Q: How should I submit my full proposal?
A: Please email your full proposal to proposal@iupac.org on or before 17:00 Eastern Time (UTC -05:00) on 15 February 2010. Please remember that email systems will limit total attachment size to 10 MB.
Q: My proposal is too large to email, what should I do?
A: Please try to reduce the size of your document by decreasing the resolution of the included figures. If size is still a problem, please contact proposal@iupac.org as soon as you can so that alternate arrangements can be made.
Q: What should be included in my email submission?
A: At the very least, you need to submit your full 10 page proposal (extra pages for references) and your completed Annex B (http://www.iupac.org/polyedu/DivIVCall/page2/page2.html). An additional budget justification document can be included if needed. Also, your partner agency may require additional paperwork or procedures. Please examine section 6 of the International Pilot Call Guidelines (http://www.iupac.org/polyedu/DivIVCall/page4/page4.html) and contact your funding officers for further information regarding these additional requirements.
Q: What currency should I use when completing the "requested budget" section of Annex B?
A: Amounts should be entered using the currency of each PIs member country. You should not perform any currency conversions. For example, if the PIs are from Spain, the USA, and Brazil then all values for the applicants should respectively be in euros, dollars, and reals.
Q: I cannot fit all my items into the budget table of Annex B, how should this be handled?
A: The 'Requested Budget' section of Annex B should be completed by entering each PIs total costs for each year for each category. Each box in the table should only have a single number, do not put any comments in this section.
Q: Can I submit a document justifying my budget if I would like to explain my expenses and how the final number were arrived at?
A: An additional budget document, which lists and itemizes the major equipment and consumable costs, can be added to your submission. This budget justification does not need to be extensive, but will be helpful in making the final funding decisions. Please add any budget comments that you may have to this document, the formatting of which is up to you.
Q: Is the budget justification document required for submission?
A: If you do not have any major expenses beyond personnel support, then this additional budget document is not required. The lack of this document will not affect the scoring of your proposal which will be only based on its scientific merit. The document does help each member institution make its funding decisions on total allocations.
Q: My academic institution or home country requires indirect costs or fees for administrative purposes, how should these be handled?
A: Include these costs in your Annex B budget estimate table by adjusting the total travel, consumable, and equipment values accordingly. Your funding officer will most likely already be aware of this cost structure and so will have given you a maximum number taking these fees into consideration. Your added budget justification page can show these costs.
Letter of Intent
Q: What countries are involved?
A: Investigators from countries whose funding agencies are part of this call may take part. Investigators should confirm with their home country if they are participating in this call.
Q: Is an application involving only 2 PIs from 2 different partner countries eligible?
A: No. This International Call for proposals was designed to encourage multilateral applications involving at least 3 investigators from 3 different partner countries.
Q: Is an application involving more than 3 PIs from different partner countries eligible ?
A: Yes.
Q: Is an application involving a PI from a non-partner country eligible ?
A: No. The supports are provided exclusively by the 7 national funding agencies or research organizations which signed the Call Agreement.
Q: May an application involve 2 PIs from the same partner country ?
A: No.
Q: May a PI from a given partner country participate to several applications ?
A: No.
Q: May a successful PI recruit collaborators (PhD, post-doctoral fellow, visiting scientist) from his own partner country using the support dedicated to the Call by his relevant national agency ?
A: Not recommended. Recruitments from abroad are encouraged.
Q: Should a successful PI recruit collaborators (PhD, post-doctoral fellow, visiting scientist) exclusively from partner countries ?
A: No. Recruitment from any foreign country is eligible.
Q: May a successful PI recruit collaborators (PhD, post-doctoral fellow, visiting scientist) from developing countries ?
A: Yes. Recruitments from developing countries are very welcome.
Q: Should the 3 themes of the Call be considered in the strictest sense or could they be understood in a broader meaning ?
A: A broader interpretation might be fine provided the proposed topic overlaps enough at least one of the themes.
Q: What is an appropriate budget ?
A: Please contact the funding officer from your home country. The intention is to fund on the order of one student or post-doc per PI, but a given country may be more generous.