Research and Innovation Office
News, Events and Latest Opportunities
HPC Wales at Bangor
Bangor University are a partner in the High Performance Computing Wales (HPC) Wales) project, a £40M pan-Wales project (part funded by the Welsh Government’ ERDF and ESF Convergence programmes for West Wales and the Valleys and the UK Government’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills) that is building a state-of-the-art high-performance computing infrastructure across the universities in Wales, to deliver research innovation, high-level skills development and transformational ICT for wide economic benefit.
For academic staff at Bangor, HPCW offers several possibilities to enhance research output and commercial collaboration. The opportunities include:
-
Access to world-class HPC resource
-
Access to PhD studentships
-
Technical support to help you get your projects onto the system
-
Mentoring and outreach support to help you develop relationships with commercial organisations
-
Support to bring users who are totally new to computational science up to speed with HPC
-
Related training and upskilling opportunites
HPC Resource
HPC Wales is in the process of installing hardware across University sites in Wales. When completed, the total compute power available will place HPC Wales in around the top-50 sites globally, so very significant computing power is available for researchers and commercial organisations throughout Wales.
The local machine at Bangor is operational, and comprises of 648 Intel Xeon (Westmere) 2.66GHz cores, nearly 2TB of memory and 10 Tbyte of local storage. However, access to the entire HPCW system, including larger systems for heavy production work, can be achieved either through direct login over a dedicated high-performance campus network connection, or via SynfiniWay which provides a web-based, graphical interface that is ideal for users who are new to high perfomance computing..
PhD StudentshipsFujitsu were selected as the HPC Wales technology partner to deliver both the infrastructure, and to support the research and training activity of the project. As a part of their involvement in the project, Fujitsu are funding ~20 PhDs across the partner Universities. Seven of these studentships have already been awarded in areas such as offshore tide- and wave-based energy generation, climate change modelling, oil and gas reservoir exploration and genomics, with two of the studentships coming to Bangor. We are now pleased to announce that a further seven PhD studentships will be allocated on the basis of an all Wales competitive call. Applications must be made by 17:00 on 31st May 2012 using the HPC Wales – Fujitsu Studentship Application Form. Applications will be evaluated by a selection committee composed of representatives from the universities, HPC Wales and Fujitsu, whose decision shall be final. Guidance on the criteria to be used for evaluation is available in the document HPC Wales – Fujitsu Studentship Application Evaluation Guidance. It is anticipated that approximately 50% of the studentships will be awarded in areas that are of particular interest to Fujitsu. The official HPC Wales call is at http://www.hpcwales.co.uk/fujitsu-studentships-in-high-performance-computing2 You can get the application form here, and the guidance documents here. During the week begining 7th May, we will be running a number of informal lunchtime seminars to present the opportunities offered by these studentships and how to apply, and to answer any queries you may have. Subject to demand, the plan at the moment is to hold seminars at the following locations:
Please contact Training and Outreach Mentor, Laura Redfern, 07985 771287, to register your interest in attending a semminar, or for help in completing the application form, and help with finding a collaborating partner. Phil Lane, 07739 473542, can offer guidance about the selection process and criteria, and how to pitch your proposal to maximise the chance of success. |
Technical Support and Assistance
HPC Wales have a staff member based full time at Bangor who is responsible for the physical operation of the Bangor-based hardware, shared management of the Wales-wide infrastructure and providing support for users of all ability levels as they come onto the system.
For a discussion about any technical aspects of the HPCW project please contact Ade Fewings.
Mentoring and Outreach Support
HPC Wales is primarily an economic regeneration activity, and each project needs to make a contribution to the HPCW output targets by having an association with an appropriate collaborator, usually an SME with an operation base in the West Wales and Valleys Convergence region. Laura Redfern, 07985 771287 is another HPC Wales staff member based at Bangor who is there to help with building relationships with local companies and organisations which can directly benefit you and your research. Bryn Jones, in the Research and Innovation Office can also help with this process.
Users New to Computational Science
There are areas of research where the linkage to computational science is not obvious, but where considerable benefit can be realised by using high performance computing in innovative ways. We will be developing and working through a variety of routes to identify such users, but in the meantime if you have any interest in finding out more about HPCW, please do not hesitate to get in touch with any of the contacts listed above.
Further Information
Please re-visit this website for further infomation on HPC opportunies and activity here at Bangor. It will be regularly updated.
