UK research partnership inspired by ERA
A UK partnership which aims to encourage the transfer of academic research results into commercial applications and industry says that it has been inspired by the ethos of the next RTD framework programme (FP6) and the proposed European research area (ERA). Jon Holmes, manager of the Smart Optics Faraday partnership, said that the partnership has applied for a grant from the UK government to look into boosting the involvement of research and industry in the next EU framework programme and help improve access to EU funding opportunities. Mr Holmes said the partnership would be looking in particular at networks of excellence under FP6, CRAFT and European space agency (ESA) and European Southern Observatory (ESO) programmes. The Smart Optics Faraday partnership is an organisation managed by 3 'hub partners' - UK optical instrumentation company Siraeo, the Mullard space science laboratory, which is part of the University College of London, and the UK astronomy technology centre, part of the Royal Observatory. Each partner contributes personnel and resources to the project, which helps to exploit the results of academic research by funding projects targeted at end products with commercial applications. He explained that a study is currently being undertaken on EU funding opportunities, the conclusions of which should be ready by early 2002. He said that half a million pounds of funding has been provided both by PPARC (the particle physics and astronomy research council) and EPSRC (the engineering and physical sciences research council) to support research work in the UK. The partnership has also been awarded a 1.2 million pound grant by the UK government's department of trade and industry to run the partnership, including its web site and promotional activities, for three years. There are a total of 18 Faraday partnerships in the UK, aimed at improving collaboration between academic research and industry.