Proposal for Travel Grant to Promote International Collaboration

在过去，曾有过与EPSRC和其他国际资助机构(如NSF)联合开展计划的各种尝试，但有两项提议存在“双重危险”的问题。如果其中一项提议被资助机构拒绝，那么合作将很困难。这项倡议的目的是确定国际合作的程序，从而导致联合资助的研究。来自拉夫堡大学IMCRC的工作人员将参加NSF设计和制造创新受赠者会议(2006年7月，密苏里州圣路易斯)，与现有的NSF资助者会面，讨论合作工作，并为未来的提议制定计划。还将与国家科学基金会工作人员进行进一步讨论，以规划初步联合方案，并准备提案评估过程的细节。IMCRC的建筑业成员将在加利福尼亚州圣地亚哥举行的建筑业研究所会议上链接到潜在的合作者，讨论可能的合作研究计划，并确定哪个机构是美国最合适的资助机构，如果它不是NSF的话。一组制造业工作人员将于2006年9月底访问新加坡制造技术研究所，观察正在进行的工作，会见当地行业合作伙伴，并建立正式的合作方案。一旦试点项目开始运行，研究人员就有必要拜访他们的同行。预计一次将有30名研究人员出国访问一周。

In the past there have been various attempts to have joint programmes with EPSRC and other international funding bodies, such as NSF, but there has been a problem of 'double jeopardy' with two proposals. If one of the proposals was rejected by a funding body then collaboration would be difficult.The aim of this initiative is to determine procedures for international collaboration that will lead to joint funded research.Staff from Loughborough University's IMCRC will visit the NSF Design and Manufacturing Innovation grantees conference (July 2006, Saint Louis, Missouri) to meet with existing NSF grant holders to discuss collaborative work and make plans for future proposals. There will also be further discussions with NSF staff to plan an initial joint programme and to prepare the details of the proposal assessment process. The Construction members of the IMCRC will link to potential collaborators at the Construction Industry Institute Conference in San Diego, California to discuss possible plans for collaborative research and determine which is the most appropriate funding body in the USA, in the case that it is not NSF. A group of manufacturing staff will visit Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology towards the end of September 2006, to observe the work being undertaken, meet local industry partners and to establish a formal collaborative programme. Once the pilot projects are running then it will be necessary for the researchers to visit their counterparts. It is anticipated that 30 researchers will visit overseas for a week at a time.