{"id":1421,"date":"2019-01-16T15:04:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T15:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/?p=1421"},"modified":"2025-05-19T15:05:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T14:05:52","slug":"eira-4-7m-pot-connecting-businesses-with-research-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/2019\/01\/16\/eira-4-7m-pot-connecting-businesses-with-research-power\/","title":{"rendered":"EIRA: \u00a34.7m pot connecting businesses with research power"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/easternarc.ac.uk\/eira\/\">EIRA<\/a>\u00a0project (Enabling Innovation: Research to Application) was awarded \u00a34.7m from Research England\u2019s Connecting Capability Fund and is now\u00a0open for applications from businesses looking to innovate\u00a0by working with academics.<\/p>\n<p>The aim of EIRA is to support the national\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/topical-events\/the-uks-industrial-strategy\">Industrial Strategy<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0driving growth and increasing productivity\u00a0in the East of England by\u00a0transforming the way businesses connect with universities\u00a0and colleges.<\/p>\n<p>The EIRA network is led by the University of Essex working with the University of Kent and the University of East Anglia, fellow members of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/easternarc.ac.uk\/\">Eastern Academic Research Consortium\u00a0<\/a>(Eastern ARC), which was established to encourage research collaboration and training.\u00a0\u00a0Kent leads collaboration on Digital Humanities\u00a0for Eastern ARC.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/ovc\/people\/profiles\/phillippe_de_wilde.html\">Professor Philippe De Wilde<\/a>, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research &amp; Innovation at Kent, said: \u2018Strong university partnerships focus on\u00a0research as well as innovation. The Connecting Capability Fund has given us the opportunity to\u00a0bring the best of innovation support together. Artificial intelligence, biotechnology and digital creative are particularly well suited to businesses in the Eastern ARC geographic area.\u00a0Integrated economies are stronger economies.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The other EIRA network members are Harlow College, Norwich University of the Arts, the University of Suffolk and Writtle University College.<\/p>\n<p>EIRA Director Kirstie Cochrane said: \u2018Artificial intelligence is\u00a0transforming all sectors\u00a0of our economy, biotechnology is having\u00a0an impact on everything from food production to medicine\u00a0and the East of England is recognised as a\u00a0centre of excellence\u00a0in the digital creative sector.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>With a range of majority-funded grants available, EIRA will\u00a0help\u00a0businesses of all sizes develop new products, services, and solutions. The project supports businesses operating in, or seeking solutions from, the three key areas. Support includes Innovation Vouchers to\u00a0fund access to academic expertise\u00a0and Research and Development Grants. More opportunities are in development, with Innovation Internships and start-up microfinance.<\/p>\n<p>Partners from\u00a0industry, regional membership organisations, and local enterprise partnerships\u00a0strengthen EIRA\u2019s offering. They include BT, TechEast, Agri-Tech East, Digital Catapult, South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP), and New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (NALEP).<\/p>\n<p>Businesses and academics interested in\u00a0accessing EIRA funding for innovative projects\u00a0can find out more by contacting the Kent Team at<a href=\"mailto:enterprise@kent.ac.uk\"> enterprise@kent.ac.uk\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0EIRA\u00a0project (Enabling Innovation: Research to Application) was awarded \u00a34.7m from Research England\u2019s Connecting Capability Fund and is now\u00a0open for applications from businesses looking to innovate\u00a0by &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/2019\/01\/16\/eira-4-7m-pot-connecting-businesses-with-research-power\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74795,"featured_media":1422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[282613,13897,9112],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1423,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1421\/revisions\/1423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/ris\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}