• Canada
• 2016 close
• 2021 close

PROMISS (PRevention Of Malnutrition In Senior Subjects in the EU) is a multi-country project aiming to turn the challenge of tackling malnutrition in community-dwelling older persons into an opportunity for healthy ageing for the future. The PROMISS consortium contains worldwide expertise in epidemiology, clinical trials, geriatrics, nutrition, physical activity, microbiomics, as well as in behaviour, consumer, sensory and computer sciences. It builds on strong collaborations with food industry and SMEs to strengthen innovation of the European agri-food sector and their market position. Existing data from scientifically well-established prospective aging cohorts and national nutritional surveys from Europe and ‘third countries’ will be combined with new data from short- and long-term intervention studies in older persons at risk. Its holistic approach will provide insight in the causality of the links between diet, physical activity, appetite and malnutrition and underlying pathways, thereby providing the necessary evidence to develop optimal, sustainable and evidence-based dietary and physical activity strategies to prevent malnutrition and enhance active and healthy aging. PROMISS will also deliver food concepts and products as well as persuasive technology to support adherence to these strategies. The dietary and physical activity strategies and food products will be specifically developed with older user involvement to meet the needs and fit the preferences of older consumers. In close collaboration with stakeholders, PROMISS will translate these strategies into practical recommendations to guide policy and health professionals at EU- and Member States level. Dissemination and implementation takes place through strong dissemination partners operating on an European level and linked to national networks across Member States. PROMISS promises prevention of malnutrition, additional healthy life years and a strengthening of EU’s food industry

In order to strengthen the sustainability and resilience of health services and systems a unique consortium of governmental and funding organizations plus research institutes, has expressed the ambition to systematically learn from the organisation of care in other settings. Overall objective of TO-REACH is to provide groundwork for a future joint research programme that will contribute to the resilience, effectiveness, equity, accessibility and comprehensiveness of health services and systems. We will do so along two work streams: A) We will develop a research program on cross-border learning from good (or even innovative) models of care and the conditions needed to transfer them to other settings for implementation. It could refer to anywhere in the care chain depending on the priorities as identified in a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) within this project. Conceptual, methodological and empirical advancement will be achieved through 4 meta-questions that will instruct research under a future joint research programme, linking to what counts as good models of care, what are the conditions required for transferability, what are the conditions for up-scaling, and how do they contribute to the performance of health care organisations and systems. B) We will build a platform for funding organizations that allows for collaboration and coordination in the project and projected joint research programme. This will synchronize priorities and activities, hence improving the quality and applicability of research with a focus on the topic areas as described under A. TO-REACH will pursue five specific objectives: Mapping health system challenges and priorities by synthesizing different materials and stakeholder inputs; Developing a framework and providing a knowledge synthesis on the above-mentioned meta-questions; Establishing sustainable cooperation of research funding bodies and links with other initiatives; Developing a SRA through agenda setting at European and Member State level; Disseminating the results of TO-REACH.

This proposal aims to maintain and expand the research impact of an internationally-leading team working on advanced structural materials for applications in nuclear fission and fusion reactors. The funding will enable us to support early-career postdoctoral researchers (ECRs) in a flexible manner tailored to their individual career trajectories, by providing job security, mentorship, opportunities for new skills acquisition and CPD training, and will facilitate their developing their own research ideas. Their training and scientific outputs will contribute to the resurgence of UK fission reactor programmes and the UK's internationally leading role in fusion science and technology. It will be a key factor in maintaining the integrity of the multi-skilled Oxford nuclear materials research team, and in developing the careers of its ECRs, and in reinforcing its position as an attractive environment for research, attracting and supporting new talent. The Platform Grant will also provide resources for the team to explore ambitious and novel research avenues, underpinning applications (from UK and international sources) for larger-scale funding to enhance the international position of the UK in nuclear research.

