Can you think of a way to stimulate public discussion?
August 5, 2008 Posted by Stephen Hilton in : e-democracy, Bristol, Funding, Bids , 1 comment so farThe Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Building Democracy Programme has £150K available to develop about 10 projects that will use innovative approaches to help stimulate public debate.
MoJ is following MySociety’s approach by inviting potential bidders to float their initial ideas online and to strengthen their proposals through open discussion before making a final submission.
It will be interesting to see if this open collaborative approach can work in the setting of a Government-sponsored site.
The deadline for submissions is 26th September 08.
Technology and Planning
March 12, 2008 Posted by julzswitch in : Bristol, Funding, Guest Bloggers , add a commentSpent a day with staff from Black Development Agency, which is based on Russell Town Avenue in Bristol (yes, I do work in Bristol as well), and we had some discussions about the importance of technology in the overall planning of organisations. Its really interesting to find out how different organisations are using various planning tools to see how technology suits their current and future plans. We looked at the need to plan for hardware, software, online resources, websites, emails, maintenance work and staff ICT training. BDA are using the net:gain process to set up a new ICT strategic plan and its providing a good basis from which to review their current systems and their overall work. The same old issue of funding and how to secure the investment needed to enhance the ICT within organisations was also discussed. I am hoping to be able to provide further help with BDA work in future and to run some workshops and training for the groups which they serve.
It was also a useful opportunity to compare and contrast the needs of urban organisations with those in rural areas, and some feedback from a recent event puts this much more succintly than I can - “its not that organsations in rural and urban areas necessarily have different ICT support needs, its just that the way in which that support is provided can be very different”.
More work this afternoon back at COSMIC - and my attention turns the production of our annual report. Business performance, consultation with clients, project reports and finances all need condensing into an easily digested read ahead of our AGM in two weeks. Gulp!
Julie Harris, COSMIC
£100m Funding for Technology Innovation
November 19, 2007 Posted by Stephen Hilton in : Bristol, Innovation, News, Technology, Funding , add a commentThe Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, John Denham, has announced that the business-led Technology Strategy Board will invest a further £100m in innovation, and invites businesses to submit proposals for collaborative research and development in innovation and new technology.
The competition, which covers eight technology areas and which will be phased over 6 months, is designed to generate innovative proposals in which businesses work together and with research communities on research and technology projects to deliver successful new products and services.
Proposals with potential applications across several business sectors, which build on links between academic and business research and which involve SMEs would be especially welcome.
The eight technology areas for which submissions are invited are
Phase 1, opening 8 November 2007:
* Materials for Energy
* High Value Manufacturing
* Cell Therapy
Phase 2, opening 19 December 2007:
* Low Carbon Energy Technologies
* Advanced Lighting, Lasers and Displays
* Technologies for Health
Phase 3, opening 30 January 2008:
* Gathering Data in Complex Environments
* Creative Industries
