Agreements

• Home
• Agreements

We inform the submission deadline for this call for proposals was postponed to 6 February 2020.

CLOSING DATE: 6th of February 2020
For Italy: 17:00 CET (Central European Time)

In the framework of the Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Italian Republic and the Government of the federal Republic of Brazil, signed in Rome on February 12^th, 1997 and entered into force on December 15^th, 1998, the Directorate General for Cultural and Economic Promotion and Innovation – Office IX of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Brazilian National Council of State Funding Agencies - CONFAP, hereinafter referred to as the “Parties”, initiate hereby the procedures for the drafting of the Executive Programme of Scientific and Technological Cooperation for the years 2020-2022.

GENERAL INFORMATION

A. FUNDING SCHEME

The present call concerns joint research projects of “Particular Relevance”, where research activities are co-founded by both Parties. In Italy, this scheme requires about 50% co-funding by the proposing research institution.

B. AREAS OF COOPERATION

Projects may be submitted in one of the following priority research areas:

1. Artificial Intelligence

2. Basic Sciences (Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics)

3. Communicable diseases

4. Distributed power generation from renewable sources

5. Nutrition and metabolic diseases

6. Precision Agriculture

7. Space science

8. Sustainable production and use of strategic minerals

Projects submitted in other research areas will not be considered for evaluation.

C. ELIGIBILITY CONDITIONS

• For the Italian Party, the call is open to public or private research organizations.

The Coordinator/Principal Investigator (PI) must hold:

• Italian or any other EU nationality

• legal residence in Italy

• a permanent position, or a temporary position covering at least the time extent of the project.

• For the Brazilian Party the call is open to:

  • Coordinators/researchers, who are implementing research activities within Brazilian universities, institutes or research centres:

  • Additional eligibility criteria may be requested by the supporting State Funding Agencies - FAPs, which shall, in such cases, publish specific guidelines:

  • Participants from Brazil must verify with their respective FAPs such rules and modalities.

The project proposals must be jointly elaborated and must be submitted by the Principal Investigators of both Parties, in the same priority area.

Proposals submitted to only one of the two Parties or in different areas will not be considered.

For the Brazilian side, in case of involvement of more than one State within the same proposal, the submission must be done by the Brazilian PI/Coordinator, on behalf of the other involved PIs from other Brazilian States.

D. PROJECT REQUIREMENTS

• Projects must be written in English. Projects submitted in other languages will not be considered for evaluation.

• Projects must have the same duration of the Executive Protocol (three-years: 2020-2022).

• Each researcher can submit only one project proposal as Principal Investigator (PI).

• For the Brazilian side, applicants must previously consult their respective FAP, which defines its specific eligibility conditions and project requirements.

In Italy, for projects involving experiments with animals, ethics approval by the competent Ethics Committee must be provided when submitting the proposal. The approval is mandatory to obtain formal authorization from the competent Ministry of Health to start the activities (D.Lgs 26_04/03/2014 and Directive 2010/63 EU). Projects involving experiments with human beings must be performed in accordance with the Directive 536/2014/EC. The Italian Principal Investigator should include submit a self-declaration of adhesion to the above cited rules in the text of the proposal.

E. PROCEDURES FOR THE SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

The joint proposal must be submitted to both Parties, in particular:

1. The Italian coordinator/PI must submit the proposal to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation exclusively through the ad hoc online platform: http://web.esteri.it/pgr/. Any inquiry about the present call can be addressed by e-mail to: dgsp-09bandi2@esteri.it

2. The Brazilian coordinator/PI must submit the project proposal to CONFAP, through the following link: http://confap.org.br/news/confap-maeci/

In case of projects involving more than one Brazilian State, the Brazilian consortium shall have to identify one coordinator/PI who shall submit the proposal on behalf of the Brazilian consortium.

The proposal must include all the relevant information regarding the involved researchers (PIs), from the other States (including the respective documentation such as the CVs and the endorsement letters from their institutions).

a. Researchers (either if Brazilian PIs/coordinators or if Brazilian PIs part of the consortium) from the States of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco and Minas Gerais must send the proposals through the call’s link mentioned above and also directly to links indicated below.

i. São Paulo - FAPESP: www.fapesp.br/13760

ii. Rio de Janeiro – FAPERJ: https://sisfaperj.faperj.br/sisfaperj/

iii. Pernambuco - FACEPE: http:agil.facepe.br/

iv. Minas Gerais – FAPEMIG: http://everest.fapemig.br/

3. Documentation: project proposals should include all the following documentation:

a. For both Italy and Brazil:

i. Research Project and related Work Plan, following the evaluation criteria indicated in item “ F. Project Evaluation and selection at the national and bilateral level ”;

b. For the Italian side, an endorsement letter, signed by the legal representative of the applying Institution, must be submitted by the call deadline to the following address: progetti.st@esteri.it. Any additional support letters by other academic institutions included in the partnership or by private companies, must be sent by the call deadline to the same e-mail address (progetti.st@esteri.it).

c. For Brazil:

i. Endorsement letter from the University or Research centre of Origin of the Brazilian PI; in case of more than one Brazilian State involved, each PI should annex the endorsement letter of its respective institution.

ii. Curriculum Vitae of all the involved Brazilian PIs

F. PROJECT EVALUATION AND SELECTION AT THE NATIONAL AND BILATERAL LEVEL

At the closure of the call, all applications received will be checked for eligibility requirements.

