Funding Call

PETRAS Event Support Grants (PESG) – Round 2

L I M

Issue date: 31st March 2023

Version number: v1.0

Closing date: 09.00 UK time, 31st July 2023

 

Summary:

The PETRAS Centre invites applications from its academic community to organise a range of impact enhancing events and activities, preferably in collaboration with their User Partners, to promote Knowledge Exchange (KE), to evolve and inform current research direction, as well as strengthen their PETRAS-funded projects’ and the Centre’s dissemination, impact, and engagement activities.

The PETRAS Event Support Grant (PESG) is an award of up to £5,000 towards expenses incurred in hosting lectures, conferences (part of), workshops, seminars etc. for academia, industry, government, and the general public, as well as participating in conferences and other similar high-impact events to present your PETRAS-funded projects’ findings.

Applicants from existing PETRAS academic partner institutions, who are/were part of PETRAS-funded projects are eligible to apply (includes both PETRAS hub and PETRAS Centre funded project staff). Please see below for full details. Deadline for submissions is 09.00 UK time, 31st July 2023.

Scope:

The PETRAS National Centre of Excellence exists to ensure that technological advances in the Internet of Things (IoT) are developed and applied in consumer and business contexts, safely and securely. We do this by considering social and technical issues relating to the cybersecurity of IoT devices, systems, and networks.

The Grant will support the PETRAS academic community to host specifically designed events within the scope of PETRAS’ research focus (the cybersecurity of devices and networks at the edge of the internet), and can include a range of activities such as organising and/or attending workshops, seminars, conferences, and lectures as invitation only events to a specific audience or for the general public.

The maximum amount PETRAS may award to any single application is £5,000. Once awarded, the funds must be spent by 31st August 2023.

Types of events/activities you can propose to be supported through the Grant include:

  • Workshops between PETRAS Lenses, projects and User Partners to share their findings, lessons learnt, and synthesise their outcomes;
  • Workshops to share research outputs and seek User Partner and wider stakeholder feedback;
  • Conference participation to present your PETRAS work and disseminate your findings (your accepted publication must acknowledge PETRAS in writing);
  • Organising lectures, conferences (part of), workshops, symposia and seminars for academia, industry, government, or for the general public to promote KE, to evolve and inform current research direction, as well as strengthen your PETRAS-funded projects’ and the Centre’s dissemination, impact, and engagement activities.

Types of events/activities NOT to be supported through the Grant include:

  • Research projects of any size/duration;
  • Bridging funding to retain PDRAs;
  • An event/activity that is not directly related to a PETRAS funded project (both the PETRAS Hub and PETRAS Centre funded projects are eligible to apply).

The Event Support Grants are not designed to support individual research projects or activities. If your PETRAS-funded project requires extra funding for additional PETRAS related research activities and your existing budget does not allow you to do so, you can contact PETRAS to discuss if the Centre could support you with that. You can contact us via petras-proposals@ucl.ac.uk . If you want to be considered for such support, you must be prepared to evidence: (i) your initially contracted work is being delivered as planned, (ii) the PETRAS REB recommendations on research quality aspects are being addressed to the funder’s satisfaction, and (iii) the full finance update in a format to be requested by PETRAS.

Similarly, you can contact PETRAS via petras-proposals@ucl.ac.uk if your event/activity budget is larger than £5,000. In such cases, the enquirers may be asked to present a summary of their plans to a PETRAS interview panel prior to submitting any application. Given the larger budgeting, such applications will be treated outside the remit of this Grant and dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Eligibility:

Applicants from existing PETRAS academic partner institutions, who are/were part of PETRAS-funded projects (both PETRAS hub and PETRAS Centre funded projects) are eligible to apply.

You can find a list of our academic partners here: https://petras-iot.org/about-us/ .

You can find a list of projects funded by PETRAS (both the Hub and the Centre) here: https://petras-iot.org/projects/ .

NOTE: The applicants must confirm that their projects have exhausted their budgets for travel and subsistence, and other costs in order to seek additional funds through this Grant.

Funding:

The Grants offered will be for up to a maximum of £5,000 per application, and the award will be paid directly to the applicants’ institutions as a lump sum only, upon provision of invoice and fulfilment of the Grant requirements as stated below.

