Researcher mobility and training

Funding for secondments to build projects and partnerships

The previous IAA (2012 to 2017) supported a highly productive joint lectureship between York and Seagate Ltd, focused on the development of new read heads for hard disk drives.  

The new IAA will support a wider secondment scheme promoting the exchange of academics and industry collaborators, including postdoctoral researchers. Short secondments will be encouraged, but funding may be sought to support a longer secondment if a valuable opportunity arises. New relationships or staff movements that have no alternative sources of funding will be prioritised.

Key aims

To provide especially Early Career Researchers with experience working on challenge-led research.

Activities

Identify and enable business-led projects involving a substantial presence of Early Career Researchers at the partner workplace. Projects will fund buy-out time, travel and subsistence costs.

Early Career Researchers

The EPSRC guidelines on defining who counts as an Early Career Researcher are referred to: please note these are based around attributes and experience, and "there are no eligibility rules based on years of postdoctoral experience or whether you hold (or do not hold) a permanent academic position, as this doesn’t allow for variations of career paths across the Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS) disciplines".

Training in industry engagement, with a focus on Early Career Researchers

Associated with the mobility funding, the IAA will fund training to improve the skills of (particularly early career) researchers in EPSRC-relevant disciplines in understanding the needs and outlook of industrial partners, to help prospective and new academic researchers understand how to initiate business contact, have effective first engagements and follow-ups and utilise existing support within the University effectively.

Calls

The current call is open until 15 May 2020 unless funds are allocated before then. Call guidance and application form are below.

EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) Researcher Mobility application form (MS Word , 28kb)

EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) Researcher Mobility funding guidance (PDF , 143kb)