Royal Academy of Engineering is a charity delivering public benefit, a National Academy providing progressive leadership, and a Fellowship bringing together an unrivaled community of leaders from every part of engineering and technology.
They will grow talent by training, supporting, mentoring, and funding the most talented and creative researchers, innovators, and leaders from across the engineering profession – with an aim to help over 7,500 professionals to enhance their leadership skills.
They will develop skills for the future by identifying the challenges of an ever-changing world and developing the skills and ideas they need to build a resilient and diverse engineering profession. They have set themselves a target to work with over 500 engineering businesses and organizations to champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
The scheme is funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The 2023/4 call will be open for 17 weeks from 13 December 2022 to 11 April 2023. The total award request is £2.5 million over 10 years with an annual payment of £250,000 annually. The Academy reserve the right to amend the total funding amount.
In addition to covering employment and research costs for the Chair over a period of up to ten years, the award enables a sustained and strategic focus on advancing the technology to application.
Such awards require a powerful case to be made for the value of an extended long-term vision through the application of the technology. This should show the value of funding that provides sustained support for a world-leading researcher, ensuring continuity of their focus across other grants and contracts and removing any expectation of duties that do not support the technology program.
It is often the nature of an emerging technology that its potential is not widely appreciated until championed by a visionary individual who can set out clearly the opportunities it offers. Thus, this call is deliberately broad and open. They encourage applications that make a case for disruptive innovation in well-established areas or overlooked fields, as well as new emerging technologies.
Location:
United KingdomBenefits
In addition to the value of £2.5M over 10 years with an annual payment of £250,000pa, awardees will receive the following:
- Mentors, who are Fellows of the Academy, with the expertise of relevance to the program of research, to provide independent advice and guidance throughout the duration of the award.
- Networking and training opportunities with and through the Academy’s Fellowship and Events program.
- Support for Global Talent visa for applicants based outside the UK.
Eligibilities
- Applications with alternative dates will not be eligible.
- Applications are welcome from across a broad remit of engineering and technology, including areas currently considered basic science, but now requiring engineering ways of thinking to drive them towards application, and in areas where technologies are well-established but could be significantly improved by novel approaches. Applications must be centered on enabling and driving technological innovation. Therefore, proposals whose vision is primarily around scientific advances for their own sake are not appropriate to this scheme.
- Chairs in Emerging Technologies are professorial appointments. Applicants who haven’t been awarded a professorial title but have demonstrated research achievements such that they would be strongly considered for professorial promotion at present are eligible to apply. In supporting the submission, the university is understood to be affirming this. It is the Academy’s expectation that successful non-professorial awardees gain a Professorial title upon becoming a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technology.
- Evidence of proof of concept should already be established and a clear pathway to future impact described. Beyond this, they are not prescriptive about the Technology Readiness Level or similar assessment of innovation readiness expected of applications. However, they do require a clear ten-year research vision underpinning the proposal that will make a significant difference in how the emerging technology is taken forward and the consequent economic and social benefit to the UK.
Please visit their official website for more information about eligibility.
Eligible Regions: Open for All.Application Process
- All applications must be submitted via the Academy’s online Grant Management System.
- Application form (you must first register with the system and create a profile).
- Applicants must get approval and support for their proposal from their Dean/Pro-Vice-Chancellor (or similar), and the research grants office prior to submitting an application. They advise consulting them as soon as possible about a potential application.
- Before applying please read the 2023/4 guidance notes carefully. Applicants are strongly advised to refer to these guidance notes when completing their application.
- Please note: re-submissions are permitted. Please clearly articulate modifications and improvements that have been made, considering the review panel feedback.
Application Deadline: April 11, 2023
Application ClosedOfficial link
