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Nicola Telfer (Project Manager)
I am Project Manager for AMM, which is an initiative to encourage cross-disciplinary discovery research within the area of advanced materials in medicine, to meet clinically unmet needs. I also Project Manage the Chistabel Pankhurst Instiute for Health Technology Research and Innovation, which focusses on wider themes: advanced materials, digital health and AI, with a focus on translation into Industry and the NHS.
My aim is to support all AMM activity. Please email me if you would like:
- to submit a member spotlight in this Newsletter, with any news to share (such as secured funding, your research, an upcoming event, your role...)
- match-making with a clinician, or researcher within another discpline/faculty
- to know which events and workshops we are planning (they will be included in the relevant Newsletter once advertised)
- to become a member/get involved with AMM or the Pankhurst Institute and recieve relevant communications
- to submit a funding application in the remit of AMM or Pankhurst
- a review of your funding application, or mock interview, if in the remit of AMM or Pankhurst
- to announce your event/research/award/publication through the AMM website, newsletter or Twitter.
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EPSRC Healthcare Tech Projects Awarded
EPSRC has announced details of 20 healthcare technologies projects which have been awarded, funded with an investment of £30.8 million. Four projects were co-funded with the Medical Research Council (MRC).
Manchester led a Sandpit award (Andy Weightman £400k), a Healthcare Impact Partnership award (Goran Nenadic £750k) and a Network Plus award (Peter Gardner £800k), and we have involvement in a further Sandpit award led by Heriot-Watt.
Find more information about the Manchester-led awards here.
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BBSRC DTP/CASE PhD scheme
The call for proposals under the BBSRC DTP & CASE scheme is now live. Proposals must be submitted to the FBMH Doctoral Academy by 5 pm on Monday 13 September 2021. Further information including criteria, application and timeframe can be found in the documents below.
Call documents for download:
If you are interested in collaborations between the University of Melbourne (UMelb) and University of Toronto (UoT) and would like help in identifying a collaborator, please complete the BBSRC DTP Research Collaboration Interest Form and return to Tasleem Hanif, no later than Monday 12 July 2021. We will send this collated information to UMelb and UoT to help with some initial ‘matching’ of supervisors across both institutions. You may then be approached by potential collaborators and still have sufficient time to prepare a project proposal.
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MCRC-CRUK Manchester Centre PhD Scheme 2021-22: now open to supervisor applications
There is an earlier application deadline date this year of Monday 23 August 2021 to enable projects that are successful at review to be promoted as widely as possible. If you wish to make an application, please do not exceed the page or word limits, as specified in the guidelines or your form will be returned for revisions. Click here to access the Research Degree Proposal (RDP) form. If you have any questions, please get in touch with Georgina Binnie from MRC.
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KTN: A transformative roadmap for neurotechnology in the UK
A new report, published today by KTN, aims to show the path towards scaling up the UK’s development and manufacture of breakthrough technologies; creating innovations which can alleviate pain and symptoms of patients with brain injury, stroke, chronic disease, Parkinson’s and depression to name a few. The report also highlights several non-medical application opportunities from the gaming sector to education and the military.
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BBSRC 2021 Call for Expressions of Interest to Join the Pool of Experts, Committee E and Follow on Fund Committee
BBSRC are seeking individuals who have expertise to provide credible opinion of the merit of proposals for funding submitted to BBSRC. Appointments will be made by UKRI-BBSRC’s Appointments Board based on individual knowledge and experience, and the need for expertise in particular research and innovation areas. As part of this programme they also aspire to better reflect the diversity and experience across the breadth of the bioscience community spanning academia, industry and policy.
Contacts If you have any questions, please contact Jane Hammond or Geoffrey Maycock in the Appointments Board Secretariat.
