Eligibility
The call is open to proposals that meet the following criteria:
- Researchers who are eligible to apply for financial support from the participating funding partners are eligible to apply for funding in joint transnational projects. Information on the Partners eligibility requirements shall be made available on the respective national official websites
- Researchers from non-partner countries can participate in project proposals as associated project partners on the condition that they are proven financially covered
- The lead Principal applicant must be from one of the MarinERA funding partners
- The scope or scale of the proposed research should exceed a single country
Number of applicants per proposal
- For each application at least two different countries must be involved as partners, including a minimum of two MarinERA funding partners.
- No maximum number of partners is specified.
- Cooperation with projects of MarinERA partners not participating in the call is stimulated.
- Partners who are not eligible to apply for financial support from the participating funding partners should be able to guarantee their own funds.
Funding Period: Project duration should be
- Minimum of TWO years
- Maximum of THREE years
- Funding should preferably begin in Late 2008/Early 2009
General Procedure
The following procedure will be applied:
- Proposals are submitted to the call secretariat.
- Proposals are sent to the Evaluation Committee for international peer review.
- The Evaluation Committee ranks the full proposals based on the results of the peer-review procedure (review reports and rebuttal).The Evaluation Committee recommends the top-ranked proposals for funding, indicating a cut-off point below which proposals are considered of insufficient quality given the purpose of the call and the selection criteria.
- The MarinERA funding partner organizations decide jointly on funding of the top-ranked proposals based on the ranked list and the recommendations of the Evaluation Committee.
The Evaluation Committee will consist of international experts in the marine ecosystem sciences. The composition of the Evaluation Committee will be given after the decision of funded projects is made at www.marinera.net.
During the entire procedure, strict confidentiality is maintained with respect to the identities of applicants and the contents of the proposals. Upon the final decision by the partner organizations, a list of funded projects will be published on the MarinERA website.
Evaluation and Selection
Potential applicants are advised to take careful notice of the aims and scope of the call as described above. The following criteria will be applied to assess the quality of (preliminary) proposals:
Scientific Aspects
Scientific quality should be leading and undisputed and will be assessed by means of the following criteria:
- Scientific quality of the proposed research
- Relevance to the call
- Novelty, originality and innovation
- Quality of applicants and suitability of the consortium
- Level of transdisciplinarity
Comparative studies involving the specified regions are encouraged, but studies limited to a single region are also welcomed; the key criterion is that the approach taken is adequate to address the question posed.
Project management and added value:
- Feasibility and risk
- Level of integration and collaboration
- European added value
- Project governance
- Suitability of budget requirements
- Networking and dissemination activities
- Training opportunities
