News | Wednesday, 29th November 2017
EPSRC and NCOP funding grants
Dr Robyn Grant has received an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant, totalling £550,000 over 3 years. Moreover, an £11,000 funding for the National Collaborative Outreach Programme, which aligns with outreach elements of the Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre has been approved.
EPSRC funding awarded to Dr Robyn Grant
Dr Robyn Grant has received an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant entitled Modelling the Mechanics of Animal Whiskers (MMEAW). The grant is also part-funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), totalling £550,000 over 3 years, with £138,000 coming to Dr Grant at Manchester Met. Other investigators in the project include Mathematicians Dr Geoff Goss at London South Bank University and Professor Gert van der Heijden at University of Central Lancashire.
Dr Grant said: “MMEAW is a multi-disciplinary research project, seeking to extend our extend our understanding and knowledge of how whiskers are adapted to their function. It is my job at Manchester Met to provide morphological shape measurements of whiskers to mathematicians in London, for them to model the circumstances where whisker might buckle and bend, which would interrupt their sensing capacity. I will then look at how the whiskers are controlled in a range of species to reduce the instances of buckling and bending. We will then apply this understanding to applications in robotics and structural engineering.”
Hydrogen Outreach Project Funding
Funding for the National Collaborative Outreach Programme (NCOP), which aligns with the outreach elements of the Manchester Fuel Cell Innovation Centre (MCFCIC) has been approved. The £11K value of the fund, which has been allocated for the year 17/18, will allow for events both within the faculty and externally at schools. The funding will be used to pay for students for delivery following training from the faculty.
The outreach activity is set to:
- Create a new, inter-faculty approach to engage a multidiscipline team of students to answer questions relating to science and issues of science communication
- Utilise the student teams to deliver a public engagement/outreach campaign answering the question “How do we engage different communities (e.g. schools and community groups) with Hydrogen Technology?” which is a current concern within the field of hydrogen research
The project is now looking to start recruiting student teams in the New Year. In addition, the project will also look for animations to be produced by Art students to portray key messages to children.
