Agreements

Joint Call for Proposals: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) and São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) 2021 Versão em português


Call announcement:

16 April, 2021

Deadline for submission:

25 June, 2021

Selection results announcement:

November, 2021

Start of projects:

January, 2022

FAPESP Support Opportuniy:

Regular Research Grant

Maximum duration of the projects:

24 months

Eligibility:

Researchers affiliated with Higher Education or Research Institutions in the state of São Paulo and Researchers from Italy

Submission:

To FAPESP via SAGe, and to CNR via https://utenti.cnr.it

FAPESP Contact Details:

chamada_cnr@fapesp.br

CNR Contact Details:

milena.riolo@cnr.it

Oppportunity announcement at CNR:

To be disclosures in 16 April


1. Introduction

FAPESP and CNR signed, in July of 2014, a Cooperation Agreement to promote and strengthen collaboration between researchers from the state of São Paulo and Italy.

Under the scope of this Agreement, FAPESP and CNR launch this Call for Proposals of research projects in Agricultural Sciences, Physics and Medical Genetics, jointly conceived and to be jointly implemented by researchers from institutions in the state of São Paulo and Italy.

The projects proposed should specify similar research commitment and efforts from both sides. Within this stipulation, however, the budget of each side need not be the same.

Researchers from the state of São Paulo interested in applying to this Call must follow the instructions described in these guidelines and additional instructions at www.fapesp.br/14833. Researchers from Italy must follow the instructions described in these guidelines and additional instructions from CNR at https://utenti.cnr.it. The two agencies will fund up to three (3) research projects under this call.

2. Research Themes

As established by the Agreement/Cooperative Program, proposals for joint scientific cooperation can be submitted within the following subject areas:

• Agricultural Sciences;

• Physics; and

• Medical Genetics.

3. Eligibility of Researchers

3.1. Eligible researchers for FAPESP:

Researchers eligible for FAPESP funding under the scope of this Call must be employees of public or private Higher Education or Research Institutions in the state of São Paulo and must meet the FAPESP eligibility requirements for the Regular Research Grant, described in www.fapesp.br/apr.

3.2. Eligible researchers for CNR:

Researchers eligible for CNR funding under the scope of this Call must be:

a) CNR Institute directors, research managers, CNR researchers and technologists (I-III level);

b) Personnel holding an official decree of association with CNR, with expiry date no later than 12/31/2022.

Should the researcher responsible for a financed Project not be a permanent CNR researcher, an extension of his/her association with CNR covering the entire duration of the Project will be requested, without which a new manager will have to be appointed to prevent the interruption of the project.

4. Characteristics of Proposals under this Call

Each proposal must have a Principal Investigator (PI) in the state of São Paulo and a Principal Investigator in Italy.

Both PIs must jointly conceive and write the research project, which must be written in English or in two versions, in Italian and in Portuguese, with the same content.

5. Support modality and eligible costs

In addition to the guidelines set out above, researchers from the state of São Paulo must follow the FAPESP rules and guidelines for the submission of Regular Research Grants (www.fapesp.br/apr).

5.1. Eligible costs for CNR:

Funds awarded to the selected Projects will be released via a direct money-transfer from CNR to the CNR Institute where the Italian PI is employed, which will manage the assigned funds, reporting annually on the activities carried out and the expenses incurred. Terms and rules related to the above-mentioned financing, to its management and to the reports, will be specified in an official letter containing detailed information on said terms.

The following expenses will have to be accounted for:

1. research stays, exclusively in Brazil and lasting no less than 5 (five) days, up to a maximum of 15% of the total costs incurred for the whole project;

2. research costs; and

3. expenses arising from awarding of Research Grants under the joint project of Italian Manager.

The percentages relating to accountable expenses may be amended if the Coronavirus emergency continue.

5.2. Eligible costs for FAPESP:

FAPESP will fund the research team from the state of São Paulo up to R$ 150.000,00 per year, per project. Funding and eligible costs must follow FAPESP norms for the Regular Research Grant (www.fapesp.br/apr).

