Scope of the call

To offer distinct, targeted financial support to parties that are EURAXESS members but do not directly participate in the ERA TALENT project as beneficiaries.

To ensure impact across the entire EURAXESS network and benefitting all five hubs, in this call up to 25 small-scale projects will be selected.

The total budget for the call is 592,000.00 €. Proposals may be funded up to 23,780 € each (including indirect costs).

Objectives of the call

As the general objective, by using the financial support beneficiaries will join one of the thematic cross-border virtual hubs that are supported by the ERA Talent Platform project (see "Introduction to hubs" below). They will participate in and enhance the activities of the selected hub by offering local services equivalent to those offered by local hub arms. (For the definition of a local hub arm, as well as examples of activities at the hub level, please see the Guide for applicants.)

Beneficiaries will reach the general objective specifically by:

1. scaling up their existing EURAXESS services (from basic to advanced) - For the explanation of service concepts see the EURAXESS TOP III deliverable Concept paper on the future of EURAXESS services and advanced service concepts
2. broadening their service portfolio by adding new EURAXESS services
3. establishing and operating relevant long-term partnerships with other entities in their local ecosystem
4. pooling in-house institutional expertise avoiding fragmentation to offer more services under the EURAXESS umbrella
5. engaging institutional staff in capacity building for EURAXESS especially via trainings and study visits
6. promoting the EURAXESS centre and its activities to target groups

At least 3 of the above specific objectives should be targeted by the proposal. Applications demonstrating the integration of more than 3 specific objectives in the proposal will get higher ranking in the evaluation.

Sustainability needs to be described and services offered at least until the end of the ERA TALENT project (February 2026).

Supported activities

1. Training, networking and match-making events (organisation and participation costs)
2. Counselling, coaching or mentoring services provided in connection with the targeted hub’s activities (organisation costs)
3. Virtual or physical workshops (organisation and participation costs)
4. Virtual or physical study visits (organisation and participation costs) - preferably in alignment with the dedicated scheme related to EURAXESS Study visits, which is to be implemented within the ERA Talent project.
5. Promotion events (organisation or participation)
6. Online promotion campaigns (organisation costs)
7. Collection and dissemination of good practices relevant for the hub’s activities
8. Development of a strategy to support the specific objectives, e.g. mapping relevant stakeholders, proposing ways of cooperation etc.
9. Development and dissemination of online tool(s) to support the specific objectives

All activities planned as part of the proposal must be clearly linked to one or more of the call’s specific objectives and target researchers, research organisations or EURAXESS members in accordance with the chosen hub’s targets.

Notwithstanding the primary hub chosen by the applicant as the focus of its activities (please see below among “eligibility criteria”), each applicant may optionally involve up to two more hubs as the secondary targets of its activities.

Activities may plan on the synergy with other projects by different beneficiaries within the same call. In this case the foreseen clustering effect among the projects must be described in the application. External partners may be involved in the implementation of the project activities on a voluntary basis, without receiving any funding from the project. Only the one beneficiary having applied for the project may use the funding received.

Admissibility criteria

Complete, readable proposal submitted electronically, in English by 31 January 2024 17:00 CET, i.e. the call deadline, via the online form available at: https://forms.gle/cUAoUR2Tcnc7gm9U8

Supporting documents must be uploaded as PDF or dot matrix image files (e.g. JPG).

Late submissions will not be accepted. Applications will be evaluated as submitted, no additions or changes of the applications will be possible after the call deadline.

Eligibility criteria

The list of eligible countries for this call is included in Annex 2.

EURAXESS membership (at any level) supported by a Declaration of Commitment signed and duly countersigned by the relevant institutions before 01.09.2022.

One applicant cannot submit several simultaneous applications. Submitting more than one application by the same applicant will result in the ineligibility of all the applications by the applicant.

One institution can only apply for support to collaborate with one chosen thematic hub. Beneficiaries of the ERA TALENT project are not eligible for this call.

This call foresees mono-beneficiary projects.

Evaluation criteria; evaluation mechanism and panel

Excellence (0-5 points)

- Clarity and pertinence of proposed objectives

- Suitability of support measures, the soundness of methodology especially related to the proposed activities

Impact (0-5 points)

- The unique contribution project results would make towards (1) the outcomes specified in this call, and (2) the wider impacts, in the longer term

- Quality of the measures to maximise impact, the scale and significance of project’s contribution to the expressed outcomes, should the project be successful, including networking with other EURAXESS members and embedding the activities within the relevant EURAXESS hub

- Quality and relevance of communication and dissemination activities towards the project’s end-users and stakeholders, including further exploitation and the project’s sustainability.

Quality and efficiency of the implementation (0-5 points)

- Effectiveness of the work plan and assessment of risks

- Soundness and appropriateness of effort and resources to perform activities foreseen and achieve objectives

- Related expertise of the applicant

Evaluation scores are awarded for the criteria and not for the individual aspects in each criterion. A score in the range from 0-5 to each criterion will be provided. Maximum score for a proposal is 15. The whole range of scores will be used (e.g., steps of 0.5). The threshold for individual criteria will be 3. The overall threshold, applying to the sum of the three individual scores, will be 10.

Proposals that pass the individual threshold as well as the overall threshold will be considered acceptable for funding, within the limits of the available call budget. Each proposal may request a funding of up to 23,680 €. In the case of proposals requesting a higher amount of funding, and ultimately being selected to be funded, the grant awarded may be lower than the grant requested.

At the end of the evaluation, all applicants will be informed of the result in an evaluation result letter. Successful proposals will be invited to the next stage, grant preparation; the other proposals will be put on the reserve list or rejected.

Evaluators will be the project beneficiaries who lead a thematic hub (=experts). Each proposal will be evaluated by 3 experts from different countries, excluding the country of the applicant.

Evaluators will be nominated and selected by the task leader from the pre-defined pool of beneficiaries participating in Task 1.3 of the ERA TALENT project. Prior to the designation of experts to each proposal, conflict of interest issues, especially the potential distortion of competition, will be checked.

Ranking criteria

Proposals above the overall threshold will be ranked based on their score, and irrespective of the primary hub applied for (i.e. all evaluated proposals will simultaneously participate in the ranking procedure). This ranking will be used to determine the priority order for proposals to be funded as follows:

1.Higher score in the rank.

For proposals with the same score, further criteria will be applied as follows:

2.Country of the applicant not yet covered by any higher ranking proposal (i.e. geographical diversity).

3.Hub applied for not yet covered by a higher ranking proposal.

4.Country of the applicant not already covered by 3 higher ranking proposals (i.e. ensuring that one country will not host more than 3 funded proposals)

5.Higher number of specific objectives addressed by the proposal.

6.Higher score for the “Impact” criterion.

Timeline

Evaluation and grant preparation: February - March 2024

Project implementation: April 2024 – July 2025

Project reporting and evaluation: August 2025 – February 2026