Agreements

FAPESP / BAYLAT - Workshop 2018: State of São Paulo, Brazil and Free State of Bavaria, Germany

GUIDELINES FOR APPLICANTS

1. Overview

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts of the Free State of Bavaria, (StMWK), Bavaria, Germany represented by the Bavarian Academic Center for Latin America (BAYLAT), Bavaria, Germany, signed a Cooperation Agreement for Research on April 11, 2012, which has been renewed in 2016 and will be valid till 2022. The Cooperation agreement is aiming to implement scientific and technological cooperation between researchers from Bavaria, Germany and from the State of São Paulo, Brazil, through the funding of joint research projects.

This element is designed to provide financial support to bring together a Free State of Bavaria and the São Paulo State cohort of early career researchers and PhD students who are about to defend their thesis to take part in a workshop focusing on building links for future collaboration and enhancing the researchers’ career opportunities.

Workshops will be coordinated by two leading researchers one from a higher education or research institutions in the Free State of Bavaria, Germany and one from a higher education or research institution in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.

Proposals will be accepted in any discipline/multidisciplinary area (see Annex 1 or 2 for further details). FAPESP and the Free State of Bavaria will co-fund the workshops.

2. Who can apply

Two leading researchers, one from a higher education or research institutions in the Free State of Bavaria, Germany one from a higher education or research institution in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, are welcome to send in a joint application to propose a theme for the workshop using the application forms and online platform described in Item 16. Both applicants will be referred to as “Workshop Coordinators”.

2.1 Workshop Coordinators from the State of São Paulo must be or have been Principal or Co-Principal Investigators of research projects funded by FAPESP within at least one of the following FAPESP funding lines: Thematic Projects, Young Investigators Award (JP), Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (CEPIDs/RIDCs), and Research Partnership for Technological Innovation (PITE).

In addition, the proponents from São Paulo must also comply with the following requirements:

  • To have a PhD or equivalent title;

  • To have an outstanding scientific or technologic research record;

  • To be formally associated with a São Paulo research institution.

    • FAPESP may accept, under certain conditions, a non-employment kind of association that grounds solidity in the academic dedication to the Research Institution in the State of São Paulo. In such cases, prior to the submission of the proposal, the proponent must consult FAPESP Scientific Directorate through the e-mail chamada-baylat@fapesp.br, informing:

      • The nature of the institutional link;

      • Number of weekly hours of dedication to the research;

      • The funding sources for payment;

      • Duration of the link.

  • Retired Professors associated to USP, UNICAMP and UNESP must present a document that grounds this kind of link.

3. Location of the workshops

The workshops will take place, one in the State of São Paulo, Brazil, and one in the Free State of Bavaria, Germany.

4. Timing of the workshop

The first workshop must take place between 01 of January 2019 and 31 of December 2019.

The second workshop must take place between 01 of January 2020 and the 31 of December 2020.

5. Who will take part in the workshops?

Up to 40 researchers can take part in each workshop as described below:

5.1 Two (2) workshop coordinators [1]: one from the Free State of Bavaria and one from the State of São Paulo.

5.2 Four (4) mentors [1]: two from the Free State of Bavaria and two from the State of São Paulo.

5.3 Approximately thirty four (34) early career researchers OR PhD students about to defend thesis: up to 17 from the Free State of Bavaria and up to 17 from the State of São Paulo, to be selected after the proposal is successful.

a. Early career researchers must have a PhD, obtained less than 10 years prior to the workshop.

b. PhD students must have their thesis defense scheduled for no more than 12 months after the start of the first workshop. Participants who are PhD students must send a document of their institution or of their PhD supervisor that they are about to finalize their thesis.

6. Role of the Workshop Coordinators

Workshop Coordinators will send a joint application form. They will determine the theme and the content of the workshop. They can propose up to four other leading/established researchers to be involved in the workshop as Mentors. If the proposal is successful, Workshop Coordinators will also be responsible for selecting early career researchers/ PhD students about to defend thesis to participate in the workshop.

7. Role of the Mentors

Mentor researchers are expected to act as mentors to the early career researchers/ PhD students about to defend thesis during the workshop by sharing their experience and knowledge. Ideally, they would also remain in contact with the early career researchers/ PhD students about to defend thesis after the workshop has finished, in order to sharing networks and contacts.

8. Language

Workshops will be held in English.

9. Theme of the workshop

Applicants can present proposals in all knowledge areas.

