FEAST email news — February 2008
FP7 and ISL calls
Closing shortly are a number of important calls for researchers interested in further collaboration between Australian and Europe. We draw your particular attention to the following calls:
- Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) — This new Marie Curie program enables organisations to form strategic alliances and exchange staff. Australian organisations are elligible to apply, however only the European strategic partner will be elligible for funding for their staff exchange. The call closes on the 28th March 2008, and details can be found on the CORDIS website under call FP7-PEOPLE-IRSES-2008: cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/?fuseaction=UserSite.PeopleDetailsCallPage&call_id=98.
In order to assist participating Australian research organisations, the Australian Government Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research is considering providing some support to help cover these mobility costs. Funding worth $60,000 has been reserved through the strategic policy element of the International Science Linkages programme to assist such Australian research organisations for this purpose. This funding is intended to support travel and subsistence costs for a number of exchanges over the period that IRSES is in place, and this initial level of support may be reviewed if demand is particularly high. Such funding would be available on a competitive basis and, to be eligible for consideration, Australian research organisations would need to demonstrate that they are a member of a selected partnership under IRSES. In particular, the Department would be interested in supporting exchanges in certain research priority areas for collaboration with the European Union, including biotechnology and food, energy technologies (including clean energy), bioeconomy (including industrial biotechnology and agriculture) and climate change. The Department will provide further information, through the FEAST website, about this process and selection procedures in March 2008. - Galileo International Cooperation and Awareness — The latest FP7 Galileo call includes the topic International Cooperation and Awareness, which has €2.5million available. The objective of this call is to ensure that the European GNSS services, applications and standards are known and can be used throughout the world. It is particularly aimed at countries like Australia. The closing date for applications is 29th February 2008, and details can be found on the CORDIS website under call FP7-GALILEO-2007-GSA-1: cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/?fuseaction=UserSite.CooperationDetailsCallPage&call_id=110.
- ISL Competitive Grants — We again draw your attention to the new ISL (International Science Linkages) priorities (see the December 2007 edition of FEAST email news). The deadline for this years’ calls is 11th April 2008, and all of the details can be found at: sciencegrants.dest.gov.au/ISL.
Further details about FP7 can be found on the FEAST website (www.feast.org/fp7) or on the official FP7 pages (cordis.europa.eu/fp7).
FP7 evaluators needed
Senior researchers only.
Australia needs to increase the number of experts that the European Commission can draw upon in order to perform proposal evaluations for FP7.
If selected as an evaluator, you will gain insight into the workings of the European Commission and its research funding mechanisms, and you will also be introduced to numerous valuable contacts. We encourage you to register your interest on the CORDIS website at cordis.europa.eu/emmfp7. Be sure the complete your details, especially expertise and previous experience, as fully as possible. Once you have registered you are encouraged to inform your EC contacts, or FEAST, so that they may consider you for the next round of call evaluations.
Stop Press! The European Commission is particularly looking for Australian evaluators for the current Marie Curie call for the International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (IRSES) (see above). In order to be elligible to be an evaluator for this call you must have a scientific background, as well as experience in managing and evaluating international research programs. Also, you must contact FEAST, rather than enter your details online. You can contact Jean-François on 02 6125 7884 or info@feast.org.
Europe Strategy Days
In mid-March FEAST is holding a two Europe Strategy Days (Melbourne and Sydney) in order to provide hands on working knowledge of some key European programs and how to engage with them. A number of high level guest speakers will be sharing key information about strategic issues for engaging with Europe, and will cover business, as well as academic, research issues.
Information is available on the FEAST website at www.feast.org/strategy2008.
FEAST seminars online
We have now archived all information (including PowerPoint presentations, outcomes and photographs) about the seminars we organised and hosted during 2006 and 2007. You can find links to this information from the diary page, or at the following addresses:
