The European Science Foundation has just issued a new call for European Collaborative Research Projects (ECRP) in the social sciences:
From the call:
The ECRP scheme is designed to advance international research collaboration in the social sciences by facilitating academic cooperation and pooling of expertise in Europe and beyond. The scheme offers the opportunity to carry out investigator-driven multilateral projects on any topic in the social sciences which demonstrates suitability for international research collaboration. ECRP applications must involve research teams in a minimum of three participating countries. Projects need not be exclusively European in their focus, and the combination of countries in any project should be scientifically motivated by the nature of the proposed research.
The deadline for applications is 12th March 2009. ECRP is funded by the Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) in the UK. The ESRC guidelines (not yet updated for the 2009 call) require you to submit a fEC proposal on Je-S in addition to the collaborative proposal you submit to the ESF.
Another important point to bear in mind: since funding organisations in a number of different member states make decisions on funding elements of larger collaborative projects, it’s possible that two of three funders could agree and one could decline. Because the ECRP regulations state that at least three countries must be involved, this woud render the proposal as a whole ineligible for funding.
Despite the extra complications inherent in the approvals process, the ECRP is still worth looking at as it provides a good opportunity to fund collaborations across the EU; the remit is wide; and the application itself is not as complex and time-consuming as a full FP7 collaborative research grant. Please contact the Research Office if you would like to discuss this opportunity further.