Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Funding for researchers in Ireland

Postgraduate funding in Ireland


Call opens: Wednesday 7 September 2016
Deadline: Wednesday 2 November 2016

The Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme offers scholarships for suitably qualified individuals to pursue a Research Masters or PhD (either traditional or structured), in any discipline, at eligible Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) within Ireland. In addition, a number of targeted Scholarships are offered in collaboration with our strategic funding partners.



The Irish Research Council's Employment Based Postgraduate Programme is a unique national initiative. First piloted in 2012, it provides students in all disciplines an opportunity to work in a co-educational environment involving a higher education institution and an employment partner. Since its inception, the Council has created over 120 jobs for researchers who are currently embedded in a range of organisational types, across all academic disciplines and business sectors.

Opens: Friday 9 December 2016
Closes: Friday 17 February 2017

Irish Postdoctoral funding


The Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme provides funding across all disciplines for early-career researchers based in Ireland for periods of between one and two years.

Opens: Wednesday 12 October 2016
Closes: Wednesday 30 November 2016


The Enterprise Partnership Programme provides funding for early career researchers working in partnership with academia and industry

(No info yet on dates) 


The Irish Research Council is delighted to announce its new IRC Marie SkÅ‚odowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme entitled CAROLINE – ‘Collaborative Research Fellowships for a Responsive and Innovative Europe’.

The initiative will provide experienced researchers* with an opportunity to obtain a prestigious research mobility and career development Fellowship. Successful candidates will carry out research either in Ireland or abroad and will gain inter-sectoral and interdisciplinary exposure through this programme.

CAROLINE will attract experienced researchers from any discipline to conduct research relevant to the themes of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for shared economic prosperity, social development, and environmental protection. The 17 goals within Agenda 2030 are relevant for researchers across all academic disciplines and will be of interest to researchers with diverse career objectives in mind, including those within academia, civic society, and industry. A key feature of the programme is collaboration between the academic sector, non-governmental organisations and international organisations. The scope of potential organisations for inter-sectoral collaboration in terms of their mission is intended to be broad, and will speak to one or more of the goals under Agenda 2030. Potential partner organisations are not limited to ‘development-orientated’ NGOs or those working in support of developing countries.

Opens: Wednesday 12 October 2016
Closes: Wednesday 30 November 2016

General Irish funding schemes


Supporting knowledge exchange through
four strands:

Strand 1 – Enhancing civic society engagement, nationally and internationally Strand 2 – Decade of Centenaries (1917- 1922)
 Strand 3 – Cross-border knowledge exchange and stimulation of collaboration for upcoming HERA and NORFACE calls 
Strand 4 – Enhancing the impact of Irish research internationally through knowledge exchange

Opens: Monday 19 September 2016
Closes: Friday 21 October 2016


Has two strands, a Starter Grant (15 months, for applicants who received their PhD 2-7 years ago, funding up to 100k), and an Interdisciplinary Grant (15 to 24 months, for applicants who received their PhD at least 2 years ago, fundingup to 220k, collaboration with STEM). 

The aim of the New Horizons Strand (1) Starter Grant is twofold:

- To allow promising early stage AHSS researchers to develop track record in basic and exploratory research in AHSS disciplines through a project grant award. 

- Provide seed funding for researchers interested in applying for an Horizon 2020 European Research Council grant in the medium term. 

The aim of the New Horizons Strand (2) Interdisciplinary Grant is twofold: 

- To encourage AHSS researchers to collaborate with STEM researchers on interdisciplinary projects that address societal challenges in the medium term under Horizon 2020. 

- To help AHSS researchers to form new connections and build on existing national and international networks to develop pilot studies, prepare preliminary findings and help establish consortia on upcoming topics across all Horizon 2020 Societal Challenges. 

Key Eligibility:

For both awards, the successful applicants will be academics who hold contracts of sufficient duration to carry out the proposed research at a recognised HEI or Research Performing Organisation in the Republic of Ireland. Recipients of Irish Research Council Research Development Initiative, Collaborative Research Project or Research Project Grant funding in 2012, 2013 or 2014 will be ineligible to apply for New Horizonsfunding. Successful New Horizons applicants cannot be in receipt of any other Council funding at the proposed start date, with the exception of New Foundations Travel & Networking grants. Please see documentation below for more detail regarding eligibility criteria. 

Opens: Monday 12 September 2016
Expression of interest due: 30th September 2016 at 4pm
Final deadline: Friday 28 October 2016


Individual research strands in partnership with Govt. departments or statutory agencies Open call for research addressing national societal challenges

The aim of this programme is to build partnerships with government departments and agencies in order to enable peer-reviewed research/initiatives to underpin policy decisions, and to assist cultural and societal development. 

