Invitation for e-infrastructure collaboration
PURPOSE OF THE CALL
Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration (NeIC) invites consortia consisting of e-infrastructure providers, developers, researchers and related communities around the Nordic region to propose collaboration projects within e-infrastructure (digital infrastructure) of joint Nordic interest. The proposals may also be initiated by the NeIC Provider Forum.
NeIC facilitates collaboration within e-infrastructure to foster Nordic research excellence. E-infrastructure provides the environment to handle the digital components of the research process. The proposed collaboration may include development of e-infrastructure solutions supporting open science or exploring new technologies, sharing knowledge or offering training to improve the use of current and future e-infrastructure capabilities. Examples of collaborative projects NeIC has supported before are provided on NeIC website. Particular topics of interest could relate to data centric challenges. Examples may include but are not limited to biodiversity, health registries, biomedical data, artificial intelligence or machine learning, authentication and authorisation infrastructure, quantum computing and cybersecurity.
ELIGIBILITY TO APPLY
Participation from at least three countries, of which one can be other than a Nordic country or Estonia, is required. The proposed collaboration project may include partners from beyond the Nordic region. Current NeIC project consortia may apply if their current project ends no later than in the first half of 2022.
AVAILABLE FUNDING
NeIC’s current funding situation suggests allowing for starting one or two development projects per year, plus possibly a few pre-studies. Projects are developed in collaboration with researchers and national institutions from participating countries on a cost-sharing basis (see section NeIC collaboration models). NeIC will initiate contract negotiations contacting the successful proposers regarding further details regarding budgets and contract shortly after the decision has been taken.
NEIC COLLABORATION MODELS
Development project
Typical provider-oriented development projects aim at developing services for a wide range of research problems and the typical project team consists of service providers. A typical community-oriented development project aims at developing e-infrastructure services targeted for one or more significant areas of science. The development project proposed may contain elements of both provider-oriented and community-oriented development projects. The proposers are encouraged to contact the e-infrastructure providers of the participating countries prior to submitting the proposal, especially if the execution of the project requires computational or data management resources or other services from the e-infrastructure providers. In the preparation of the development project plan, the proposers should also consider how the anticipated services and/or gained competences would be sustained after the completion of the project.
A typical development project could have a duration of up to three years with a budget covering a project manager at 25-50% fully funded by NeIC, 2-11 FTEs funded 50/50% by NeIC and partners and some additional travel/meeting expenses. The budget available for this call is 23 MNOK.
The proposers are required to submit letters of commitment from the management of the partner organisations as part of the proposal.
NeIC applies the Tieto PPS model for the project steering. The project manager is generally appointed by NeIC.
Community-forming pre-study or workshop
The pre-study or workshop could aim at Nordic teams-in-formation to explore synergies of common e-infrastructure solutions and/or the potential to scope a future development project.
A typical pre-study could have a duration of 6-12 months and a budget of maximum 200,000 NOK to cover meeting costs and coordination. A typical budget for a workshop could be 50,000 NOK. The funding will be given to the partner who coordinates the pre-study or workshop. The budget needed for the activities must be described in the proposal. After completion of the pre-study or workshop, NeIC will request a report on the use of funding. The pre-study could start or workshop be organised during the fall 2021.
For further information please see the call text for community-forming pre-study or workshop.
HOW TO APPLY
Proposers must submit their proposal for development project electronically through the NordForsk application portal no later than March 10th 2021 at 13:00 CET.
Development project
Pre-study or workshop
GUIDELINES FOR PROPOSING A COLLABORATION PROJECT
All guidelines are also available in the NordForsk application portal.
Development project
- call text for development project
- guidelines for development project plan
- guidelines for budget and resources section
- guidelines for the tools and services section
Other relevant documents the proposers should familiarise themselves with
Pre-study or workshop
- call text for community-forming pre-study or workshop
- guidelines for pre-study or workshop project plan
Other relevant documents the proposers should familiarise themselves with
FURTHER INFORMATION AND CONTACTS
For more information about the collaborative work that NeIC facilitates or the open invitation process, please do not hesitate to contact us: neic-helpdesk@neic.no.
TECHNICAL SUPPORT
For technical support with the application portal, contact support@nordforsk.org.