Deadline: Thurs 22 July 2021
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Drop by drop - single-cell microfluidic screens for microbiome research
Asst. Prof. Tobias Wenzel completed his PhD in Physics at the University of Cambridge in 2017 followed by a postdoc at the CEB, Cambridge, and a Marie Curie Fellowship at the EMBL, Heidelberg DE, before accepting a tenure track position at the Institute for Biological and Medical Engineering, UC, in Santiago, Chile in 2020. In his research, he has bridged physics and nanotechnology with the life sciences in a number of quite different projects ranging from biophotonic structures in nature, to bio-photovoltaic cells with cyanobacteria, to single-cell genomics methods for the gut microbiome. As a core strategy in his new lab, Tobias is developing workflows and instrumentation as Open Source Hardware, for maximum flexibility of set-ups and so that labs around the world can reproduce and build-on his research. He will tell us about his development of new high-throughput single-cell methods with microfluidic droplets, and how to do so with open science.
Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/98765806487
When: 14 July, 3pm
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UoM AMR Network Launch
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health crisis. We urgently need greater understanding of the factors driving the emergence and persistence of AMR, and require new treatment options against many multidrug resistant infections.
The diverse research community at the University of Manchester—spanning all three faculties, Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, The Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, and multiple Greater Manchester NHS Trusts—is well-placed to work together to tackle the global challenge of rising AMR.
Join us to hear about our revised strategy for AMR research, recent highlights, and the exciting plans of some of our externally-funded research fellows.
When: 15 July, 2 - 4pm
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Colloids 2021
The Royal Society of Chemistry's Colloid and Interface Science Group and the SCI's Colloid and Surface Chemistry Group jointly present this year's multi-day UK Colloids event. Our flagship event has just been postponed to July 2023, so this year's event will be entirely online.
It’s colloids and surface science, but it touches on a lot of the topics relevant to AMM, particularly the following sessions:
Session 5: “Rheology and Gels”
Session 7: Rideal award lecture and panel discussion with Colin Bain
When: 19 July, 9.30 - 21st July, 16.30
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AMM/ACED/MCRC: Director's Lecture with Professor Shana Kelley
MCRC Director’s Lecture with Professor Shana Kelley, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chemistry, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, in collaboration with ACED in Manchester and Advanced Materials at Manchester (AMM): "Rare Cell Profiling Platforms for Oncology: Therapeutic Discovery and Patient Monitoring"
The analysis of heterogeneous ensembles of rare cells requires single-cell resolution to allow phenotypic and genotypic information to be collected accurately. In this talk, Professor Kelley discusses developing a new approach for high-throughput cell sorting and profiling, Magnetic Ranking Cytometry, that uses the loading of individual cells with functionalized magnetic nanoparticles as a means to report on biomarker expression at the single cell level. Professor Kelley's team have recently used this approach to perform high-throughput, phenotypic CRISPR screens at the whole genome level (Nature Biomedical Engineering, 2019) and are now using this platform as a tool for therapeutic target discovery. This platform also enables the development of high-precision cell-based therapies.
When: 22 July 2021
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Royce relaunches equipment access schemes
The Henry Royce Institute has relaunched its equipment access schemes for both researchers and students based at UK universities to support access to state-of-the-art materials science and engineering equipment.
Royce’s equipment access schemes provide funding to utilise equipment and learn new techniques to support a single package of work for research activity.
Applicants can identify a specific piece of equipment they require or discuss what techniques might work best for their research with our experienced Research and Facilities Managers.
Apply to the researcher equipment access scheme here.
Apply to the student equipment access scheme here.
Applications must be submitted by 9 July 2021.
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EPSRC: EPSRC postdoctoral fellowship
Apply for a fellowship focusing on either:
- energy
- mathematical sciences.
Closing date: Open call with no deadlne.
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EPSRC: Open Fellowships scheme
The aim of the new EPSRC fellowships scheme is to provide flexibility and freedom to enable the best researchers to deliver outstanding research; develop their careers; change research culture. The guidance document contains details of the priority areas, assessment criteria and applications process in order that applicants can start working on their applications in advance of the scheme formally opening for applications.
Open Fellowships are for up to 5 years duration and for all career stages beyond postdoctoral level and include researchers from close to their first academic appointment to those with vast amounts of experience. Open Fellowships are open across the whole of EPSRC’s remit.
EPSRC will also allow fellowships over shorter periods eg spend between 50% and 100% of time on a fellowship. This means you can hold your EPSRC fellowship part‐time as well, at a minimal level of 50%.
Closing date: There are no specific closing dates but the guidance document suggests cut off dates for submission in order to be ready for panel dates.
