, 16:00 Related themes: Digital economy, Energy, Engineering, ICT, Manufacturing the future, Mathematical sciences, Physical sciences, Healthcare technologies, Quantum technologies Summary EPSRC is inviting outline applications for a number of multidisciplinary Platform Grants to maintain and develop the strength of the manufacturing-related UK engineering and scientific research base. EPSRC funding will provide a baseline of flexible support (a platform) that can be used for the retention of key staff, feasibility studies, longer-term research and international networking. This flexibility should enable the group to take a strategic view of their research, which will be enhanced by the submission of standard research applications during the lifetime of the Platform Grant. A two-stage assessment process will be used, involving outline applications and full proposals. Background The Manufacturing the Future theme wishes to protect the UK s long-term capability in manufacturing research by stimulating applications to EPSRC s Platform Grants scheme. Platform Grants are one of the key mechanisms by which EPSRC strives towards maintaining and developing the strength of the UK engineering and scientific research base, by supporting, through underpinning funding, established UK groups considered to be world leading in their fields. Through this call we will support long-term, excellent investigator-led research activities in the field of manufacturing, that will: draw on opportunities from emergent research across the engineering and physical sciences strengthen the skills base in upstream manufacturing research accelerate impact by promoting collaboration between academia and innovative manufacturing businesses. Page 2 of 14

3 Scope The aim of Platform Grant funding is to provide a baseline of flexible support ( for worldleading research groups. These groups can be multi-institutional and should have previous experience of working together (i.e. this funding is not aimed at supporting new collaborations). Funding can be used for the retention of key research staff, feasibility studies, longer-term research and networking. This flexibility should enable the group to take a long-term view of their research and its route to impact in manufacturing, allowing them to determine how best to capture the benefits for UK manufacturing industries. We expect funded Platform Grants to: Support long-term capability for manufacturing-related research through: o Building on existing research strengths and partnerships o Retention and training of key research staff o Promoting multidisciplinary research o Allowing strategic, longer-term research thinking for research groups Engage with the research and innovation landscape through: o Support for networking across business, Public Sector Research Establishments, Catapults, Government and other public agencies, including international linkages o Providing experience & training for researchers in commercialising early stage research o Emphasising aspects such as pathway to manufacture and/or commercialisation. It is expected that groups supported with Platform Grants will develop new research ideas for standard research applications during the lifetime of the grant. For more information about EPSRC s portfolio and strategies, see our website: Funding available The EPSRC Manufacturing the Future Theme will provide up to 10M (Research Council contribution, not FEC) to support Platform Grants for up to five years. This figure is subject to final confirmation. Applications for Platform Grants should be staff-centric and the expectation is that requests will be for between 80 and 140 person months of staff time (research and technical combined) and that resources requested are appropriate to the group's research portfolio. Investigators' time should be appropriate to the planning and management of the Platform Grant. Other directly incurred costs should be limited to travel, consumables and Creativity@home (see Annex 2). The balance between the level of resources requested and support from other sources will be considered during deliberations on the appropriateness of Platform Grant funding. As a guide the team s portfolio should be at least double the level of resources that Platform Grant funding would provide. Page 3 of 14

4 Equipment Equipment requests are not permitted on Platform Grant applications. Eligibility For information on the eligibility of organisations and individuals to receive EPSRC funding, see the EPSRC Funding Guide: In order to be considered eligible for this Platform Grant call, applicants are also required to: Demonstrate that they are an existing research group. For the purposes of this call a research group can span departments and organisations. Demonstrate that they have an internationally leading reputation and a high international profile. Demonstrate that their group has a strong track record in obtaining support for their research from EPSRC and other funding sources. They should hold a substantial portfolio (a range of grants relating to the research area of the Platform Grant grant) of current EPSRC research grant funding, typically over 2 million in value, that the Platform Grant funding would underpin. Other considerations: o Funding from other sources (e.g. other Research Councils, Innovate UK, industry, charities, EU) may be taken into account towards this portfolio depending on the nature of the funding and type of grant. o The portfolio that would be underpinned should be sustained to a significant degree during the period of the proposed Platform Grant, both in terms of existing grants continuing significantly beyond the start of the Platform Grant duration, and also anticipated future support. o Grants can be held by named investigators on the Platform Grant as either principal or co-investigators and any grant should only count once towards the group s current EPSRC portfolio. It is also expected that each named investigator will contribute grants towards the qualifying portfolio commensurate with their experience. Grants that will not contribute to the qualifying portfolio include: o Manufacturing the Future critical mass funding (i.e. Future Manufacturing Research Hubs and Centres for Innovative Manufacturing) active as at 01 April 2017 are excluded because these already allow significant flexibility and security of funding. This extends to other EPSRC longer/larger awards such as Programme grants, Quantum Technology Hubs and similar awards. o Training Awards i.e. CASE studentships, Centres for Doctoral Training. o Fellowship Awards as these are personal awards, and therefore not part of the group s portfolio in the same way as standard research grants. They also already include a component within them that covers exploring new research directions and building new collaborations which negates the need for Platform Grant support. It is not expected that Platform Grants will have Researcher co-investigators, as fulfilling the requirements for this role (as outlined in the Funding Guide) would not be within the spirit of the scheme. Page 4 of 14

