During the preparatory and drafting stages of the Scientific and Technological Executive Collaboration Programme, Italian and partner-country researchers can submit joint research projects to obtain funding for research-related travel and visits. Italy funds travel for Italian researchers and accommodation for foreign researchers while the foreign partner funds travel for its own researchers and accommodation for Italian researchers.
Submissions must be made in response to a special notice which sets out the arrangements and deadlines for submitting and selecting the projects (see current notices for the submission of joint research projects and projects of particular importance).
Joint research projects must be submitted by the Scientific and Technological Executive Programme’s Italian project leader and the partner country’s project leader to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the competent administration in the partner country. Projects submitted to just one of the parties cannot be taken into consideration. In general, projects must meet the following requirements:
- the project must be submitted by researchers holding Italian citizenship and citizenship of the partner country (for European Union countries EU citizens legally resident in the two countries are eligible);
- the proposal must refer solely to the priority research areas indicated in the notice.
The projects must be written in Italian (and in English if required by the partner country) and signed by the Italian project leader. They must include:
- title of the project, research sector, key words, names and information (qualification, structure the applicant belongs to, address, phone number, fax, e-mail) for the Italian and partner country project leaders;
- description of the research unit;
- brief curriculum vitae of the Italian project leader, with list of publications related to the project;
- brief description of “parent” structure;
- description and objectives of the project;
- expected results and other funding or financial resources in addition to the grant from this Ministry.
Project Evaluation and Selection
The projects are evaluated at the national level initially. Italy and the Executive Programme partner country then carry out a joint evaluation to select which projects deserve funding. Evaluation and Selection criteriaIn evaluating and selecting the projects the following are taken into account:
- the scientific importance of the project;
- the foreign counterparty’s level of involvement in the project;
- the impact of the project on bilateral scientific and technological relations;
- the technological transfer and human resource development opportunities (for emerging countries);
- the potential for promoting research and development;
- the potential social and economic impact;
- the possibility of importing know-how (for advanced countries);
- the quality of the project submission.
The list of projects selected and included in the Scientific and Technological Executive Protocol and the rules for using the funding can be found in the text of the signed Executive Protocol.