Academics and businesses across Wales are being encouraged to apply for a new fund designed to boost collaborative research and innovation projects.
High Performance Computing (HPC) Wales has announced a new £300,000 fund, to help fund 20-25 research projects that would benefit from the power of supercomputing technology.
The funding was announced in the week that Welsh universities were singled out for a feature in the prestigious journal, Science, for their commitment to first-class research, putting them on the road to “scientific greatness”.
HPC Wales has recently awarded funding to six research and innovation projects, across five universities in Wales, spanning a wide range of activities, from stroke rehabilitation to improving public transport.
The second call offers another opportunity for university researchers to deliver development-oriented projects, and for businesses, the opportunity to tap into the right academic expertise.
The new research and innovation funding will fund up to 25% of the cost of a post doctorate research associate for up to 12 months.
Part-funded by £24 million through the Welsh Government, including support from the European Regional Development Fund, HPC Wales is committed to boosting the Welsh economy by providing academic researchers and businesseswith some of the most advanced computing technology in the world.
In addition, HPC Wales is providing the training, outreach and technical support to exploit supercomputing technology effectively and power innovation.
One project to benefitfrom the funding to date is that of Dr Ali Roula, Senior Lecturer at The University of South Wales. He is leading a project to develop portable rehabilitation solutions for people with motor and cognitive disabilities. He said:
“Having access to HPC Wales’ computing facilities gives our research group a unique opportunity to explore problems on a scale and depth that was simply not possible for us before.
“To account for subject and time variations, it is crucial to take multiple channel recordings of brain scan data across many users and over a long period of time.
“HPC Wales will help us run complex calculations on a scale that – to our knowledge – has never been done before”.
Chief Executive of HPC Wales, David Craddock, said:
“With access to research funding becoming more and more difficult, we are pleased to be able to offer this support for projects at the leading edge of scientific research. We are particularly keen to fund projects that involve collaboration between universities and businesses, and look forward to hearing from researchers looking for a helping hand in taking their projects forward.”
The call also coincides with the final call for HPC Wales Fujitsu funded PhD studentships. Six new studentships are available in the areas of financial and professional services, advanced materials and manufacturing, creative industries, ICT -fourteen have been awarded to date.
The deadline for applications to both funds is 31st May 2013.
Researchers interested in applying to the fund should contact Phil Lane [email protected] or visit www.hpcwales.co.uk/research-and-innnovation-fund