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The Presidium of the Czech Science Foundation has been creating and updating a number of rules for managing projects in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The changes include deadline extensions, more leeway in dedicated workload, and eligibility of new types of costs. Here is the complete overviews of the measures.
“The current situation is unprecedented in many respects, including the fact that certain activities cannot take place, such as conferences we had planned a long time ahead. More importantly, it places an increased burden on all of us – scientists included – for many reasons. We have been looking for ways to make their situation easier to the maximum extent possible, without an impact of those changes on basic research in the Czech Republic. I trust that the set of measures we have approved will help project investigators handle the situation better,” says RNDr. Alice Valkárová, DrSc, the Chair of the Czech Science Foundation.
The changes in rules allow scientists to request deadline extensions for projects to be completed this year by up to 6 months. They can also request a deadline extension for the submission of the final report – this deadline has been moved until the end of August. Deadline extensions also apply to Ph.D. students seeking aid within the JUNIOR STAR programme – their graduation deadline has been extended until 15 December. It is now possible to use grant funds to cover telecommunication costs incurred because personal meetings were impossible. Eligible costs now also include cancellation fees for activities which could not take place. The Czech Science Foundation has also allowed a more flexible modification to dedicated work hours, making it possible to modify the hours by up to 35% without requesting a prior approval or amending the Contract.
Following are the details of the individual COVID19-related measures:
Unlimited amounts may be drawn from unexhausted targeted aid in future years – and this was already possible on the basis of Tender Documents and in compliance with Decree 367/2015 on Principles and Deadlines of Financial Reconciliation with the State Budget, State Assets and the National Fund (hereinafter “Financial Reconciliation Decree”). (The Beneficiary must, however, deploy a specific accounting procedure other than an increase in the reported costs –the required procedure is to increase the targeted aid funds above the threshold defined by law.)
Items of the basic breakdown of the grant funds allocated to a Beneficiary or another participant may be shifted by up to CZK 100,000 until the end of 2020 without prior approval and it is not necessary to amend the Contract and a new decision on the provision of aid is not required.
It is still possible to shift items worth CZK 100,000 or more on the basis of an individual request approved by the Presidium, and an amendment to the Contract.
Eligible expenses may now include the costs of COVID-19 tests if required for travel abroad in order to carry out a grant project. The amount of eligible costs will be reduced appropriately if the grant project is not the exclusive reason for the particular trip abroad.
osts incurred in the course of a project may now be included among eligible costs (i.e. advances paid in the course of the project) if those costs were related to a conference which was postponed due to COVID-19 and was/will be held after the completion of the project, but no later than a year within such completion.
Eligible costs may include cancellation fees for cancelled conferences, including travel costs for cancelled business trips, both up to 100%, provided that the trip was cancelled due to COVID-19.
If the supplier refunds the costs or if the trip takes place on a different date (e.g. after redeeming a voucher) but the trip is not related to a specific project, these amounts will have to be included in the project-related revenues.
Until the end of 2020, eligible costs covered by grant funds may include the costs of telecommunication services and the costs of purchasing, maintaining, or repairing ICT devices and appliances (drawn from the material purchases or investments account), excluding phones, recorders and readers.
Until the end of 2020, eligible costs covered by grant funds may include fixed-asset purchases or fixed-asset depreciation (if the purchase cost exceeds CZK 40,000) as well as intangible assets (if the purchase cost exceeds CZK 60,000) with a useful life of over one year if such asset is necessary to carry out a grant project and the purchase and use of such asset is directly associated with the grant project.
This measure makes it possible for eligible costs to include the purchases or depreciation of fixed assets and/or intangible assets in 2020 due to the state of emergency hindering communication in person (even in case the Tender Document does not make such costs eligible within a specific project).
The eligible cost for projects carried out in 2020 will be equal to the purchase price of the asset or a proportion of such price corresponding to the actual allocation of the asset to the specific project based on time and the plausibility of such allocation.
If it is impossible to work on a project according to an approved plan due to COVID-19, the changes in professional teams that include a change in the aggregate dedicated working hours (workload) of up to 35% of the team’s aggregate dedicated working hours (workload) as defined by the Contract, including a change in the investigator’s or co-investigator’s dedicated workload, are now possible through 2020 without a request for prior approval, and such changes do not require an amendment to the Contract or a new decision on the provision of aid.
If it is impossible to work on a project according to an approved plan due to COVID-19, the Beneficiary may request a reduction in the dedicated working hours of the individual team members carrying out the project pursuant to Article 5.1. of Annex 4 to the Tender Document.
If the Beneficiary has requested a deadline extension for the evaluation of the final report, and such report is to be submitted by 31 July 2020, the deadline for the submission of the final report is now extended until 31 August 2020.
If it is impossible to work on a project according to an approved plan due to COVID-19, the Beneficiary may request a 6-month extension to the period to carry out the project. To cover the costs incurred during the extension, the Beneficiary will draw from the funds not exhausted in 2020, which the Czech Science Foundation allows to be carried over into the following period in compliance with the pertinent Tender Documentation.
In compliance with the Financial Reconciliation Decree, the Czech Science Foundation makes it possible already now to carry over unlimited amounts of the unexhausted targeted aid into future project years and to draw from such amounts without limitation.
Detailed explanation: This year, it is necessary to request a 6-month extension due to COVID-19 only for projects which were supposed to be completed in 2020. Should the negative impacts of the COVID-19 related measures prevail with projects to be completed in later periods, the Presidium will take into consideration well-founded requests for extension submitted during the last year of such projects.
