In an effort to improve the situation for research teams, the GACR Presidium in connection with the declaration of an emergency, restrictions on movement and personal communication approved temporary changes in the definition of eligible costs.
Changes in the course of the grant project:
- transfers between basic structure items of the allocated grant funds to the beneficiary or additional participant, up to 100,000 CZK are possible without a request to approve changes by the end of 2020 and do not require an amendment to the contract or a new decision on the support provision;
- in a case of acquisition of previously unapproved fixed assets, it is necessary to send the GACR a request for approval of the intended investment before the acquisition;
- changes in the drawing or transferring of the subsidy must be additionally justified by the beneficiary in the following report (interim or final). It must be demonstrated that the changes or transfers have been effective, economical, efficient and have occurred in connection with the declared state of emergency, restriction of movement and personal communication.
Eligible costs covered by grant funds may include the following costs until the end of 2020, in case they have been directly linked to the restrictions adopted to stop the spread of the coronavirus epidemic COVID-19:
- fees for canceled or non-realized conferences, travel expenses for conferences (cancellations) or already paid and canceled work stays abroad (up to 100%);
- costs for telecommunication services; costs for the acquisition, repair and maintenance of devices and equipment from the field of communication technology (from the item of material or investment costs), except costs for telephones, dictation machines, readers;
- costs for acquiring tangible fixed assets or amortization (the purchase price is higher than 40,000 CZK) and for acquiring intangible fixed assets (the purchase price is higher than 60,000 CZK) with the period of use longer than one year, which are necessary for carrying out the grant project and are purchased and used in the direct connection with the grant project.
The GACR Presidium recalls that other costs incurred in dealing with the crisis may also be included in the eligible costs covered by the grant funds from additional (overhead) costs:
- g. the costs of child care for workers involved in the project.
The GACR Presidium also recalls that other costs incurred in dealing with this crisis may be included in eligible costs paid from grant funds from material and/or personnel costs:
- the cost of wage compensation up to an amount not paid by the state to the employer in a state of emergency;
- computer technology used exclusively in direct connection with the carrying out grant project.
Dear applicants,
The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) has extended the submission deadline for the project proposals until 8 April 2020.
For the cooperation within CEUS initiative, the submission deadline for project proposals when GACR is in the role of Lead Agency is newly 4 May 2020.
Thank you for your understanding.
In the context of the coronavirus epidemic in the Czech Republic, the scientific community warns that the announcement of a state of emergency disrupts the preparation of project proposals in the currently announced public tenders.
In an effort to respond to the current state of emergency and to accommodate as much as possible all researchers, the GACR Presidium has decided to cancel public tenders in research, development and innovation to support the EXPRO, JUNIOR STAR, standard and international bilateral projects announced by the Czech Science Foundation on 21 February 2020 in the Business Register (with the beginning of the competition period on February 22, 2020 and the end of the competition period on April 7, 2020) with the anticipated start of the implementation from January 1, 2021 and at the same time GA CR Presidium further decided on the immediate re-announcement of all these tenders in research, development and innovation from today with the expected implementation to begin on January 1, 2021.
The conditions of the newly announced public tenders in research, development and innovation will be identical to the conditions of the cancelled public tenders. By cancelling and re-announcing the tenders, the Czech Science Foundation meets the request of a large part of the scientific community for an extension to the period for submitting project proposals until 4 May 2020. This would otherwise not be possible within the current legal framework of the Act on Support of Research, Development and Innovation.
After careful consideration and consultation with representatives of research organizations, the GACR Presidium chooses this solution and these terms. This will ensure the extension of the submission period whilst keeping to the original deadlines for the evaluation (i.e. 2 November 2020 for the EXPRO and JUNIOR STAR projects and 1 December 2020 for standard grant projects and international bilateral projects).
Neither the period of uncertainty for organizations and research teams nor the beginning of project implementation will need to be extended to the following year. The Czech Science Foundation thus acts with maximum effort to maintain continuity of basic research funding as well as to provide more time for project proposal preparation to all applicants.
The GACR Presidium is aware of the fact, that it will only be possible to fulfil these commitments with the maximum effort of both evaluators and the GA CR Office staff and believes that this decision will be accepted by the scientific community with understanding.
Thank you for your understanding.