10. Content of the workshop

Workshop Coordinators will lead on the research content of the workshops. The content must reflect the goal of the program to build links for future collaboration and enhancing the researchers’ career opportunities.

10.1 Brief workshop guidelines.

10.2 Sessions should be as interactive as possible with participants encouraged to share knowledge, experience and ideas.

10.3 Workshop coordinators and mentors should have the opportunity to share their expertise.

10.4 Suggested sessions:

a. Formal keynote lectures by the workshop coordinators and mentors.

b. Research sessions, where the early career researchers/ PhD students about to defend thesis are able to share their current research (could be in poster format or oral presentations).

c. Networking sessions, where researchers are able to interact and explore opportunities for collaboration (e.g. speed-networking sessions).

d. Overview of the research base and funding opportunities: a brief introduction to the research base in the Free State of Bavaria/Germany and in the State of São Paulo/Brazil – how it is funded, size, strengths, international collaborative activity, links with industry.

e. Depending on the research field or theme of the workshop, coordinators may wish to include a session that invites industrial or other non-academic partners to talk about cross-sectoral collaboration.

f. Public engagement activity.

g. Cultural activity.

h. Visit to a relevant research or university facility.

11. Organization of the workshop

Workshop applicants are responsible for planning and organizing the workshop.

11.1 According to item 8 of the Annex 1, FAPESP can provide funds for:

a. International (economy class) airfares for up to 20 researchers (including Workshop Coordinators and Mentors) from the state of São Paulo to travel to the Free State of Bavaria and back from the Free State of Bavaria to the state of São Paulo;

b. Per diems;

c. Third Party Services, such as: courier expenses and publication of programs and abstracts (for events in the state of São Paulo only);

d. Health insurance for foreign participants, according to the current FAPESP table (www.fapesp.br/2921).

11.2 BAYLAT can provide funds for:

a. International (economy class) airfares for up to 20 researchers (including Workshop Coordinators and Mentors) from the Free State of Bavaria to travel to the State of São Paulo and back and from the State of São Paulo to travel to Free State of Bavaria and back.

b. Local travel costs for attendees (Free State of Bavaria and State of São Paulo).

c. Per diems (allowances) to cover meals, personal costs for the participants and accommodation for all external attendees for up to 5 nights in the city where the workshop will take place.

d. Organizational support (not more than 5.000,00 €).

11.3 The workshops will take place in the facilities of the host institution in the Free State of Bavaria and in the respective host institution in the State of São Paulo (counterpart).

11.4 BAYLAT and FAPESP will contribute with 50% of the costs each.

11.5 More details on the funding for the workshops can be found in Annex 1, items 8 and 9 (for proponents from the state of São Paulo, and Annex 2 (for proponents from the Free State of Bavaria).

12. Recruitment of participants

12.1 After the selection process, successful Workshop Coordinators will be responsible for recruiting participants to the workshops. All participants must come from the Free State of Bavaria higher education institutions and from higher education or research institution in the State of São Paulo. Participants linked to institutions outside of the Free State of Bavaria and the State of São Paulo are not eligible.

12.2 Early career researchers recruited to participate in the workshop must have a PhD obtained less than 10 years before the start of the workshop. PhD students must have their thesis defense scheduled up to 12 months after the start of the first workshop.

12.3 No more than a third of the total of the early career researchers/ PhD students about to defend thesis from each country may be recruited from the institutions of the coordinators and mentors, which means that two thirds of the recruited participants must be formally linked to institutions apart from the institutions of the coordinators and the mentors.

12.4 There must be an open call for participants, and this must be disseminated through various defined channels (BAYLAT and FAPESP can support the dissemination) and coordinators are encouraged to identify and employ additional avenues of communication so that the workshops are advertised as widely as possible.

12.5 Participants will need to demonstrate a sufficient standard of English to participate in the workshops.

12.6 While recognizing that some research fields are dominated by one particular gender, workshop coordinators are encouraged to work towards as equal a gender balance as is possible, promote diversity, and ensure that no applicants are excluded from participation on the basis of ethnicity, gender, religious belief, sexual orientation, or disability.

13. Sustainability

The aim of the workshops is to stimulate longer term links between the Free State of Bavaria, Germany and the State of São Paulo, Brazil, as well as to contribute to the personal and professional development of the participants. Workshop Coordinators should indicate how they envisage this occurring, including any plans for long term mentoring of early career researchers/ PhD students (either within each country, or cross-nationally).

14. Outputs and longer term benefit

Coordinators should outline the specific outputs planned from the workshop. They should also explore any potential longer-term benefit that might arise, thinking about who might benefit and how they might benefit, describing the actions that will be taken to ensure that potential impact is realized.

