The Royal Academy of Engineering
is Britain’s national Academy of
Engineering dedicated to the
promotion of excellence in the
science, art and practice of
engineering.
Supporting Research
Presentation for Imperial College
by Rob Barrett, Head of Research Programmes
June 2009
Research Schemes
• Research Chairs & Senior Research Fellowships
• Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowships
• Research Fellowships
• Global Research Awards
• External spend - £4.3m in 08/09 (£4.6m in 09/10)
Research Chairs & Senior Research
Fellowships
• Strengthen industrial/academic links
• Gearing and sponsors
• Establish high-quality research professors
• Establish/enhance a centre of excellence
• Open competition or nominated
• All areas of engineering, five year tenure
• Monitoring – by sponsor & Fellow
• 29 existing Chairs, 5 active SRFs
Leverhulme Trust Senior Research
Fellowships
• Mid-career academics
• Relieved from teaching and administration, to
commit solely to research
• Duration from one academic term to one full year
• 7 Fellowships available annually
• Gross salary cost of replacement academic +
possible £2,500 support fund
• Currently 3 active Leverhulme SRFs
International Travel Grants
• support for conference attendance and short study
visits of up to two months
• open to UK citizens and residents involved in
engineering research in academia or industry
• grants of up to 50% approved costs
• fully electronic application, all year round
• reports published in The Delegate, the scheme’s
monthly newsletter
Global Research Awards
• Engineers in R&D undertake projects at centres of
excellence overseas
• Joint benefits to the engineer, employer and host
• Period of 3 -12 months
• Disseminate the benefits gained to UK engineering
• Open to all engineers with research experience
• RAEng to provide up to 50% costs up to £40k
• Currently 16 secondees are being supported
Global Research Awards
• The secondment can be to any centre of excellence in any country
• The secondee and their employer are expected to know where
they want to go – the best secondments are those where the
secondee knows the person he/she wants to work with (more than
one host is possible)
• Costs may include salary, employer’s NI, travel, accommodation,
conference attendance and possibly family expenses
• No closing dates, apply at any time
• Two stage assessment: by confidential referees, and if successful,
by interview
RAEng/EPSRC Research Fellowships
• Joint scheme with EPSRC
• Aimed at outstanding researchers from ALL branches
of engineering
• Just completing PhD, or up to 3 years postdoc research
experience
• Duration of 60 months (can be part-time – 50%)
Benefits to Awardee
• The Research Fellow is freed from teaching and admin
responsibilities to concentrate on basic research
• Establish a research track record
• Fellow of the Academy appointed as a Mentor for
advice and contacts with industry, academia and
networks
• Progress monitored through an annual report from the
incumbent and Mentor meetings
Funding
• Research Fellowship is designed to support incumbents for 5 years
• Funding under Full Economic Costing (fEC), cost elements agreed
by TRAC methodology (Transparent Approach to Costing)
• Cost elements which should be included are:
Gross salary, travel & subsistence, indirect, estates
costs, and other costs
• Full details in EPSRC funding guide and Royal Academy website
Applications
• Annual call made in late July, application deadline for 2009 will
be in late October via EPSRC J-eS system
• 110 applications in last round, from which 10 awards were
made
• Target for this round (2009-10) is 8 awards
• 59 existing Research Fellows
• Limit of 5 applications per institution – consult with your Head
of Department before applying
Application
• Case for support (clear, concise, jargon free)
- track record
- description of proposed research/methodology
- diagrammatic work plan
- list of publications (no page limit)
- justification of resources
• HoD statement and Registrar to certify eligibility
RAEng/EPSRC Research Fellowships: Assessment Criteria
The criteria used as part of the overall assessment process include:
• Communication
• Career aspirations
• Independence (current standing)
• Track Record
• Planning and management
• Contribution to research environment (e.g. outreach and teaching)
• Significance and potential of the research
• Degree of novelty / risk
• Collaboration and contribution to Knowledge Transfer / Exploitation
RAEng/EPSRC Research Fellowships:
Process Chart
Proposal Award Fellowship
Feedback
to
Candidate
Proposal Refereed Referee’s Comments Sift Panel Interviews
1 nominated by candidate Select a shortlist of
Sufficiently Final selection of
1 from EPSRC College candidates for
Supportive? candidates
1 Fellow of The Royal Academy interview
of Engineering
Not
Not successful
selected for Not selected
for interview at interview
panel
review
Candidate Informed
Invitation . . .
Please feel free to come to our Annual Research
Forum on Friday 30th September 2009 . . .
Annual Research Forum
Our annual Engineering Research Forum is held in September at the Royal College of Physicians,
London. The Forum includes:
• Presentations from representatives of all our research schemes
• An opportunity to network among engineering researchers, sponsors and funders
• A poster exhibition of Academy-funded research
Contacts
• Rob Barrett, Head of Research Programmes, RAEng
robert.barrett@raeng.org.uk
• Misty Palmer, Assistant Manager, Research
Programmes, misty.palmer@raeng.org.uk
• Or Angus Baker, Research Administrator, at RAEng
angus.baker@raeng.org.uk
• RAEng Website: www.raeng.org.uk/research