British Council through Newton Bhabha Fund announces Researcher Links Workshop Grant 2020. Researcher Links this year is in collaboration with the Department of Biotechnology (DBT),Indian Council of Medical Research. The programme is designed to promote international development- relevant research and professional development of early-career researchers. The programme gives financial support to bring together a UK and India cohort of early career researchers in a workshop with a potential for long term sustainability.

Leading or Established Researchers can apply as Principal applicants. One applicant from India and one from the UK from Not-for-profit higher education institutions or publicly funded research organisations can jointly propose a theme from the given priority areas and apply for funding through an online application form.  The detailed application process is shared in the call guidelines (Link shared in How to Apply section).

Call start date: 20 April 2020

Call end date: 12 June 2020 16:00hrs UK time (20:30hrs India time)

Newton Bhabha Fund is delivering “ Researcher Link - Application Support Webinar” on 27 May 2020 at 15.00 hrs India time (10.30 hrs UK time). Please click here to register. This webinar will be delivered through Microsoft Teams platform, please ensure it is installed on your mobile/computer.

Priority areas - DBT

Applications are welcome in the following DBT priority areas:

A. Agriculture and allied areas: Focus on

  • Post-harvest processing and handling, (e.g. sustainable packaging, increasing shelf life, etc.)
  • Farmed animal and aquaculture diseases
  • Offshore farming technologies 

B. Environment and Circular Bio-economy: Focus on

  • Impact of climate change on health/wellbeing; biodiversity loss
  • Carbon sequestration
  • Plastic alternatives
  • Translating academic innovations
  • Bio-hybrid solar cells

C. Biotechnology-education: research/policy for accelerated development of the sector

D. Health: Focus on

  • Accelerated vaccine development
  • Advanced biomaterial applications, nano/micro-motors
  • Brain research, neurobiology, brain-computer interphase
  • Aging and age-related disorders
  • Immuno-engineering
  • Metabolic engineering for pharmaceutical production

E. Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning in

  • Health (epidemic predictions, medical risk prediction, and reduction during humanitarian disasters/emergencies)
  • Agriculture, Aquaculture, Marine and Animal products (post-harvest supply chain management)
  • Genomics and personalized medicine

Priority areas - ICMR

Applications are welcome in the following ICMR priority areas

  1. Cardiovascular pharmacotherapy in Covid-19 infections 
  2. Bio-banking
  3. Public health preparedness and response to emerging disease outbreak/pandemic
  4. Capacity building of maternity care providers to improve perinatal outcome

Eligibility criteria

  • Not‑for‑profit higher education institutions or publicly‑funded research organisations that have Leading or Established Researchers are eligible to apply as Lead institutions.
  • Leading or Established Researchers from above-mentioned category of institutions can apply to be Principal Applicants (as defined by the European commission - download information here).
  • Each proposal must have one Principal Applicant from the UK, and one from India.

Please refer to the detailed eligibility criteria in the call guidelines.

Cost component

British Council will cover:

  • International travel per UK participant 

DBT and ICMR will cover:

  • Domestic travel per Indian participant
  • Subsistence costs for all UK and Indian participants
  • Event costs for all UK and Indian participants
  • Additional workshop costs

Application timelines

Last date to apply: 12 June 2020, 16:00hrs, UK time

How to apply

Please click here for full details on-call guidelines and online application form.

Additional information - Universities UK International (UUKi)

Universities UK International (UUKi) Match Making Service

UUKi offersa partner matching service to help connect Newton partner country researchers to potential UK partners for Researcher Link workshop Grant call. Those who would like assistance with finding a UK partner can complete UUKi’s Partner Request Form on the UUKi website, before 15 May 2020. UUKi is then able to suggest UK researchers or research groups that have similar research interests and expertise.

Contact

All queries or comments about this call should be addressed to the Researcher Links email address UK-ResearcherLinks@britishcouncil.org and /or purti.kohli@britishcouncil.org. Please specify that you are enquiring about the Newton Bhabha Fund Researcher Links Workshops call.
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