The deadline to submit a Ph.D. diploma (or a certificate of an equivalent degree) of the Applicant pursuant to Article 3.1. (5) of the Tender Document for JUNIOR STAR grant projects – 2021 is now extended until 15 December 2020. This applies to situations in which, due to COVID-19 related measures, it became impossible to complete the Ph.D. programme by the original deadline and to submit a Ph.D. diploma (or a certificate of an equivalent degree) by 10 October 2020.
In connection with the global restrictions against the spread of COVID-19 and in an effort to improve the situation for project investigators supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GACR), the GACR Presidium approved another set of transitional measures for grant projects.
The measures we have announced earlier can be found at this link.
Mandatory tests for COVID-19 can be included among the eligible costs when traveling abroad due to a grant project implementation. The amount of the eligible costs will be reduced accordingly for the travels abroad that are not fully realised for the grant project implementation.
Eligible costs may include expenses incurred during the grant project implementation (i.e. advanced payments at the time of the project implementation) related to the active participation at the conference which was postponed due the COVID-19 situation and take place after the end of project implementation, and within maximum of one year.
Changes in the team of professional co-workers, including a change of team´s aggregate workload up to maximum of 35 % in the contract-approved aggregate workload, including the workload change of principal investigator or co-investigator while maintaining the professional quality of the team, and except the change of principal investigator or co-investigator, are possible without a request in 2020 and do not require a contract amendment or a new decision on provision of targeted support, if it is not possible to work on the project according to the approved plan in the connection with COVID-19.
If it is not possible to work on the project according to the approved plan in connection with COVID-19, the beneficiary may request workload reduction of individual team members on the project implementation according to Article 5.1. of Annex No. 4 of the Tender document.
If the beneficiary has requested an evaluation postponement of final report with the submission deadline of the final report until 31 July 2020, the submission deadline of final report shall be postponed to 31 August 2020.
If it is not possible to work on project according to the approved plan in connection with COVID-19, the beneficiary may request an extension of the project implementation by six months. To finance the costs incurred at the time of extension, the beneficiary will use unused funds in 2020, which GACR in accordance with the relevant Tender Document allows to draw in the following period.
GACR already allows, in accordance with the wording of Decree No. 367/2015 Coll., On the principles and deadlines for financial settlement of relations with the state budget, state financial assets and the National Fund (Decree on Financial Settlement) to transfer and draw unused targeted support to following years of project implementation in an unlimited amount. Thus, GACR already allows the funds provided according to the project proposal in one of the previous years of project implementation to be used in the following years of project implementation.
Deadline for sending confirmation of Ph.D. (or equivalent) of the applicant according to Article 3.1. para. 5 of Tender Document for grant projects JUNIOR STAR – 2021 is extended until 15 December 2020. This measure applies to cases where due the complications caused by the adoption of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 it will not be possible to complete the study on time and thus provide the confirmation of Ph.D. degree until 10 October 2020.
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:
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:
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:
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:
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.
On 27 November 2019, GACR President signed a memorandum of understanding with the Swiss National Science Foundation on bilateral cooperation on the Lead Agency principle. This new cooperation enables scientists from the Czech Republic to carry out scientific projects in basic research with new foreign partners. The first call is announced now with the SNSF in the role of a Lead Agency. Projects duration is maximum 3 years.
Detailed rules for submitting project proposals under the new LA cooperation will be published at the beginning of 2020.
On Monday 17 June 2019, the highest representatives of GACR, FWF (Austria), NCN (Poland) and ARRS (Slovenia) solemnly signed the “CEUS – Central European Science Partnership” Lead Agency Agreement: Memorandum of Understanding on the unilateral administration and mutual recognition of evaluation procedures. This new cooperation enables scientists from the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland and Slovenia to carry out scientific projects with new foreign partners based on the Lead Agency evaluation, which is among the increasingly preferred forms of cooperation between foreign agencies supporting basic research due to reduction of administrative burden. Within the CEUS initiative supporting basic research in the Central European region, scientists will be enabled to submit bilateral and also trilateral project proposals on the LA principle.
In brief:
On Monday 17 June 2019, the top representatives of GACR, FWF (Austria), NCN (Poland), ARRS (Slovenia) signed the ‘’CEUS – Central European Science Partnership” Lead Agency Agreement: Memorandum of Understanding on the unilateral administration and mutual recognition of evaluation procedures”. This new collaboration will enable scientists from the Czech Republic, Austria, Poland and Slovenia to carry out scientific projects with new foreign partners based on the Lead Agency evaluation, which belongs to the most preferred forms of cooperation among foreign agencies supporting basic research in reducing administrative burdens. As part of the CEUS Initiative to support basic research in the Central European Region, researchers will now be able to submit bilateral and trilateral LA based project proposals.
GACR currently plans to announce the first call within this new initiative next year. At the end of June this year, The Research, Development and Innovation Council approved a new material enabling the agency to launch multilateral projects based on the Lead Agency principle. At this point, the material will be submitted to the Czech government for approval.
On 5 November 2018, GACR President signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). As a result of this agreement, Czech scientists have the opportunity to expand their basic research activities abroad. In case of this new cooperation, project proposals were submitted for the first time in 2019. This cooperation is based on bilateral level with project duration of three years.
