BACKGROUND

Funding initiative for multidisciplinary research: HumVIB, Cross-national and Multi-level Analysis of Human Values, Institutions and Behaviour

Following agreement with  funding organisations in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom (for special conditions applying to UK applicants for ESRC funds see below) 1*  and the United States (NSF), the European Science Foundation is launching a Call for Outline Proposals for Collaborative Research Projects (CRPs) to be undertaken within the EUROCORES Programme HumVIB.

HumVIB will run for 3-4 years. It includes national research funding, as well as support for networking and dissemination activities provided by the ESF 2*. The Programme aims to support high quality multidisciplinary research.

1*. UK researchers eligible for funding from ESRC, which is participating in "HumVIB"with associate status, and which offers funding for applications associated with the Call, can apply as “Associate Partners” if they bring added value to a CRP. They should visit the ESRC website for details, and the "HumVIB" site http://www.esf.org/humvib for updates.

2*. This is currently supported through a contract with the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme ( EC Contract no. ERAS-CT-2003-980409)  Should this support be discontinued under the Seventh Framework Programme, the ESF will request the participating Funding Agencies to provide support for management and networking costs. 

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Call for Outline Proposals - CLOSED

Please note that the Call for Outline Proposals is now closed (it can still be consulted here (pdf) for reference).

Deadline: Monday 14 May 2007 at 12:00 noon CET.

Eligibility

Applicants must consult the Contact Persons in national funding agencies  to seek guidance on their eligibility and other specific rules and regulations for participation.

The participating funding agencies have indicated the maximum number of individual projects that they are able to fund. Please see the funding information (pdf) to the scientific community

Proposals must, as a minimum, involve individuals or groups seeking funding from 3  participating EUROCORES funding agencies from different countries.

Associate Partners with funding obtained or expected from funding agencies not participating in HumVIB can apply and will be assessed as part of  a CRP if they bring added value to a CRP. Their research funding must be fully self-supporting, but they are entitled to networking support by ESF.

In the context of the CRP eligibility, “Associate Partners” do not count towards the “three-nation-requirement”. This status also applies to researchers seeking funding from ESRC (UK).

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Application Procedures - Full Proposals CALL IS NOW CLOSED

In response to the Call for Proposals, 28 Outline Proposals were submitted of which 25 were eligible. The HumVIB Review Panel convened on 11 and 12 June 2007 in Strasbourg to sift the 25 eligible Outline Proposals according to the assessment criteria, of which 16 were then invited to submit Full Proposals.

Successful applicants are invited to submit Full Proposals online.  Deadline for submitting Full Proposals: 14 SEPTEMBER 2007, 12:00 PM CET (noon).
Before preparing the application, applicants should

• read carefully the Application Guidelines for Full Proposals (pdf)
• contact their national funding organisations, to ensure compliance with their specific national regulations and internal requirements. (see also Special National Requirements document here)

As part of the Proposal, applicants will be asked to provide the overall budget of the CRP (Table A), a specification of the budget per IP (Table B) and the Sum of the requested IP budgets per year (Table C).

The Project Leader will be responsible for correctly entering the data. Principal Investigators and Associate Partners are responsible for supplying the Project Leader with complete and correct data.  

For further information, please see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).   

Note that the Collaborative Research Project as a whole, not its individual components, will be assessed.

Assessment Criteria for Full Proposals

At the Full Proposal stage, the assessment will focus on the scientific quality of the research plan for a Collaborative Research Project.

1. Scientific quality of the CRP and IP proposals 
2. Level of multidisciplinary integration within the CRP
3. Qualification of the applicants (suitability for this CRP; international standing)
4. Level of collaboration and integration between the IPs in the CRP
5. Feasibility, incl. suitability of the methods selected
6. European added value and relation to other projects (risk of double-funding and track record for collaboration).

The assessment form is available for consultation. To see the form, please click here.

Programme Structure and Management

The programme will be overseen by a Management Committee formed by one representative of each of the participating funding organisations and the EUROCORES Programme Coordinator in the Social Sciences.

An independent international Review Panel formed of leading experts in the field, with a mandate from the funding agencies, will oversee the scientific aspects of the programme.

ESF will support networking activities expected to facilitate communication between the different projects, leading to an effective exchange of information and dissemination of results.  To this aim, scientific workshops, conferences, symposia and training courses will be organised during the programme’s lifetime.  Web-based resources will also be developed to support the exchange of technical and scientific information and expertise, and to promote effective collaborations with other European researchers working in the field.

Networking and coordination of the EUROCORES Programmes are currently funded through the European Commission Sixth Framework Programme, under contract n° ERAS-CT-2003-980409

Additional information, such as the EUROCORES Glossary and the Frequently Asked Questions are also available on the EUROCORES Programmes Homepage.