Funding initiative in the field of Friction and Adhesion in Nanomechanical Systems (FANAS)
Following agreement with funding organisations in Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey, the European Science Foundation is launching a Call for Outline Proposals for Collaborative Research Projects (CRPs) to be undertaken within the EUROCORES Programme FANAS. FANAS will run for 3-4 years and it includes national research funding, as well as support for networking and dissemination activities provided by the ESF.The Programme aims to support high quality multidisciplinary research.
Outline Proposals are to be submitted by 4th June 2007 at noon CET.
It is expected that Full Proposals will be invited by 9th July 2007 with 17th September 2007 as expected deadline for submission.
Eligibility
Proposals from individual researchers and research groups eligible for funding by the participating funding agencies (EFAs) will be accepted for consideration in the EUROCORES Programme FANAS
Applicants should contact their national funding agencies (please, see the list of contact persons) in order to verify their eligibility and to ensure compliance with the relevant agencies’ current granting rules and regulations.
Proposals must involve a minimum of 3 eligible Principal Investigators from 3 different countries participating in the programme.
Scientists or groups not seeking funding or not eligible to apply for funding from one of the participating funding agencies, can be associated with a proposal by contributing additional scientific value to the collaborative research project. Their research must be fully self-supportive, but they are entitled to networking support currently provided by ESF.
In the context of CRP eligibility, Associated Partners do not count towards the “three nation requirement”.
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 Medical Sciences. The Assistant to the EUROCORES Programme provides support to the Management Committee and attends the meetings.
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.
Call for Outline Proposals-THIS CALL IS NOW CLOSED
The Call for Outline Proposals can be found here (pdf) for reference.
Deadline: Monday 4th June 2007 at noon CET - THIS CALL IS NOW CLOSED
The outline proposals have to be submitted online. The link to the online submission form can be found here.
Application template for Outline Proposals can be found here (word).
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Please check special national requirements of Funding Agencies and FAQ before submitting your outline proposal on the EUROCORES Scheme page.
Funding information sheet (with number of Individual Projects that will be funded by each Funding Agency) can be found here (pdf).
Application procedure for Full Proposals
In response to the Call for Outline Proposals, 18 Outline Proposals were submitted. The FANAS Review Panel convened on 5 and 6 July 2007 in Strasbourg to sift the 18 eligible Outline Proposals according to the assessment criteria. Successful applicants are invited to submit Full Proposals online. Deadline for submitting Full Proposals: 17 SEPTEMBER 2007, 12:00 PM CET (noon). THIS CALL IS NOW CLOSED.
Before preparing the application, applicants should
- read carefully the Application Guidelines for Full Proposal
- contact their national funding organisations, to ensure compliance with their specific national regulations and internal requirements.
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.
- Scientific quality of the CRP and IP proposals
- Level of multidisciplinary integration within the CRP
- Qualification of the applicants (suitability for this CRP; international standing)
- Level of collaboration and integration between the IPs in the CRP
- Feasibility, incl. suitability of the methods selected
- European added value and relation to other projects (risk of double-funding and track record for collaboration).
ESF provides the scientific, administrative and technical secretariat for COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).