Project calls

Objectives:
• Facilitating research, development and innovation in the field of CO2 capture and storage;
• Stimulating the development of projects aimed at accelerating and maturing CCS technology.

Successful projects will facilitate the emergence of CCUS in the energy and industrial sectors. ACT’s ambition to accelerate the time to market for CCUS technology will require industrial involvement in research and innovation. Therefore, project proposals that are led by industry partners are particularly welcome.

Deadline for submission of pre-proposals: 10 November 2020.

https://uefiscdi.gov.ro/act-accelerating-ccs-technologies 

ScooooPurpose: Development of human resources in the national research and development system and increase the visibility of Romanian research by publishing and presenting at prestigious international conferences the most significant results, by conducting training courses and by ensuring access to infrastructures / libraries / archives / bases international data.

Deadline: October 15, 2020.Deadline: October 15, 2020.

https://uefiscdi.gov.ro/proiecte-de-mobilitate-pentru-cercetatori

The Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission announces the annual competition for the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program for Romanian professors, researchers and professionals who have a doctoral degree or equivalent (certified). Grants are available for conducting research and/or lecturing in the U.S. universities. The Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program provides international travel, accident/sickness insurance and a monthly stipend covering accommodation and living expenses.

Eligible Fields: any field, except clinical medicine and other clinical disciplines.
Grant duration: 3 – 6 monthsApplicants must meet the following criteria:
• hold Romanian citizenship; green card holders and persons with dual (Romanian and U.S.) citizenship are ineligible;
• hold a PhD or equivalent (certified) in a relevant area before departure to the U.S.;
• show a proficiency in English corresponding to the proposed research or teaching project; English language proficiency results and/or TOEFL scores are not required; interviews will be conducted in English.

Deadline: 22 October 2020.

http://www.fulbright.ro/news/1170-the-fulbright-visiting-scholar-program-2021-2022?fbclid=IwAR1HY2qLw3ITYR1DSuAKy0kG7C9fmpoKkXgdslB5QHU2CP0uhY3Q7pcI76k

The aim is to support scaling-up digital health and care solutions across Europe. Investments in healthcare are crucial for the wellbeing of citizens, especially ageing people. Furthermore, health expenditure is recognised as a growth-friendly expenditure since it’s a precondition of economic prosperity.
European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) and Digital Health Europe (DHE) launched this joint call for twinnings to amplify the synergies and increase the total funding amount to more than €400.000.

EIP on AHA Twinnings Webinar, 03 April 2020: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/Twinning2020Webinar1.
DigitalHealthEurope Twinnings Webinar, 08 April 2020: https://digitalhealtheurope.eu/

Deadlines: 04 May 2020 (DigitalHealthEurope ) / 30 November 2020 (EIP on AHA Twinnings)

https://aer.eu/joint-call-for-twinnings-to-support-scaling-up-digital-health-and-care-solutions/

COST brings together European researchers, engineers and scholars from different COST countries to jointly develop their own ideas and new initiatives across all science and technology fields through transEuropean cooperation. COST encourages and fosters trans-, multi- and interdisciplinary approaches by integrating researchers, engineers and scholars from different fields and horizons such as universities, research centres, companies, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as other relevant actors.

COST does NOT fund research itself, but supports networking via different tools such as meetings, short term scientific missions, training schools and dissemination activities part of COST Actions. COST invites proposals for Actions aiming at contributing to the scientific, technological, economic, cultural or societal knowledge advancement and development of Europe to close the gap between science, policy makers and society throughout Europe and beyond.