Eligible applications will then move on to a two-step selection process:

• STEP 1. Projects will be evaluated at the national level according to the following criteria:

• Scientific relevance

• Methodology and documentation

• Qualification of the applicants

• Added value of the bilateral cooperation

• Involvement of early career researchers in the research teams

• Budget adequacy with respect to methods and expected results

Preference will be given to:

- Proposals involving more than one national public/private research organization, and for Brazil more than one State Funding Agency;

- Initiatives with potential industrial impact and/or involving industrial partners (support letters can be included)

• STEP 2. The final list of projects eligible for funding will be negotiated within the Joint Commission including representatives of both Parties, as defined in Article 5 of the aforementioned Agreement.

G. REASONS FOR EXCLUSION

• Lack of eligibility conditions (see section C: Eligibility Conditions);

• Submission of more than one proposal by the same coordinator/PI;

• Incomplete application (see section D: Project Requirements);

• Application drafted in other languages than English;

• Institution of the Brazilian PI located in Sates not supporting the present call (for the list of supporting FAPs see section I: Funding procedures).

H. PUBLICATION OF RESULT S

For the Italian Party, the list of selected projects will be posted exclusively on the website of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation at the following address:

http://www.esteri.it/mae/it/politica_estera/cooperscientificatecnologica/programmiesecutivi/accordi_programmi_culturali_tecnologici.html.

For the Brazilian Party, the list of selected projects and funding procedures will be posted exclusively on the website of CONFAP and of FAPs involved in this call for proposals at the following address: www.confap.org.br.

I. FUNDING PROCEDURES

Funding will be granted to the projects listed in the Executive Programme within the limits of the available annual resources of each Party.

For the Italian Party, financial contribution by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is intended as co-funding of about 50% of the project’s total costs; therefore the applying Institution must co-fund the remaining 50% on the basis of the salary of involved personnel and indirect costs of the project. The applying Institution is expected to anticipate all project expenses and will be reimbursed on a yearly basis after submitting fully completed and adequately documented reimbursement papers.

According to the Italian law Nr.401/90, at the beginning of each year of activity, the Principal Investigators of the projects listed in the Executive Programme will be invited to submit a request for funding, in accordance with a specific annual call issued by Office IX of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Call details will be available, in due time, at the following link: http://www.esteri.it/mae/it/politica_estera/cooperscientificatecnologica/avvisiincaricobandi.html.

For the Brazilian Party, each participating FAP defines the maximum contribution for the call, so as the specific eligible costs. Such definitions are published in the respective Guidelines, which each FAP shall publish, referred to the present call.

Any inquiry about the present call can be sent to: elisa.confap@gmail.com.

Any inquiry which refers to the support given by the participating FAPs must be sent to the respective contacts indicated below.

List of FAPs and respective contacts, so as the allocated budget is listed below:

	Brazilian States & FAPs	Maximum Total Budget (Euros)	Contacts
1	Alagoas – FAPEAL	50.000,00	antonio.carvalho@fapeal.br
2	Amazonas – FAPEAM	100.000,00	gabinete@fapeam.gov.br
3	Espírito Santo – FAPES	100.000,00	parcerias@fapes.es.gov.br
4	Federal District – FAPDF	220.000,00	regina.buani@fap.df.gov.br
5	Goiás – FAPEG	110.000,00	comunicacao.fapeg@goias.gov.br
6	Mato Grosso do Sul – FUNDECT	25.000,00	projetos@fundect.ms.gov.br
7	Minas Gerais – FAPEMIG	100.000,00	dpi@fapemig.br
8	Pará – FAPESPA	30.000,00	lucasscs@hotmail.com
9	Pernambuco - FACEPE	10.000,00	neildes.paiva@facepe.br
10	Rio de Janeiro – FAPERJ	300.000,00	assessoriainternacional@faperj.br
11	Santa Catarina – FAPESC	100.000,00	internacional@fapesc.sc.gov.br
12	São Paulo – FAPESP	320.000,00	chamada-maeci@fapesp.br
13	Tocantins - FAPT	65.000,00	munique.oliveira@fapt.to.gov.br

J. CALL CALENDAR

• Publication of the Call : 25^th of November 2019

• Deadline for submission of proposals : 6^th of February 2020

o For Italy: 17:00 CET (Central European Time)

o For Brazil 13:00 PDT (Pacific Daylight Time - Time in Brasilia)

---