Further Information and Guidelines for the Call

Research Matching

One of the criteria on which the proposals to the Belmont Forum International Opportunities Fund will be judged is the collaborative nature of the projects, specifically among a diversity of countries and the involvement of a variety of natural and social science disciplines. We recognize that all researchers may not have already established networks of collaborators that cover these types of collaborations. To help facilitate this process we have established a Research Matching web interface on the Belmont Forum page for those researchers interested in the International Opportunities Fund Call for Proposals.
 
The research matching site is available to all researchers interested in the IOF Call. To register, basic information will be required including discipline, area of expertise, the IOF Theme area of interest, and a 1-2 sentence summary of topical interest within the IOF theme. This database will be available through the Belmont Forum website and searchable for those interested in finding a collaborator with a certain background or within a specific topic area. All researchers should please consider registering for this service.

Partner Organization Contributions

* Up to the value provided by other Partner Organizations

^aawaiting final government approval

Principles for Applications

Consortium partners should identify a Leading Principal Investigator (LPI) for each proposal for application, management and communication purposes. The LPI is officially responsible for all communications with the Program Office, including submission (please check National Annex) of the Pre-proposal and, if invited to do so, the Full Proposal. Research projects will be selected in a two-step procedure. Short Pre-proposals must be submitted by interested consortia by 20^th July 2012. These will be considered by a scientific review panel that will invite submission of Full Proposals by 20^th September 2012. Full Proposals must be submitted by the 20^th December 2012.

In addition to the information provided here, please refer to the National Annexes for the relevant countries involved in your application.

 Principles of Funding

Within each selected consortium, funding of the participating researchers is provided by their respective national Funding Agencies according to their normal terms and conditions for project funding. Funding is meant for collaborative research, not merely for networking, mobility or communication. Projects are encouraged to consider attributing a specific budget to clustering activities with other projects within their theme and other relevant activities, such as the planned EC FP7 call Coasts at threat in Europe: tsunamis and climate-related risks (see page 39 and the 'specific feature'), and the Canadian Climate Change and Atmospheric Research Call. A consortium agreement (including International Property Rights) will need to be developed between the participating researchers should their application be successful, and shared with the relevant Partner Organizations.

The total budget for this call is approximately 18 million. Funding will be provided for medium sized projects lasting between 2 and 3 years. It is expected that approximately 10-15 research consortia will be funded in this call. It is anticipated that awards will be made by July 2013.

Eligibility

Each consortium must consist of at least one academic participant from a minimum of 3 different countries represented by the participating Partner Organizations. Each consortium must show clear links through to users and include collaboration between natural and social sciences, and other sciences where relevant.

All applicants must fulfil national eligibility rules for research grant applications as set by their national Funding Agencies. Additional eligibility rules may be applied by the Partner Organizations involved, such as opportunities to support research capacity building in some developing countries. Please see the relevant National Annex and/or contact the relevant national contact point for more information.

More than one applicant from each country is possible in each consortium. However, consortia should aim for a balanced geographical contribution to the research project.

Researchers from countries not represented by any of the Partner Organizations can participate in the research project at their own expense (unless otherwise allowed by Partner Organizations please see National Annexes).

If an applicant is found to not be eligible, the proposal will only be evaluated if the remaining elements of the proposal remain viable and meet the eligibility criteria.

Selection criteria

Each proposal must combine significant contributions by scientists from at least three of the participating countries and must bring together natural and social scientists in addressing the workpackage(s) within the scope of the described call Theme. The proposal must demonstrate clear links to users and conform to program aims and the designated research fields addressing either the Theme of Freshwater Security or Coastal Vulnerability.

The Panel of Experts and individual External Reviewers will review the proposals under the following selection criteria:

1. Quality/Intellectual Merit

• Scientific quality and innovativeness of the goals and objectives of the joint research plan
• Added value to be expected from the international research collaboration

How well does the activity advance knowledge and understanding within its own field and across different fields?

Does the proposal contribute to scientific excellence and significant progress toward the state of the art?

To what extent does the proposed activity suggest and explore creative, original concepts?

If these partnerships currently exist what does this new funding allow them to do that they could not do otherwise?

What is the added value of the international cooperation? Where appropriate this should also include the extent to which Partner Organizations' existing investments are leveraged in the proposed project.

2. User Engagement and Societal/Broader Impacts

• Engagement of research users (relevant policy makers, regulators, NGOs, communities or industry)and the effectiveness of proposed knowledge exchange activities
• What may be the benefits of the proposed activity to society, policy-development or economies?

How have users been engaged and how effective are the proposed mechanism for knowledge transfer to decision makers?

Does the project involve early career researchers?

Does the research collaboration focus on global challenges for which solutions can only be achieved by global scientific approaches?

3. Inter-disciplinarity and Personnel/Quality of the Consortium

• Collaboration between natural and social sciences, and other sciences where relevant
• Competence and expertise of team and complementarities of consortium (inter-disciplinary / inclusion of all necessary expertise)

How strong is the collaboration between the natural and social sciences?

How well qualified are the proposers (Leading Principal Investigator and team) in terms of science knowledge, expertise and experience to conduct the project?

What is the quality of previous work in terms of past or potential contributions to, and impact on the proposed and other areas of research?

Is the Leading Principal Investigator team (including any identified Co-Principal Investigators) able to lead the project, e.g. having strong management and leadership skills, or having complementarity of expertise and synergy of the members of the team?
 

4. Resources and Management

• Appropriateness of resources and funding requested
• Balanced cooperation

How well conceived and organized is the proposed activity?

Is there an operational plan with well defined milestones in place?

Is the coordination plan adequate?

Is there sufficient access to resources?

Are the requested investments well justified and relevant?

Are the scientific and financial contributions requested of the Partner Organizations from each country well balanced?

Pre-proposals

The selection of projects to be funded follows a two-stage peer-reviewed selection process. In the first step, the LPI (or LPIs Institution as appropriate) are required to submit a Pre-Proposal electronically to the Program Office through the online system (see 'submit proposals' tab in left menu). Applications must be completed in English. Please refer to the guidelines for Pre-Proposals, all accessible under the 'Forms and Downloads' tab in the left menu.

For each Theme the Pre-proposals will be evaluated by a Panel of Experts (PoE). The PoE will encompass the necessary expertise to cover the call Theme in the natural and social sciences and include members with expertise in the field of policy and decision-making (public and private). The PoE will establish a pool of high-quality applications based on the above-mentioned criteria that will be invited to submit Full Proposals.

All LPIs will receive the result and a short written summary from the Theme Program Office on their Pre-proposals.

Full Proposals

The Full Proposal must be closely based on the successful Pre-proposal and substantial changes to the proposed program of research or consortium membership is not anticipated.

The LPI (or LPIs Institution where appropriate) should submit their proposal electronically to the Program Office through the online system. There may be additional national application requirements - please see the National Annex of your respective Partner Organization. 

Peer review will be coordinated across the participating Partner Organizations using external and panel review, sharing a common review form. Each proposal will be peer-reviewed ideally by three experts.

Full Proposals will be discussed and recommended for funding by the PoE based on the selection criteria and the assessments of external reviews, with Quality/Intellectual Merit being the primary criterion in selection.

The final award decision will be the responsibility of the Partner Organization. Upon the final decision a list of funded projects will be published on the Belmont Forum website.

All LPIs will receive the result and a short written summary from the Theme Program Office on their Full Proposals.

Reporting

LPIs of successful proposals will be requested to submit a report to the Theme Program Office upon completion of the research project. Each PI must also fulfill the national reporting requirement(s) of the respective Partner Organization.