Deadline: 29 October 2020.

https://www.cost.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/COST_oc-2020-1_Announcement.pdf, https://www.cost.eu/funding/how-to-get-funding/documents-and-guidelines/

Fighting poverty requires going down to the root causes – lack of job prospects, job capacity and problems leading to social exclusion. This includes supporting innovative solutions, empowering people to play an active role in the development of their community and create better prospects for the disadvantaged. Through the Grants, the support activities are:
– The development of active inclusive policies and bottom-up approaches
– The sharing of best-practices and knowledge at local, regional and national level
– Activities to increase job prospects and job capacity
– Anti-discriminatory activities focusing on those vulnerable to social and economic exclusion
– Cross-sectoral and socially innovative approaches, such as to address unemployment among young people or minorities

Deadline: 05 February 2022.

https://eeagrants.org/currently-available-funding/ro-localdev-bilateral-initiatives-under-the-localdev-programme

The objective of the call: contributing to the reduction of economic and social disparities in the European Economic Area and strengthening the bilateral relations between the EEA states and Romania.
Areas of support:
– Enhancing the quality and relevance of education and training in the Romania at all
levels of education
– Higher education student learning mobility and staff mobility between donor and
beneficiary countries
– Cooperation and partnerships between education and the world of work
– Professional development of teachers
– Improvement of the Roma population inclusion

Deadline: 11 February 2022.

https://eeagrants.org/currently-available-funding?programme_id=RO-EDUCATION

Purpose: To support the participation of Romanian companies, in partnership with research organizations, in international research programs that facilitate the mobility of researchers, the circulation of ideas and knowledge, access to transnational collaboration networks.

The submission of funding applications is continuous. The online application platform is available from November 7, 2019.

https://uefiscdi.gov.ro/proiecte-eureka-traditional-network-eureka-cluster-si-eurostars

The challenge is to develop a European technologically non-dependent solution for launching light satellites.

An established service for regular launches dedicated to small satellites will contribute to achieve the following goals:
– internal market growth in the manufacturing sector of small launchers and satellites and the downstream services sector;
– European leading position in export markets globally in the field of light satellites and small launchers;
– space-enabled seamless solutions for European citizens thanks to operational light satellites and small launchers.

The contest is open to all legal entities (i.e. natural or legal persons, including international organisations) or groups of legal entities established in an EU Member State or in a country associated to Horizon 2020. The prize relates to the development of European critical space infrastructure, which is of strategic importance and security-critical for the Union and its Member States.

The prize will be ​​awarded, after closure of the contest, to the contestant(s) who in the opinion of the jury demonstrates a solution that best meets the following cumulative criteria:
​- ​Excellence
​- ​Technical implementation;
​- ​Service sustainability.

Deadline:​ ​01 June 2021

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/space-eicprize-2019.html

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is also offering scholarships in Germany this year for students, graduates, doctoral students and teachers from higher education and research institutions in Romania.
Language courses, specialized language courses and German civilization, master’s programs and research internships are funded. DAAD also funds programs conducted in German or English.

A synoptic table of the most important DAAD scholarship programs can be consulted at the following address:

https://www.daad.de/imperia/md/content/informationszentren/ic-bukarest/stipendien/rumaenisch/daad_stipendien_kurz_19-20-ro. pdf.

The application deadlines for the internships funded in the academic year 2019-2020 are listed in the table in the last column.

The complete offer of DAAD Romania scholarship programs is accessible:

https://www.daad.de/deutschland/stipendium/datenbank/en/21148-scholarship-database/?status=&origin=10&subjectGrps=&daad=1&q=&page=1&back=1

For the purpose of this prize, artificial photosynthesis is understood to be a process that aims at mimicking the physical chemistry of natural photosynthesis by absorbing solar energy in the form of photons. The solution is required to use this energy to generate fuel molecules through a synthetic system to be delivered as a single integrated device that utilises either biomimetic, nanotechnology, synthetic biology or a combination of these systems.
Meeting the challenge will stimulate innovation and focus research and development towards energy applications in a new energy technology through increased public and commercial interest. Moreover, it will accelerate the development of new innovative energy conversion systems using solar light and natural elements to produce renewable fuels to be used in industry, housing and transport.