5 How to apply A two-stage application process will be used. Stage 1: Outline proposal - application details are given below. Stage 2: Full proposal - application details are contained in Annex 1, for future information. Further details of the Je-S submission route, including the full proposal deadline, will be made available to the successful outline applicants. Only successful applicants will be invited to submit an application to the full proposal stage. No other applications will be accepted. Submitting an outline application You should prepare and submit your proposal using the Research Councils Joint electronic Submission (Je-S) System ( Although both single and multi-institutional bids are welcome, only one Je-S application form should be submitted per bid. Joint Proposals will not be accepted. When adding a new proposal, you should select: Council EPSRC Document type Outline Proposal Scheme Outline On the Project Details page you should select the Future Manufacturing Research Platforms - Outlines call. Note that clicking submit document on your proposal form in Je-S initially submits the proposal to your host organisation s administration, not to EPSRC. Please allow sufficient time for your organisation s submission process between submitting your proposal to them and the call closing date. EPSRC must receive your application by 16:00 on 09 August Guidance on the types of support that may be sought and advice on the completion of the research proposal forms are given on the EPSRC website ( which should be consulted when preparing all proposals. Guidance on writing your outline application In addition to the proposal details that you need to complete in Je-S (including outline costs and a non-technical summary of the proposal), your outline case for support should comprise a maximum of four pages (A4), which includes: two pages of text a separate table (one page) illustrating the group's track record of obtaining funding from EPSRC and a variety of other sources a separate list (one page) of key recent publications and other significant dissemination activities that demonstrates the group s track record of working together. Other attachments, e.g. work plans and justification of resources, should not be included at the outline stage. Page 5 of 14

6 Outline case for support text The outline case for support text should cover: Membership of the proposed Platform Grant group (including Research Assistants) and why these people should be supported Manufacturing context of the research that the funding would support Evidence of the group's international standing Track record of the proposed group and previous collaborative output How the group intend to take a strategic view of their research, and the national importance of this research area How the Platform will be used differently to a standard responsive mode grant. How the group will actively manage and develop the careers of their researchers (including providing experience & training for researchers in commercialising early stage research) Management of the proposed Platform Grant. Funding track record of group This table should illustrate the group s track record of obtaining research funding, covering current funding and that obtained during the previous 5 years. It should give details of: The source of funding Relevant reference number Start and end date Title or description Amount (in cases where only part of large grant is relevant or the contribution is as a co-investigator it is appropriate to list only the proportional value, this should usually be based on the proportion of hours the Investigator contributes to the grant). Funding which is current at the time of submission must be clearly marked. Details of funding applications under consideration should also be included where these are relevant and must be labelled accordingly. Applicants should demonstrate how the group s portfolio of research will be maintained during the period of the Platform Grant. Publication and dissemination track record of group This page should list key recent publications and other significant dissemination activities that demonstrate the group s track record of working together. Attachment formats Please note that on submission to EPSRC all non-pdf documents uploaded onto Je-S are converted to PDF, the use of non-standard fonts may result in errors or font conversion, which could affect the overall length of the document. In addition, where non-standard fonts are present, and even though the converted PDF document may look unaffected in the Je-S System, when it is imported into the Research Councils Grants System some information may be removed. We therefore recommend that where a document contains any non-standard fonts (scientific notation, diagrams etc.), the document is converted to PDF prior to attaching it to the proposal. Page 6 of 14

7 For advice on writing proposals see: Assessment Assessment process The standard Platform Grant assessment process will be followed. This is a two stage process. Stage 1: Outline Proposal The outline bids will be assessed by EPSRC staff at an internal sift meeting, after which proposals may be invited to the full stage. Stage 2: Full Proposal Full proposals will be sent to independent peer reviewers, including at least one nominated by the applicant. The peer reviewers role will be to comment on all the assessment criteria, but primarily on the quality of the research. Applicants will be invited to respond to the reviewers comments. Full proposals will then be rank ordered against each other via an interview stage. We reserve the right to hold a full proposal sift panel to select those proposals with sufficiently supportive reviewer comments to go forward to interview. The interview panel, comprising industrial and academic members with a range of backgrounds and expertise, will rank the proposals against the full assessment criteria, using the reviewer comments, PI response and overall interview performance. Each group will be invited to send up to three members of the research team to the panel meeting in order to respond to questions from the panel. The attendees should include one senior member of the research team and a researcher who will be directly employed on the grant. EPSRC will decide, based on the advice of the interview panel, which proposals to fund. Assessment criteria The criteria for the assessment of proposals at both stages are listed below. These are the standard Platform Grant assessment criteria (some specific clarification has been included of what is expected for manufacturing-focussed proposals). Added value The proposal must demonstrate the group s need for a Platform Grant, such as retaining key people currently supported on short term contracts, and providing the group with opportunities not available through standard project based funding, for example, in terms of the exploration of new research directions that may be considered 'too risky' for standard research projects. Strategic development The group must demonstrate that they are an existing and coherent team that would use the Platform Grant as an opportunity to take a longer term more Page 7 of 14