Call opens: Monday 12 September 2016
Expression of interest due: Friday 30th September 4pm
Deadline: Friday 28 October 2016'


Call Opening: 25 August 2016
Call Closing: 13 October 2016

The HRB will be launching in late August a call for applications for the Investigator Led Projects (ILP) 2017.
The Health Research Board (HRB) Strategy 2016 – 2020: Research. Evidence. Action. highlights three areas of focus that the HRB will engage in over the next four years. The HRB Strategy, through Focus Area 1, aims to address major health challenges by supporting high-quality, investigator-led, internationally competitive
research. In line with its strategic objectives, the HRB now invites applications for its 2017 Investigator Led Projects (ILP).
The new ILP aims to support the creation of new knowledge that, over time, will help to address major health challenges in society and have an impact on tomorrow’s healthcare. Projects supported through the ILP scheme should be cutting-edge, add to the knowledge base internationally, and focus on important,
timely research questions where the answers are of interest to an international audience. 

Applications must be submitted under one of three remits:
(1) Patient-Oriented Research.
(2) Population Health Research.
(3) Health Services Research.
These should comprise clearly defined research projects with a duration of between 24 and 48 months and
to a maximum award value of €370,000 (inclusive of overheads).
* In order to be eligible to apply for funding, an Institution must be an approved HRB Host Institution no
later than two calendar months before the closing date of a call. 

The Lead Applicant must:
  Hold a post (permanent or a contract that covers the duration of the award) in a recognised research institution in the Republic of Ireland (the “Host Institution”) as an independent investigator, or 
 Be a contract researcher recognised by the Host institution as an independent investigator who will have a dedicated office and research space for the duration of award, for which he/she will be fully responsible, or
  Be an individual who will be recognised by the Host Institution upon receipt of the HRB ILP award as a contract researcher as defined above. The Lead applicant does not necessarily need to be employed by the Host Institution at the time of the application submission. 


The HRB will be launching in late September or early October 2016 a call for applications for the Emerging Investigators Award (EIA) 2017. The HRB has identified the training, career development and support of exceptional researchers, talent and leadership as one of the key enablers to deliver the main objectives of the HRB Strategy 2016-2020 Research. Evidence. Action. One of the actions identified in the HRB Health Research Careers programme of activities (http://www.hrb.ie/health-research-careers/) is to build capacity in new independent investigators. The main principles for the scheme have been approved by the HRB Board in early July and can be found below. The full call document will be available once the call is launched. Please note the call is still at developmental stage and details will be finalised over the summer What is the timeline for applications to the first call? Call Opening: Late September/Early October 2016 Call Closing: Early/Mid-December 2016

A Lead Applicant will be expected to have:
 o a PhD or equivalent experience (at least 4 years full-time research experience)
 o a minimum of 3 years active postdoctoral experience if the Lead Applicant is a health-related researcher typically engaged in full time academic activities, who is generally at progression stage (or in exceptional cases at the end of consolidation stage) in the HRB career path in health research (Figure 2) Or
 o at least 3 years research and relevant professional experience if the Lead Applicant is a healthcare professional who is currently engaged in practice-based activities and/or other healthrelated professional roles. Applicants must also be able to demonstrate a satisfactory level of post-PhD research experience as shown by their track record in contribution to scientific knowledge.

 The Lead Applicant must not: 
o have received as principal investigator any previous substantial research grant funding with a value equal or above €100K. Individuals previously in receipt of HRB or other personal awards, such as fellowships or other career development awards, are eligible to apply. 
o have already established a research team and currently supervising earlier stage researchers. o hold a permanent faculty position at the time of the application.


Cycle 2 Call closes: 1 September 2016 @ 1pm

The HRB now wish to open a competitive call for the HRB Applied Partnership Awards.  The overarching aim of the Applied Partnership Awards is to support high quality applied research projects where academic researchers and knowledge users come together in a collaboration to focus on themes/questions which are determined by the documented needs of the Irish health and social care system.

Aligned with the objectives set out in the HRB Strategy, this scheme will support high quality research proposals in clinical and/or population health practice and/or for health services management that are relevant to health priorities in Ireland. The awards will provide support for applied research proposals of between 12-24 months duration and where the findings from the research will have a direct impact on the decision making of the knowledge user’s organisation/s. The proposed research should be explicitly linked to the documented evidence needs of the knowledge user organisation/s and it must be clear from the application how the knowledge user/s is integrated throughout the research process. The question/s must be able to be answered by the research partnership and the application should include a clear and concise knowledge translation plan that will highlight how the research findings will be applied by the knowledge user organization/s.

For applications to be eligible in this scheme a co-funding commitment is required from the knowledge user organisation/s.  The level of the co-funding commitment must be at least equivalent to a minimum of 20% of the total award grant requested from the HRB  and the co-funding counted for this purpose must reflect a cash contribution only (higher and/or additional in-kind contributions are encouraged and welcome).

