Call for Interchanges

This call provides limited funds for HUMAINE researchers to support visits to another laboratory within the network. The purpose of the Interchange fund is to carry out joint research that contributes to the Joint Programme of Activities. Eligible for funding are all HUMAINE partners from EU member states and associated states (in particular, Swiss and US partners cannot be funded). The recommended duration of a visit is

between 2 weeks and 2 months

in order to allow time for actual joint work during the visit without consuming the majority of the available sum. Exceptions are possible but should be justified convincingly. The total budget for the upcoming call is

Applications must be sent to humaine@qub.ac.uk by

Friday, 4 March 2005

Applications should be no more than 3 pages, and should provide the following information:

1. Name of visiting institution and researcher(s) (must be HUMAINE members)
2. Name of institution to be visited (must be a HUMAINE member
3. Name of researcher(s) that you plan to collaborate with
4. Proposed date and duration of visit
5. Estimated budget (detailling main items of expenditure and their rough costs)
6. Purpose of visit – the work to be done, the aspects of the network’s activity to which it is relevant, and the way it will enhance the network.
7. The concrete output to be provided (report, paper, program, experiment, etc).

Applications will be reviewed by the Project Steering Board according to the following criteria:

1. Eligibility. The visiting and visited labs must be official HUMAINE partners (except Swiss and US partners); also, each visiting researcher must be a named HUMAINE researcher. Uneligible applications will be rejected without further review.
2. Equal chances. In any given call, no more than one application per visiting institution will be approved. If an institution files more than one application, only the best-rated application shall be eligible for funding. Similarly, in case applications are ranked equal (see below), institutions having not received funding from earlier calls will be preferred over institutions having already received funding.
3. Application ranking. The applications are ranked using the evaluation criteria given below. The “affordable n best” applications will be funded, i.e. a number n is determined such that the cumulated budget for the n best applications is equal to or below the total budget for the call. In other words, an application will be funded either in full or not at all. Each application will be reviewed by two anonymous PSB members not associated with the application, using five-point scales. Applications must reach a minimum overall threshold of 3 to be eligible. The ranking criteria, all of equal importance, are the following:
1. Scientific excellence. The overall scientific quality of the proposed work. (1=worst, 5=best)
2. Relevance to HUMAINE. Relevance to the HUMAINE joint programme of activities. (1=worst, 5=best)
3. Adequacy of effort. Is the time proposed for the visit appropriate for the work? (1=too long/too short, 5=optimal).
4. Value for money. This is calculated as “requested budget” divided by “number of person-days of visiting researcher(s)”. (Lowest values = best, highest = worst, will be linearly mapped onto scale 1-5).