8 strategic view of their research, and / or as a means of developing and strengthening the team. National importance The group must describe the extent to which, over the long term, their research: Contributes to, or helps maintain the health of other research disciplines, contributes to addressing key UK societal challenges, contributes to current or future UK economic success and enables future development of key emerging industry(s) Meets national strategic needs by establishing or maintaining a unique world leading research activity (including areas of niche capability) Fits with and complements other UK research already funded in the area or related areas, including the relationship to the EPSRC portfolio and our stated strategy set out in Our Portfolio. The extent to which applicants are able to address each bullet point will depend on the nature of their research. Applicants should indicate how their research relates to EPSRC s research areas and strategies, in particular the Manufacturing the Future strategy ( rategy/priorities/) and EPSRC s science strategy ( Applicants should also describe how the research complements EPSRC's current portfolio, in particular the manufacturing portfolio. Information on the portfolio is available through the EPSRC's Grants on the Web (GoW) and Visualising our Portfolio (VoP). International standing The proposal must demonstrate that the group has an internationally leading reputation and a high international profile in the relevant research area. Team development The proposal must demonstrate that the group will actively develop and promote the careers of its team members, both named investigators and research assistants. This includes experience & training for researchers in commercialising early stage research. They should describe how this will be accomplished (for example through researcher mobility, training opportunities, and mentoring arrangements) to deliver the strategic vision and provide improved career opportunities for team members. Funding The proposal must demonstrate that the group has the ability to obtain significant funding from a variety of sources, and will continue to do so. Management The proposal must demonstrate that the activities of the Platform Grant will be appropriately managed, and should describe the management arrangements for the group, including a projected plan of current and anticipated support to show how the Platform Grant would fit into the group's portfolio. Page 8 of 14

9 Impact The applicants must identify who will benefit from the research, describe how they may benefit and what will be done to ensure that they have the opportunity to benefit. This may include: Community outreach activities, to promote networking and collaboration with other researchers, as well as with the public User engagement activities, including Catapults and industry, to ensure acceleration of impact and time to market. The definition of impact and further details can be found in economic impact guidance for applicants: Moving forward We do not expect to see large changes in requested resources from outline to full proposal. Significant changes to the bid, and therefore from the proposal considered at the outline meeting, will be considered a new proposal and rejected. Guidance Guidance for reviewers Information about the EPSRC peer review process and guidance for reviewers can be found at: Peer reviewers will not only be directed to this call for proposals when contacted to review proposals but specific guidance will also be available to them based on the information in this call. The outline and interview panels will also be given specific guidance based on the information in this call. Key Dates: Activity Date Deadline for Outline Proposals 09 August :00 Sift Panel Early September 2016 Deadline for Full Proposals Early November 2016 Interview Panel February 2017 Funding decision Late February 2017 Grant start date 01 April 2017 Page 9 of 14

10 Contacts: Central Dr Richard Bailey Senior Portfolio Manager Manufacturing the Future Theme , Gerard Davies Portfolio Manager Manufacturing the Future Theme , If you have any questions about preparing and submitting your proposal using Je-S, please contact the Je-S helpdesk ). Your Research Administration should also be able to offer advice about costing and writing your proposal and the Je-S system. Please allow enough time before the closing date for your organisation s submission process. Change log Name Date Version Change Richard Bailey 13/06/16 1 N/A Page 10 of 14

