This call is now CLOSED

NGIatlantic.eu 2nd Call Duration: 03 August 2020 until 30 September 2020, 17:00 CEST.

The main goal of the NGIatlantic.eu Open Calls is to incentivize EU – US NGI teams to carry out experiments using EU and/or US based experimental platforms.  This will take the form of funding to be provided through a cascade grant process for the EU counterparts of the teams formed.

2nd Open Call Topic Priorities

The priority coverage areas of the NGIatlantic.eu 2nd open call are twofold:
 

1. EU – US Experimental Platforms interconnection: this topic invites established designers and facility providers of experimental infrastructures, testbeds, and platforms enabling experimentation in the NGI areas on both sides of the Atlantic to interconnect with each other,  to offer their facilities on a continuous basis to its community of experimenters and application developers in other NGI topics.
   
    
2. NGI Priority topics where results are already available for experimentation on EU – US platforms. The focus on this part of the call will be taking results from topics already in a mature state in the related priority topics of the NGI initiative to the next stage of experimentation of results on EU – US experimental platforms. The focus on NGI priority topics for the second call continues to be results for experimentation in areas related to Privacy and Trust enhancing technologies; Decentralized data governance; Discovery and identification technologies. Please note that similar to the first open call, while the focus is on these topics addressed in other NGI RIA projects and their 3rd party projects, the NGIatlantic.eu 2nd open call also welcomes new EU innovators not already involved in other NGI projects that have their own results related to these topics and who wish to carry out experiments with a US-based team.
    

Note: it is possible for EU – US teams to put in one application that include both elements of a and b.

Expected scope of the 2nd open call.

      a. EU – US Experimental Platforms interconnection

The proposed applications for EU – US infrastructures and platforms, both wired and wireless or combination of both,  should be suitable for experimentation and application development in the following NGI priority areas: Privacy and Trust enhancing technologies; Decentralized data governance; Discovery and identification technologies; Strengthening internet trustworthiness with electronic identities; Service and data portability; and Open Internet architecture renovation.  The transatlantic experimental platforms must also be relevant with key NGI enabling technologies: 5G (or beyond), IoT, Big Data, AI, ML, Next Generation Media, cybersecurity and resilience, and others.

Successful EU – US infrastructures/platforms will be integrated in the NGIatlantic.eu project and made available for future NGIatlantic.eu experimentations. The EU – US infrastructure/platform facilities will be listed on the NGIatlantic.eu website and promoted as a suitable transatlantic platform for experimentation/implementation to be funded in the subsequent NGIatlantic.eu open calls. The accepted EU – US experimental facilities will also be promoted on the NGIatlantic.eu Twinning Lab for the remainder of the project.

Where the EU – US infrastructure/platforms are utilized in the forthcoming successful projects, the owners/providers will be entitled to receive funding for the support and maintenance required, depending on specific conditions of the open calls and requirements of the proposal. Any costs needed to run/maintain these platforms could be included by the coordinator applicant in the proposal budget, to be agreed between the partners. Note: This funding for experimental platforms will also be subject to the EU – US Implementation arrangement rules

Type of Proposals

Two types of proposals can be funded under the NGIatlantic.eu Open Calls, as shown below.

* Eligible Costs: Cost of personnel (inclusive of 25% overhead) and travel & subsistence (cost-reimbursement contracts).

Guidance: For projects applying in a. Experimental Platform interconnections, since these projects are dealing with the interconnection activities of already mature experimental platforms, there would be an expectation that these projects would probably best fit in the Short Term (ST) projects category. Please note there are already some funding mechanisms provided by the NSF in a similar funding range as provided to ST projects that the US teams can avail of. For example, see Supplemental Funding Requests to Conduct Experimental Research on the NSF-funded Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR). However, this guidance does not preclude other project types and amounts being requested, if explained and justified. 

Open Call for Applications - Process and Timing

NGIatlantic.eu will run 5 Open Call cycles. Each call will be open for 60 days to be followed by an evaluation period.

2nd Call timing

• Launch: 3rd August 2020;
• Submission of Declaration of Honor (DoH) by 30th September 2020, 17:00 CET with the application;
• Deadline: 30 September 2020, 17:00 CET.
• Evaluation: Each proposal will be evaluated by three members of an External Pool of Evaluators;
• Notification of Outcome: Applicants will be notified on the outcome of their proposal within 2 months from the call closure. 
• Standstill period:  an evaluation review (appeal) period of 5 working days from receipt of the Evaluation Summary Report on the procedural aspects of the evaluation (not the merits of your proposal) is established.


Please note that a signed Declaration of Honour (DoH) must be submitted by the EU – US coordinators along with the application. If your proposal is successful, you will be contacted within 5-10 business days of notification to take the steps necessary to prepare and sign the contract for the funding. Please note that a deadline of 10 business days will be applied to confirm your intention to take up the contract to enable the funds to be re-allocated to other successful applicants.

Important Update: As it has been brought to our attention that some applicants are encountering difficult in obtaining signature of the DoH from the US Partners due to the ongoing COVID 19 situation, we have introduced an option to upload a Letter of Support in lieu of US signature of the DoH, which should be uploaded with the DoH signed by the EU coordinator. A template of the Letter of Support can be downloaded from the "Supporting documents" section below.

Evaluation Criteria

Each proposal will be evaluated based on the 4-criterion given below, with a scoring from 1 to 10 and the weighting indicated:

Criteria 1: Soundness of the proposal and foreseen impact on the Open Call topic (30%);

Criteria 2: Technical excellence & adherence to the Open Call topics (30%);

Criteria 3: Experience and qualifications of the applicant (20%);

Criteria 4: Economics of the proposal (20%).

The final scoring and ranking will be automatically determined by averaging the scores provided by the 3 independent evaluators identified from NGIatlantic.eu’s EPE.

Who can receive financial support?

Private and public organisations of any size (not individual researchers) located within the EU Member States or Associated Countries and twinned with a US counterpart, as described above to carry out the activities proposed. Please note that the funding is limited to coverage of the work to be carried out by the EU team. For the US teams, please refer to the funding mechanisms of your US partners (e.g. National Science Foundation).

Will there be more open calls?

Yes. In addition to this call, NGIatlantic.eu will launch another 3 Open Calls in the period January 2021 – November 2021 – this is just the 2nd chance to get your EU – US NGI experiment funded!

Supporting Documents

Full Open Call text as PDF file
Declaration of Honor (DoH) to be signed by both EU coordinator and US coordinator
Proposal template in pdf format (contains brief instructions and its use is mandatory)
Proposal template in word format (contains brief instructions and its use is mandatory)
Letter of Support in word format
FAQ