Deadline: April 11, 2023
Applications for the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies 2023 are now open. The Academy’s Chair in Emerging Technologies (CiET) scheme aims to identify global research visionaries and provide them with long-term support to lead on developing emerging technology areas with high potential to deliver economic and social benefit to the UK.
In addition to covering employment and research costs for the Chair over a period of up to ten years, the award enables a sustained and strategic focus on advancing the technology to application.
Such awards require a powerful case to be made for the value of an extended long-term vision through to application of the technology. This in turn should show the value for funding that provides sustained support for a world-leading researcher, ensuring continuity of their focus across other grants and contracts and removing any expectation of duties that do not support the technology programme.
Benefits
The total award request is £2.5 million over 10 years with an annual payment of £250,000 per annum.
In addition, awardees will receive the following:
- Mentors, who are Fellows of the Academy, with expertise of relevance to the programme of research, to provide independent advice and guidance throughout the duration of the award.
- Networking and training opportunities with and through the Academy’s Fellowship and Events programme.
- Support for Global Talent visa for applicants based outside the UK.
Eligibility
- All projects must commence on March 4, 2024 and end on March 3, 2034. Applications with alternative dates will not be eligible.
- Chairs in Emerging Technologies are professorial appointments. Applicants who haven’t been awarded a Professorial title but have demonstrated research achievements such that they would be strongly considered for Professorial promotion at present, are eligible to apply. In supporting the submission, the university is understood to be affirming this. It is the Academy’s expectation that successful non-Professional awardees gain a Professorial title upon becoming a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging.
- Awards can only be held at a university, or jointly between the university and an organisation (e.g., national laboratory, research institute, or innovation organisation), based in the UK. The Academy’s contract will exclusively be with the university.
- A letter of appointment from the university (which may be conditional on receipt of the award) must be provided if the applicant is currently based outside the UK university system. All applications must include a letter of support from a Dean, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, or someone in an equivalent position, clearly outlining university’s commitment to supporting the emerging technology field, and the applicant as a global leader of the field. The expected contents of this letter are detailed towards the end of this document under title ‘Letters of support and declaration’. All applications may include up to 3 letters of support from key or most relevant collaborators.
- Applications are welcome from across a broad remit of engineering and technology, including areas currently considered basic science, but now requiring engineering ways of thinking to drive them towards application, and in areas where technologies are well-established but could be significantly improved by novel approaches. Applications must be centred on enabling and driving technological innovation. Therefore, proposals whose vision is primarily around scientific advance for its own sake are not appropriate to this scheme.
- All applications must make a clear case for long-term sustained strategic support for the technology programmes. Thus, the proposal must cover a long-term vision that shows the value of the entire 10 years of appointment.
- Similarly, proposals whose innovation benefits are fully realisable from separate shorter duration projects are not appropriate and will not be supported. The Academy will not fund activities that are primarily aimed at addressing the clearly articulated needs of a single industry partner over the next five years and would be more appropriate for the Research Chairs/ Senior Research Fellows scheme.
- Current RAEng Research Chairs are eligible to apply but cannot hold both awards simultaneously.
- The duration of the award is up to 10 years – initial 5 years with the possibility of extension for a further 5 years following a full review of award holder’s achievements and outcomes, and the project’s potential for commercialisation and impact over the next 5 years. Applications that are incomplete or do not adhere to the guidelines will not be accepted.
Application
For more information, visit Chair in Emerging Technologies.
