Aerospace
The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is to Invest up to £5m in collaborative R&D encouraging innovative solutions to high-risk challenges facing the UK aerospace industry. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) could contribute a further £1m for projects with a significant, academic research component.  At least 20 companies make up Scotland's space community and could participate.

This is an open competition looking to fund applied research projects attracting up to 50% public funding. Proposals must be  collaborative and business-led. TSB expects to invest between £500k and £1m in each successful project, although projects outside this range will be considered.

Projects are likely to have a maximum duration of around two years.

 Aerospace is is a two-stage competition.

It opens on 13 February 2012, deadline for registration is at noon on 14 March 2012. The deadline for expressions of interest is at noon on 21 March 2012. The second stage is for invited applicants and opens on 18 April 2012 with a completed applications deadline at noon on 23 May 2012. Briefing event to be held in London.

Marine energy array technology
The TSB will invest up to £6.5m in new R&D of wave and tidal energy demonstrating generation at scale with lower energy production costs. Scottish Enterprise will invest up to £3m with NERC  up to £1m. This will complement other public funding initiatives such as the Department for Energy and Climate Change's (DECC) Marine Energy Array Deployment capital grant scheme, the Energy Technologies Institute’s (ETI) wave and tidal energy system demonstrator programmes and the Scottish Government's Saltire Prize.

The competition will seek proposals for R&D projects that address themes such as: tidal array cabling; subsea electrical hubs; installation and maintenance vessels for tidal arrays; navigation and collision avoidance as well as anti-fouling & corrosion.

The competition opens on 5 March 2012 with a briefing event to provide more information to prospective applicants will be held in London on 14 March 2012. The deadline for registration is 10 April 2012 and expressions of interest must be submitted by 17 April 201. 

Space & Ocean interface

2010 Memorial University, Canada, received $400,000 US in research funding from Raytheon to advance research into airborne sensor technology for wake detection – disturbances to the ocean surface generated by a moving vessel.