The second round of networking events for The Bloomsbury SET programme, designed to put life scientists from RVC and LSHTM in touch with social scientists and humanities academics from the LSE and SOAS, took place on 8 November at SOAS, presenting opportunities under the second funding call for Project Grants.

Networking events for the programme continued with this focus on social scientists at LSE, putting them in touch with life scientists from RVC and LSHTM to assist the preparation of collaborative bids, that are inter-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary in nature.

A lunchtime event for researchers from all four Colleges to learn about opportunities under the current funding call for Project Grants.

The first round of networking events for The Bloomsbury SET programme, designed to put life scientists from RVC and LSHTM in touch with social scientists and humanities academics from the LSE and SOAS, took place on Tuesday 26 June. Hosted by SOAS, the specific objective was to assist the preparation of collaborative bids, that are inter-disciplinary or multi-disciplinary in nature.

An event held at the Royal Veterinary College on Monday 18 June not only marked the official launch of The Bloomsbury SET programme, but also its first two award schemes. Supported by almost £5 million from the HEFCE Connecting Capability Fund, it runs for three years and aims to lever at least £700,000 of in-kind support from industry and other organisations, as well as creating a sustainable platform for Knowledge Exchange.

The Connecting Capability Fund (CCF) supports university collaboration in research commercialisation through allocation of £100 million for competitive projects and formula funds. It aims to share good practice and capacity internally across the higher education sector, forge external technological, industrial and regional partnerships, and deliver the Government’s Industrial Strategy priorities.

The two award schemes are Project Grants, and Innovation Fellowships, with closing dates of 31 July and 29 October 2018 respectively.

Dr Ray Kent, Director of Research Administration at the Royal Veterinary College, said,

“We are excited to be leading this unique programme, which aims to distribute around £4 million in grant funding to staff at RVC, LSE, LSHTM and SOAS, for translational research / knowledge exchange projects to help combat infectious disease.”