ERA-Chemistry Open Initiative 2008

Call for Chemistry Proposals Now Open – 17th April 2008

ERA-chemistry is pleased to announce the 1st ’Open Initiative’ to fund transnational collaborative projects in the broad field of curiosity-driven chemical research. [1]

ERA-Chemistry (www.erachemistry.net) is a consortium of 14 research funding organisations from 12 European countries with the goal to develop and implement joint bottom-up European funding programmes. After two successful thematic calls in 2005 and 2007, the ‘Open Initiative’ aims now at stimulating excellence in chemical research through competition and cooperation without any thematic restriction for the very first time.

Chemists who are eligible to apply for financial support from any of the participating funding organisations are cordially invited to apply jointly within a chemistry-related subject. A list of the respective organisations including contact details is given below. Joint projects of two applicants located in two different countries must comprise novel and ambitious ideas in curiosity-driven chemistry. The scientific level of the projects should be high in international comparison. Beyond this, joint projects must demonstrate a clear added value to the applicants’ cooperation over and above what could be achieved individually.

There will be a two-stage procedure involving pre-proposals and full proposals. All pre-proposals must be submitted via the electronic application system for this call not later than 30 May 2008. All proposal will be subject of a joint peer-review and a joint decision process of the funding organisations involved. Successful applicants from the pre-proposal stage will be invited to submit their comprehensive, more detailed full proposals not later than 17 November 2008.

Each applicant may request funding for individual grants according to national rules and national general conditions. [ 2] For further details please contact your participating funding organisation. Joint projects will be funded for three years starting not later than spring 2009.

[1] The European Commission supports the administrative networking activities of ERA-Chemistry whereas the financial support of the research activities within this open initiative is provided exclusively from national resources.

[2] e.g. the Spanish Ministry of Education restricts this call to Chemical Engineering topics for applications involving a Spanish researcher.
More information on the scheme is available at www.erachemistry.net and in the following documents:

Pre-proposal stage
    * Pre-proposal form
    * Guidelines for Applicants
    * Guidelines for Reviewers
    * Web Portal Instructions 

Full-proposal stage
    * Full-proposal form
    * Guidelines for Applicants
    * Guidelines for Reviewers
    * Web Portal Instructions

The following funding organisations are participating in this call:
 Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF), Austria
 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft e. V. (DFG), Germany
 Országos Tudományos Kutatási Alapprogramok (OTKA), in collaboration with Magyar Tudományos Akadémia (HAS), Hungary
 Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology (IRCSET), Ireland
 Fundaçăo para a Cięncia e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal
 Ministerio de Educación y Cienca (MEC), Spain
 Narodowe Centrum Bada i Rozwoju, Poland

The closing date for receipt of completed Pre-Proposals via the electronic web portal is 30th May 2008.

The closing date for receipt of completed full proposals via the electronic web portal is 17th November 2008.