Advanced Materials in Medicine (AMM)
Latest highlights including events, announcements, fellowships and funding opportunities.
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Advanced Materials in Medicine (AMM) Early Career Researcher Funding Scheme
The aim of the scheme is to fund projects which will support and strengthen a fellowship application. 4 - 5 awards of up to £5,000 will be awarded. The awards will be available in December 2020 and must be spent before 31st July 2021.
The application form and applicant guidelines can be found here. Before applying, please let us know of your intent to apply.
Application deadline: 5pm 20 November 2020
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Research Webinars – Call for Ideas
An Ideas Forum webinar should aim to promote collaborations both across the FSE disciplines and outside the Faculty, and would ideally include some interactive activities. Ideas from early-career staff are particularly welcome.
You may wish to:
• Explain your research and explore how others in the Faculty could work with you.
• Share details of our unique facilities and how they are used.
• Discuss a specific call for proposals that you wish to respond to.
• Present a developing idea to the research community for feedback.
• Gather colleagues together to discuss how our research at the University of Manchester can contribute to rebuilding our society and our economy post-Covid19.
• Discuss thoughts on emerging areas of research where we need to act together as a Faculty
To submit your idea for consideration please complete a short form here.
If anyone is interested to participate or give a webinar (even when there is no call for research webinars), they can still contact any of the forum members. They will be open to discuss the ideas.
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Autumn IBIN Meeting
Register for the next IBIN meeting which will take place via Zoom.
Nov 9th 2-4pm: Bioimaging flash talks highlighting current challenges and solutions.
Nov 11th 2-4pm: Discussions of challenges and solutions. An opportunity to build projects and to apply for up to £25k of funding.
The full agenda can be found here. Zoom invites will be sent out to attendees on the morning of the meetings. Registration is free but numbers are limited.
When: 2pm 9th & 11th November 2020
Where: Zoom (register here)
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Bioreactors and Growth Environments for Tissue Engineering Training Course
This interactive training course is spread across 3 days with flexibility for online attendance, targeted at postgraduate students (MSc and PhD) in industry and academia. See this flyer for more details and click here for the draft programme.
When: 16th, 17th and 20th November 2020
Where: Online and at Keele University
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BioFabrication: 3D printing - What is it and what can it do for you?
This webinar hosted by KTN in collaboration with Nottingham University aims to bring together industrial stakeholders from the materials, pharma and industrial biotechnology sectors, in order to identify opportunities and needs derived from Additive BioFabrication. See more details and register here.
When: 19th November 2020
Where: Online
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Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Biomedical Materials Inaugural Conference
The CDT students plan to showcase the exciting research they're carrying out with academics, clinicians and industry partners and are also delighted to host two international keynote speakers:
• Professor Mia Woodruff, Queensland University of Technology
• Professor Milica Radisic, University of Toronto
Please sign up to our event with this Eventbrite link. Conference programme to be sent upon registration. Any questions about the day please email: ABMCDT@manchester.ac.uk.
When: 9th December 2020, 10am - 3pm
Where: Online
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Manchester Regenerative Medicine Network (MaRMN) Seminar Series
Click here for the Autumn/Winter 2020 schedule and the link to join.
When: Every Friday at 1pm
Where: Zoom
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Cardiovascular Seminar Series
Click here for the current schedule which includes the links to join and links to add seminars to your calendar.
When: Every Thursday at 1pm
Where: Zoom
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TISSUE TALKS: Weekly Webinar Series hosted by Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic
Click here for the current schedule.
When: Every Wednesday at 3pm
Where: Zoom
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Student Equipment Access Scheme
The Henry Royce Institute for advanced materials is opening up facilities across the UK to support research students with access to state-of-the-art materials science and engineering equipment.
The Student Equipment Access Scheme (formerly the PhD Equipment Access Scheme) provides funding for research students to utilise equipment and learn new techniques to support a single package of work for their research.
Students 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.
Visit the Royce website here to find out more and apply.
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Royal Society: Wolfson Fellowship Programme 2020
This Fellowship has opened with a renewed focus on attracting top international talent. The re-focused programme now enables UK universities and research institutions to attract outstanding research leaders from overseas in two complementary ways:
1) A five-year Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship, which will focus entirely on recruitment, enabling UK institutions to enhance their offering with a £300,000 fellowship award to international research leaders wishing to relocate to the UK.
