Invitation for e-infrastructure collaboration on development projects 2022

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.

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.

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. The collaborative groups must meet at least one of the following criteria to be considered:

The group submitted a development project application to the 2021 NeIC Invitation for e-Infrastructure for Collaboration that received a score of at least medium on the aggregate prioritization.
The group submitted a pre-study application to a NeIC Invitation for e-Infrastructure for Collaboration that was accepted by NeIC and was successfully concluded.
The group has a focus on e-infrastructure for biodiversity applications in the Nordics

Available funding

NeIC’s current funding situation suggests allowing for starting at least two development projects per year. Projects are developed in collaboration with researchers and national institutions from participating countries on a cost-sharing basis. The successful proposers will be contacted shortly after the decision has been taken by the NeIC Board to initiate contract negotiations and to discuss further details regarding budgets and agreements.

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 and up to 10 FTEs for project personnel funded 50/50 by NeIC and partners. The personnel costs include overhead for the personnel. Project travel and meeting costs are covered by NeIC and can be included in the budget. The total budget that is anticipated to be available for this call is 21.3 MNOK. This funding is expected to allow for two new development projects from the anticipated seven applications.

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.

How to apply

Proposers must submit their proposal for development project electronically through the NordForsk application portal no later than 1 March 2022 at 13:00 CET The application portal is accessible here.

Guidelines for proposing a collaboration project

The templates are available in the NordForsk application portal. Guidelines can be downloaded below.

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 call process, please do not hesitate to contact us at neic-helpdesk@neic.no.

For technical support with the application portal, contact support@nordforsk.org.