UK Research and Innovation

So what's our new partnership with CSIRO all about? We want to accelerate and scale impact across the research and innovation ecosystems, provide access to technical expertise not found in each other’s countries and enable the sharing of resources, equipment and facilities to drive change and bring mutual benefit to both countries. And we're already getting started - with AquawatchUK, a rollout of an Australian initiative that provides updates and forecasts for water quality, and with the creation of the National Energy Analysis Centre Living Lab, a real-life energy laboratory in thousands of Australian homes, supported by Innovate UK and the Energy Systems Catapult The possibilities for advancements across the fields of science, research and technology are endless - we're excited to see what's next.

We're so excited to be partnering with CSIRO. By collaborating on key areas like earth observation and clean energy, we can deliver transformative solutions that tackle global challenges and enhance prosperity for both the UK and Australia. Read more on our website, or the link below 👇

We’re recruiting members for UKRI’s Infrastructure and Digital Infrastructure advisory committees: 🔹 Advisory Group for Digital Research Infrastructure (AGD) 🔹 Infrastructure Advisory Committee (IAC) The AGD shapes the future of Digital Research Infrastructure, providing strategic advice on investment portfolios, data infrastructure, large-scale computing, digital research infrastructure skills and more. We're looking for up to five members with understanding of and experience in using, planning, or delivering digital research infrastructure and awareness of current and emerging opportunities and challenges in digital research infrastructure. The IAC provides advice to UKRI's Executive Committee and Board on the prioritisation of projects for the pan-UKRI research and innovation infrastructure portfolio. We’re looking for one member with senior-level knowledge of research and innovation infrastructure planning or delivery, including issues such as environmental sustainability and trusted research. Ideal candidates will have a strategic vision, excellent communication skills, and a collaborative spirit. We particularly welcome applications from members of groups currently under-represented at senior levels in the research and innovation community. Closing date for applications is 9 August. More details: https://orlo.uk/n1xgn

As Chief Scientific Officer to Advanced Material Development Ltd, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow Izabela Jurewicz has learned a lot about the journey from research to product. We asked her what her advice would be for other researchers looking to scale up – here are her tips:   ➡ Make sure there’s a customer pull: confirm that the marketplace exists so that if a successful technology is developed, it has a definite route to market ➡ You can’t scale up without a robust supply chain: ensure your supply chain is well supported, as any end-customer will need assurance of ability to scale  ➡ Take a commercial view of production: be clear on the manufacturing process and its scaleability – laboratory work often struggles to adapt to mass production techniques. ➡ Have a clear end-to-end plan: define how a successful relationship with the end user will look through a well-structured memorandum of understanding that outlines clear steps of progress based on defined deliverables.   Research and innovation is at the heart of the UK’s future, where everyone can have the agency to build more prosperous, healthy and sustainable futures for themselves, their family and community, and for the world. Our Future Leaders Fellows scheme is helping to develop the next wave of world-class research and innovation leaders in academia and business. Izabela was the winner of the UKRI Future Leaders Fellows Research and Innovation Impact Award for 2024. Her innovation brings improvements to vaccine safety and a reduction of vaccine wastage by offering a novel inspired by nature vaccine vial monitors. Learn more about her work below - and search UKRI Future Leaders Fellows for more on the scheme and our incredible cohorts, or follow the links in the comments.

📢RESCHEDULED: UKCDR Annual Stakeholder Event 2024 UKCDR's Annual Stakeholder Event will now take place on 12 September 2024, 18:00 - 21:00. This is an in-person event taking place at the Royal Society, London. More than halfway to 2030, progress towards the SDGs has either halted or regressed. With 30% of targets seeing little to no progress, what comes next? Science, research and evidence are needed more than ever as a shared language for cooperation. As crises converge, we require effective and equitable solutions. While research for development remains a tool of transformative potential, ODA budgets have shrunk in recent years, pulling into question the future of international development and the research that drives it. In this challenging fiscal context and in light of a changing UK political landscape, we must understand why research investment matters, and why now. Join the UKCDR team and our esteemed panel for an evening of informative, thought-provoking dialogue on why we need research investment to progress international development goals. Participants will hear from experts from across the research ecosystem and have the chance to engage them in the Q&A session. We'll also benefit from a networking session and research showcase, demonstrating the wide-reaching impact of research for development across disciplines and geographies. This free event is open to policymakers, parliamentarians, researchers, students, international development professionals, and enthusiasts. Register today to join us! ➡️ https://bit.ly/3yCvp5q 👥Panel information - Moderator: Ehsan Masood – Bureau Chief for Editorials, Africa and the Middle East, Nature - Panelist: Dr Joanes Atela, Founder and Executive Director, Africa Research and Impact Network - Panelist: Professor Charlotte Watts – Chief Scientific Advisor, FCDO - Panelist: Dr Jaideep Gupte – Director of Research, Strategy and Innovation, Arts & Humanities Research Council - Panelist: Professor Melissa Leach – Executive Director, Cambridge Conservation Initiative and Interim Chair of the Strategic Coherence in ODA-funded Research Board

