The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has announced an open competition for an International Public Policy Observatory (IPPO), to support public policy decision-makers in developing effective strategies for responding to and recovering from the social, economic and public health impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. ESRC intends to fund the IPPO (£2M for an initial period of two years) to enable a rapid response to current urgent evidence need and to generate evidence about the effectiveness of this new model to inform further investment decisions.

For information please see further details regarding the funding announcement International Public Policy Observatory (IPPO)

Given the strategic nature of this investment and the relatively tight timescales to develop an application, the University will be seeking a collaborative and coordinated approach to bidding for this opportunity. Interested applicants are requested to contact Carolyn Silvester via ESRCImpactAccount@warwick.ac.uk with the following details, by 9am on Monday 10^th August 2020:

· Name, job title and department

· The policy theme(s) to which your research relates, including a brief overview (max. 100 words) of your relevant expertise.

· Details of any appropriate external contacts or partnerships (both national and international) that could be quickly mobilised to contribute to bid development.

· An indication of whether you would like to be considered in an overall leadership capacity (noting the below timescales), and if so, a brief overview (max 200 words) of your experience of working with policy stakeholders and of managing complex strategic projects.

Many of the things we take for granted in the modern world rely heavily on satellites in space. James Blake from the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group explores the growing need to safeguard these satellites against the hazards they face on a daily basis.

Scientists from University of Warwick and Chinese University of Hong Kong have refined a new type of camera to make it a hundred times faster than the previous state of the art.

A research team led by Professor Emma Pickwell-MacPherson from the University of Warwick Department of Physics and involving scientists from the Chinese University of Hong Kong has reached a crucial milestone towards developing single-pixel terahertz imaging technology for use in biomedical and industrial applications.

There are regional, national and internationally emerging opportunities in space exploration. At Warwick, we are well placed to leverage our world-class research in STEM subjects to support this expanding and exciting area.

In order to establish a critical mass presence of researchers and investigators, we are seeing academic colleagues who can help us to grow our capability and standing. We also believe that contributions from our Social Sciences and Arts communities will be extremely valuable to our success in this area.

We are consulting across the University community and inviting anyone with a direct or potential interest in space to register with us. This will enable us to facilitate like-minded groupings and support funding call applications - in both the short and long term. We are also working with industrial and academic partners in the sector that could provide an established network for future collaborations.

Further details and information & Register your interest

As ERA reaches the end of its £60 million capital build programme, which has focused on the development of 23 test and demonstration facilities, it has been through a process of examining how to apply its academic capability and facilities to a series of major research, development and demonstration challenges which face the UK as it accelerates the delivery of low-carbon solutions towards 2050. This has resulted in a series of ‘Big Ideas’ focussed on:

• Implementation and demonstration of next-generation fuels;
• Medium-term, large-scale, energy storage;
• Integrating the circular economy with zero carbon and CCUS acceleration;
• Grid-scale electricity system modelling for future-proofing infrastructure;
• A National Centre for Decarbonisation of Heat, NCDH, and
• Behavioural transition for a low-carbon future.

The full document of the Big Ideas can be viewed along with the ERA Into the next ERA document.

If you would like to get involved with any of the Big Ideas or have any feedback please contact the Energy GRP: EnergyGRP@warwick.ac.uk

Welcome to the COVID-19 Funding Forum

This is a space for research-active staff to discuss potential or ongoing Covid-19 research activity under a range of themes.

Please use one of the existing threads, or create another for a new topic.