Deadline: 03 February 2021

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/topics/sunfuel-eicprize-2021.html

The objective of Pilot Projects under this Call is to foster the development of tools supporting independent and inclusive access to online content and services, including consumer transactions, for persons with cognitive disabilities, to fulfil the commitments under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the EU Web Accessibility Directive and the European Accessibility Act. Such tools will benefit all users, including vulnerable citizens affected e.g. by information overload, excessive credulity, psychosocial disabilities or old age.

In particular, proposals must address common accessibility challenges that persons with cognitive disabilities encounter on websites or mobile applications, such as:
signing in or completing authentication processes;
entering data or filling out forms, avoiding and correcting errors;
accomplishing multi-stage tasks;
using complex interfaces and intricate navigation patterns;
processing information on cluttered pages, avoiding cognitive overload;
getting focussed on the task at hand, limiting interruptions, reminders, and changes in content;
stopping animations and auto-play videos or audios;
understanding text and graphics;
identifying key points from lengthy or heavy text based pages;
interpreting and processing numerical information, including managing dates;
finding information;
following instructions;
looking for help or support.

Deadline: 15 July 2020.

https://bit.ly/2Mna1Gc

The objective of this pilot project is to draw up a sustainable evidence-based strategic research agenda and roadmap setting out actions, processes, tools and actors to achieve full digital language equality of all languages (official or otherwise) used within the Union through the effective use of language technologies . The research agenda should lay out the current state of language technologies and language equality within the Union and give a detailed picture of the desired situation that is needed to achieve digital language equality. The roadmap will then provide the path and the means needed to implement the agenda and ensure that digital language equality becomes a reality by 2030.

The selected project will create a research agenda, which will:
– Map relevant stakeholders and initiatives and liaise with them through public consultations and on-going dialogues;
– Map relevant technologies, in particular based on artificial intelligence, assess their impact on the linguistic landscape and then analyse the conditions required to maintain and improve the required knowledge within Europe;
– Identify key research areas and gaps in research that need to be addressed to ensure language technologies can overcome the linguistic divide;
– Define the varying needs for language technologies (not only machine translation) across all the sectors that make up the European Digital Single Market and across languages used within the EU and its partner countries, but especially the lesser-used or under-resourced languages.

The aim of this project is to establish a practical, implementable and achievable agenda and roadmap, demonstrating the vast potential of digital language technologies for the broadest possible range of sectors and stakeholders. The engagement and dissemination activities therefore need to reach beyond long-standing actors in the language technology industry and draw in views and use cases from new stakeholders and sectors.

Deadline:  29 July 2020.

https://bit.ly/372w9yX

Collaborative Projects aim at developing and bringing to market ICT solutions in the AAL domain. Proposals in AAL Call 2020 are expected to be user-driven through co-creation and address a specified challenge. The Call stresses a strong involvement of end users – especially secondary and tertiary – and other relevant stakeholders in the shaping of solutions and in creating respective markets. Furthermore, the route to market needs to be clearly described and aligned with the business strategies of the partners responsible for commercialisation. The proposed solutions need to respond to different requirements, depending on the type of market.

The legal entities must have research and development in their activity object to participate in the AAL projects. The following entities are eligible for funding:

• Industrial and commercial organizations (especially SMEs),institutions form social and health care andICT sector including non-profit oriented institutions
• Research organizations (universities, research institutes)
• Associations (including organizations representing elderly people and their relatives, interestgroups, etc.)
• Public bodies

The funding of a project is implemented at national level. Every project partner within a funded project applies at his/her National Funding Agency (NFA) for funding. The NFA accepts the central selection decision and applies the national funding rules to the project partner.

Deadline: 24 August 2020.

http://www.aal-europe.eu/stay-up-to-date/calls/call-2020/

The objective of the proposed pilot project is to demonstrate an interoperable technical infrastructure dedicated to the implementation of child protection mechanisms (such as age verification) and parental consent mechanisms based on relevant EU legislation such as the Audio Visual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Technical measures will be based on the use of electronic identification (eID) means (in particular, electronic identification schemes notified by Member States under the Regulation on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (eIDAS Regulation)).