Who should apply?

Applications should be made on behalf of a team which is made up of researchers and knowledge users. The applicant team should designate a Lead Applicant from the research team, and a Lead Applicant from the Knowledge User team. While we acknowledge that there are many individuals in Knowledge User organisations that are also experienced researchers, it is important in this scheme that there are two distinct Lead Applicants.

Submission and Deadline:

Rolling Call:

These awards will be issued under a rolling call.  The call will open on March 16 2016 and applications can be submitted at any time throughout the year until September 2016.  To date the HRB has not issued a rolling call, however given the need for this initiative to be timely and responsive to knowledge users’ needs we will pilot this as a rolling call in 2016.  Applications can be made at any time following the start date in March 2016 and there will be two distinct cycles for peer-review (as below).  This is to allow researchers and partner organisations to develop timely collaborations, yet have the flexibility to submit to either the first or the second peer review cycle. 

Peer review cycle 1 – June – August 2016

Peer review cycle 2 – October – December 2016 

All applications must be made online using the HRB GEMS.

A 15-minute webinar about the call is available at this link:


Slides from the webinar are available in the 'Related Documents' section below.

Prior to final submission to the HRB, all applications must first be reviewed and approved within GEMS by the signatory approver at the research office (or equivalent) at the Host Institution (see Appendix II of Guidance Notes). It is critical therefore that Lead Applicants leave sufficient time in the process for the Research Office (or equivalent) in their nominated Host Institution to review, seek clarifications and approve applications prior to the final submission date. This may involve being aware of and complying with any internal Host Institution deadlines for review and approval, distinct from the HRB deadline.




Opening Date:
5 June 2014
Closing Date:
29 November 2016
Details:
This is a rolling call for proposals in the Health thematic area.

The US-Ireland Research and Development Partnership is a unique initiative involving funding agencies across three jurisdictions: United States of America, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The overall goal of this scheme is to increase the level of collaborative R&D amongst researchers and industry professionals across the three jurisdictions. The collaboration aims to generate valuable discoveries and innovation which are transferable to the marketplace, or will lead to enhancements in health, disease prevention and healthcare. The Partnership achieves its goals through tri-partite research projects in which the funding agencies fund the elements of research undertaken in their own jurisdiction. Importantly, the Partnership must add significant value to each research programme above that achievable by the PI in each jurisdiction working alone, supported only by national funding.

Partners Agencies
The Partners are the bodies in each jurisdiction that have agreed to provide research funding depending on the thematic research area. For health-related applications, these include the following:

In the US the partner agency is the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH consists of multiple agencies which offer a number of calls for proposals.
In the Republic of Ireland (RoI) the partner agencies are Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Health Research Board (HRB).
In Northern Ireland (NI) the partner agencies are the Health & Social Care R&D Division (HSC R&D).
This is a rolling call and currently there is no closing date.

How to apply
The US-Ireland R&D Partnership proposal must have a minimum of one Principal Investigator (PI) from each of the three jurisdictions and significant research participation by all three jurisdictions.

The PI from each jurisdiction must undergo pre-eligibility approval from their respective funding agencies. The pre-eligibility process for all RoI-based applicants will be dealt with by SFI, who will consult with the HRB as appropriate. Please refer to Section 5 of the Call for Submission of Tri-Partite Proposals to the National Health Institute for details on this procedure. Please see Appendix I for more details on the remits of Patient-oriented (please note recent changes on this remit), Health Service and Population Health Research which are eligible for funding by the HRB.

Please note that the 'Call for Submission of Tri-Partite Proposals to the National Health Institute' is currently under review.

The PIs from each jurisdiction will write a joint 'tri-partite' proposal in the RO1 format required by NIH.  It is the responsibility of the US investigator to submit the tri-partite proposal to the NIH for review. 

Funding
The NI and RoI funding agencies have their own specific funding streams available for researchers in NI and RoI applying to the US-Ireland R&D Partnership programme. 
In the Republic of Ireland applicants can apply to SFI or HRB only or to both agencies depending on the remit of the research proposal. If applying to both agencies the funding can overlap or run consecutively. More details on HRB eligible costs are in Appendix II.

Submission and Deadline
Submission of pre-eligibility applications and tri-partite proposals must be done to USIreland(at)sfi.ie

DEADLINE for Pre-Eligibility Approval is 12 weeks in advance of NIH deadline
DEADLINE for Draft Tri-Partite Proposal Submission is 6 weeks in advance of NIH deadline.


The aim of the Commercialisation Fund Programme is to improve the competitiveness of the Irish economy through the creation of technology based start-up companies and the transfer of innovations developed in Higher Education Institutes and Research Performing Organisations to industry in Ireland. 

