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Agreement for Cooperation in Research Agreement between “Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo” and the “Technion - Israel Institute of Technology” on Joint Calls for Joint Research Project Proposals

Established between the following Partners:

“Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo” (hereinafter referred to as “FAPESP”), whose principal place of business is at Rua Pio XI, 1500, Alto da Lapa – CEP 05468-901, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil, herein represented according to article 11, “a” of Law nº 5.918, combined with its General Rule approved by Decree n° 40.132, of May 23, 1962, represented by its President, Prof. Dr. CELSO LAFER, in the exercise of the powers delegated by Act of the Governor of the State of São Paulo, published in the Official Gazette of the State, of July 30th, 2013,

and

Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (hereinafter referred to as “TECHNION”),

Referred to hereafter as “the Parties”.

The purpose of this Agreement (ACR) is to foster Brazilian-Israeli collaboration in scientific research and it aims to fund joint research project proposals conducted by teams from both countries, whilst from the Israeli side, the participant is TECHNION, a science and technology academic institution.

This ACR sets out the principles and procedures to be adopted by the Parties in:

a) Opening call for proposals;

b) Receiving joint proposals;

c) Setting up peer review and selection procedures;

d) Attempt to obtain funding for the proposals selected.

1. General Description and context

a) FAPESP and TECHNION have agreed to establish a scheme for joint funding collaborative research project proposals between researchers from the State of Sao Paulo and Israel in any field of science.

b) The aim of the funding cooperation is to strengthen the collaboration between researchers of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil and scientists of TECHNION, Israel, to achieve world-class scientific and technical results that contribute to the advancement of knowledge and/or that might lead towards new innovative technologies. Both parties welcome, encourage and support joint research involving research teams from research organizations in Sao Paulo and from TECHNION.

2. Submission of Proposals

a) FAPESP and TECHNION will prepare and issue calls for proposals and will encourage submission of research projects between researchers of the State of Sao Paulo and Israel.

a.1) FAPESP and TECHNION will define and agree upon the frame, submission conditions, eligibility rules and evaluation process of such proposals.

b) The Israeli applicants must comply with TECHNION’s eligibility rules for research grant applications and to applicable rules prescribed by the relevant funding authorities and funding parties in Israel.

c) Applicants of the State of Sao Paulo must comply with FAPESP’s eligibility rules for research grant application.

d) The scientists in Israel will be subject to TECHNION rules, and the scientists in Sao Paulo will be subject to FAPESP’s rules.

e) The proposals must be unique, i.e., written jointly by researchers of the State of Sao Paulo and Israel that will collaborate.

f) The proposals shall be submitted simultaneously by the researchers of the State of Sao Paulo to FAPESP and by the Israeli researchers to TECHNION.

f.1) Proposals submitted to only one Party will not be eligible.

g) The proposals shall be written in English.

h) After the closure date of the Call for Proposals, TECHNION and FAPESP will exchange the list of the proposals received by each Party.

i) Each proposal must have a Principal Investigator in Israel and a Principal Investigator in the State of Sao Paulo, designated in the submission forms of each Party.

2.1 Proposal formatting

Each Party will use its own submission forms.

3. Evaluation of Project Proposals

a) The TECHNION and FAPESP will implement the evaluation of the proposals according to their own evaluation rules, and will rank the proposals based on scientific quality and interest.

b) The most important evaluation criteria are:

b.1) Scientific quality and originality of the joint research plan;

b.2) Added value to be expected from the research collaboration between Israel and the State of Sao Paulo;

b.3) Feasibility of the joint research plan;

b.4) Competence and expertise of the Israeli and Brazilian scientific teams;

b.5) Balanced cooperation;

c) Based on the scientific evaluation, national ranking and consensus reached through discussions, the Parties will agree on the joint research proposals to be funded.