Further information on HPC Wales and its activities across Wales can be found on the project website: www.hpcwales.co.uk
As Bangor University celebrates the completion of its 100th Knowledge Transfer Partnership, we invite you to join us for a keynote lecture:
From Concept to Commercialisation — Harnessing the Potential
Guest speaker:
Dr Deborah Buckley-Golder,
Head of Knowledge Exchange, Technology Strategy Board will share her insights into how to exploit the commercial potential of technological innovations emerging from our universities
Take the opportunity to discover how Bangor University can work in partnership with your business
Wednesday, 23 May, 2012 1.45 — 3.30pm
Reichel Hall, Bangor University,
Ffriddoedd Rd, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2TR
Registration from 1.15pm
After the lecture you will have an opportunity to find out more about the many different ways in which Bangor University works with businesses.
If you have a specific interest or idea you wish to explore, please contact us before the event so that we can arrange for one of our business development managers to look after you.
PROGRAMME
| 1.15 - 1.45 | Registration |
| 1.45 - 1.55 | Introduction Professor John Hughes Vice-Chancellor,Bangor University |
| 1.55 - 2.05 | Research funding — how it works Professor David Shepherd Pro-vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise |
| 2.05 - 2.35 | From Concept to Commercialisation, Deborah Buckley-Golder Head of Knowledge Exchange, Technology Strategy Board |
| 2.35 - 3.15 | Three examples of recent commercial partnerships with Bangor University will share their experiences with the audience |
| 3.15 - 4.00 | Refreshments and Networking A chance to meet some of the various projects and initiatives that are currently working with businesses |
Free to attend
Registration essential to reserve your place!
Register now for this event
The Technology Strategy Board is the UK’s national innovation agency with the goal of accelerating economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation.
www.innovateuk.org
Research for Business and the Business of Research
George Buckley Chief UK Economist, Deutsche Bank.
Stephenson Room, George Building, Normal Site. 6pm for 6:15 start
A Public Lecture not to be missed!
George Buckley, Deutsche Banks’s Chief UK Economist and a Bangor graduate, is usually to be found giving interviews to radio, television and the national press. A Bangor graduate himself, George now brings his personal experience and thoughts on the role of research for business, the value of university education and employability, to the George Building at Bangor University. Join us at 6pm on Monday 30th April for a fantastic opportunity to hear about study, research and what it means in a business context. Following the lecture there will be refreshments and a chance for businesses, academics and students to meet and chat. |
 |
To register your place please email Chris Hillier c.hillier@bangor.ac.uk
This public lecture is brought to you by Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships at Bangor University.
Funded opportunities to build relationships with external partner organisations
Strategic Insight Programme (SIP)
Application Deadline: Friday 4th May 2012
Bangor University is pleased to announce that applications for the Strategic Insight Programme (SIP) in Bangor are now open. Supported by HEFCW's Innovation and Engagement fund SIP encourages the development of relationships with external organisations in the private, public and third sectors through staff exchanges. The aim is to:
- Gain strategic insights into each others’ organisations;
- Stimulate innovation to develop ideas together;
- Provide fresh perspectives;
- Build strategic partnerships for future collaboration;
- Examine how collaborative partnering with universities can really be beneficial
There are two types of SIP placement available in this call: ‘Classic’, where University staff go on placement to an external organisation and ‘Reverse’, which involves staff from an external organisation come to the University for their placement. Both are fully funded.
Applications are invited from University staff via a competitive call. A workshop for potential applicants will be held on Friday 20th April in the WISCA Seminar Room at 12 noon (please e-mail sipbangor@bangor.ac.uk to confirm your attendance)
Strategic Insight Programme (SIP)
The Strategic Insight Programme (SIP) was developed to help Welsh universities build relationships with external partner organisations through staff placements. Funded by HEFCW and led by the University of Glamorgan, SIP provides fully funded staff placements with external organisations across the UK in the private, public and third sectors.
There are two types of SIP placements available:
SIP Classic Placements
Funding up to £2500 per placement is available to cover staff time, travel and subsistence costs related to the achievement of the placement. The maximum duration of the placement is 50 hours and time may be organised either as a short ‘block’ or more flexibly over a number of months to be finished by 31st August 2012. Up to 15 placements will be supported by this call.
Click here to download a Classic SIP application form
Click here to download Classic SIP Guidance notes
SIP Reverse
Applications are invited from university staff who want to develop strategic links with external organisations by inviting a member of their staff to spend time at the University scoping out new projects and developing close working links with University staff. Funding is available up to £2,000 (inc. VAT) to contribute to the organisation’s staff time. The maximum duration of a Reverse SIP Placement is 40 hours or 5 days, with a minimum of 2.5 working days or 20 Hours. Again all activity must be completed by 31st August 2012. Up to 5 placements will be supported by this call.
