News, announcements |
Slovenian Research Agency is reinforcing bilateral and other international activities |
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European and Multilateral Co-operation
In accordance with the European Research Council (ERC)
announcement to launch »ERC Fellowship to Visit ERC Grantee Programme«
earlier in 2016, ARRS has been
among first six European agencies to introduce the National - ERC Fellowship
call. ARRS-ERC Fellowship is to be published by the end of November
2016. The budget earmarked for visits in 2017 stands at 240.000 euros, enabling
approximately 20 visits to be funded. The main objective of the ARRS-ERC
Fellowship call is to strengthen the participation of researches in ERC calls by
enabling superior quality of research exchange at world renowned researchers and
in state-of-the art scientific environments.
Five years ago, in 2011 ARRS established the ERC
Complementary scheme in order to strengthen multilateral scientific
co-operation in the European Research Area. The idea behind the instrument is
fairly simple – to act as a safety net. Applicants from Slovenian research
organizations, who were positively evaluated in ERC calls for proposals but not
selected for funding, can submit an adapted project. It needs to preserve the
main idea of the original ERC project but shall be contextualised in objectives
and scope of work. The Agency offers co-financing for up to 3 years and grant
projects with up to 200.000 EUR annually. In 2016 ARRS co-finances 12 such
ERC Complementary Scheme adapted projects, three
of them were adopted in 2016.
Special attention is given to Lead Agency projects.
ARRS has the
Lead Agency agreement with Austrian FWF,
Belgian region of Flanders FWO and
Hungarian NKFIH. By date the ARRS
co-financed five joint scientific projects with FWF, 11 with FWO and 13 with
NKFIH. The Lead Agency instrument is using a simple application procedure for
joint research projects where one - the Lead Agency conducts the peer-review
procedure. Based on the positive outcomes of recent years, ARRS is strongly
considering widening of this form of international co-operation.
As for the Horizon 2020 calls for proposals, ARRS
supports the participation of Slovenian research organizations by offering
contribution to costs of application, when application reaches more than 65% in
the evaluation process. In 2016 ARRS co-financed 414 applications under the
Horizon 2020 mechanism.
Bilateral Co-operation
Special attention is given also to the bilateral co-operation
with countries outside the EU and to neighbouring countries (i.e. Western
Balkans region). In this regard, bilateral scientific co-operation enables
exchanges among Slovenian researchers and their colleagues in 12 countries:
Austria, Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, France, Turkey,
India, Japan, Russia, Argentina and the United States. Two bilateral
co-operations have been revived and calls launched in 2016 - with Hungary and
German DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service).
ARRS has co-financed 443 researchers’ exchanges in 2016
marking an increase in regard to 2015 with 12 countries and 390 interchanges.
In addition, ARRS strives to reinforce activities with top
research organizations, for example the French Alternative Energies and the
Atomic Commission (CEA/FRANCE). In the period 2015–2017 ARRS co-finances seven
scientific projects with the CEA and in the period 2016–2018 additional six
project have started their work. Currently the next call for proposals is under
preparation and is to be lunched in the beginning of December 2016 with a
closing date in the beginning of February 2017.
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