4. Funding

a) TECHNION will participate at preparation and submission of proposals solely if TECHNION identified in advance specific external sources for funding of TECHNION’s participation at the respective specific research projects. For the selected proposals, TECHNION will fund the part to be developed by Israeli scientists and FAPESP will fund the part to be developed by scientists of the State of Sao Paulo.

b) The funding might cover the costs of research expenses, fellowships for graduate students and post-doctoral positions, and travel expenses.

c) The funding decisions will be made independently, but based on the mutual agreement, according to the Parties’ corresponding rules, regulations and practices, being understood that the participation of TECHNION at any collaborative research project is conditioned upon TECHNION’s obtaining of external funding satisfactory to TECHNION at its sole discretion. TECHNION reserves the right to refrain from participating at projects as to which TECHNION determines at its own discretion that external satisfactory funding was not obtained.

d) Each project will be funded according to the terms and conditions of the funding obtained therefor.

e) FAPESP will not earmark special funds to support the proposed research projects since the proposals submitted under the scope of this ACR will compete with the other proposals received by FAPESP and therefore the number of Brazilian-Israeli projects selected for funding, and the total amount, will strongly depend on the number and quality of the submitted projects.

5. Timetable and Announcement of Decision

a) The Parties agree to ensure that all decisions on proposals to be funded accordingly to timetables agreed upon each case.

b) FAPESP and TECHNION will synchronize the communication on the selected proposals.

6. Intellectual Property

a) It is hereby agreed that each Party shall solely own the results, outcome and the intellectual property rights thereof generated in the scope of the collaborations activities, by its personnel alone, without any inventorship contribution from the other Party.

b) Each Party shall handle its own Intellectual Property, as per its rules and regulations.

c) In case both Parties’ personnel have contributed to the generation of Intellectual Property rights’ an inventorship contribution, both Parties shall jointly own such rights as per the inventorship contribution ratio.

d) In case of FAPESP funded personnel, inventorship shall be set according to the Brazilian intellectual property laws.

e) In case of TECHNION, inventorship contribution shall be set as per the Israeli laws and internal Technion By-laws and regulations.

7. Reporting

a) The national Principal Investigators, on behalf of their participating teams, will submit to both Parties a common brief mid-term scientific progress report on the overall project, complemented by a brief report by each team.

b) At the end of each project, a formal common final report should be submitted by the Principal Investigators to each Party according to its corresponding reporting rules.

c) An acknowledgement of the support received from FAPESP and the TECHNION should be made in the publication of any research resulting from this ACR.

8. Term of this Agreement

a) For each Party, the ACR will come into force on the date of signature by the Party’s authorized representative and shall remain in force for 5 (five) years.

b) This ACR may be amended or modified by written agreement of all signatories or their substitutes.

c) This ACR may be terminated by either party with a 60 days notice.

9. Communications

Any notice to be served on either of the Parties by the other shall be sent by international courier or by email and shall be deemed to have been received by the addressees within 14 days of posting or 24 hours if sent by email to the correct address. Notice shall be sent to the following addresses:

(a) FAPESP:
Rua Pio XI, 1500 - Alto da Lapa
CEP 05468-901 - Sao Paulo / SP - Brasil
E-mail: dc@fapesp.br
Att.: Scientific Director

(b) TECHNION:
Attention: Head Liaison Office
Senate Building R. 127
Technion City 3200
Haifa, Israel

10. Miscellaneous

a) Each Party should cover its own administration costs regarding to its contribution to the Calls, unless otherwise jointly decided.

b) This ACR is subject to the availability of funds in the budget of the Parties and the applicable laws and regulations of their corresponding countries.

c) This ACR is drawn up in English and Portuguese. All documents, notices and meeting reports pertaining to this ACR shall be in English.

d) This ACR may only be amended by a document signed by both Parties and identified as an Addendum to the ACR.

e) The Parties shall maintain the highest ethical and legal standards in funding research under this ACR.

f) The Parties agree that this Agreement is produced in good faith, so that any dispute and/or interpretation arising therefrom in relation to its implementation, execution and compliance will be resolved jointly by them and shall be in writing. If no agreement is reached between the Parties, this document will be terminated.

Signed in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in two original copies in English and Portuguese, both texts being equally authentic.

Signature Date: January 13, 2015