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19th October deadine for registration, 26th October deadline for full applications - 12 noon.

Innovate UK and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council invite registrations for their robotics and autonomous systems competition. Funding enables the development of successful robotic and autonomous system products, services or processes in areas such as service robotics, demanding environment, agriculture, healthcare, mobile production and logistics. Projects should aim to develop, integrate and validate robotics and autonomous systems technologies and applications from across the following topics:

•system and system-of-systems engineering;

•system verification, validation and certification;

•design and manufacturing of robotic systems;

•multi-sensor system integration, data fusion and perception;

•control systems for remotely controlled or unmanned system operation;

•cognitive systems for autonomous system behaviour;

•human-robot interaction;

•robot-robot interaction;

•dependability, longevity and safety;

•actuation and locomotion;

•navigation, task and motion planning;

•software systems, architectures and tools.

Projects may focus on technical feasibility, industrial research or experimental development depending on the challenge.

Projects must be led by a UK-based businesses and involve at least one SME. Those with eligible costs of up to £100,000 may be undertaken either alone or in collaboration with other businesses or research institutions. Projects with eligible cost of £100,000 or more must involve at least one SME and may also involve other organisations.

The total budget is £5 million. Projects are expected to last between six and 15 months and range in size from £50,000 to £500,000. Small businesses may receive up to 70 per cent of the total eligible costs, medium-sized businesses may receive 60 per cent and large businesses may receive 50 per cent for technical feasibility studies and industrial research. Small businesses may receive up to 45 per cent of the total eligible costs, medium-sized businesses may receive 35 per cent and large businesses may receive 25 per cent for experimental development projects which are nearer to market

Funding supports projects that address some of the technical challenges so that businesses can exploit the superior performance of compound semiconductors. The total budget is £4 million. Projects are expected to last between six and 15 months and range in size from £50,000 to £500,000.

Compound semiconductors offer improved performance for applications that currently use silicon-based semiconductors. They open up new application areas that silicon-based semiconductors cannot. But there are technical and business risks across the supply chain. So the development and adoption of new compound semiconductor devices is often held back.

This competition aims to address some of the technical challenges. This is so that businesses can exploit the superior performance of compound semiconductors.

Projects must involve a compound semiconductor material with a scalable market application. Examples of compound semiconductors include: GaAs, GaN, InP, SiC and HgCdTe (gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, indium phosphide, silicon carbide and mercury cadmium telluride).

We are particularly interested in projects that address one or more of the following:

• thermal management technologies for compound semiconductor packaging, such as multi-phase fluidics
• materials and techniques that enable a significant improvement in device performance. Examples include operating speed, temperature, voltage, current, or light intensity
• rapid prototyping techniques, such as additive manufacturing using polymers or ceramics, for advanced packaging or printed die interconnects
• simulation and modelling techniques, such as multi-scale or multi-physics at device or sub-system level, to speed up verification and validation, and reduce development cycles
• novel adhesion technologies to join dissimilar materials, such as graphene-loaded epoxy
• approaches to combine multi-mode devices. Examples include integrating photonic with RF devices or photonic with high-voltage devices
• approaches to create hybrid combinations of silicon die with compound semiconductor die
• techniques to enable rapid alignment and assembly. These will help to automate more of the supply chain and improve productivity
• automated or semi-automated test methodologies for power electronic, RF/microwave, photonics or sensor applications
• projects that lead to a significant reduction in cost across the supply chain

We may fund projects that represent a portfolio of topics.

These fellowships provide engineering academics with an opportunity to reinvigorate their research careers, enhance their current research interests or start new lines of research without teaching or administrative constraints.

• They also provide an opportunity for the junior academic to gain valuable teaching and administrative experience by covering the duties of the awardee.
• An additional support fund of up to £2,500 is available to the awardee for miscellaneous research costs.
• Applicant should hold a permanent position at a UK university, at lecturer level or above.
• Applicant must be teaching an engineering discipline at undergraduate or postgraduate level.
• Applicants must demonstrate sufficient experience and academic status to merit the title ‘Senior’ Research Fellow.
• Applicants must be able to demonstrate a significant administrative workload, which prevents them dedicating as much time to research as they would like, and that they therefore merit being relieved of their teaching and administrative duties.
• Research projects should be in any engineering discipline. Engineering is defined in its broadest sense, encompassing a wide range of diverse fields including computer science and materials. If you are unsure if your project is in an engineering area, please contact the Programme Manager to check if you are eligible to apply.
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