Episode three of our Switching Sectors series features Dame Jessica Corner, Executive Chair of Research England. She told us: "I have said yes to new challenges rather than no, and grasped the opportunity when there is a fork in the road choice to be made, even though it has been scary. I have always been glad I did." Watch her story of her career journey from nurse to academic in full below, and search '101 jobs Switching Sectors' on YouTube for the other films in the series.

Today we’re pleased to welcome 68 outstanding researchers and innovators to the Future Leaders Fellowship scheme.   This scheme supports universities and businesses to develop their most talented early career researchers and innovators, and to attract new people to their organisations, including from overseas. Our Chief Executive, Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, said:  “UKRI’s Future Leaders Fellowships provide researchers and innovators with long-term support and training to develop ambitious, transformative ideas. "The programme supports the research and innovation leaders of the future to transcend disciplinary and sector boundaries, bridging the gap between academia and business. "The fellows announced today demonstrate how these awards continue to drive excellence, and to shorten the distance from discovery to prosperity and public good.” Take a look at some of the projects below. A full list of the new Future Leaders Fellows can be found on our website. #UKRIFLF

We are investing £9.7m to tackle regional disparities across the UK. The funding will go to 17 projects aimed at ensuring everyone in the UK has a path to economic success and personal wellbeing, regardless of where they live. Professor Alison Park, head of UKRI’s Creating Opportunities and Improving Outcomes Strategic Theme, said: “Across the political spectrum, there is agreement that the regional disparities that exist in the UK do real social and economic damage. Policymakers and researchers have tried various ways of addressing those disparities, but we often don’t truly know how effective they are – or if there are better ways of achieving our goals.    “The projects announced today will help to fill this knowledge gap by evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions. That way, we can ensure policymakers focus their efforts on the best ways to improve lives and opportunities across every part of the UK.” Take a look at the projects below👇🏻

📣 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐬! We’re excited to launch the first funding calls for our two new programmes – Robot Dexterity and Precision Neurotechnologies. 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 🦾 + This programme aims to unlock a step change in robotic capabilities by funding advances in robotic hardware + advanced simulation. + Combining novel components with a new approach to design, we will release the bottlenecks in robotic dexterity and create more capable machines to help us with difficult + dangerous tasks. + If successful, these advances stand to make robotics much more useful than it is today, boosting productivity + prosperity and helping to ease the labour shortages of tomorrow. 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 🧠 + This programme will seek to develop next-gen tools that can interface with the human brain at the circuit level — across distributed brain regions and with cell type specificity.  + By uniting the frontiers of engineered biology and hardware, we want to prove it’s possible to build platform tech capable of tackling many of the devastating and complex brain disorders which affect individuals + communities around the world. + If successful, we’ll transform our understanding of what’s possible in neurotech, alleviate bottlenecks in existing therapies and move closer to a world in which personalised brain health care is available to everyone. Find out more about both programmes and how to apply here: https://lnkd.in/eZ8GZE-K

We were delighted to film at The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition last week 🎥 It was great to meet and speak to UKRI-funded researchers about how their work is helping to improve our lives. This included researchers from Lancaster University, the University of Oxford and Royal Holloway, University of London searching for Dark Matter; researchers at the University of Nottingham investigating how brain scanners could help us monitor mental workload, and the AtlantiS partnership led by The National Oceanography Centre that’s helping us better understand human impacts on our oceans. Thank you to all the exhibitors who took the time to speak with us. It was so exciting to experience first-hand some of the incredible science we're proud to support. …Now to create the content🙌 (it’s going to be hard to choose the best bits!) #BehindTheScenes #SummerScience