Eligible costs to FAPESP are:

a. Consumables;

b. Services;

c. Low cost equipment (below R$100.000,00);

d. Travel costs of Brazilian researchers going to Italy;

e. Technical Training Fellowships (www.fapesp.br/bolsas/tt); and

f. Research Overheads.

The total budget will include the following Research Overheads: “Direct Research Infrastructure Costs” (15% of the total amount requested), “Fringe Benefits” (R$ 8,000.00 per year for the PI), “Institutional Research Infrastructure” (10% of the total amount requested), “Import Provision” (www.fapesp.br/9131), if any, and Fellowships (if any).

This amount will appear as “Custo Total da Proposta (em R$)”:

Note: If the budget (“Custo Total da Proposta (em R$)”) exceeds the limit of R$ 300,000.00, SAGe will automatically prevent the submission of the proposal:

6. Submission

The Principal Investigator from São Paulo must submit the collaborative proposal to FAPESP and the Principal Investigator from Italy must submit the collaborative proposal to CNR.

The deadline for submission of proposals is 25 June 2021. No proposals will be accepted after the deadline for submission, nor will any addendum or explanation be accepted, unless those are explicitly and formally requested by FAPESP or CNR.

Proposals not received before the deadline or not in conformity to the specifications herein will be declared ineligible. Proposals submitted lacking mandatory documentation or with unsigned documentation (upon explicit request of each agency), or using templates other than those provided by FAPESP or CNR will be returned and may be resubmitted before the deadline for submission.

The submission to both agencies must be through their online systems:

Submission to FAPESP: The specific path for this Call is: Nova Proposta Inicial > + Outras Linhas de Fomento > + Acordos de Cooperação > + CNR – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche > + CNR - Projeto de Pesquisa - Regular> + Chamada de Propostas (2021).

Submission to CNR: The proposal must be submitted through https://attivitainternazionali.cnr.it

Each PI may submit only one proposal to this Call. After the deadline for submission, CNR and FAPESP will check whether the proposals have been submitted simultaneously in Italy and the state of São Paulo. If a proposal was submitted in only one country and/or received after the deadline, it will be declared ineligible.

7. Application timeline

Call announcement: 16 April 2021

Deadline for submission: 25 June 2021

Selection results announcement: November 2021

Start of Project: January 2022

8. Assessment and Selection

8.1. Evaluation Procedure

Proposals that fail to comply with the rules established in this Call will not be qualified for merit analysis. Proposals that do qualify for this opportunity will be evaluated using a three-step procedure:

I. FAPESP and CNR will each perform peer-review analyses according to their standard procedures. The systematic of analysis used by FAPESP is available at analise. Meanwhile, each eligible application submitted at CNR will be performed by an Expert Committee, whose appointment is published on CNR institutional website, https://www.cnr.it/it/progetti-comuni-ricerca.

II. After the peer-review analysis, the proposals will proceed to an Area Evaluation Panel at FAPESP.

III. The partner agencies will then exchange recommendations and will jointly determine which proposals will be recommended for funding.

The funding recommendation is final and no appeals will be accepted. CNR and FAPESP will fund up to three (3) proposals in this Call.

9. Intellectual property

In case of approval of the proposal, a Letter of Agreement (or “Consortium Agreement”) must be signed between the partner Host Institutions (from Italy and from the state of São Paulo), establishing how Intellectual Property rights, confidentiality and publications will be treated jointly, in accordance to the policies of each Funding Agency and each Host Institution. Note that no specific format for this agreement will be provided by CNR or FAPESP.

Presentation of this document is not mandatory for signing the Grant Term. However, the two agencies can request this document any time.

10. Contact information

Researchers from the state of São Paulo: specific questions to FAPESP about the Call for Proposals should be sent to chamada_cnr@fapesp.br. We remind researchers to send any questions with sufficient time to avoid urgent requests close to the Call for Proposals submission deadline.

Researchers from Italy: specific questions to CNR about the Call for Proposals should be sent to Milena Riolo, e-mail: milena.riolo@cnr.it.