DMU European Funding

Research excellence, our collaborative approach to research, engaging with other research institutions across Europe, and improvements in support provision and strategic alignment (by Research, Business and Innovation - RBI) have resulted in significant improvements in European (EU) proposal success rates and income.

In recent years DMU has achieved class leading success rates in excess of 31% (11% above the European average) and raised EU income by 96% to £1.033 Million (2010/11), with proposal activity increasing by over 165% to over 50 proposals per year and DMU’s total European project portfolio expanding to 21 FP7 projects, either archived, active or in contract negotiation.

The Faculty of Technology has received significant FP7 funding for collaborative research projects achieving a success rate of 35% in 2010/11 with 8 successful submissions in that year alone. Projects focus on a range of research areas, from rail transport, personalised health monitoring, energy efficient buildings and flight simulators that simulate dangerous conditions to nanotechnology and biomaterials, alternative energy sources, manufacturing methods, interactive 3DTV systems and the ethical issues of emerging ICT applications.

A shining example of this success is Professor Bernd Stahl, Director of DMU’s Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility, who in addition to securing a high value portfolio of European 'Science in society' research projects exploring ethical issues within science and technology, is a partner on the Human Brain Project (HBP) which seeks to understand the human brain, to gain fundamental insights into what it means to be human, develop new treatments for brain diseases and build revolutionary new Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) based on the merger of ICT and biology. HBP is one of just two recently selected Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) Flagship projects to be funded by the European Commission. These two projects will each last 10 years and, receiving one billion euros each in funding, represent the largest research excellence award in history.

Other examples of DMU’s success in 2011/12 include Great (£184,607), Responsibility (£123,272), Lotus (~£300k), Ecentre (£21,415), an Erasmus (£3,422), an ESF COST and STREAM (National Offender Management Service, £70k): 2012/13 - HBP (FET-Flagship, +€3M) and REEMAIN (€379,800). This demonstrates the scope and excellence of DMU’s EU activities.

 

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