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.

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

The City of Culture University Partnership Presents a new, exciting funding call
‘Feel Connected, Get Creative - Coventry Creates’.

The University Partnership is pleased to announce funding of up to £2,000 per project to commission a range of artistic works that can be shared digitally. We would like to commission local artists and creative organisations to collaborate with researchers from Warwick and/or Coventry University in order to create novel artworks in response to research projects.

The International Polymer Colloid Group (IPCG) was founded in 1972 as a global forum for the exchange of ideas and emerging research activities for scientists and engineers from both academia and industry who study or use polymer colloids.

It is a vibrant scientific international community who normally meet face-to-face every two years to discuss the latest global developments related to polymer colloid science (2013 Shanghai, 2015 New Hampshire, 2017 the Basque Country, 2019 Singapore).

As a result of the global COVID19 pandemic, prof. dr. ir. Stefan Bon came up with the idea to take the IPCG forum online with a series of weekly scientific webinars, called the i-PCG 2020 Webinars. Anyone who is interested in science can participate as audience member, or even better, as presenter. Expect to interact with the world top in polymer colloid, with expert participants from industry, academia and enthusiasts. All is free.