Announcement of Opportunity

A total fund of £240,000 is available across the two sandpit events. We are interested in proposals looking at Infrastructure Resilience in the following two areas, Transport and Energy. 

The DAFNI Programme and it’s Centre of Excellence is seeking to support feasibility studies. We will fund projects which develop and explore scenarios in response to a particular short-term or long-term shock and develop appropriate solutions which demonstrate an aspect of resilience. Of particular interest are scenarios which can be transferred from one geographic region to another, can be scaled up to a national scale, or explore the interactions between different infrastructure systems and with environmental and societal features in a multidisciplinary approach. 

Projects should include how to access, use, and combine data and computational models to evaluate and measure the impact of shocks, and propose appropriate responses and adaptations to further resist, absorb and recover from the shock event. 

Here are some examples of areas we would seek to fund:  

Transport:

• Modelling of transport systems to identify pinch points which cause transport systems failures and explore mitigation strategies.
• Digital twin of a transport system or operational systems to consider impact of failures and potential approaches to mitigation.
• Simulating the impact of natural and human derived shocks onto transport systems and explore adaptation and mitigation strategies

Energy:

• Modelling future energy security in response to global shocks in energy supply and analysing the transition risks as the economy adapts to the net zero carbon target.
• Digital twin of an energy system to consider impact of failures resulting from unexpected events and potential approaches to mitigation.
• Renewable Energy Sources:  Diversifying to zero carbon energy sources – modelling of Energy demand and impact of climate on net zero energy sources

Requirements for projects:

• Projects should make use of and be made available to stakeholders via the DAFNI platform

• Projects should include a deliverable highlighting their use of data in the scenario, particularly discussing: 
• • • the availability, use and integration of diverse data sources 
    • the organisational and technical barriers to accessing and using those data sources 

Projects will ensure that all results from their research will be available to stakeholders via the DAFNI platform. We anticipate projects of up to £50,000 at 100% FEC with DAFNI programme funding 80% FEC. We are expecting to fund 3 projects in each focus area, Transport and Energy.  

Eligible project costs can include: 

• Staff time cost and overheads (can be included at 80% of the FEC, using research council FEC models) 
• Appropriate travel and subsistence to support the activities 
• Consumables associated with public engagement and wider outreach activities 

• Capital equipment costs (over £10,000) will not be eligible.
• Postgraduate studentship costs are not eligible.
• Projects should engage with wider stakeholders in academia, government and industry, and proposers should specify how they plan to interact with stakeholders to maximise impact.
• STFC will fund 80% FEC.
• Transport projects must start on 1 April 2024 and finish before 31st March 2025
• Energy projects must start on 1 May 2024 and finish before 31st March 2025

You must apply by completing the submitting an expression of interest survey online here, addressing the following points on the application form: 

• Availability to attend the Sandpits 
• Background and expertise 
• Brief description of your proposal (context, challenge the project addresses, aims and objectives and potential applications and benefits) 
• Personal skills 
• Other information 

The expression of interest survey results will indicate participant availability for these dates and their commitment to attend if shortlisted. Please be advised attendance for the sandpit event is mandatory, noting this will be conducted virtually via Zoom. 

If you have any questions regarding the survey or the sandpit process, please contact Katie Cartmell, DAFNI Partnership Manager. 

All Expression of Interest forms should be received up to and including the deadline of 17:00 on Friday 19th of January 2024. If you have any questions, please email info@dafni.ac.uk, with the subject line ‘Sandpit Application – ‘Insert Area of Interest’

We are conducting this sandpit process to allow people to develop their proposals quickly and form collaborations with other researchers.  

Sandpit applications will be initially reviewed by the DAFNI Programme team and assessed on the following criteria: 

• Availability to attend the Sandpits  
• Must be eligible to be a Principle Investigator on grants according to UKRI Rules 
• Relevant expertise, background and skills 
• Project proposed is technically feasible on DAFNI 
• Able to start on the project start dates

Participant selection will be based solely on the information provided in the expression of interest form. 

Within the pool of applicants selected based on these assessment criteria, we will look to ensure a balance of different disciplines, career paths and backgrounds, career stages, geographic distribution and landscape diversity. 

Achieving the sandpit aims will require participants from an appropriate mix of diverse backgrounds and relevant disciplines. Participants from a diverse range of disciplines from across the UKRI remit are therefore encouraged to apply to attend this sandpit. 

Once assessed against the criteria and scored, successful applications will be sent a calendar invitation along with further details from info@dafni.ac.uk.

Overview of the Sandpit Process 

Post-sandpit proposal assessment 

Following the sandpit, successful project teams will be invited to write a lightweight project proposal document which will include the following information; 

• Project Outline and Deliverables 
• Proposed timeline of activities 
• Data Management Plan 
• Justification of Resources  
• Costing Model 

The deadline for submission of full proposals is expected to be one month post award funding confirmation. 

Proposals will be submitted to info@dafni.ac.uk. Further guidance on this part of the process will be available at the end of the sandpit process. 

External Panel 

We have invited external experts to collectively review your application against the criteria outlined below. The panel will be present at the Sandpit Presentations session and will be individually scoring throughout each presentation. The panel have a follow up meeting to agree on scores, after which the panel will make a funding recommendation. 

Sandpit applications will be reviewed by the panel and assessed on the following criteria: 

• Scientific technical excellence 
• Originality and potential contribution to knowledge, with a focus of the aims of the Building a Secure and Resilience World Programme and DSIT Research Data Cloud Programme. 
• Research design and methods, including feasibility of work-plan and suitability and sustainability of research within the DAFNI platform. 
• Value for money 

Please note STFC will make the final funding decision. 

Find out more about STFC’s assessment process.