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Funding

In 2023/24 there will be the opportunity for LIFD members to apply for a range of funding on a rolling basis, with decision panels set to meet every two months ahead of the deadline for expenditure.

LIFD Fund Calls

  • Seedcorn and partnership funding: The aim of the scheme is to fund small pilot projects, equipment or activities that will develop or enhance interdisciplinary collaborations and will lead to a more substantial research activity such as an externally funded grant application or publications. Proposals can be up to a maximum of £5,000 for equipment and £3,000 for partnership development.
  • Mobility: Up to £1,500 to support hosting a visiting international researcher, or to support you visiting an international collaborator in the area of Fluid Dynamics. The aim of the visit (in either direction) should be to create high-profile outputs (e.g. journal papers) or to develop collaborations such as through a joint grant proposal or workshop. The funding cannot be used to support conference attendance or to fund PhD student visits.  The call is open to academic and postdoctoral research staff whose research aligns to LIFD. https://fluids.leeds.ac.uk/work-with-us/visiting-researchers-in-lifd/
  • Outreach: Up to £1,500 to develop and/or support the delivery of outreach demonstrations or activities in fluid dynamics.

LIFD-HEIF Fund Calls

The LIFD have dedicated funds from the University’s UKRI Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF)  scheme to support knowledge exchange that benefits society and the economy (see https://fluids.leeds.ac.uk/funding/). Please note this funding must be spent on strategic activity and cannot be used to pay for equipment or staff costs.

  • Industry seedcorn funding: Up to £3,000 to support workshops or pilot projects that are intended to lead to new collaborations, KE and potentially progress towards new funding bids (e.g. Innovate UK, KTPs), proof of concept projects and/or market research.
  • Knowledge exchange scheme with push-pull residences: Up to £1,500 for either sending LIFD researchers to visit industrial colleagues (push residence) or hosting industrial colleagues at LIFD (pull residence).
  • Engaging with policy makers: Up to £1,000 to support members to engage with policy makers and the general public e.g. workshops for policy engagement; and support to internships and policy fellowships.

Decision panels for funding applications will take place at the end of the following months:

  • December
  • February
  • April

All expenditure and associated activity/visits must be completed by 31st July 2024. Applications and queries should be submitted to fluids-institute@leeds.ac.uk

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LIFD's strategic objectives for 23/24 are: 

  1. Continue to remain active in lobbying for fluid dynamics to be a priority area for research funding bodies, policy makers and government. 
  2. Support Early and Mid-Career Researchers working in fluids to develop their leadership skills, collaborate with peers within and beyond the University and secure tenure track positions, prestigious fellowships and strategic collaborative projects.  
  3. Build on existing partnerships with industry/PSRE/third-party/charities and seek opportunities for new partnerships to maximise the impact of LIFD research activities beyond the academic community and enable knowledge exchange. 
  4. Position UoL to capitalise on rapid advances, education and training needs and large funding calls, including leadership of data-driven fluid dynamics and AI funding applications. 
  5. Continue to build the international profile of interdisciplinary fluid dynamics at Leeds and across the UK by hosting visitors, presenting research at international meetings, and building on our collaborative partnerships.  

 

LIFD-HEIF fund goals for 23/24 are:

Specific actions / interventions Output
Support for LIFD groups Suggested Outputs: 

  • Support for development of further learning resources for staff and PGRs (e.g. Jupyter notebooks on data driven methods in Fluids).  
  • Development of short MOOC in Fluid Dynamics in collaboration with the Digital Education Support Team. The course will be a Transition to Masters FutureLearn course covering fluid dynamics, with a strong emphasis on providing a flavour of what students will cover if they undertake a masters course at Leeds and the employment options following award (outline plan already prepared).  
Fellowship and strategic project support Suggested Outputs:  

  • Seed corn funding will be promoted to support workshops or pilot projects that are intended to lead to new collaborations, KE and potentially progress towards new funding bids (e.g. Innovate UK, KTPs), proof of concept projects and/or market research. 
  • Knowledge exchange scheme with push-pull residences (which are mechanisms for either sending LIFD researchers to visit industrial colleagues (push residence) or hosting industrial colleagues at LIFD (pull residence). 
  • Host up to 3 workshops with strategic PSRE partners e.g. the Met Office, HSE, DSTL to build on or develop new collaborations through PhD students and grant proposals 
ECR specific support Suggested Outputs: 

  • Leadership training programme hosted by the Horizons Institute.  Leadership development is needed to enable junior and mid-career staff to be better equipped to take on future research leadership roles such as the Director of a research institute. 
Hosting visitors at LIFD    Suggested outputs:  

  • For example, host UK-SEDI (Study of Earth’s Deep Interior) meeting at the University of Leeds to bring together the strong community of deep Earth researchers specialising in core and mantle fluid dynamics in the UK and abroad. This 2-day meeting will involve invited review talks, discussions and a focus on contributed talks and poster presentations from early-career researchers. 
  • Offer funded places for additional external researchers (not EPSRC NFFDy fellows) in order to attend the upcoming EPSRC NFFDy summer school being hosted in Leeds in 2024 (theme: fluids applications of data driven methods). 

 
Outreach/public engagement  Suggested outputs: 

  • Creation of online and physical resource (book) to raise awareness of fluid dynamics for the younger generation as part of the Be Curious Read project (e.g.  https://www.leeds.ac.uk/becurious/doc/be-curious-read)    
  • Host a Women in Fluids in the UK event – talks, discussion panel, networking open to UK Fluids researchers.
Influencing policy, government and funding bodies   Suggested Outputs: 

  • Facilitate up to 3 workshops/meetings with the UK fluids research community and with funders, industry and policy makers to co-create moonshots/big ideas/global challenges for Fluid Dynamics. 
  • Support LIFD members to engage with policy makers and the general public e.g. policy push-pull residences; mentoring and workshops for policy engagement; and support to internships and policy fellowships.