Calls for Proposals
Call for proposals FAPESP and FWO - 2024 Versão em português
Bilateral Scientific Research Cooperation Project
Between the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)
Guidelines call 2024
The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Brazil, and the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) announce an initiative to fund joint collaborative proposals in basic research in all fields of knowledge.
1. Introduction
Science is increasingly global. Many research questions and “grand challenges” cannot be resolved without cross-border collaboration between scientists. Flanders and the State of São Paulo (Brazil) wish to invest in joint research projects, creating a leverage for scientific excellence.
This intention will be realized through the implementation of a call for proposals, to be launched jointly in Flanders and the State of São Paulo. It is envisaged that applications will be for a balanced partnership, not specifically in monetary terms but with equivalent research commitment and efforts from both sides. Each proposal should be an integrated Flemish-Brazilian research project with both partners from Flanders and the State of São Paulo who join their strengths to execute a joint research project. Applicants are expected to propose a coherent research project, in which the added value of both the Flemish and Brazilian partner (State of São Paulo), and the complementarity of both teams, is clearly shown . The research should be carried out both in the State of São Paulo and Flanders.
2. Scope of funding and duration
Proposals for bilateral research projects between researchers from Flanders and Brazil (State of São Paulo) can be submitted in any scientific domain, as long as it covers basic scientific research . The projects, all starting on January 1 st 2025, have a duration of 3 years . Please note that the project duration must be the same on both sides.
3. Eligible Researchers
In order to be eligible, a proposal must involve both a Flemish principal investigator (PI – called supervisor-spokesperson at FWO) and a Brazilian PI (State of São Paulo); if needed co-PIs (called (co-) supervisors at FWO) can be included. In Flanders and Brazil, each researcher can only act once as a principle investigator or co-PI.
3.1 Eligible researchers for FAPESP:
Researchers eligible for FAPESP funding under the scope of this Call must be employees of public or private Higher Education or Research Institutions in the State of São Paulo and must meet the FAPESP eligibility requirements for the Regular Research Awards, described at www.fapesp.br/apr.
3.2 Eligible researchers for FWO:
Eligible host institutions: Your research will be carried out under the supervision of an applicable Flemish principal (main) host institution defined in article 7§2 of the regulations research projects fundamental research. Where appropriate, the principal (main) host institutions from article 7§2 can carry out their research in collaboration with a Flemish or Federal scientific institution, but not in collaboration with a non-Flemish research institution other than those the State of São Paulo, eligible for funding at FAPESP.
Eligible (co-)supervisor(s): Your research project will be carried out under the direction of a supervisor per host institution, possibly in collaboration with one or more co-supervisors in line with Article 10 (except §4 till §6 - there is no division into junior and senior projects in this call) and Article 11 (except §3) of the regulations research projects fundamental research.
In the framework of this call with FAPESP, you can only act once as a supervisor(-spokesperson) or co-supervisor.
Applications submitted in the frame of this FWO-FAPESP project call are not part of the regular competition research projects fundamental research and as such not taken into account for the maximum of two projects per application round for which you may act as (co-)supervisor, nor are they taken into account for the maximum of two projects applied for and ongoing on the start date of the newly allocated project.
4. Application procedure
4.1 Proposals must be submitted by the Flemish PI at FWO through the FWO E-portal and by the Brazilian PI (State of São Paulo) at FAPESP through the SAGe platform. The closing date for the submission of proposalsis the 4 th of June 2024 (5pm local time for FWO and 11h59pm local time for FAPESP). No proposals will be accepted after the closing date for submission, nor will any addendum or explanation be accepted, unless those explicitly and formally requested by FAPESP or FWO. Proposals not received before the deadline or not in conformity to the specifications herein will be declared ineligible.
4.2 In Flanders it can only be submitted according to the regulations of FWO; in the State of São Paulo it can only be submitted according to the regulations of FAPESP.
It is strongly recommended to complete and submit the proposal well in advance taking into account, amongst other things, the following specific FWO and FAPESP requirements:
- FAPESP submission:
- The Flemish PI and all Brazilian (State of São Paulo) researchers must be registered in the SAGe platform and confirm their participation in the proposal. Please see the annex for more details.
- A CV of each involved Brazilian (State of São Paulo) researcher and Flemish PI must be included . The CV of Brazilian researchers should be structured according to FAPESP instructions for a Curricular Summary (CS). The CV of the Flemish PI should be in line with the FWO CV template.
- In the FWO submission:
- Each Flemish and Brazilian (State of São Paulo) (co-)supervisor(-spokesperson) must have an online profile including an overview of academic positions and updated list of publications on FWO E-loket before the submission deadline. Please note that the registration of your login/password takes 24 hours.