2) A new Royal Society Wolfson Visiting Fellowship strand, which will allow excellent international researchers a flexible sabbatical period, lasting for up to one year full-time (min of 3 months) or for up to two years part-time, at a UK university or research institution with an award of up to £125,000 to build and develop international collaborations and networks with the host UK university or research institution.
Application Deadline: 25 November 2020. Further rounds in early 2021.
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UKRI: Future Leaders Fellowships
This cross-UK Research and Innovation scheme supports early career researchers and innovators with outstanding potential in universities, UK registered businesses, and other research and user environments including research councils' institutes and laboratories.
The support will enable each fellow to tackle ambitious and challenging research and innovation and develop their own careers.
Please check with your Faculty RS team/RSM for internal sifting procedures.
Outline Proposal Deadline: 4pm 10 December 2020
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Leverhulme Trust: Early Career Fellowships 2021
In July the Trust announced increased funding for the 2021 Early Career Fellowships scheme in light of financial hardships currently facing Universities.
The ECR Fellowship scheme normally requires that institutions provide 50% of each fellows funding, however, for 2021 the Trust will be committing an additional £3.625 million to support an altered funding model. For the 2021 round only, the Trust will contribute 100% of each Fellow’s total salary costs in year one, up to a maximum of £50,000, and will then contribute 50% of the Fellow’s total salary costs, up to a maximum of £25,000, in years two and three, with the balance to be paid by the host institution.
Closing Date: 25 February 2021
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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%.
Open to applications: 30 November 2020
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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Open Post-Doc Research Fellow Position at Politecnico di Torino
Activity: Design of an injectable hydrogel for the release of agents in the regeneration of infarcted heart tissue by direct reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes:
✓ Preparation of the injectable hydrogel with biomimetic properties respect to the cardiac extracellular matrix.
✓ Chemical modification of the polymers used in the hydrogel as to improve crosslinking efficiency and/or biomimetic properties and physicochemical characterization of the modified products (e.g. analysis of the molecular weight of modified polymers, and their degree of functionalization).
✓ Physicochemical characterization of hydrogels (e.g. degradation / swelling tests; rheological analysis; injectability test; tube-inverting test).
✓ Evaluation of in vitro cell behavior: biocompatibility, cell adhesion, proliferation and migration.
✓ Loading of agents in the hydrogel and evaluation of release kinetics.
✓ In case of promising results, in collaboration with the project team, nanoparticles loaded with reprogramming agents (prepared by other team members) will be loaded into the hydrogel and their release kinetics evaluated.
Contract duration: initial 6 months, with possible extension of further 12 months.
Starting Date: 16 January 2021
Salary: Italian Post-Doc Research Contract (Doctorate title achieved)
Contact for more information: valeria.chiono@polito.it
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Health Innovation Manchester: Innovation Programme
Health Innovation Manchester is running a new Innovation Programme seeking innovations that have the potential to directly benefit the Greater Manchester and Cheshire East Healthcare system.
The priority area for the Innovation programme is “evaluating the remote management and/or diagnostics of post-acute (COVID-19) and/or chronically ill patients at home” There are 2 work streams associated with the programme:
• A Momentum Fund call
• A Health Accelerator programme
Funding of £300k is available across the two work streams to support appropriate proof of value (Accelerator) or evaluation (Momentum) activities.
All applicants should describe their project in the application and indicate which work stream programme they wish to apply for. However, it is at Health Innovation Manchester and the local healthcare system’s discretion which work stream programme is most suitable for your application.
Please note that the eligibility criteria is different for each call, however the application process is the same for both. Further details can be found in the link.
Please direct any questions directly to Arjun Sikand (arjun.sikand@healthinnovationmanchester.com) and/or Richard Deed (Richard.deed@healthinnovationmanchester.com).
Deadline for applications: 15 November 2020
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Organ-on-a-Chip Technologies Network: Pump Priming Project Funding
With a total budget of £187K, the final round of pump priming project funding is now available to Organ-on-a-Chip Technologies (OOACT) Network members. Membership is free and can be obtained by registering. Maximum funding per project: £30-40k (100% fEC*)
The primary goal of this pump priming funding scheme is leveraging additional funding to drive forward research in organ-on-a-chip technology and predictive in vitro models.
It is expected that applicants articulate a clear plan of how this pump priming funding will be used to support a specific grant application.
As with other Network funding, this call aims:
- To integrate research activity across traditional research disciplines - see the Technology Touching Lives (TTL) UKRI initiative
- To stimulate multidisciplinary collaborations between network members
Research scope may cover development, validation or use of organ-on-a chip and other in vitro models and microphysiological systems.
