Priority Projects

Criteria for assessment

  • Is the project an institutional response to a call/funding body, where the PI/Lead/Director will be the DVC/Senior University Officer or similar?
  • Does the project involve an RC cross-council or combined activity grant (i.e. EPSRC KTA, ESRC CBC, ESRC DTC, etc)?
  • Does it involve a high level of complexity in the bid required to meet the call/programme objectives, as well as being cross-school, inter-institution or containing a number of external partners?
  • Does it involve ethical, political or reputational risk with regards to the content of the project, partners or sponsor involved?
  • Does the project require significant internal investment from the University (over £100k)?
  • Is the project going to be of a total value greater than £3 million?

Current Priority Projects

For more details about any of these projects, please follow the title links or contact the RKT Manager lead listed. Further contact details can be found here.

 Project Title  Description RKT lead 
AHRC Block Grant Partnership An award of 119 postgraduate fully funded PGR and PGT studentships over 5 years from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. These awards will be spread across 3 Colleges: Humanities, Life Sciences, and Social Sciences and International Studies Michael Wykes
AHRC KE Hub for the Creative Economy AHRC KE Hubs present a unique opportunity for Research Organisations already working in strategic partnerships with creative businesses and cultural organisations to strengthen and diversify their collaborative research activities, build new partnerships in the creative economy and increase the number of arts and humanities researchers actively engaged in research-based knowledge exchange. Andy Richards
ALTernative MAterials for REmanufacturing (ALTMARE)
 The University, working with key partners, proposes to create a Business Technology Centre (BTC) to support SW manufacturing companies with in-house remanufacturing, waste minimization and use of alternative materials  and recycling.
 Dawn Scott
BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership Proposal
 The BBSRC has proposed a new funding model for doctoral students in the form of doctoral training partnerships. The BBSRC has issued a call for proposals in which institutions are invited to submit DTP proposals which meet the BBSRC’s funding criteria.
 Michael Wykes
Centre for Additive Layer Manufacturing (CALM) The Centre for Additive Layer Manufacturing (CALM) - Business Technology Centre bid to the SW Regional Development Agency is worth £2.5M over 3 years. The bid is in partnership with EADS UK Ltd and will deliver a service to regional SMEs in the manufacturing sector, wishing to take advantage of this light-weight, rapid, energy efficient & minimal waste technology in their businesses. The project will involve the refurbishment and creation of facilities for business interaction in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences as well as securing a strategic director and commercial director for the centre to work alongside University and EADS R&D staff working with business.The bid is due for appraisal mid-March, with a decision expected in the early summer 2010. Lee Bridger
Centre for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Technology (CCliMATe)
 Centre to provide the tools and support to enable businesses to adapt to and mitigate against climate change.
 Dawn Scott
Environmental and Sustainability Institute (ESI) The ESI will concentrate on the impact of environmental change on the natural world and society.  Our plans for the ESI involve drawing together existing research groups with new staff in a new building that will be physically designed to facilitate interdisciplinary working, as well as providing state of the art facilities for academic staff and research students. Jim Grant
EPSRC KTA - bid with Qinetiq (Arkiris) The brilliance of butterfly wings has inspired a £3.2m, three-year research project that promises to deliver innovation in the fields of security, energy and the environment. Lee Bridger
ESRC Doctoral Training Centre A bid for 5 years worth of fully funded doctoral studentships from the Economic and Social Research Council, in collaboration with the Universities of Bristol and Bath Michael Wykes
ESF CUC
 The overall aims of the CUC ESF Research Programme are twofold:
1. To support the expansion of opportunities for individuals to access and undertake Level 5 training and research in Cornwall, linked to the Cornish Economy. 
2. To maximise the benefit of the research programme to the Cornish Economy by developing a research programme that supports the development of a Knowledge Economy and facilitates the transfer of knowledge, skills and expertise.
 Jim Grant
ESF CUC 2 The CUC Research Collaboration Group has co-ordinated this proposal; CUC partners have reached outline agreement for phase II of the CUC Research Programme as follows :
• The total value is £6m, of which £4.5m is ESF
• 40 collaborative PhDs (2 CUC partners and a Cornwall based business) will be delivered
• 240 masters level ‘starters’, of which 144 will complete full qualifications (‘completers’) will be delivered
• A complementary collaborative Research Development Legacy programme
 Jim Grant
ESRC Centre for the Study of Risk and Ambiguity
 In many human activities uncertainty plays a key role in shaping outcomes. The current global economic crisis, threats from terrorism, effects of introducing new technologies, and hazards associated with pollution are just a few examples. In line with ESRC’s strategic priorities, it is imperative to enhance our understanding of how decision-makers perceive these uncertainties, process new information and make decisions.
 Irma Pasukeviciute
Exeter Science Park
 http://www.exetersciencepark.co.uk/
 Michelle Hale
Health Innovation and Education Clusters (HIEC) The HIEC will promote the uptake and diffusion of innovation into healthcare, to measure the improvement in quality of outcome achieved, and to ensure the development of a workforce that is actively engaged in innovation.  The South West HIEC will be partnerships between NHS organisations, the higher education sector, industry and other public and private sector organisations Andy Richards
Peninsula Research Institute for Marine Renewable Energy PRIMaRE A response from the Universities of Exeter and Plymouth to the challenges facing businesses involved in marine renewable energy and in support of Wave Hub, the South West of England's £42 million development centre for testing of wave energy device arrays. Jim Grant
RCUK Public Engagement Catalysts
 This is likely to follow on from a number of AHRC Connected Communities pilot projects that Exeter has had funded plus the recent discussions that we have been having re: the Cross Council Connected Communities scheme.
 Paul Woolnough
The Exeter Science Exchange: Trading ideas to promote multi-disciplinary collaboration The Exeter Science Exchange answers the EPSRC's call for projects that support the development of multidisciplinary projects breaking down institutional boundaries to collaboration. The project embraces academics from science, the social sciences and the arts within a framework and environment where they can investigate new areas of collaboration. It also brings us together with two external partners, IBM and SWRDA who will participate on user groups. Jim Grant
Technology Strategy Board call for Expressions of Interest for an Offshore renewable Energy Technology Innovation Centre (ORE TIC)
 Preparation of a 4 page EoI outlining Exeter's view on what the TSB strategy for the creation of an ORE TIC and the provision of information on capabiluity and facilities that could be made available for research initiated by the TIC.
 Jim Grant
Trucial Oman Scouts
 The TOS Project offers to preserve and celebrate the memory and accomplishments of the soldiers who served the UAE before independence: the men of the Trucial Oman Scouts and its it offshoots, the Abu Dhabi Defence Force (1965–76), the Dubai Police (1956¬–), the Dubai Defence Force (1971–6), the Sharjah National Guard (1971–6), and the Ras al-Khaimah Mobile Force (1971–6).  It seeks to do this by recording the oral testimonies of these men, creating a digital archive of photographs and documents, creating museum displays throughout the UAE, supporting reunions and related events, publishing histories and documentaries about these forces, and establishing a PhD scholarship to encourage Emiraties and others to study the military history of the UAE.
 Paul Woolnough