The programme will fund the development of innovations at all stages of the commercial pipeline to the point where they can be commercialised as new products, services and companies.

Commercialisation Fund Project Support is available for projects that address a gap or need in the market by developing innovations that will ideally be ready for licensing to Irish industry or may form the basis of a new start-up in 2-5 years. It is recognised however that some innovations may need a longer time to get to market than others.

Funding is also available in the form of a Commercial Case Feasibility Grant to investigate, scope and develop a commercial case for your innovation in advance of submitting a Commercialisation Fund support application to the programme.



European Research Council Funding 


Starting Grant (ERC-2017-STG) opened 26 July 2016. Deadline:18 October 2016.

The Principal Investigator shall have been awarded his/her first PhD ≥ 2 and ≤ 7 years prior to 1 January 2017 Cut-off dates: PhD from 1 January 2010 to 1 January 2015 (inclusive). 

A competitive Starting Grant Principal Investigator must have already shown the potential for research independence and evidence of maturity, for example by having produced at least one important publication as main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor. 

Starting Grants can be up to a maximum of EUR 1 500 000 for a period of 5 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration). 



Consolidator Grant (ERC-2017-CoG) opens 20 Oct 2016. Deadline: 9 Feb 2017.

The Principal Investigator shall have been awarded his/her first PhD > 7 and ≤ 12 years prior to 1 January 2017 Cut-off dates: PhD awarded from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2009 (inclusive) 

A competitive Consolidator Grant Principal Investigator must have already shown research independence and evidence of maturity, for example by having produced several important publications as main author or without the participation of their PhD supervisor.

Consolidator Grants can be up to a maximum of EUR 2 000 000 for a period of 5 years (pro rata for projects of shorter duration).



Eligibility: any nationality, any age. Applicants must be leaders in their respective field(s) of research and must demonstrate significant achievement in the last 10 years
Location: research must be conducted in a public or private research organisation(known as a Host Institution/HI). It could be the HI where the applicant already works, or any other HI located in one of the EU Member States or Associated Countries
Funding: up to € 2.5 million per grant 
Duration: up to 5 years
Sole evaluation criterion: scientific excellence of researcher and research proposal
Calls for proposals: published once a year 

Opens: 16 May 2017
Closes: 31 Aug 2017

Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions


There are two types of Individual Fellowships:

1. European Fellowships

Held in the EU or associated countriespdf Choose translations of the previous link.
Open to researchers either coming to Europe or moving within Europe.
Can help to restart research careers after a break such as parental leave.
Can also help reintegrate researchers coming back to Europe.

2. Global Fellowships

Fund secondments outside Europe for researchers based in the EU or associated countriespdf Choose translations of the previous link.
There is a mandatory one-year return period.
European and Global Fellowships can also include a secondment period of up to 3 or 6 months in another organisation in Europe, where this would boost the impact of the fellowship.

Only experienced researchers can apply. This means you will have your doctoral degree or at least four years’ full-time research experience by the time of the call deadline.

The grant provides an allowance to cover your living, travel and family costs. The grant is awarded to your host organisation, usually a university, research centre or a company in Europe. The research costs and overheads of the host organisation(s) are also supported.

European Fellowships last from one to two years, Global Fellowships from two to three years.

2016 scheme closes: 14 September 2016

2017 scheme: 

Opens: 11 April 2017
Closes: 14 September 2017


COST is the longest-running European framework supporting trans-national cooperation among researchers, engineers and scholars across Europe.   Based on a European intergovernmental framework for cooperation in science and technology, COST has been contributing - since its creation in 1971 - to closing the gap between science, policy makers and society throughout Europe and beyond. As a precursor of advanced multidisciplinary research, COST plays a very important role in building a European Research Area (ERA).

It anticipates and complements the activities of the EU Framework Programmes, constituting a “bridge” towards the scientific communities of COST Inclusiveness Target Countries. It also increases the mobility of researchers across Europe and fosters the establishment of scientific excellence.

You can submit your COST Action proposal at any time throughout the year via the new e-COST online submission tool. 
The next Collection Date is tentatively set for 1 December 2016, at 12:00 CET. 

COST invites proposals for Actions contributing to the scientific, technological, economic, cultural or societal knowledge advancement and development of Europe. 

The  new Action Proposal Submission, Evaluation, Selection and Approval (SESA) procedure  is fully science and technology-driven and will ensure a simple, transparent and competitive proposal evaluation and selection process, in line with the bottom-up, open and inclusive principles of COST.

Researchers benefit from a one-stage submission. The proposal requires filling in several sections via the new e-COST online submission tool as well as the  Technical Annex of up to 15 pages, uploaded via the same tool.

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