School of CS newsletter

The Dean, Martin Schröder, has announced a series of meetings in individual schools instead of Faculty open meetings. He will visit the School at 2pm on 28th October 2015. The meeting will be in Kilburn room 2.19 and will include a 5 minute presentation by Martin, a 5 minute presentation by the School, a 35 minute question and answer session.

Congratulations to Jen Talbot and Mahdi Jelodari Mamaghani, two of our PhD students who were successful in securing an EPSRC Doctoral Prize: a one year fellowship immediately following PhD that is designed to help them to secure the next steps of an academic career. Competition was tough this year with only 11 of the 51 applicants securing the fellowship.

Please be aware that following a recent judgement by the European Court of Justice any contracts that rely on Safe Harbor are no longer valid. If you are aware of any such contracts please inform Jim or Karen. Any new contracts that involve the transfer of personal data to the US will have to be discussed with the Records Management Office (0161 275 8111 or Dataprotection@manchester.ac.uk)

As part of the celebrations of Ada Lovelace Day last week our summer student intern, Natalie Taylor, interviewed a number of academics and students to find out their thoughts about the challenges facing Women In Computer Science/STEM, what we can do to raise the profile of women in science, technology, engineering and maths and how to attract these subject areas to young children.

Thank you to all our interviewees, which included Dr Caroline Jay, Prof. Uli Sattler, Prof. Sophia Ananiadou, Prof. Danielle George, recent Computer Science and Maths graduate Sarah King and Osnat Katz from Robogals Manchester.

Stream the podcast

Download through itunes

or search “CS@Manchester podcast” in your preferred podcast app.

If you have any questions or suggestions for the podcast then please contact jez.lloyd@manchester.ac.uk

The latest edition of the newsletter contains up-to-date news on the successes of School of Computer Science researchers and some great examples of how research in the School is having impact across the sector and more widely with industry.

Hard copies are available outside KB2.7 or contact sarah.chatwin@manchester.ac.uk 

Event: 05 Nov 2015,  Ambassadors Bloomsbury Hotel
Registration:  h2020-cps-fof.eventbrite.co.uk

The KTN, with the UK NCP for ICT, is holding a briefing event for European funding competitions (worth 150M€) specifically:

• ICT-01-2016 – (20M€) -Cyber Physical Systems (CPS)
• ICT-02-2017 – (18.5M€) -Smart Systems Integration (SSI)
• ICT-04-2017 - (25.5M€) -Smart Anything Everywhere Initiative
• FoF-11-2016 - (53M€) -Digital Automation, Factories of the Future
• FoF-12-2017 - (33M€) -ICT Innovation for Manufacturing SMEs (I4MS)

The purpose of this event will be to:

• Present information on the range of European funding calls
• Learn from case studies of active projects in these areas
• Present practical aspects on 'How to do it'

There will be presentations from the European Commission, UK NCP for ICT, KTN, EEN and others. You will be able to get advice on applications and guidance on where applicants can go wrong. There will also be plenty of time to network and face-to-face discussions with the NCPs, KTN and EEN.

Closing date for Expressions of Interest: 23:59 22 Nov 2015
Event: 17-18 Feb 2016, Mercure Holland House Hotel, Bristol

EPSRC is holding a two-day workshop on Human-like computing: exploring the kind of research projects that would need to be put in place in order to work towards systems that can emulate human cognitive performance. The workshop will be multidisciplinary, bringing together researchers from varied domains: psychology to formal methods; social sciences to software engineering.

Places at the workshop are limited and participants will be selected on the basis of their responses to the questions on the Expressions of Interest form for the workshop.

Please note that the cost of accommodation and meals at the event will be paid for by EPSRC, but expenses for travelling and subsistence will not be covered by EPSRC.
Remember... the School has a fund to cover the cost of liaisons with funders if you feedback information. Contact robert.stevens@manchester.ac.uk for more details.

Please let caroline.jay@manchester.ac.uk know if you plan to attend.

Deadline: 12 Feb 2015

The £20M CRUK Grand Challenge awards aim to accelerate progress through multinational, interdisciplinary collaborations to tackle seven of the toughest challenges in cancer, detailed below.  We are encouraging novel applications from any discipline. 

The official Call 2015 Announcement will be published later in October: http://www.chistera.eu/call-2015-pre-announcement

The Pre-announcement gives an overview of the research themes that have emerged during the Call 2015 preparation conference in the following topics:

·         User-Centric Security, Privacy and Trust in the Internet of Things (SPTIoT)

·         Terahertz Band for New-Generation Mobile Communication Systems (TMCS)

Researchers are encouraged to start discussing possible projects with prospective partners. The call will require that projects are submitted by international consortia with partners in at least three countries (additional partners from other countries may be part of a consortium if they can secure their own funding). The list of countries which have shown preliminary interest in participating in the Call 2015 is provided in the Pre-announcement.

Deadline: 30 Oct 2015

UMRI has been created to take forward the Manchester Strategic Vision 2020 goal of establishing the University as a major centre for interdisciplinary research. UMRI has two principal aims:

1. To foster interdisciplinary research by ensuring that the necessary structures, resources (including funding) and incentives are in place; and
2. To provide a governance framework for research institutes and other interdisciplinary structures in the University to assist in maximising their performance.

Funding available

Funds will be made available for strategic investments to build sustainable interdisciplinary activities. This call is for pump-priming proposals to provide support for activities that lead to an increase in successful interdisciplinary research. Examples of funding modes include:

• Support for workshops designed to explore opportunities for collaborative working;
• Pilot projects to establish the data or other background needed for future externally-funded joint projects
• Support for the preparation of key proposals where the work is clearly interdisciplinary (e.g. Horizon 2020)
• Support for potential new Networks

Applications of up to 6 months should be between £10k- £50k; applications at or near the maximum amount will only be funded exceptionally. Funds must be expended by 31 July 2016. Applications for equipment and/or self-contained project support will not be funded.

Applicants are invited to submit a proposal of no more than 3 pages (to james.evans@manchester.ac.uk), to include:

• The title of the proposed project
• A short description of the proposed project
• Details of the interdisciplinary basis of the proposal, to include details of project partners
• Why UMRI funding is needed, to include an explanation of why other faculty/school or external grant funding is not more suitable
• Deliverables. For projects aiming to secure external grant funding, this should include the name of funder and anticipated submission date
• Planned follow-on activities and how the success of the project will be measured within 12 months and 24 months
• A breakdown and justification of the costs of the project

Applications will be assessed under the auspices of the Research Strategy Group, chaired by the VP for Research and Innovation. Successful applicants will be notified in Nov. 

Deadline: 3 Nov 2015

This scheme is for world-class scientists who would benefit from a period of long-term support to allow them to focus on research and collaboration based at an institution in the UK.