Information on how to apply can be found here.
Please let us know if you are planning to apply for this funding.
Deadline for project proposals: 4pm 16 November 2020
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Advanced Materials in Medicine (AMM): Early Career Researcher Funding Scheme
The aim of the AMM Early Career Researcher Funding Scheme is to fund projects which will support and strengthen a fellowship application. 4 - 5 awards of up to £5,000 will be awarded. The awards will be available in December 2020 and must be spent before 31st July 2021.
The application form and applicant guidelines can be found here. Before applying, please let us know of your intent to apply.
Application deadline: 5pm 20 November 2020
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Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA): Seedcorn Funding Call
MICRA is delighted to announce its Seedcorn award call for 2020-2021. This year's call includes joint awards from external partners, The Centre for Ageing Better and Care & Repair England, as well as Manchester China Institute. We are seeking applications for interdisciplinary research, that is clearly related to ageing; £6,000 is available per project.
A number of general awards will be made; in addition to these, they specifically encourage applications to one of our joint awards highlighting the following subjects: identifying connections between physical housing conditions and the impacts on older people’s physical and mental health; fulfilling work, healthy ageing, connected communities and safe and accessible housing; the care of people with dementia in care homes; issues of cognition and stroke in older people and their impact on quality of life; Ageing in China (and the UK).
The deadline for applications is 30 November 2020, with a requirement that funds are spent by 31 July 2021. Proposed activity must lead to at least one specific outcome such as a research proposal, a journal article or working manuscript. The commissioning panel will meet in December with the aim of communicating decisions by early January.
Application deadline: 30 November 2020
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IADR/AADR William J. Gies Award
The William J. Gies Award is given for the best paper published in the Journal of Dental Research during the preceding year. Nominations are made by individuals, by the Gies Award Committee, and by the Editor of the JDR. Most IADR/AADR awards are restricted to certain disciplines of research, but the JDR Gies Award is one of the few open to anyone who publishes in the Journal of Dental Research.
The Gies Award consists of a $1,000 monetary prize and a plaque which will be presented at either the Opening Ceremonies of the IADR/AADR/CADR General Session & Exhibition.IADR/AADR members are invited to send nominations for outstanding papers published in the JDR between July 2019 and June 2020.
Deadline: 15 January 2021
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UKRI: Innovation Scholars Secondments: Biomedical Sciences
UKRI invites applications for individuals wishing to spend up to 36 months (full or part time) on secondment.
Both the individuals and the proposals can come from any discipline. But either the seconding or receiving organisation must be a business within the biomedical sciences sector. It is expected that the secondment will start by Wednesday 30 June 2021.
At least one of the organisations involved must be a business undertaking biomedical sciences research and innovation, such as pharmaceutical, biotech, devices, biomedical engineering and/or diagnostics. The secondee must work on an activity that works towards solving challenges within the secondment (host) environment. Part of the secondment must be based in a facility or laboratory in the UK.
The seconding (submitting) organisation can apply for up to £300,000 grant per secondment. There is no minimum request for funding.
Deadline: 21 January 2021
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BBSRC: DTP CASE PhD Studentship
"The development of a new technology for measuring single-cell oxygen consumption."
Metabolism is a fundamental aspect of cellular life and an important biomarker for organismal health, disease and environmental exposure. Given that most vertebrates depend on aerobic metabolism for cellular ATP production, the measurement of oxygen consumption has become an invaluable tool for assessing metabolic function. However, to date commercially available technologies are only capable of measuring bulk oxygen consumption in large populations of cells, rather than single cells. This caveat greatly limits the diagnostic value of oxygen uptake measurements and reduces experimental control. Furthermore, multicellular preparations are inappropriate for dynamic cell types that engage in mechanical work, such as heart cells. For these reasons, there is great interest in developing a new system for measuring mitochondrial respiration in single cells.
This project brings together a diverse team of cellular physiologists, biochemists and electrochemists to develop a new microelectrode system for measuring single-cell respiration based on recent advances in scanning electrochemical microscopy. The system will be designed in the Department of Chemistry, and optimised in The Division of Cardiovascular Sciences, with a view to diagnosing metabolic dysfunction in heart disease. Once optimised, our industry partner Dr Andrew Allan at Cairn Research, and our biochemical consultant, Dr Javier Iglesias, will translate the academic design into a functional commercial prototype that can be used on standard laboratory microscopes. The student will be trained in a wide variety of cross-cutting research skills including; microelectrode fabrication, cell isolation, epifluorescent microscopy, product design and rapid prototyping.