11 Annex 1: Full Proposal Applications Applicants must have been successful at the outline stage in order to submit an application to the full proposal stage. Please note that EPSRC reserves the right to reject a full proposal where the resources are substantially different from those indicated in the outline proposal or where there have been other significant changes from the outline proposal that have not been discussed with EPSRC. Submitting application You should submit your proposal using the Research Councils Joint electronic Submission (Je-S) System ( Further details of the Je-S submission route will be made available to the successful outline proposals. Proposals must be submitted on one Je-S proposal form even if they are multi-institutional bids. Multiple forms will not be accepted. Note that clicking submit document on your proposal form in Je-S initially submits the proposal to your host organisation s administration, not to EPSRC. Please ensure you allow sufficient time for your organisation s submission process between submitting your proposal to them and the Call closing date. The Call closing date will be in early November 2016: exact details of the deadline will be given to those who are successful at the Outline stage. Guidance on writing a full application Your full proposal should consist of: single Je-S application form for each Platform Grant full case for support - 8 pages pathways to impact - two pages justification of resources - two pages project partners letters of support CVs for named staff (2 A4 sides maximum per CV). Since Platform Grant grants are not project based, workplans are not required. Guidance on what is required in the proposal sections is below. Full Case for Support The case for support should be a maximum of 8 sides of A4 under the following headings: Track record of investigators. Group Profile, covering the research staff in the group to be supported. Future plans - how do the investigators plan to take advantage of the support the proposed Platform Grant would provide? When describing this work, Page 11 of 14

12 investigators should refer to the timeliness, manufacturing relevance and national importance of the proposed future research direction. Management outline how the proposed Platform Grant will be managed. Funding a table or chart should be included illustrating the current funding portfolio of the group as well as the projected plan of anticipated support, showing how the portfolio will be maintained and how the Platform Grant would contribute to the group's portfolio. Pathways to Impact This should be a maximum of two sides of A4. This section should cover how the potential pathways to impact will be delivered, engaging with the entire value chain (from discovery, to understanding through to integration/adaptation, demonstration and deployment), including: Outreach activities to promote networking and collaboration with non- Platform Grant researchers and engaging the wider public in research Training activities to accelerate impact from the Platform Grants activities User engagement activities to engage collaborators with the Platform Grant, including influencing and working with other stakeholders (particularly Innovate UK & the Catapult network), to ensure acceleration of impact and time to market. For further guidance on Pathways to Impact, please see the Research Councils UK website: and Justification of Resources This should be a maximum of two sides of A4. This should justify the resources required to undertake the research programme, support the Platform Grant operations and implement the Pathways to Impact. Project Partner Statements of Support Statements of support are required from any project partners involved in the proposal and listed on the Je-S form. These letters from project partners should: confirm their rationale for support for the Platform Grant from their business needs and drivers confirm the contribution of cash and in-kind support be dated and on headed paper, making clear the role of the signatory in the user organisation. Please note that it is the responsibility of the lead organisation to ensure all the documentation required is submitted with the proposal form. Page 12 of 14

13 Annex 2: EPSRC, working with professional facilitators, has set up an initiative to support project investigators, researchers and teams to help generate and nurture creative thinking and galvanise team dynamics that paves the way for individuals and teams to take creativity and radical idea generation to a higher level the initiative is known as creativity@home ( Objectives for creativity@home include: learning a range of creative problem solving tools and techniques and how this might aid creativity in research engaging researchers in blue skies idea generation learning how to work effectively in teams, understanding different styles of approaching problems and how to influence others exploring the future research vision and cross-disciplinary opportunities in the group using new facilitation tools and techniques developing a cohort of trained people that have learnt and are applying creative problem solving techniques so that the approaches and culture become embedded within the project team. Activities that have taken place previously have included: training and subsequent support for project managers and students in creative facilitation techniques enabling them to run mini sandpits and cross-disciplinary idea generation workshops away days for multidisciplinary teams exploring how they might work better/more effectively together Creative Problem Solving training for groups of researchers that enhances their approach to problem solving in their research professionally facilitated idea generation workshops creating new research directions and people connections. For creativity@home, you and the research programme team are the key resource. Your group will be given access to professional facilitators and the aims and objectives are left up to you and your group to decide. The professional facilitators will work in partnership with you throughout the initiative - the timescale and all facilitation activities will be planned in consultation with you. The facilitators will focus on the process enabling your group to think freely and explore new tools and exciting research directions. Funding for creativity@home will be accessible via your grant award and is to pay for facilitator time, travel & subsistence and basic facilitator materials. Creativity@home is a flexible resource. How best to use the resource is up to you to decide when exploring options with your chosen facilitators. There is no maximum value that you may apply for, however you will need to justify the resource that you request. If your application is successful EPSRC will provide you with a list of facilitation companies that you may contact. Of course, you may already work with a facilitator; in this case, EPSRC is pleased for you to continue your engagement. Page 13 of 14

14 How do I include funding for creativity@home? If you are interested in working with professional facilitators to enhance your Platform Grant research programme then you should request resource to cover this in the outline application stage. At the full proposal stage, applications will need to include: Je-S form applicants should include appropriate resource to cover the creativity@home activity under the heading Other Directly Incurred Costs Justification of Resources justify why you believe that the creativity@home initiative will enhance the experience of the researchers and strengthen your research programme. Broadly outline what type of activities you are interested in pursuing and the associated need for the resource. The assessment process will assess the benefit of the creativity@home activity to maximising the potential of your Platform Grant research programme. Page 14 of 14