Call for Proposals: Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre (CirPlas) Small Grants Scheme - Deadline 24 June 2019

The Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre (CirPlas) addresses contemporary challenges from the manufacturing of more sustainable materials to driving innovations in plastic recycling. CirPlas invites proposals for small grants to support projects that contribute towards the Centre’s goals. For more information about the Centre, please see the CirPlas website: https://www.energy.cam.ac.uk/Plastic_Waste

Scope
This fund supports new, small, collaborative multi-disciplinary projects that take a circular economy approach to the elimination of plastic waste.

  • Projects may have outcomes that are academic and/or make an impact beyond academia.
  • Projects must be inter- or multi-disciplinary: i.e. combine expertise from the home disciplines of at least two Departments, preferably in different Schools.
  • The scope of eligible activities is very broad. Examples include: a case study or proof of principle experiment; the production of a prototype; the testing of a prototype; a field visit; an outreach programme; a web-based tool.

Eligibility
The call is open to early career researchers at the University of Cambridge.

  • PhD students may participate, but the project lead must be an early career PI or a Post Doc who has the support of their PI.
  • Early career PIs are those who attained their PhD less than five years ago.
  • Projects must have a minimum of two applicants from different disciplines.
  • With the exception of staff time, most costs are likely to be eligible. Examples include: travel and subsistence, venue hire and catering for events, materials and consumables, and communications costs.

Funding
Five awards of up to £2000 each are available.

  • If international travel is required further funds of up to £1000 may be requested.
  • All costs will need to be fully justified.

Reporting
Projects will start from June and will be completed by December 2019.

  • Final reports are due on 17 January 2020.
  • Participants will be expected to deliver a presentation on their project at a CirPlas event early in 2020.

Support

  • Potential applicants are invited to an ideation and team formation event on 10 June 2019 in the Rayleigh Seminar room, Maxwell Centre, West Cambridge from 14:00-17:00.

It is recommended that a member of the project team attends to find out more about the call, to develop your proposal, to find potential partners and to meet the mentors. Please register here to attend.

Each funded project will be allocated a mentor from the Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre (CirPlas) team.

Deadlines and Schedule

  • 17 May 2019 – Call opens
  • 10 June 2019, 14:00-17:00 – Ideation and team formation event (Rayleigh Seminar room, Maxwell Centre, West Cambridge register here)
  • 24 June 2019 at 09:00 – Proposal submission deadline
  • 28 June 2019 – Competition results announced
  • 17 January 2020 – Projects completed (finance reports finalised)
  • 31 January 2020 – final reports submitted
  • February or March 2020 – report back presentation

Click here to automatically download the CirPlas Small Grant application form. Please return the completed form to energy@admin.cam.ac.uk by the deadline of 9am on Monday 24 June 2019.

Please acknowledge financial support from the UKRI Plastics and Research Innovation Fund (PRIF) in any output from the project.

For the further information please contact Shafiq Ahmed (sa345@cam.ac.uk) or Lara Allen (lva20@cam.ac.uk).