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BHF: Advanced Training Awards
To provide postdoctoral researchers within one to three years of submitting a PhD with an opportunity to re-train and gain additional expertise in an established research institution in the UK.
Candidates must be moving into a different field of science (e.g. from cell biology to bioinformatics or entering cardiovascular science from a different discipline). Apply within 1 to 3 years of submitting a PhD.
Closing date: There are no closing dates.
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Funding Opportunities
Please let us know if you are planning to apply for starter or consolidator grants.
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Wellcome ISSF: Consortia in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
The University holds a Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund (ISSF) to support a portfolio of research activities that harmonise with our research strategy, provides added value to our research activities and fit under the Wellcome research funding remit. We are now in the third phase of this funding, having held awards for the past 10 years. A proportion of ISSF funds to date have been spent on awards fostering cross-Faculty interdisciplinary biomedical research between FBMH, FHums (e.g. social sciences) and FSE (e.g. mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, materials science, computational sciences).
We are now opening a new call to fund 1 or 2 research consortia. The purpose of these awards is to pump-prime new activity that promotes a more diverse, fair and inclusive research community and increases our understanding and ability to address Equality, Diversity and Inclusion issues in research practice and culture. . Applications can focus on any aspect of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion within the research community, but applications that use innovative methodologies, explore the underlying mechanisms (socio economic implication / systemic barriers) and will lead to solutions that go beyond sector best practice are very welcome. Applications can come from across all three UoM Faculties; cross faculty proposals from diverse researchers with distinct and complementary skills are encouraged.
Full details of the call can be found in the call document. A costing template can be found here.
To ensure that proposal fits the remit for the call, please contact Dr Rachel Cowen to discuss your plans if you are considering a submission.
Deadline: 3pm, Thursday 15th July 2021
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EPSRC: Digital technologies for health and care
Develop research ideas for novel digital technologies to monitor, diagnose and treat the population remotely. You can be from any research area. You must be eligible for EPSRC research grant funding.
The first stage of the process is a ‘sandpit’ event. In this three-day online event you will work with other researchers to develop ideas for proposals.
During the event, they'll be looking for projects that:
- reduce the time that the public spends engaged with the traditional healthcare delivery system
- improve health outcomes
- enable better community-based or home-based healthcare delivery.
They will provide up to £1.5 million to fund research projects arising from the sandpit event.
Deadline: 21 July 2021
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UKRI: Developing engineering biology breakthrough ideas
Apply for funding to develop breakthrough ideas in engineering biology. Your project must focus on one of the following themes from the National Engineering Biology Programme (NEBP):
- bioinspired design
- novel materials
- bioengineered cells and systems.
You must be of lecturer level or above and based at an eligible research organisation. You do not need previous experience in engineering biology. You may be an early career researcher or from another discipline. Your project’s full economic cost can be up to £125,000. We will fund 80% of the full economic cost.
Projects can be up to 12 months. You must begin your project no later than 1 November 2021.
Deadline: 28 July 2021
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MRC: Multimodal research across scales to understand human disease
MRC has launched a new initiative which will pump-prime multimodal research across scales to improve understanding of human disease.
The initiative will catalyse the development of new research collaborations that connect two or more groups with expertise in different and complementary scales and modalities for the first time. This should open up new lines of enquiry at the interface of biomedical disciplines that lead to radically new understanding of the mechanisms of human disease. Applications may involve integrating research approaches and data reaching across:
• scales - from molecules to cells, tissues, organs, physiological systems, the whole organisms, and population-based information
• modalities – including structural analysis, cell/tissue/organism imaging, ‘omics’, functional read-outs, exposure
• quantitative analysis - including mathematical modelling, machine learning or broader AI approaches and iteration between modelling and experimentation
The initiative focusses on human disease and studies may be conducted in humans, use human cells, samples or data, or creative approaches to human models.
The total fund available is £5 million and we anticipate funding up to five collaborative projects over a period of up to three years.
The initiative will open for outline applications at the end of May / beginning of June with a deadline for submission of outline proposals on 6th August. Please see the UKRI Funding Finder for further information.
If you have any questions, please email multimodal@ukri.org
Deadline: 16:00 on 6 August 2021.