This call for proposals is financed under the European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation “EaSI” 2014-20202 which is a European-level financing instrument managed directly by the European Commission to contribute to the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy, by providing financial support for the Union’s objectives in terms of promoting a high level of quality and sustainable employment, guaranteeing adequate and decent social protection, combating social exclusion and poverty and improving working conditions.

The specific objectives of this call for proposals are the following:

a) To promote transnational cooperation among competent public authorities and stakeholders, including the promotion of the use Internal Market Information (IMI) and sharing of information and best practices in this respect;
b) To increase the accessibility, transparency and quality of the information concerning the terms and conditions of employment and/or of the administrative requirements to be respected, and/or of the existing practices in the Member States to monitor and enforce the provisions of the Posting of Workers directives;
c) To promote the evidence basis through the collection and evaluation of original data, analysis and information specific to the posting process and posted workers’ working conditions, including through the collaboration between universities across various disciplines, research centres and institutes, and stakeholders, in particular social partners.

To be eligible, lead applicants, co-applicants and affiliated entities must fall in one of the following categories:

Public authorities;
International organisations;
Non-profit organisations (private or public);
Research centres/institutes;
Higher education establishments;
Civil society organisations;
Social partner organisation at european, national or regional level.

Deadline: 30 July 2020.

https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=629&langId=en&callId=597&furtherCalls=yes

The Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission announces the annual competition for the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program for Romanian professors, researchers and professionals who have a doctoral degree or equivalent (certified). Grants are available for conducting research and/or lecturing in the U.S. universities. The Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program provides international travel, accident/sickness insurance and a monthly stipend covering accommodation and living expenses.

Eligible Fields: any field, except clinical medicine and other clinical disciplines.
Grant duration: 3 – 6 months.

Applicants must meet the following criteria:
•    hold Romanian citizenship; green card holders and persons with dual (Romanian and U.S.) citizenship are ineligible;
•    hold a PhD or equivalent (certified) in a relevant area before departure to the U.S.;
•   show a proficiency in English corresponding to the proposed research or teaching project; English language proficiency results and/or TOEFL scores are not required; interviews will be conducted in English.

Deadline: 22 October 2020.

http://www.fulbright.ro/news/1170-the-fulbright-visiting-scholar-program-2021-2022?fbclid=IwAR1HY2qLw3ITYR1DSuAKy0kG7C9fmpoKkXgdslB5QHU2CP0uhY3Q7pcI76k

The topics of the call:

• Advanced pilots towards the European supercomputers;
• Pilot on quantum simulator.

Expand circular economy to include the underexploited circular bioeconomy

Scope: Gain insight into EU, national and regional regulations on waste management; map the interests of different stakeholders in this field; and bring these stakeholders together to recommend steps to support the circular bioeconomy. The scope of this topic includes ‘bio-based waste’: residual streams that could serve as feedstock for the bio-based industry. Waste-water sludges are excluded from this topic.

Proposals must analyse whether and how EU waste directives and regulations/policies on the circular economy are implemented on a Member State level [7]. They need to take into account that national and regional regulations differ. They may use successful national/regional regulations as best practices. Proposals must analyse whether industry is already adapting to these regulations, and if so how and where they are adapting. Proposals must analyse where bio-based products or processes can benefit from these regulations. Proposals should identify regulatory hurdles for circular use of bio-resources.

Extract bioactive compounds from new, under-exploited and/or recalcitrant residual bio-based streams for high-value applications

There is a strong continuing interest in obtaining high-value, sustainable, bio-based ingredients from new and alternative sources. These sources include under-exploited, ‘recalcitrant’ (i.e. requiring innovative processes/technologies to handle) side streams containing bioactive compounds with high market potential. Currently, there is great demand for bio-based bioactive compounds in market sectors such as food, feed, performance chemicals, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, pesticides and pharmaceuticals. This trend is driven by consumer demand for functional products with ever-better performance, and for ‘natural’ and sustainable products.