For further information, please contact Dr Gina Galli, or to apply, please submit a formal application by using this link.
Deadline: 31 January 2021
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IADR Osteology Foundation New Investigator Award in Oral Tissue Regeneration
Funding research into all aspects of oral tissue regeneration is a core task of the Osteology Foundation. Applications will be accepted from new investigators for one competitive award of up to $75,000 provided to the recipient. Research topics falling within the scope of the award are:
- Hard and soft tissue biology: clinical aspects
- Novel bone and soft tissue substitute materials
- Local factors affecting oral tissue regeneration
- Systemic diseases with an impact on oral tissue regeneration
- Pharmacological aspects of oral tissue regeneration
- Inflammatory conditions, e.g. periodontitis or peri-implantitis
Deadline: 5 February 2021
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IADR GlaxoSmithKline Innovation in Oral Care Awards
As a leader in consumer oral care, GSK recognizes the need for pioneers to produce innovative technologies that can be used routinely by the public to maintain and improve oral health and quality of life. The Award(s) is intended to help investigators pursue innovative and novel research in oral care, above and beyond the bounds of traditional dental research.
Three competitive Award(s), of up to $50,000 each, will be provided to recipients to advance oral care programs directed toward the development of innovative and novel compounds, biomaterials or devices that can be used ultimately at the public health level. Examples of areas of interest could include, but not be limited to:
- inhibition or removal of biofilms etc. adhering to natural or artificial surfaces,
- modification of those surfaces to inhibit biofilms and other deposits, stains and odors,
- adhesives for removable prosthetic devices,
- inhibition of tooth surface loss and gingival recession, and amelioration of their effects, and
- counteracting the oral effects of dry mouth, systemic illness, hormonal disturbances or physiological aging.
The Award(s) will be provided in the form of an unrestricted research grant which carries no obligation to the recipient’s organization for licensure, patenting, or transfer confidential information, although GSK may discuss the possibility of future collaboration with some applicants.
Deadline: 5 February 2021
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EPSRC: Asthma Health Technology
You can apply for up to £750,000 to support research and development of technologies for diagnosis, monitoring and management tools for asthma. Projects should aim to transform asthma outcomes to prevent asthma attacks, and reduce emergency healthcare use and asthma deaths.
Multidisciplinary working is encouraged. Projects will be funded at 80% full economic cost (fEC) and can be up to 24 months in duration.
Deadline: 11 February 2021
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NIHR-BHF Cardiovascular Partnership: Covid-19 cardiovascular disease flagship projects
Approved projects will address key questions such as:
1. the nature and importance of cardiovascular complications in Covid-19 infection, and how they could be prevented
2. understanding why patients with heart and circulatory diseases are at greater risk of adverse outcomes
3. the short and longer-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic for people with heart and circulatory diseases
4. mechanistic insights into individual responses to the Covid-19 infection, in particular its effect on myocardial and vascular function.
Closing date: Open response mode (no deadline)
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Wellcome: Innovator Awards
These awards support researchers who are transforming great ideas into healthcare innovations that could have a significant impact on human health
Closing date: Open response mode (no deadline)
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UKRI GCRF/Newton Fund: Agile Response call to address COVID-19
Proposals are invited for short-term projects addressing and mitigating the health, social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak in Low and Middle Income Countries.
UKRI will support excellent proposals which meet at least one of the following:
• New research or innovation with a clear pathway to impact on policy or practice that has the potential (within the period of the award) to deliver a significant contribution to the understanding of, response to, and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in a developing country context.
• Supports the manufacture and/or wide scale adoption of an intervention with significant potential for impact in developing countries.
• Gathers critical data and resources quickly for future research use.
Closing date: Open response mode (no deadline)
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UKRI: Get funding for ideas that address COVID-19
Proposals are invited for short-term projects addressing and mitigating the health, social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak. UKRI will support excellent proposals up to 18 months duration which meet at least one of the following:
- new research or innovation with a clear impact pathway that has the potential (within the period of the grant) to deliver a significant contribution to the understanding of, and response to, the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts.
- supports the manufacture and/or wide scale adoption of an intervention with significant potential
- gathers critical data and resources quickly for future research use.
Closing date: Open response mode (no deadline)
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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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