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Innovate UK/MRC: Biomedical catalyst 2021 - early and late stage awards
Note: these projects must be led by a UK-registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), but can have academic organisation participating.
InnovateUK has a budget of up to £18 million and project total eligible costs must be between £250,000 and £4 million. Projects will start from 1 April 2022 and last between 12 months and 36 months
Call aims to develop innovative healthcare products, technologies, and processes, including but not limited to:
* disease prevention and proactive management of health and chronic conditions
* earlier and better detection and diagnosis of disease, leading to better patient outcomes
* tailored treatments that either change the underlying disease or offer potential cures
This competition combines the early and late-stage strands of the Biomedical Catalyst.
Early-stage award The aim of the early-stage award is to create a data package that is sufficient to support the testing of your product or process in a clinical setting or other relevant environment. Relevant projects will have already been validated in a laboratory or relevant setting. At the end of the project, the technology will be ready to be demonstrated in a relevant environment.
Late-stage award The late-stage award is designed to test a well-developed concept and show its effectiveness in a relevant environment. Projects are expected to build on prior credible research on a product prototype or process. This is likely to have included a demonstration or validation in an appropriate model system
Deadline: 26 August 2021, 11am
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BBSRC/NSF joint funding call - opportunity to collaborate with US researchers
BBSRC and the US's NSF have launched a joint funding. Projects must be in one of the following areas:
• biological informatics
• microbes and the host immune system
• quantum biology
• synthetic cell
Proposals must address the priorities of both BBSRC and NSF Directorate of Biological Sciences (NSF/BIO). You must also provide a clear rationale for the need for a US-UK collaboration.
Timeline:
30 June 2021 Intention to submit opening date
22 September 2021 Intention to submit closing date
tbc October 2021 Full stage opening date
tbc January 2022 Full stage closing date
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Sarcoma UK will soon be launching two funding calls for 2021
The research programme funds high quality research to understand more about sarcoma, find new treatments and ultimately identify a cure for these cancers. In 2021, they will be running two grant rounds:
• Open Grant Round
They invite applications across all areas of sarcoma, including laboratory and clinical research, and for PhD studentships.
• Genomics Research Programme
They invite applications that further knowledge into sarcoma genomics with funding available to support one research project. They encourage applications that build on, or link in with, work previously funded by Sarcoma UK as part of this funding stream.
For the first time, they will be incorporating a lay review of all applications into our funding process. Once the rounds open, they will share the relevant application forms and guidance for applicants.
Anyone wishing to discuss a potential project proposal should contact their Director of Research, Policy and Support, Sorrel Bickley (sorrel.bickley@sarcoma.org.uk) for an initial discussion around strategic fit.
Get in touch with them at research@sarcoma.org.uk if you have any questions or queries.
Both calls close: 3pm, Thursday 30th September 2021
Final decisions on awards: March 2022
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EPSRC: Healthcare technologies investigator-led grant
Healthcare technologies investigator-led research grants are for researchers at UK higher education institutions, research council institutes, UKRI-approved independent research organisations and NHS bodies. Collaboration with relevant healthcare professionals, other researchers, industry, the public sector and other relevant partners are highly encouraged.
EPSRC are looking for researchers in engineering, physical sciences, information and communications technologies (ICT) and mathematical sciences who want to apply their expertise to healthcare challenges. Projects can range in size from small short-term grants to multi-million-pound research programmes lasting several years. There is no limit on the size of the grant or length of the project.
Deadline: Open - no closing date
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EPSRC: Pre-announcement: business and academia prosperity partnership
Businesses can apply for funding to support an established research partnership with academic institutions. Partnership programmes must:
- address EPSRC’s delivery plan priorities, particularly for delivering economic and social prosperity
- be business led, but co-created and co-delivered between the industrial and academic partners
- support fundamental research with a technology readiness level between one to three.
This co-investment opportunity is part of the EPSRC prosperity partnership scheme.
EPSRC will match the funding invested by the lead business in the partnership. This will be at 80% full economic cost.
Opening date: To be confirmed between July to September 2021
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Please contact amm@manchester.ac.uk if you have any content you would like us to include in upcoming Newsletters.
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