Engineering for Life Feasibility Account

生命工程可行性账户

• 批准号: EP/I016473/1
• 负责人: Christopher Care
• 金额: $ 25.72万
• 依托单位: Sheffield Hallam University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2010 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FI016473%2F1
• 关键词: Engineering; Life; Feasibility; Account

The Feasibility Account will be used to support the most exciting and innovative projects from a pipeline of multidisciplinary projects developed through Engineering for Life (EfL), a Bridging the Gap award held at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU). EfL has the core aim of creating multidisciplinary teams to find pioneering ways to enhance people's lives by addressing problems related to the ageing, disability, the promotion of healthy living for all and sustainability. The Account will be operated through the following research centres: Materials and Engineering, Art and Design, Sports Engineering, Biomedical, Communication and Computing. The potential applications and benefits are very wide ranging. Example projects which may be considered for funding by the account are (i) Novel biomaterials for muscloskeletal disorders which is a project developing new composite materials which can re-expand a collapsed spinal disc and stimulate disc regeneration. (ii) Second Lives, Third Age, a project developing virtual interactive technologies to greatly improve the quality of life of the elderly and those suffering from isolating physical disabilities such as dementia by allowing them to participate in creative and physical activities in a virtual world modelled on Second Life. EfL has been very successful in using sand-pit events to create multidisciplinary research projects and provided them with modest seed-corn funding. The level of funding of the projects in EfL ranges from 10k to 20k. The aim of the Feasibility Account is to allow the most promising of these projects to be taken to the next level of development with funding in the range 40 to 60k. Thus, of the approximately 20 projects which emerge from EfL it is proposed to fund 3 to 4 at this level. A small number of the most highly speculative projects will be funded at a lower level; this number is expected to be again 3 to 4. The funding allocation will be achieved through an innovative two stage assessment process. In order to reduce the investment risk, the second stage of the assessment process will examine not only the quality of the research but also the need, the barriers to development and the economic impact. The allocation of funds from the project will be governed by an Award Panel through the following two stage process:-Stage 1: Quality of the projectProjects will be assessed against the following criteria: (i) Interdisciplinarity.(ii) Innovation and originality. (iii) Quality of proposed research. (iv) The need for the technology.(v) Potential impact. (vi) Clear outcomes. (vii) The potential to attract external support. (viii) Cost effectiveness. The most promising projects from stage 1 will be allowed to proceed to stage 2. The remaining projects will be assessed for a lower level of support.Stage 2: De-risking the investmentThe purpose of the second stage-gate is to undertake a forward look to (i) Assess the commercial feasibility(ii) Identify the key technical barriers (iii) Gain input from the end-user community These assessments will be undertaken by independent academics, external consultant and end-user groups. The reports generated by these three assessments, together with information from the first stage-gate, will form the basis of the final funding decisions.The projects funded by the Account will proceed to compete for funding from a range of sources including RCUK, NIHR, the EU, TSB and through direct commercialisation through support mechanisms such as Proof of Concept funds. The Account aims to achieve overall leverage 5:1, longer-term, and further embed the cultural change which EfL has achieved within the University in creating a very active multidisciplinary community. EfL has achieved very significant success; the Feasibility Account will ensure that this success is carried forward.

可行性账户将用于支持通过生命工程(EFL)开发的一系列多学科项目中最令人兴奋和创新的项目，EFL是谢菲尔德哈勒姆大学(SHU)举办的一个弥合差距的奖项。EFL的核心目标是创建多学科团队，通过解决与老龄化、残疾、促进所有人的健康生活和可持续发展有关的问题，找到改善人们生活的开创性方法。该账户将通过以下研究中心运营：材料与工程、艺术与设计、体育工程、生物医学、通信和计算机。潜在的应用和好处是非常广泛的。可考虑由该账户提供资金的项目有：(I)治疗肌肉骨骼疾病的新型生物材料，这是一个开发新复合材料的项目，该材料可以重新扩大塌陷的脊椎间盘并刺激间盘再生。(Ii)第二人生，第三时代，这是一个开发虚拟互动技术的项目，旨在极大地提高老年人和患有痴呆症等身体残疾的人的生活质量，使他们能够参与模仿第二人生的虚拟世界中的创造性和身体活动。EFL在利用沙坑活动创建多学科研究项目方面非常成功，并为他们提供了适度的种子玉米资金。EFL项目的资金水平从10K到2万不等。可行性账户的目的是使这些项目中最有希望的项目能够进入下一阶段的开发，资金在40至60K之间。因此，在EFL产生的大约20个项目中，建议为这一级别的3至4个项目提供资金。少数投机性最强的项目将获得较低水平的资金；这一数字预计将再次达到3至4个。资金分配将通过创新的两阶段评估程序实现。为了降低投资风险，评估过程的第二阶段不仅将审查研究的质量，还将审查需求、发展障碍和经济影响。项目资金的分配将由评审团通过以下两个阶段进行管理：-第一阶段：项目的质量项目将根据以下标准进行评估：(I)跨学科。(Ii)创新和原创性。(3)拟议研究的质量。(Iv)技术的需要。(V)潜在的影响。(六)成效明显。(7)吸引外部支持的潜力。(八)成本效益。第一阶段中最有希望的项目将被允许进入第二阶段。其余的项目将被评估为较低水平的支持。第二阶段：降低投资风险第二阶段门的目的是进行展望，以(I)评估商业可行性(Ii)确定关键的技术障碍(Iii)从最终用户社区获得意见这些评估将由独立学者、外部顾问和最终用户团体进行。这三项评估所产生的报告，连同第一阶段关卡所提供的资料，将成为最终资助决定的基础。由该账户资助的项目，将继续从各种来源争取资助，包括皇家英国、NIHR、欧盟、TSB，以及透过概念验证基金等支援机制直接商业化。该帐户旨在实现整体杠杆5：1，长期，并进一步嵌入EFL在创建一个非常活跃的多学科社区方面在大学内实现的文化变革。EFL已经取得了非常重大的成功；可行性账户将确保这一成功继续下去。