- A CV of each Flemish and Brazilian (State of São Paulo) (co-)supervisor(-spokesperson) must be included. The CV of Brazilian participants should be structured according to FAPESP instructions for a Curricular Summary (CS). The CV of Flemish participants should be in line with the FWO CV template .
4.3 Proposals must be submitted in English to both agencies through their online systems:
- FAPESP: The proposal submitted by the State of São Paulo PI to FAPESP (including the documents of his/her FWO collaborator) must be done through the SAGe platform. The specific path for this Call is: Nova Proposta Inicial > + Outras Linhas de Fomento > + Acordos de Cooperação> + FWO - Research Foundation - Flanders> + FWO - Projeto de Pesquisa - Regular> + Chamada de Propostas (2024).
- FWO: The proposal must be submitted by the Flemish PI using the appropriate FWO application form through the FWO E-loket.
4.4 The proposal should be clearly integrated and contain one central issue to be investigated, as well as a methodology and an implementation plan. The project description in the proposal submitted by the Flemish and the Brazilian research team (State of São Paulo) should be identical, as well as the title, the abstract, and included (co-)PI’s. The work packages and budget should be specified clearly and separately for respectively the Flemish and Brazilian (State of São Paulo) part of the project. To facilitate this FWO and FAPESP make use of the same project template. At FWO the Brazilian budget (in EUR) must be added in the online application tool by adding the foreign host institution and subsequently allocating budget to it. At FAPESP the Flemish budget (in EUR) will have to be included as a separate document.
4.5 After the deadline, FWO and FAPESP will check whether the proposals have been submitted simultaneously in Flanders and Brazil (State of São Paulo). If a proposal is submitted only in one country, incomplete and/or received after the deadline, it will be declared ineligible. Applicants must note that the funding agencies retain the right to reject applications where they fail to comply with the procedures set out in this guidelines.
5. Funding modalities and eligible costs
5.1 FWO
The Flemish part of the project budget can only be used for one or more of the following cost categories:
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Scientific staff and consumables;
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Equipment;
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Travel and accommodation costs of Flemish researchers going to Brazil;
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To cover production costs of joint publications.
On the Flemish side the following budget regulations apply in the frame of this bilateral collaboration with FAPESP:
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The total project budget for staff and consumables may not exceed 85.000 EUR/year;
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The budget for staff and consumables of the Flemish main host institution must be minimally 45.000 EUR/year;
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Per project a maximum amount of 150.000 EUR for equipment can be applied for. This can take the form of matching funding;
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No overhead costs must be charged on the Flemish budgets.
During their travel and stay abroad, all researchers (from the Flemish as well as from the Brazilian research teams) involved in FWO-FAPESP projects and independent of nationality, can rely on a travel and assistance insurance (‘reis-en bijstandsverzekering’) and repatriation covered by FWO. This insurance is not a health insurance. Regardless of the aforementioned insurance, all researchers should have a valid health insurance entitling the holder to free emergency medical treatment in the host country. The responsibility for the provision of adequate insurance against accidents that may occur during the stay in the host country (‘arbeidsongevallenverzekering’) rests with the research institution to which the researcher stays affiliated during the joint exchange project. The research institution to which the researcher is travelling, shall provide the visitor with all indispensable organisational assistance in situations requiring such steps.
5.2 FAPESP
The proposals will be processed at FAPESP according to the rules and instructions for Regular Research Awards standards (www.fapesp.br/apr).
The eligible costs are:
a. Consumables
b. Services
c. Small equipment (below R$150.000,00)
d. Travel costs of Brazilian researchers from the state of São Paulo going to the Flanders (Belgium)
e. Technical Training Fellowships (www.fapesp.br/bolsas/tt);
f. One Post-Doctoral Fellowship;
g. The total budget must include Research Overheads (Direct Research Infrastructure Costs, Fringe Benefits, Institutional Research Infrastructure, Import Provision and Fellowships)
The total budget must include Research Overheads: “Direct Research Infrastructure Costs” (15% of the total amount requested), “Fringe Benefits” (R$ 16,000.00 per year for the PI), “Institutional Research Infrastructure” (10% of the total amount requested), “Import Provision”, if any, and Fellowships, if any.