Sport has played an important part in the lives of British people for centuries and millions of people have been involved in sport as fans. Yet surprising little is known about women's experiences as sports fans historically, so there is an urgent need for research to address this before such memories and experiences are entirely lost to time. Barely any studies have examined the intersections between playing and watching sport and so there is a need for research to examine women's early sporting experiences and how these shape their future involvement in sport and to examine female fans involvement in sport across their lifetimes. Little work has examined the cross sport perceptions of fans of men's football and rugby union in order to consider the extent to which sporting preferences and cross sport perceptions are linked to historical social class differences. This proposed research will make a major contribution towards addressing these areas, making a highly original and important contribution to knowledge. The research will build on Pope's (2010) original study through a comparative study of female fans of men's and women's sports in the North East of England. We draw on four sports' clubs from the county of Tyne and Wear: men's football (Newcastle United FC); men's rugby (Newcastle Falcons); women's football (Sunderland AFC Ladies) and women's netball (Team Northumbria). Arguably, the North East has historically been more male-dominated than other areas of England, thus providing a fascinating landscape to explore women's experiences as sports fans and how women have gained access to the traditionally male domain of sport across the generations. The research aims to examine women's experiences as sports fans in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century. It will also focus upon the critical intersections between sports participation and fandom and will examine how women's early sporting experiences influence their future involvement in sport. The study will focus upon the cross sport perceptions of supporters and the role of historical social class differences in sporting preferences. The research aims to address the following questions: 1. What have been the experiences of female fans of men's and women's sports from 1945-2000? What role has sports fandom played in the lives of female fans across their lifetimes? 2. To what extent is there a relationship between playing and watching sport for female fans? What is the role of physical education and other early sporting experiences in shaping females' future involvement in sport? 3. How do female fans view other sports in the local region? To what extent has sports fandom historically been important for community heritage and local identities? We will achieve these aims by conducting approximately 25 life-history interviews with female fans from our four selected sports clubs, which will mean around 100 respondents in total. Respondents will also be asked if they have any visual images of their involvement in sport and copies will be taken where permission is granted. The research draws on a feminist framework to study sports history and will make a major contribution to the fields of history and sport. As the research draws on an interdisciplinary approach it will also be of interest to researchers working in gender studies, physical education, sociology, popular culture and regional studies. We will publish a research monograph from the research, along with a number of journal papers. Academic conferences will be organised in the UK and with our project partner at the University of British Columbia in Canada to disseminate findings. The research will be beneficial for: charities such as the National Football Museum and Women's Sport and Fitness Foundation; the general public; governing bodies of sport; the selected sports clubs and national government departments. We have planned a series of events to ensure that this wider impact is achieved.

INTERACT aims for a geographically comprehensive and excellent state-of-the-art terrestrial research infrastructure throughout the Arctic and adjoining forest and alpine regions to identify environmental change, to facilitate understanding and prediction of future change and to inform decision makers about societally-relevant impacts. INTERACT is the fundamental building block and one-stop-shop for EU and international projects, programmes and organisations requiring access to northern lands, data and services, and includes a rapid response capability to potential hazards. INTERACT is pan-Arctic, multidisciplinary and crosses EU call domains by linking to forest, coastal, marine and atmospheric communities. INTERACT uniquely unites 77 research stations in a Station Managers’ Forum ensuring inter-comparability of information and excellent science support. A Data Forum improves availability of data by bringing data providers together with data users. Physical (7780 days) pan-Arctic Trans-national Access is offered by 43 stations and virtual access is offered by 29. An innovative TA User Community will stimulate new collaborations and improved information flow while new state-of-the-art educational resources will encourage young scientists. Joint research activities will ensure close cooperation between the Arctic Council’s biodiversity monitoring programme and station activities; develop new technology in a WP led by Industry to enlarge the research stations’ environmental observing footprints; and produce guidance for local communities to adapt to change. INTERACT’s incalculable legacy and societal impact includes aiding people to adapt to local and global environmental changes, recruiting the next generation of environmental scientists, offering access and opportunities to researchers world-wide and providing data and information to high level regional and global organisations and decision-makers.

Satellite contractors are permanently looking for cost and performance improvements. This cascades to the PPU, a subsystem having a very high impact on the cost and performance of EP systems. Hence, we propose to focus on the PPU “heart” studying a disruptive power converter, with major innovations complementary to the incremental improvements, beyond the state of the art. We will demonstrate and combine in a synergistic way innovative technologies (such as GaN, digital control, adaptive filtering and embedded packaging), thus resulting in a radical breakthrough applicable to advanced EP architectures based on such PPU designs. The consortium plans to demonstrate the selected technologies by means of a 7.5 kW power converter to be tested in electrical propulsion existing test facilities, thus providing measurable validation, and specification definition, within the 2016 Phase 1 time frame. This will lead to dramatic improvements in cost, mass and volume targeting part list reduction (by 3), converter efficiency (98%) and optimized thermal characteristics (200°C), translating into system optimization and increased power requirements. Being at the forefront of technological developments, the consortium members are able to anticipate emerging technologies and medium to long term performance requirements consistent with existing and planned space programs at national, commercial and ESA levels. GaNOMIC will constitute a solid technical basis for future Direct Drive configurations, and further down the line, to “distributed” configurations where the PPU can be eliminated altogether. In addition to promoting and accelerating the development of breakthrough EP-related concepts, the consortium members have identified other markets, e.g. aeronautics and automotive, which could benefit from these innovating high performance power converter and related technologies under consideration. The consortium is committed to continue this study in future calls of the SRC.