PETRAS expects that the invoices will be submitted together with copies of receipts for the costs incurred by the successful applicants. The costs incurred will be invoiced at 100%.

Applications must be led by an investigator/researcher from one of PETRAS’ existing academic partner institutions, who are/were part of PETRAS-funded projects (both PETRAS hub and PETRAS Centre funded project staff are eligible). If funded, they would be responsible for the development and delivery of the event/activity and for reporting on the outcomes and budget.

Applications for collaborative events between multiple partner institutions are permitted. However, one of the institutions must be nominated as the lead for the Grant administration, and a single invoice must be produced by the lead institution.

All costs should be inclusive of VAT and/or any other applicable tax.

The following costs* can be claimed through the Grant:

  • Audio, video, teleconference support and virtual event hosting platform fees (only to cover event’s time period);
  • Catering costs (meals, coffee breaks, etc.);
  • Consumables for the event/activity;
  • Equipment hire for producing video recordings and/or audio formats;
  • Event facilitator/coordinator fees;
  • Printing and publicity related costs;
  • Speaker fees/honorariums;
  • Travel, accommodation, and subsistence costs for organisers and speakers (including User Partners and other attendees); and
  • Venue hire costs.

*All subject to EPSRC rules and requirements and must follow the financial regulations of the university submitting the application. Equipment funding is not available through this call.

Where applicable, PETRAS expects that PDRA and PhD students should be able to attend the proposed events/activities, with no attendance fees.

How to apply:

Applications are invited for events/activities to take place ONLY between 24th April 2023 and 31st August 2023. The Grant applicants are now open for submissions and will close on 31st July 2023, 09.00 UK time. The applications must be submitted using the online form here. A PDF version of the application form can be downloaded using the link provided at the end of this document. The PDF file should be treated as an example to see the questions asked in the online form, and not to be used for submissions directly.

Requirements:

Within one month of completion of the event/activity, the successful grantees will be required to provide an invoice for the work done as detailed above (within the Grant limits offered), and work with the PETRAS Comms team to produce a blog post about their event (including quotes from participants, photos, posters/papers, videos etc.) for the PETRAS website (https://petras-iot.org). The grantees will also be expected to make an entry on EPSRC’s ResearchFish system, capturing associated event/activity details.

In addition to the blog posts and the ResearchFish entries, PETRAS expects that each application will include a tangible asset (digital and/or physical) to be produced and shared with the Centre within one month of completion. Digital asset examples include (these must be PETRAS branded):

  • PPT slides;
  • Case study;
  • Pamphlet;
  • Infographic;
  • Video;
  • Public facing article, i.e., conversation; and
  • Contribution to a podcast.

If you are planning to produce a physical asset, like physical exhibits, then PETRAS will expect to have a blog post about it with photos/videos at minimum. Please also be prepared that PETRAS may invite you to showcase your physical assets at various events in the future.

Once funded, the details of these assets will be placed in a library of assets on the PETRAS website, and made available to the Centre and its academic members for further dissemination purposes.

The invoices will only be paid once the asset(s) are received, and the blog post and the ResearchFish entries are completed.

Evaluation:

All applications must be explicitly linked to an existing or previously funded PETRAS project(s), and demonstrate substantial focus for their event/activity is around the cybersecurity of devices and networks at the edge of the internet.

Applications will be assessed by the PETRAS Management Team, who may seek advice as appropriate from other PETRAS members and/or external experts.

Under normal circumstances, PETRAS anticipates to review and inform the applicants about their submissions within 2-3 weeks of receipt. The applicants must not organise events/activities prior to hearing back from PETRAS on their submission outcome.

The review panel will consider the quality and significance of the proposed event /activity in enhancing the applicants’ PETRAS-funded projects’ as well as PETRAS’ impact and engagement activities, and will be looking to fund a diverse set of events/activities spread between 24th April 2023 to 31st August 2023.

Enquiries:

After having read the summary above, if you have further questions on the Grant, please contact PETRAS via: petras-proposals@ucl.ac.uk .

Downloads:

Example application form (not to be used for submissions): https://petras-iot.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/PESG-Example-Application-Form.pdf

 PDF version of the PETRAS Event Support Grants (PESG) guideline document: https://petras-iot.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/PESG-Guideline-Document.pdf