Click here to download a Reverse SIP application form
Click here to download Reverse SIP Guidance notes
How to apply
This call is limited to University staff (both academic and academic related grades). Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:
- The nature and significance of the proposed placement outcomes;
- The contribution that the outcomes could make to the Institution’s Research, Innovation and Engagement priorities;
- The strategic value of the relationship being developed;
- The eligibility of the proposal (see section 7 of guidance notes)
All SIP placements funded under this call must be completed by 31st August 2012.
Signed applications must be sent to: sip@bangor.ac.uk
The closing date for applications under this call is Friday 4th May 2012
If you would like to discuss potential placements and how well they meet the criteria please contact Bryn Jones (ext 3887 / bryn.jones@bangor.ac.uk) or Tudur Williams (ext 8492 / t.t.williams@bangor.ac.uk).
You may also like to visit the SIP website www.siprogramme.org.uk for examples of previous projects undertaken.
Green Business Breakfast Launch
Enjoy breakfast and be inspired at our first Green Business Breakfast in Bangor on Wed 2nd May. Key speakers include Andy Middleton, founder of the ‘Do Lectures’ and carbon neutral adventure company, TYF, plus award winning construction company Wates. A FREE ‘Save Money, Reduce Waste’ workshop for businesses follows and we’re even providing lunch. Stay for all or part of the morning and contact Sue Francis at s.francis@bangor.ac.uk to find out more or book your place.
Green Innovation Network Survey
Help us shape our future events and training by completing our short (less than 10 mins, honest!) survey, for which you could win a delicious food hamper from Welsh gift company, Bodlon.
Click here - https://www.survey.bris.ac.uk/bangor/gins - before Friday 4th May.
Go on, you know you want to!
Full Economic Costing Workshop 14th March 2012
The Research and Innovation Office will be delivering a Full Economic Costing Workshop at 2:00 on 14th March. The workshop will cover Full Economic Costing at Bangor University with an opportunity to ask questions of Research and Innovation Office and Finance Office staff.
This workshop is suitable for academic researchers and research administrators who are/will be involved in the costing of research proposals and/or consultancy work.
Learn more here
Calling the future research leaders and innovators of Wales
Welsh Crucible 2012
The Welsh Crucible is a prestigious professional and leadership development programme for the future research leaders of Wales.
What is Welsh Crucible?
Funded by the St David’s Day group of higher education institutions, Welsh Crucible will bring together thirty researchers to explore how they can work together to tackle the current research challenges facing Wales.
Welsh Crucible 2012 will take place over three intensive two-day (residential) workshops comprising inspiring guest speakers, seminars, skills sessions and informal discussions. More information...
Santander Early Career Researcher Scholarship
Early Career Researchers currently employed at Bangor University may be eligible to apply for a 12-month scholarship of £5,000. Full details can be found here.
Applications sought for fully funded MRes Scholarships
KESS provides fully funded MRes scholarships for students based in the convergence region (West Wales and the Valleys). An essential component of each proposal must be a company partner with whom the student will undertake a collaborative research project linked to the Welsh Assembly Government’s 4 priority R&D sectors. The company partner must also have an operating base in the convergence area and will make both cash and supervisory contributions to the project.
* 15 MRes Scholarships
* The call formally opens on 12th January with the last date for
submitted proposals 21st March 2012
* Amongst other approval criteria, preference will be shown to
projects in collaboration with SMEs and new partners
* This is a competitive call and successful applicants will be
notified before Easter 2012 (5th April)
* Each approved Scholarship must have recruited a student and
started the project by October 2012
For further information and to discuss anything not covered in this email contact:
Chris Hillier,
Business Development,
Tel: 01248 382357 c.hillier@bangor.ac.uk
For full details of how to apply, what is meant by ‘convergence region’, ‘priority R&D sectors’ and to download application forms and further details please go to:
www.higherskillswales.co.uk/kess
Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS) is a pan-Wales higher level skills initiative led by Bangor University on behalf of the HE sector in Wales. It is part funded by the Welsh Assembly Government’s European Social Fund (ESF) convergence programme for West Wales and the Valleys.
AHRC CDA Workshop at Bangor
You will be aware that the deadline for this years AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Awards (CDA) call will be early November 2011.
As such, we will be running a workshop here at Bangor for prospective applicants.
Details of the workshop are as follows:
Speaker: Professor Rai Karl, School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology
Date: Wednesday, 12 October
Time: 2.00pm
Venue: Council Chamber
Who should Attend? Academic staff interested in applying.