15. Selection Process

15.1 There will be a three-step selection process by:

a. FAPESP will analyze the proposals based on the FAPESP’s peer reviewing system for “Auxílio Organização” scheme (www.fapesp.br/156).

b. BAYLAT will analyze the proposals and evaluate the merit and relevance of the project, the capacity of the proposed project to leverage further research funding, and the strategic research aims of the Partner Institution.

c. FAPESP and BAYLAT will be making a final decision together based on the recommendations from both panels (a and b above), and define how many proposals will be awarded the grant.

15.2 Successful applicants will be notified approximately eight weeks after the call deadline.

16. How to submit

Applicants should submit a joint proposal to FAPESP as described in the Annex 1 and to BAYLAT as described in the Annex 2 below.

16.1 To FAPESP:

The researcher must send the proposals from the state of São Paulo (who will be the coordinator of the workshops) exclusively through the SAGe system – www.fapesp.br/sage. Proposals submitted through any other means will not be accepted.

Please note that the Bavarian partner must also be subscribed at SAGe. The researcher from São Paulo will only be able to successfully submit the proposal after the Bavarian researcher confirms his/her participation in the system. More details on the submission in Annex 1, item 10.1.

OBS.: In case of approval, FAPESP and BAYLAT require the presentation of a Letter of Agreement, which must be signed between the research institutions of the State of São Paulo and the State of Bavaria, which will specify how the intellectual property rights, confidentiality and publications will be handled together, respecting the intellectual property policies of each funding agency and each host institution. It is expected that the costs related to the management of intellectual property will be agreed between the research institutions before the start of the workshops. The presentation of this document ("Letter of Agreement") is mandatory and must occur before the signing of the Grant Contract.

16.2 To BAYLAT:

a. The proposals from Bavaria in the frame of the “FAPESP/BAYLAT-Workshops 2018” will be submitted via an online application management system (OASys): https://fapesp.oasys.baylat.org/page/xhtml/index.xhtml

OASys is a token-based application and administration system, through which project applications can be prepared, submitted, evaluated and managed. The online platform OASys is available in German, English and Portuguese.

b. Please note that the Bavarian Workshop Coordinator (=Bavarian project partner) must submit the application via OASys. The Bavarian Workshop Coordinator must send the application in English.

A submission of your project application is possible till Monday, t 8th of October 2018 electronically via the OASys online platform. Please note that the system automatically closes when the deadline is reached and after that date no submissions will be possible. We recommend that you submit the application early, as system overloads could occur on the last day of the submission. Please note that you should also write long application texts externally, for example in a Word document, in order to avoid any data loss if the OASys online platform is overloaded.

c. After submitting your proposal using the OASys online platform, print out the project application via OASys, let it be signed by the signed by the Bavarian project coordinator and send the project application, to the following address:

Bayerisches Hochschulzentrum für Lateinamerika (BAYLAT)
Envelope: „FAPESP/BAYLAT- Workshop 2018“
Apfelstraße 6
91054 Erlangen

Please note that you have to send the printed application to this address no later than one week after the electronic submission deadline.

d. A guide to the application with OASys in German is available at the BAYLAT homepage (www.baylat.org/foerderprogramme/fapespbaylat-ausschreibung.html).

17. Timeline

Call announcement at FAPESP and BAYLAT websites

July 25th, 2018

Closing date for submission of proposals

October 08th, 2018

Successful proposals notification

December 17th, 2018

Date of the first workshop

between 01 of January 2019 and 31 of December 2019

Date of the second workshop

between 01 of January 2020 and 31 of December 2020

Deadline for applications: Monday, 08th of October 2018. Proposals submitted after the deadline will not be considered for funding.
 



[1]
For an indication of profiles for the different types of participants we suggest applicants refer to the document ‘Towards a European framework for research careers’ (http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/pdf/research_policies/Towards_a_European_Framework_for_Research_Careers_final.pdf). According to the categories in this document we would suggest that the coordinators and mentors should be at ‘R4 – Leading Researcher’ level or ‘R3 – Established Researcher’ level, and the early career participants at ‘R2 –Recognized Researcher’ or at the beginning of R3 level.



ANNEX 1 | ANEXO 1 - FAPESP/BAYLAT - Workshop 2018: Estado de São Paulo, Brasil e Estado Livre da Baviera, Alemanha


ANNEX 2 - FAPESP / BAYLAT- Workshop 2018