Extracting bioactives from diverse sources brings challenges. These challenges include finding appropriate methods for the pre-treatment, handling and processing of raw materials and for properly characterising their diverse bioactive contents. In addition, the extraction processes themselves should be environmentally sustainable and economically viable while simultaneously preserving the functions and qualities of the targeted compounds. The specific challenge is to develop appropriate processing schemes to extract bioactives from new, under-exploited and/or recalcitrant residual streams so they can be used in high-value-added applications.

Upscale the production of bio-based platform molecules for larger market applications

The sustainable production of bio-based platform molecules with a broad range of potential applications could increase the competitiveness of bio-based materials and products compared with their fossil-based counterparts. Platform chemicals are intermediate molecules that can be used to produce a large number of endproducts, such as biopolymers, high-value additives, and other bio-based products. They can therefore unlock entire bio-based value chains if produced at competitive cost, to a high quality, and in sufficient quantities. Promising bio-based platform molecules include: HMF, FDCA, some organic acids, and alcohols from various biomass feedstocks.

Market interest in bio-based platform molecules is increasing, and market actors are requesting larger quantities of these molecules for further formulation and testing in specific applications, including food, feed and consumer personal care. To foster the market penetration of these molecules — and make them competitive against fossil-based counterparts — industry must increase the production of targeted bio-based platform molecules. This must be done at a competitive cost and quality compared with the state of the art. The specific challenge is to upscale the production of bio-based platform molecules in sufficient quantities and at sufficient quality to promote their larger application in new and existing markets.

Deadline: 03 September 2020.

https://bit.ly/2VsfWOp

With a vision to maximise the return from the Pan-European RI investment in terms of science, international collaboration and innovation and on the basis of a robust, state of the art methodology, the Roadmap 2021 will identify vital new European Research Infrastructures projects and existing Research infrastructures (Landmarks) of different size and scope in six thematic fields (Energy, Health & Food, Environment, Physical Sciences & Engineering, Data, Computing and Digital RIs, Social & Cultural Innovation). It will stimulate the implementation of these facilities and will serve as a reference to national exercises.

Deadline: 9 September 2020.

The aim is to support scaling-up digital health and care solutions across Europe.Investments in healthcare are crucial for the wellbeing of citizens, especially ageing people. Furthermore, health expenditure is recognised as a growth-friendly expenditure since it’s a precondition of economic prosperity.

European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing (EIP on AHA) and Digital Health Europe (DHE) launched this joint call for twinnings to amplify the synergies and increase the total funding amount to more than €400.000.

EIP on AHA Twinnings Webinar, 03 April 2020: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/Twinning2020Webinar1.

DigitalHealthEurope Twinnings Webinar, 08 April 2020: https://digitalhealtheurope.eu/

COST brings together European researchers, engineers and scholars from different COST countries to jointly develop their own ideas and new initiatives across all science and technology fields through transEuropean cooperation. COST encourages and fosters trans-, multi- and interdisciplinary approaches by integrating researchers, engineers and scholars from different fields and horizons such as universities, research centres, companies, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as other relevant actors.

COST does NOT fund research itself, but supports networking via different tools such as meetings, short term scientific missions, training schools and dissemination activities part of COST Actions. COST invites proposals for Actions aiming at contributing to the scientific, technological, economic, cultural or societal knowledge advancement and development of Europe to close the gap between science, policy makers and society throughout Europe and beyond.

Deadline: 29 October 2020.

https://www.cost.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/COST_oc-2020-1_Announcement.pdf

https://www.cost.eu/funding/how-to-get-funding/documents-and-guidelines/

The funding offer aims at teams consisting at least of (scientific) communication researchers, scholars of other specific disciplines and non-academic expert communicators, respectively. We encourage these teams to jointly develop and conduct quantitative and qualitative research on current and future issues to (further) develop theories and methods of science communication. The collection and interpretation of the resulting empirical data will provide valuable material for science communication research and will serve as a basis for the development of quality standards and best practices in science communication.

