News, announcements

Central European Science Partnership – CEUS: preannouncement of the first international call for proposals within the multilateral scheme of Lead Agency – provisional publishing date of the call: 22 February 2020

Founding members of the Central European Science Partnership – CEUS and signatories of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on establishment of the multilateral Lead Agency (June 17 2019 in Vienna) have agreed upon launching the first multilateral call for proposals operating on the basis of Lead Agency procedure.    

Partnership CEUS, including ARRS, FWF (Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschafltichen Forschung - Austria), GA ČR (Grantová Agentura České Republiky – Czech Republic) and NCN (Narodowe Centrum Nauki - Poland), makes an announcement on publishing the first multilateral call for proposals which will allow researchers from four countries to apply for bilateral or trilateral joint projects, whereby the employment of the Lead Agency scheme shall significantly reduce the administrative burdens on research teams.

CEUS is the very first agreement of this kind in Europe signed by more than three research funding agencies. By signing the MoU, the four agencies reconfirmed mutual recognition of individual evaluation procedures' standards as a basis for introduction of principle of trust, as stepping stone of the Lead Agency cooperation. At the time of the starting date of the first call, the more specified common rules shall be introduced. Up until then, the Austrian-Slovenian bilateral proposals can be submitted within existing Lead Agency Scheme.

Provisional date of the first CEUS multilateral call for proposals is 22 February 2020 and will be introduced by FWF and GA ČR in the role of lead agency. The call whereby ARRS operates as lead agency will be published in 2020 as part of annual Public call for the (co-)financing of research projects. NCN is going to launch the call in autumn 2020.  

 

Some key remarks from the preannouncement of the first CEUS multilateral call:

  • Proposals of basic research projects from all areas of scientific research are eligible;
  • Proposals of either bilateral or trilateral joint research projects are eligible;
  • Joint proposal has to be submitted to Lead Agency and in line with itsapplication guidelines;
  • The Lead Agency conducts the evaluation procedure in accordance with its standard procedures, whereas the partner agencies agree on its decision;
  • In case of a positive funding decision, each partner funding organization provides the amount of its contribution according to its applicable rules;
  • The position of Lead Agency can be held only when the funding organization’s financial part of total project costs reach the specific percentage of either bilateral or trilateral project proposals, 40% and 25% respectively. 
     

Related information on CEUS members: