2010 Grant Balance - University College London

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UCL has decided to use this year's Grant Balance award in conjunction with the Shaping Capability: Bridging the Gaps element of the 2010 EPSRC Additional Sponsorship award. We have a particular strategic emphasis on cross-disciplinary research at the moment, seeking to realise the benefits of UCL's broad spectrum of research excellence. The interface between EPSRC's remit and medical research is already large, fairly effectively networked, and well-supported, hence we have chosen to focus this funding on other interfaces that we feel are more in need of this kind of "start up" funding.The areas selected for this year's Bridging the Gaps activities are: Digital Humanities, Algae Biotechnology, Sustainable Cities, and Venture Physical Sciences.Within Digital Humanities, we will be building on the collaborations formed through our newly established Centre for Digital Humanities and supporting collaborative activities on: The Future of Reading; Text-Mining and Visualisation; and Archaeology, Museums and Imaging.Within Algae Biotechnology, we will build upon the activities of an existing cross-disciplinary collaboration Algae@UCL, and in particular looking to link some of the emerging algae-based approaches to biotechnology to issues and relationships identified through the IMRC in Bioprocessing, evolving that research programme in wholly new directions.Within Sustainable Cities, we will be supporting a range of small cross-disciplinary projects identified through our annual call for UCL Grand Challenges small grants, and a two-day sandpit (and resulting projects) on "Big Data in the City" as a collaboration between the Sustainable Cities UCL Grand Challenge and the FuturICT FET Flagship activity. A research associate will be supported working to support community building, in particular around sustainable mobility, sustainable resources and architecture and retrofitting.Within Venture Physical Sciences, we will be supporting 3-4 highly adventurous Physical Sciences projects, looking to explore new avenues that cross existing divisions within Physical Sciences.