Friday 30 October 2009

Opportunity: Queen's awards for Enterprise, Innovation, c/d 30 October 2009

Businesses can apply for The Queen's Awards for Enterprise in one or more of three categories - International Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development. Individuals can be nominated for The Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion, which recognises people who have played an outstanding and significant role in promoting enterprise skills and attitudes in others in the UK. The closing date for applications, which can be made online, is 2pm on 30 October 2009.

Friday 16 October 2009

Opportunity: Academic Enterprise Awards 2009, c/d 16 October 2009

The Academic Enterprise Awards 2009 are open for nominations, closing date 16 October 2009. There are three types of award: four awards for spin-outs (for spin-out companies based on ideas developed at universities and public research institutes in Europe); one for fast start early-stage entrepreneurship (for a promising but as-yet unproven spin-out based on ideas developed at universities and public research institutes in Europe); and the Bridge Award for promoting entrepreneurship (to an individual who has done the most to promote policies for entrepreneurship in university or public research institutions) . Nominations close 16 October 2009, multiple nominations are permitted.

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Funding: Royal Society Industry Fellowship Scheme, c/d 14 Oct 2009

This scheme aims to enhance knowledge transfer in science and technology between those in industry and those in academia. It provides opportunities for an academic scientist to work on a collaborative project with industry, or someone employed in industry to work on a collaborative project with a university department or a not-for-profit research organisation. It is anticipated that fellows will establish personal and corporate links between the two sectors in the UK as a foundation for their long-term future development. These appointments are funded by the Royal Society, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Natural Environment Research Council, Rolls-Royce plc and Astra Zeneca.

The closing date for applications is 14 October 2009. See the Royal Society website for more details.

Tuesday 13 October 2009

R&D Society PR: Universities need to change if they are to embrace the second phase of World Wide Web, issued 9 October 2009

Press release issued by the University of Southampton, Friday 9 October 2009

Universities need to change if they are to embrace the second phase of World Wide Web


The challenges which face the World Wide Web in its next phase and the need for academics to embrace its further development will be outlined by Professor Dame Wendy Hall next week.

Professor Hall, who is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) will receive the Duncan Davies medal and deliver the 2009 Duncan Davies lecture on the topic of Research 2.0: The Age of Networks at a Research & Development Society event at the Royal Society on Monday 12 October at 6.30pm.

The Duncan Davies Medal is awarded annually to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution toward making the UK the best-performing research and development environment in the world.

In her lecture Professor Hall will describe how since its inception the Web has changed the ways we communicate, collaborate, and educate and that it has now developed sufficiently to facilitate interdisciplinary research by international teams to tackle the major problems faced by the world today.

‘In a very short-space of time we have come to live in a web-dependent society within a web-dependent world,’ she will say. ‘There is a growing realization that a clear research agenda aimed at understanding the current, evolving, and potential Web is needed.’

She will go on to present the important of Web Science, which embraces the study of these phenomena and she will explore the opportunities and challenges posed by the increasing need for interdisciplinary research undertaken by international teams and the role that universities, governments and learned societies can play to facilitate such exciting and necessary developments.

‘The role of government is crucial in setting policies to create an environment in which such research can flourish but in the age of networks, universities may also have to radically change in order to facilitate such exciting and necessary developments and better train people to meet the needs of businesses in the future,’ she will say.

The 2009 Duncan Davies lecture on the topic of Research 2.0: The Age of Networks will take place at the Royal Society on Monday 12 October at 6.30pm at 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG.

ENDS


Notes to Editors

1. Professor Dame Wendy Hall is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and was Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) from 2002-2007. She was the founding Head of the Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia (IAM) Research Group in ECS.

She has published over 400 papers in areas such as hypermedia, multimedia, digital libraries, and Web technologies

In 2008 she was elected as President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and is the first person from outside North America to hold this position.

She was Senior Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2005-2008 and is a Past President of the British Computer Society (2003-2004). She is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, a member of the Executive Committee of UKCRC, and Chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Diversity Committee. She is a founding member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council.

For further information about Professor Dame Wendy Hall, please visit: http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/wh/

2.For further information about the R&D Society Duncan Davies Medal, please visit: http://www.rdsoc.org/duncandavies.html

3.With around 500 researchers, and 900 undergraduate students, the School of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton is one of the world's largest and most successful integrated research groupings, covering Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electronics, Electrical Engineering, and IT in Organisations. ECS has unrivalled depth and breadth of expertise in world-leading research, new developments and their applications.

4. The University of Southampton is a leading UK teaching and research institution with a global reputation for leading-edge research and scholarship across a wide range of subjects in engineering, science, social sciences, health and humanities.

5. With over 22,000 students, around 5000 staff, and an annual turnover of more than £370 million, the University of Southampton is acknowledged as one of the country's top institutions for engineering, computer science and medicine. We combine academic excellence with an innovative and entrepreneurial approach to research, supporting a culture that engages and challenges students and staff in their pursuit of learning.

The University is also home to a number of world-leading research centres, including the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, the Optoelectronics Research Centre, the Web Science Research Initiative, the Centre for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, the Mountbatten Centre for International Studies and the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute.

Tuesday 6 October 2009

Opportunity: Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellowships, c/d 6 Oct 2009

Each year the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust aims to award 100 Travelling Fellowships to British citizens. Each Fellow receives a grant to cover return and internal travel, daily living and travel insurance within the countries visited. Categories for application include Business & Finance and Science, Engineering & Enterprise. For further information and to apply, visit the Trust's website. Closing date 6 October 2009.

Saturday 3 October 2009

R&D Society news: David Fishlock, 1932 - 2009

The R&D Society was saddened to learn of the death on Friday 18 September 2009 of David Fishlock, a longstanding R&D Society member and former editor and valued contributor to the R&D Society newsletter. He was well regarded as a science and technology writer, with an influential career including being technology journalist for New Scientist, science correspondent for the Financial Times and founder of R&D Efficiency. Obituaries have been published in the Times and the Financial Times.

Members may wish to note that Scott Keir, the R&D Society administrator has details of David Fishlock's funeral and an address for flowers.