The total amount of the proposal will appear as “Custo Total da Proposta (in R$)”, as in the box below:
6. Application timeline
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05 March 2024 |
Opening of the call |
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04 June 2024 (5pm local time) |
FWO deadline for proposals |
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04 June 2024 (11h59 pm local time) |
FAPESP deadline for proposals |
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June-September 2024 |
Eligibility check and remote peer review |
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November 2024 |
Joint Evaluation Panel appointed by FWO/FAPESP |
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December 2024 |
Ratification panel decision/communication results |
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01 January 2025 |
Start of the projects |
7. Assessment and Selection
7.1. Evaluation Procedure
The applicants shall respect the evaluation procedure outlined by FWO and FAPESP. The projects will be evaluated using a two-step procedure.
1. In a first step the proposals submitted at FAPESP will be subjected to the peer-review procedure of FAPESP, available at https://fapesp.br/1480/a-analise-pelos-pares. Concomitantly, the proposals submitted at FWO will be internationally peer-reviewed according to the standard procedure at FWO according to the Regulations FWO - Internal and External Peer Review making use of the evaluation criteria listed in section 7.2. The remote peer review will serve as inputs for the panel review.
2. A Joint Evaluation Panel comprising of experts designated by FWO and FAPESP will evaluate and rank all eligible proposals as well as allocate the funding. The composition of the joint scientific committee is only determined after the submission deadline in order to make sure that the selected panel members can cover the submitted applications. The composition of the joint scientific committee will be openly available after the finalization of the evaluation process.
The boards of FWO and FAPESP will thereafter ratify the ranking made by the joint evaluation panel. The involved Flemish and Brazilian researchers will be notified about the evaluation results after the ratification by both Boards. The Brazilian part will be funded by FAPESP according to its own rules and procedures; the Flemish part by FWO according to its rules and procedures. In due time, the researchers will also receive the necessary feedback about the decision taken.
7.2. Evaluation criteria
The following criteria will be used by the joint selection committee described in section 7.1.
- Researchers (30%)
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Competence of the individual researchers
- Project (40%)
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Scientific added value, rationale, and originality
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Quality of the research approach (methodology), feasibility and focus
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Work plan
- Collaboration (30%)
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Added value of the proposed collaboration
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Balance in terms of work contribution amongst the diverse research groups
The evaluation score grid that will be used by the remote peer review and joint selection committee members can be consulted here.
8. Intellectual Property
Based on the FWO regulations, Flemish researchers involved in funded FWO-FAPESP projects will be obliged to enter into a partnership agreement with their Brazilian partners to ensure, amongst other items, the effective protection and correct distribution of the intellectual properties resulting from the projects funded under this Call. Please note that no specific format for this agreement will be provided by FWO. The involved host institutions are free to elaborate such a document as long as it contains the necessary basic information.
For FAPESP, a Letter of Agreement (or “Consortium Agreement”) must be signed between the partner host institutions (from Flanders and from the state of São Paulo), establishing how Intellectual Property rights, confidentiality and publications will be treated jointly, in accordance to the policies of each funding agency and each host institution. No specific format for this agreement will be provided by FAPESP. Presentation of this document is not mandatory for signing the Grant Term; however, FAPESP can request it at any time.
9. Contact information
For the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP):
Meritxell Zurita Turk
Scientific Directorate São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP
E-mail: chamada_fwo@fapesp.br
For the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO):
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Gregory Absilli |
Isabelle Verbaeys |
Annex - Specific instructions on the use of SAGe
1. It is necessary that the all researchers of the team (including the Flemish PI) are registered in the SAGe system and confirm their participation in the proposal. We recommend to do so well in advance of the submission deadline.
(i) Researchers who do not have a SAGe registration must initially do so by accessing the SAGe page at www.fapesp.br/sage, clicking No registration? and filling in the requested data. It is not enough to just register as a user. After accessing the system it is necessary to complete the mandatory registration data, marqued with “*”.
(ii) Researchers already registered must login to SAGe with their usual identification and password to access the system.
2. When submitting the proposal, pay attention to the mandatory completion of all items marked with *. It is necessary to submit the proposal at the end. A saved proposal does not mean that it is a submitted proposal.
3. In case of doubts, on the SAGe home page there is a the link to the Manuals that can be used and, on the Manuals page, seek clarifications in the list Manuals de Apoio aos Pesquisadores. The system also provides an English version with manuals for user registration and confirmation of participation in proposals.
IMPORTANT: It is strongly recommended to complete and submit the proposal in the system well in advance and that the researcher periodically checks the pending proposals using the "Validate" option in SAGe. This can be done repeatedly as the proposal is constructed, allowing all necessary arrangements for submission to be made on time. When selecting the “Validate” option, the SAGe system will present the pending issues that impede the submission of the proposal considering the items that were inserted. In case of doubts about the use of SAGe, in addition to the Manuals, FAPESP also provides assistance through the Converse with FAPESP service at converse.