Professors and post-doctoral researchers from all disciplines are eligible to apply. Post-doctoral researchers may apply for funding of their own position but they must be employed by the applying research institution or university at the beginning of the funding. Only an academic institution in Germany can act as main applicant. Cross-regional consortia within Germany are possible, but the center must be institutionally located at one of the research institutions involved. Furthermore, it is possible and explicitly welcome to attract (scientific) communication researchers from abroad (e.g. postdoctoral students) or to enter into international collaborations with other scholars.

Deadline: 04 September 2020.

https://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/en/funding/our-funding-portfolio-at-a-glance/science-communication-cubed%E2%80%93science-of-science-communication-centers

Fighting poverty requires going down to the root causes – lack of job prospects, job capacity and problems leading to social exclusion. This includes supporting innovative solutions, empowering people to play an active role in the development of their community and create better prospects for the disadvantaged. Through the Grants, the support activities are:
– The development of active inclusive policies and bottom-up approaches
– The sharing of best-practices and knowledge at local, regional and national level
– Activities to increase job prospects and job capacity
– Anti-discriminatory activities focusing on those vulnerable to social and economic exclusion
– Cross-sectoral and socially innovative approaches, such as to address unemployment among young people or minorities

Deadline: 05 February 2022.

https://eeagrants.org/currently-available-funding/ro-localdev-bilateral-initiatives-under-the-localdev-programme

The objective of the call: contributing to the reduction of economic and socialdisparities in the European Economic Area and strengthening the bilateral relations between theEEA states and Romania.
Areas of support:
– Enhancing the quality and relevance of education and training in the Romania at all
levels of education
– Higher education student learning mobility and staff mobility between donor and
beneficiary countries
– Cooperation and partnerships between education and the world of work
– Professional development of teachers
– Improvement of the Roma population inclusion

Deadline: 11 February 2022.

https://eeagrants.org/currently-available-funding?programme_id=RO-EDUCATION

Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

The goal of the Individual Fellowships is to enhance the creative and innovative potential of experienced researchers, wishing to diversify their individual competence in terms of skill acquisition through advanced training, international and intersectoral mobility.

Individual Fellowships provide opportunities to researchers of any nationality to acquire and transfer new knowledge and to work on research and innovation in Europe (EU Member States and Horizon 2020 Associated Countries) and beyond. The scheme particularly supports the return and (re)integration of European researchers from outside Europe and those who have previously worked here, as well as researchers displaced by conflict outside the EU and Horizon 2020 Associated Countries. It also promotes the career restart of individual researchers who show great potential.

Deadline: 09 September 2020.

https://bit.ly/37fHtXb

Support is foreseen for individual, trans-national fellowships awarded to researchers of any nationality, in Widening countries. Applications to the 2020 call for Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF), where the host organisation is located in an eligible widening country, will be resubmitted to this call upon the agreement of the applicant and in case their proposal fails to reach an adequate place in the ranking to be funded in the regular MSCA-IF call. Applicants who do not wish to be considered for this funding opportunity should specify this in the application form.

The proposals submitted under the Widening Fellowships must fulfil all the admissibility and eligibility conditions of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions Individual Fellowships and pass all the thresholds for that call.

Deadline: 09 September 2020.

https://bit.ly/3buSmI3

The COFUND scheme aims to stimulate regional, national or international programmes to foster excellence in researchers’ training, mobility and career development, spreading the best practices of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions.

This will be achieved by co-funding new or existing regional, national, and international programmes to open up to, and provide for, international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary research training, as well as transnational and cross-sectoral mobility of researchers at all stages of their career.

Deadline: 29 September 2020.

https://bit.ly/39qHYiB