IMPORTANT: If you would like to attend the workshop, please contact Kim Edwards (k.edwards@bangor.ac.uk) (3286) by MONDAY, 3 OCTOBER at the latest to book a place.
For more details please contact Hazel Robbins on h.robbins@bangor.ac.uk or ext 8142
Student challenge: Make people love your research…in 3 minutes!!!
That’s exactly what a group of PhD students from across Wales did at an awards event at Bangor University on 16th June. The event was held to recognise the impact and enterprise skills being developed by the collaborative, doctoral research being undertaken in partnership with businesses across Wales as part of the Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS) programme.
Representatives from Bangor, Swansea, Cardiff and Swansea Metropolitan Universities, as well as some of the businesses involved in the research, attended the event. As well as offering a chance for research and businesses from across disciplines and sectors to network, there was a keynote speech from Paul Sandham, Managing Director of GeoSho Limited on the theme of University collaboration and a celebration of the students who completed their research degrees under the KESS programme in 2011.At the heart of the event was a pan-Wales competition which challenged the students to present their research in an engaging way whilst under extreme pressure.
Based on the Pecha Kucha principle of quick fire, automated, timed presentations, the competition asked the students on the KESS programme to go one step further; to effectively communicate their PhD research in 6 slides with 30 seconds per slide. That’s 3 minutes to influence an audience of academics, businesses and students from a variety of disciplines. The four finalists who presented on the night all stepped up to the mark and produced very impressive presentations and received plaudits from the audience for their assured performances.
The eventual winner, with a presentation giving reference to both the rock group The Killers as well as his nan was James Evans, a second year PhD student from Cardiff whose dedicated his 3 mins to exploring the idea of “Are we Human or are we bacteria?” James wins a workshop on ‘writing for business’, design consultancy time to help him and his company partner hone the presentation of the research project, in addition to a team building day for his project partners.
Bryn Jones, Project Manager for KESS commented, “This is probably the hardest presentation that these finalist will ever be asked to do and they have all excelled in achieving this tonight. No presentation will seem as stressful after this.”
He went on to highlight the serious objective of the competition, saying, “we are very aware that in a commercial environment it is not always the best idea that is taken forward but the best presented and communicated idea. Through the KESS programme we want to equip our students with excellent research skills but also with the ability to ensure that they can communicate effectively and persuasively to a variety of audiences and under a range of pressures.”
Feedback from the students who took part, as well as those who attended, was excellent and there are now plans to build a bigger event along similar lines next year with all nine universities involved in the KESS programme participating. The impact on the attitude and ability of the students is clear with the winner, James Evans commenting that,
“I think that the KESS networking event showcases the wealth and breadth of research across Wales and encourages cross institutional collaboration. The event also highlighted the importance of Universities and SMEs working together and showed that a wide range of projects can be undertaken. I would encourage KESS students, supervisors and company partners to attend next year as you will definitely get something out of it, I know I did.”
Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships (KESS) is a pan-Wales higher level skills initiative led by Bangor University on behalf of the HE sector in Wales. It is part funded by the Welsh Government’s European Social Fund (ESF) convergence programme for West Wales and the Valleys.
Bangor University is a key player in the newly launched Welsh Crucible 2011
Six of Bangor’s talented researchers have been successfully selected to participate in the first Welsh Crucible. Welsh Crucible is enabling 30 highly promising scientists, social scientists and scholars from across the St David’s Day Group to come together to explore and expand their innovative potential and build collaborative links with other researchers. The programme is targeted at early and mid career research academics as a career development programme that will help to develop future research leaders. This is not like any other professional development programme; it is interdisciplinary and is based on NESTA’s highly successful leadership and development programme for researchers, which has had excellent feedback from participants.
Participants are talented early- to mid-career researchers employed by Universities in the St David’s Day Group (Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Glamorgan, Swansea), or by Welsh SMEs, ,working in the Welsh Assembly Government’s research priority areas (Digital Economy, Low Carbon Economy, Health & Biosciences and Advanced Engineering & Manufacturing).
There are six participants from Bangor : Dr Anna Croft (School of Chemistry) ; Dr Greg Chass (School of Chemistry); Dr Martina Lahmann (School of Chemistry); Dr James Gibbons (School of Environment + Natural Resources); Dr Jan Hiddinck (School of Ocean Sciences) and Dr Simon Neill (School of Ocean Sciences).
Research and Innovation Office
Prifysgol Bangor
Bangor University
Bangor
Gwynedd
LL57 2DG
tel: 01248 38 2532
email: m.hurman@bangor.ac.uk
Registered charity. No. 1141565
Copyright © 2001-2012
Privacy and Cookies
