EEDA - ICASE Awards

ICASE Awards

Regional companies can apply to sponsor a PhD student from a regional university to assist them in solving a research, design or manufacturing problem, drawing on the region’s academic expertise.

EEDA is administering a competition for Industrial Co-operative Awards in Science and Engineering (ICASE) Studentships for the East of England region on behalf of the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). EEDA is acting as an agent to allocate two studentships in 2010/11.

In the last few years these studentships have been allocated to regional small and medium sized companies based within the East of England. These are to enable a company to take the lead in defining projects for students and selecting the academic partner of their choice. Companies interested in sponsoring a student will need to contact the relevant academic department. Direct links to universities and their websites can be found through the regional academia–industry portal, Ask Uni-East: http://www.uni-east.ac.uk/ask-uni-east

Benefits to business include:

awards can provide an economic way of solving your research, design or manufacturing problems
the scheme allows industry to forge closer links with universities and draw on their expertise and facilities
EPSRC is prepared to waive any claims it may have to an interest in the research results obtained, provided that satisfactory terms can be reached between the company, university and EPSRC.

Financial Contribution and Conditions

Each student attracts an award of up to £66,838 (over three and a half years) from the EPSRC to cover student stipend, university fees and costs to the university department. The company is required to contribute at least £22,279 (equivalent to a minimum of one third of the EPSRC funding) over three and half years towards the student’s stipend and university costs plus expenses incurred as a result of attendance at the company premises.

A range of additional terms and conditions do apply, including:

EPSRC expects that the funds allocated are used to support the specific student/project
students are expected to spend at least three months of a three and a half year award on the premises of the industrial partner
should a student drop out before completion of the project, EPSRC expects the university to approach the industrial partner in the first instance with a view to identifying a suitable replacement.

For further details see the Industrial CASE grant conditions on EPSRC website http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/students/coll/icase

Eligibility

When considering company eligibility, the review panel will be looking for those companies;

with under 250 employees including any parent company/group if applicable (i.e. SME)
located within the East of England Development Agency region (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk) with some form of Research & Development facility / department
who are prepared to jointly supervise the student with the academic institution
who are prepared to provide a placement for the student at their premises (at least 3 months during the 3.5 years). Contact should be maintained between the project partner, supervisor and student throughout the duration of the award
where the research will take between 3 to 3.5 years and is at PhD level
where the project is research based and not developmental
where the route for commercial exploitation has been clearly identified.

Applications from companies who have not previously collaborated with a university or from new academic-university partnerships will be given priority. Priority will also be given to projects that focus on the following EPSRC themes; Energy, Digital Economy, Nanoscience, Healthcare and/or are targeted at one or more of the following Sector priorities; Aerospace & Defence; Construction, Environment & Water; Electronics; Healthcare; Manufacturing; Power; Process Industries; Software, Media & Communications; Transport Systems;