The Czech Science Foundation (“GACR”) has completed the evaluations of bilateral international projects where the Lead Agency principle is used as basis of evaluation, and where the Czech Science Foundation is the evaluating agency. Final decisions on funding by the participating agencies will be announced in the next few weeks and months.
LEAD AGENCY PROJECTS
The year 2020 has seen a tremendous development in the area of Lead Agency (LA) projects, where one organisation (the Lead Agency) recommends projects for funding, and the other agency accepts this recommendation, which is different from bilateral international projects. The LA approach reduces the administrative burden of the entire process dramatically.
Earlier this year, the Czech Science Foundation, and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) have published a joint call for proposals for the first time. The results were published (only in Czech) in late September. CEUS, the new Central-European initiative, was an important part of international LA projects. The initiative has been joined by the Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF) of Austria, the Javna agencija za raziskovalno dejavnost Republike Slovenije (ARRS) of Slovenia, and the Narodowe Centrum Nauki (NCN) of Poland. It was also possible to submit trilateral proposals in response to this new call. The last important news is that the Czech Science Foundation has become the Lead Agency for the first time, i.e. the agency carrying out the expert evaluation and proposing which projects receive funding.
The Presidium of GACR made the decision on LA projects evaluated by the Czech Science Foundation in late November, proposing projects worth nearly CZK 212 million (EUR 8 million). The next step is the confirmation of the proposed results by the partner agencies. Thus, the applicants will be notified of the final results once the agencies abroad confirm the decisions of the Czech Science Foundation. LA projects worth over CZK 64 million have already been approved in the autumn (in cooperation with SNSF and FWF).
More projects are still in the evaluation process where FWF of Austria and NCN of Switzerland play the Lead Agency role. The Czech Science Foundation has already announced (only in Czech) the first results of the joint call for proposals by FWF of Austria, which carries out evaluations contiuously throughout the year. More results are expected in March next year. The joint call with ARRS of Slovenia will be published in early December this year. These calls (published later) will produce projects launched in the 2nd half of 2021 or in early 2022.
UPDATE (links only in Czech):
7. 12. – Funded projects with Austrian agency Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF)
BILATERAL INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
The Czech Science Foundation continues to support international projects carried out jointly by scientific teams from Taiwan (in cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Technology – MOST), South Korea (National Research Foundation of Korea – NRF), Germany (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – DFG), São Paolo, Brazil (São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP), and Russia (Russian Foundation for Basic Research – RFBR). Project proposals submitted in these tenders are evaluated by both the Czech Science Foundation and the partner abroad. They receive funding if recommended by both institutions.
The number of project proposals received within international bilateral projects has increased more than threefold over the last 3 years, and the amount of funds provided by the Czech Science Foundation corresponds to this increase.
Please see below the list of projects recommended by the Czech Science Foundation for funding in 2021. The funding of those projects is contingent upon approvals by the partner organisations, which have not been issued yet. The final funding decision will be made in the next weeks and months after evaluation results are received from partner institutions.
List of international bilateral projects recommended for funding by the Czech Science Foundation (*. pdf; only in Czech)
!PLEASE NOTE: The final decision on funding the following projects is contingent upon the approving evaluation by the partner organisation abroad.
UPDATE (links only in Czech):
11. 12. – Funded projects with German agency Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and South Korean agency National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)
21. 12. – Funded projects with Taiwanese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST)