Interdisciplinary research pump-priming funds 2023-2024

First call for proposals

Aim and Scope

In line with its mission to support, promote and undertake interdisciplinary research focused on digital priority challenges, The Sir Peter Rigby Digital Futures Institute is launching this call for proposals with a view to pump-priming pilot research projects and scoping work including, but not limited to:

  • Surveying the state of the art in a relevant interdisciplinary field.
  • Running preliminary experiments with the aim of producing indicative results and making initial assessments.
  • Conducting feasibility study addressing priority challenges of significant socioeconomic impact.
  • Developing multidisciplinary research ideas, concepts and methodologies with the potential of attracting significant external funding from either EU, UKRI, industry or other funding sources.
  • Setting up consortia with view of bidding for significant external funding, e.g. UKRI, Innovate UK, Horizon Europe.

The aim is to galvanise the generation of interdisciplinary research proposals that revolve around the “challenge-led research for transformative impact” strategic aim of Aston strategy 2030, and align with the funding priorities of national funding bodies – including UKRI cross-council pilot scheme – as well as EU Horizon Europe.

The priority challenges that this call is focusing on are:

  • Digital health (e-health) technologies, platforms & applications
  • Bioinformatics and remote personalised healthcare, telesurgery
  • Innovative Data Technologies: Data analytics, mining, categorisation, classification, profiling etc.
  • Big data and data analytics
  • AI, Robotics and Autonomous Systems
  • XR/VR and storytelling, MR/AR and digital multimodal content/multimedia creation
  • Multimodal interfaces and multi-sensory data analysis/fusion
  • Metaverse content creation, services, applications and platforms
  • Machine Learning and application to specific sectors e.g. education, health, manufacturing, etc.
  • Games, gamification and immersive experiences
  • Modelling, simulation & digital twins
  • Smart Technologies, smart manufacturing and quality engineering
  • Advanced Ethical AI practices and digital inclusion
  • Cybersecurity: Services, platforms, management and technologies

The scope of the call is purposely designed to be wide-ranging within the digital sphere in order to enable the engagement of teams from across the 3 Aston colleges and start developing a truly interdisciplinary challenge-focused research culture at Aston addressing “digital” priority challenges.

The funding aims to support teams with setting up consortia where Aston is the lead partner; however, attempts to form consortia with committed lead partners where Aston is a key player will also be considered under this call. Projects should typically be for a duration of 3 months but proposals with a longer duration, if properly justified in the work plan, will also be considered.

The asking budget of each project should not typically exceed £3,000; however, proposals seeking larger budgets will be considered if proper justification is provided as to how the proposed work plan is envisaged to lead to the desired outcome, i.e. the preparation of a compelling external grant application.

The funding should offer successful teams the possibility to engage doctoral researchers in the project – while conforming to UKVI restrictions on employment of Tier-4 students - in order to carry out the relevant tasks of the work plan.

Who is eligible to apply?

Any Aston employee who is eligible to submit R&KE grant applications in a PI capacity.

Format of proposals

The submitted bid should consist of the following sections:

  • Clearly stated project objectives outlining the level of integration of multiple disciplines.
  • Work plan featuring the key milestones and deliverables and the proposed methodology to deliver on the stated objectives. This should include a Gantt chart showing the milestones and deliverables against the projected timescales.
  • Clear articulation of how the proposed work plan leads to meeting the final objectives of preparing and submitting a credible high-quality grant application.
  • Identified partner(s), if any, clearly setting out the type of skills they bring in and how these skills complement the in-house expertise, as well as their prospective role(s) in the larger grant application etc.
  • Costing and justification of resources.
Evaluation criteria
  • Interdisciplinarity of the research concept, i.e. degree of integration of various disciplines.
  • Relevance of the project scope to the digital priority challenges outlined in the call.
  • Project objectives and their relevance to identified funding opportunity(ies), e.g. UKRI, Innovate UK and Horizon Europe calls.
  • Evidence of external partnership leading to a complementary consortium makeup.
  • Work plan and schedule of activities showing a concrete evidence as to how the project deliverables map onto and support the preparation of the external grant application.
  • Budgetary planning and spending.
Eligible costs
  • Man-effort of doctoral researchers (maximum of 20 hours per DR per week).
  • Man-effort of “existing” research personnel on fixed-term employment contract (e.g. part-time RA/RF) providing a clear distinction is made between their contribution to the project funded under this call and their contribution to the project they are employed on.
  • Consumables directly linked to the work plan tasks and activities.
  • Travel that is directly aligned to the project objectives.

Note: Academic (PI/CoI) staff committed involvement in the project activities is certainly expected but will not be funded under this call.

Ineligible costs
  • Academic and admin staff time.
  • Fixed-term research contract personnel (e.g. RA’s, post-doctoral Research Fellows, etc.) specifically appointed to carry out the project tasks.
  • Funding of an external party in any form, e.g. consultancy, research man-effort, talent outsourcing, subcontracting, etc.
  • Items of equipment.
How can project expenses be claimed?
  1. Doctoral Researchers: Employing doctoral researchers should be done through via Christine Campbell quoting the Aston Digital Futures Institute on the advertised position(s).
  2. Fixed-term contract researchers: Appropriate Time sheets should be submitted to the PI’s college research office quoting the Aston Digital Futures Institute.
  3. Travel: Booking travel and external venues should be done with Click Travel using the Aston University travel booking system and quoting the Aston Digital Futures Institute on the project travel costs approved. View information on booking travel.
  4. Consumables: Staff expenses can be claimed and purchase orders raised via quoting the Aston Digital Futures Institute on approved project consumables. For information on claiming staff expenses, you can check out the relevant HR information. For claiming your eligible project expenses, please contact Ranjit Judge.
Proposal submission deadline?

Monday 11 December 2023 at 17:00

How to submit proposals?

All proposals featuring the key headings identified above should be sent in PDF format to Dr Emma Estevez, Research support team leader in EPS, by the prescribed submission deadline.

Post-project requirements

Successful projects will be announced in December 2023 with due commencement date of no later than the 2nd of January 2024. Funded projects will need to have completed their workplan, and associated spending, no later than the end of March 2024. Each funded project will be required to submit an end of project report within the month following their project completion date, outlining how the project has delivered on its pre-set objectives using the awarded budget.

Complete end of project reports should be sent to Dr Emma Estevez within the prescribed timescale, i.e. a maximum of one month following the project completion date.

Failing to submit the end of project report and take the necessary follow-up actions towards preparing the post-project grant application that the project team has committed to, will result in the PI and CoI’s being prohibited from obtaining future research institute funding.