CallsCALL FOR BILATERAL S&T COOPERATION INVOLVING SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY (2+2 projects)

CALL FOR BILATERAL S&T COOPERATION INVOLVING SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY (2+2 projects)

Deadline: 08.05.2020 Programme calls

The aim is establishing long-term research and development collaboration between German and Tunisian participants in science and industry. The funding will be provided jointly by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the German project partners and by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MoHESR) for the Tunisian project partners.

Under this call for proposals, funding can be provided for joint projects involving at least one German and one Tunisian research institution or university as well as one German and one Tunisian enterprise. It is expected that the funded projects will produce insights and exploitable research results leading to new technologies, products and/or services. The benefits for Germany and Tunisia should be clearly identifiable.

Joint innovation oriented projects would be highly welcomed. Innovation oriented projects are joint R&D projects designed to lead to innovative products, services or processes of significant economic and/or societal value (TRL 4-7).

This call for proposals offsets out to support joint research projects in the area of application-oriented research and development in the following fields:

This call for proposals offsets out to support joint research projects in the area of application-oriented research and development in the following fields:

a.    Water Management
b.    Farming Systems
c.    Biotechnology for health and nutrition, healthcare biotechnology, plant biotechnology, industrial biotechnology,
       and environment
d.    Digitalization
e.    Green economy / circular economy
f.    And other topics.

The funding is intended to enable the foundations to be laid for a lasting R&D innovation partnership.

Cross-sectoral bilateral mobility between the project partners –the exchange of Tunisian and German researchers and innovation staff to German and/or Tunisian enterprises – is highly welcomed in order to further strengthening the bilateral partnerships between the German and the Tunisian institutions in research and industry. The aim of this cross-sectoral mobility is to strengthen cooperation between German and Tunisian academia and non-academic institutions. The transfer of knowledge is intended to promote science and the development of innovations and to help to transform creative ideas into innovative products, services and processes. Support will be provided for the exchanges of both Early Stage Researchers (ESR) and Experienced Researchers (ER). The person concerned must have been employed by the sending organization for at least six months before the first posting and be active in the field of research and development (R&D). The assignments to the partners can last up to three months. After the end of the posting period, the staff will return to the original institution in order to apply and extend the knowledge gained.

In addition, funding can be provided for the implementation of a bilateral Innovation Forum. The Innovation Forum aims to develop a concrete long-term partnership between the German and Tunisian project partners as well as a broad transnational network with further German research and education institutions and innovative companies as well as with corresponding institutions in Tunisia to initiate future research cooperation or business relations. The partners should jointly determine their position in the (national/international) competition and develop an implementation strategy for future cooperation and common innovation goals. The main output of the Innovation Forum will be a jointly elaborated strategy for the development of new products, applications and procedures for a sector, sector or technology-specific cooperation between science, business, politics and society across the entire innovation chain as well as a corresponding action plan. Accordingly, the term “Innovation Forum” describes a networking, dialogue and agenda setting process following the general triple- (or quadruple-) helix format containing a series of public or closed events that will be implemented over 2-3 years. As a rule, an Innovation Forum should include several smaller events which can be held in Tunisia or in Germany and one final public event to be conducted in Tunisia. Eligible activities (for further specifications see sec. 4) for the implementation of the Innovation Forum are in particular the promotion of (i) work and services for the further design, organization and evaluation of the supported project, (ii) business travel, (iii) business and communications expenditures, (iv) the organization of events in Germany and in Tunisia; (V) accompanying public relations work. In case of overriding importance for the entire Innovation Forum, the acquisition or development of cross-company market and potential studies can be supported in individual cases. Only projects are whose project outline shows that the envisaged network will be open to non-discriminatory participation and participation by other interested actors from business, science, politics and public administration will be selected for funding.

Further information

Source: BMBF Editor by DLR Projektträger Countries / organization: Tunisia Germany Topic: Funding

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