In this edition of our newsletter we are delighted to be able to announce DAFNI’s part in the new UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI).
This new centre is a consortium of seven major UK research institutions, led by Oxford University, with the Universities of Leeds, Bristol, and Reading, Imperial College London, The Alan Turing Institute and STFC.
It will drive research and innovation in climate and environmental risk assessment within the financial services sector.
DAFNI’s role will be to enable the CGFI to combine environmental data and predictions of future climate, with complex computer models of our towns and regions. These can be used to estimate the risks of future financial investments.
The DAFNI platform is a place to share the results with the financial industry, bringing the CGFI’s research expertise to bear on real world problems. For further information please continue reading below.
Dr Brian Matthews, DAFNI Project Lead
Contents
- NISMOD meets DAFNI
- Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI)
- Recent DAFNI enhancements
- Our pick of funding & training calls
NISMOD meets DAFNI
On the 21st January, we demonstrated the ITRC’s National Infrastructure System-of-Systems Model (NISMOD), now available on DAFNI.
Click the links below to see a selection of videos from the event or visit the DAFNI YouTube account:
Introduction to NISMOD // Professor Jim Hall, UK Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (ITRC), University of Oxford and Chair of DAFNI Governance Board
What DAFNI enables // Dr Brian Matthews, DAFNI Project Lead, Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Introduction to NISMOD and the Oxford Cambridge ARC Analysis // Tom Russell, University of Oxford
Demo of NISMOD Workflows on DAFNI // Rose Dickinson, Research Software Engineer, DAFNI, Scientific Computing Department, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Demo of NISMOD visualisations // Martin Robinson, University of Oxford
The Q&A and the videos above can also be found on the DAFNI website.
Green Finance: DAFNI part of a new £10M UK centre for climate and environmental risk for the financial industry
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Innovate UK, both part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), are funding a new £10 million research and innovation programme to create a new UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI).
It will begin its work at the start of April 2021, ahead of the United Nations’ COP26 conference, which is hosted by the UK in Glasgow this November.
To learn more and find out how DAFNI is supporting this new venture, read the full news release on the DAFNI website.
Recent DAFNI enhancements
Here is a snapshot of just some of the enhancements added to DAFNI during February 2021:
New
- Workflow metadata page introduced which provides a cover page to workflow information
Improvements
- Combined the upload and publish actions on the Add Data page into one, meaning users no longer need to wait for their files to finish uploading before pressing publish
- Added a progress bar to the data uploading dialog
- Added a cancel button to the data uploading dialog that will allow users to stop the creation of a dataset if they wish to go back and change metadata or files
- Changed the behaviour of the dataset metadata form, the publish button will no longer be disabled, instead users will be able to press it even with invalid metadata, the form will be validated at that point and any errors highlighted
Funding & training calls
- NERC large grant
Deadline: 9 March 16:00 UK
This funding opportunity supports researchers to carry out world-class research projects in any area of environmental science within our remit. - NERC highlight topics
Deadline: 25 March 16:00 UK
You can apply for funding for research projects which address environmental challenges covered by six new highlight topics. Your proposal must address issues within a single highlight topic. - Expression of interest: transforming UK food systems for health and environment
Deadline: 22 April 16:00 UK – Apply for funding to support interdisciplinary research aiming to transform the UK food system for healthy people and a healthy environment. Your project can be led by an eligible UK-based researcher in any discipline and must collaborate with at least one stakeholder organisation. - Farming innovation pathways (FIP): feasibility studies Deadline: 28 April 2021 11:00 UK time. UK registered businesses and research organisations can apply to carry out feasibility studies. Projects will address these farming challenges:
- Productivity
- Sustainability
- Net zero emissions.
- Access to high performance computing – Deadline: 30 April 2021 16:00 UK time – Apply for access to high performance computing (HPC) services to support any research in EPSRC’s remit. The services are tier 1 (ARCHER2) and tier 2. You must live in the UK and be from one of these UK organisations:
- Higher education institution
- Research council institute
- UKRI-independent research organisation
- NHS body with research capacity.
Funding & training calls cont…
- Pre-announcement: NERC scientific support and facilities
Deadline: 22 June 2021 16:00 UK time
Tell us what you need from the next generation of NERC’s scientific support and facilities (S&F).
We want to hear about S&F ideas that are essential to the delivery of environmental science over the next five to 10 years.
This is not a funding opportunity. We will use your ideas to design future funding opportunities - EPSRC standard research grant
Deadline: Proposals are welcome at any time. You can apply for standard research grants at any time in any area funded by EPSRC: chemistry, engineering, information and communications technologies, materials, mathematical sciences and physics. - EPSRC programme grant
Deadline: Proposals are welcome at any time.
You can apply for large and strategic programme grants at any time in any area funded by EPSRC: chemistry, engineering, information and communications technologies, materials, mathematical sciences and physics. - EPSRC network grant
Deadline: Proposals are welcome at any time.
You can apply for network grants to build new interdisciplinary research communities and topics at any time in any area funded by EPSRC: chemistry, engineering, information and communications technologies, materials, mathematical sciences and physics. - Strategic equipment grant
Deadline: Proposals are welcome at any time. You can apply for funding for cutting-edge equipment that improves your ability to carry out research in any area funded by EPSRC: chemistry, engineering, information and communications technologies, materials, mathematical sciences and physics. - EPSRC discipline-hopping in ICT
Deadline: Proposals are welcome at any time.
You can apply for support to use your ICT skills in a new discipline or learn ICT research skills to apply them in your own discipline.
- EPSRC new investigator award Deadline: Proposals are welcome at any time.
You can apply for this award at any time in any area funded by EPSRC if you are an academic and have not previously led a research group or received a significant grant
Further funding opportunities available through: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/
Further opportunities available through: www.raeng.org.uk/grants-prizes