Engineering for Life Feasibility Account

可行性账户将用于支持通过生命工程（EFL）开发的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）举办的弥合差距奖。EFL的核心目标是建立多学科团队，通过解决与老龄化、残疾、促进人人健康生活和可持续性有关的问题，找到改善人们生活的开拓性方法。该账户将通过以下研究中心运作：材料和工程、艺术和设计、体育工程、生物医学、通信和计算。潜在的应用和好处是非常广泛的。可考虑由该账户供资的项目有：（i）用于肌肉骨骼疾病的新型生物材料，这是一个开发新型复合材料的项目，该材料可使塌陷的椎间盘重新扩张并刺激椎间盘再生。(ii)Second Lives，Third Age是一个开发虚拟互动技术的项目，通过让老年人和患有痴呆症等孤立身体残疾的人在模拟第二人生的虚拟世界中参与创造性和身体活动，大大提高他们的生活质量。EfL在利用沙坑事件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玉米种子资金。EFL项目的资金水平从1万到2万不等。可行性账户的目的是允许这些项目中最有前途的项目进入下一个发展阶段，资金在4万到6万之间。因此，在EFL产生的大约20个项目中，建议在这一级资助3至4个项目。少数投机性最强的项目将获得较低水平的资金;预计这一数字将再次达到3至4个。资金分配将通过一个创新的两阶段评估过程来实现。为了减少投资风险，评估进程的第二阶段不仅将审查研究的质量，而且还将审查需求、发展障碍和经济影响。项目的资金分配将由一个奖励小组通过以下两个阶段的过程来管理：-第一阶段：项目的质量将根据以下标准来评估项目：（i）跨学科性。(ii)创新和独创性。(iii)拟议研究的质量。(iv)对技术的需求。(v)潜在影响。(vi)明确的结果。(vii)吸引外部支持的潜力。㈧成本效益。第一阶段最有希望的项目将被允许进入第二阶段。第二阶段：减低投资风险第二阶段的目的是前瞻性地（i）评估商业可行性（ii）找出主要的技术障碍（iii）听取最终用户团体的意见这些评估将由独立学者、外聘顾问和最终用户团体进行。这三个评估生成的报告以及第一阶段的信息将构成最终资助决定的基础。由该账户资助的项目将继续从一系列来源竞争资金，包括RCUK，NIHR，欧盟，TSB，并通过支持机制（如概念验证基金）直接商业化。该帐户的目标是实现整体杠杆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的大学内实现的文化变革。EFL取得了非常重大的成功;可行性账户将确保这一成功得以延续。

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.