NANOSCI-EPLUS · Transnational call for collaborative proposals in basic nanoscience research

NanoSci-E+ aims at launching, managing and carrying out the follow-up of a transnational call for collaborative projects in the field of basic nanoscience research, with a thematic focus on the “interfacing of functional nano-objects”. In the first phase of the proposed project, the call itself will be implemented, following modalities similar to those used for the first call run by NanoSci-ERA in 2006, while procedures will be amended in order to cope with identified weaknesses. The call will be based on a two-stage submission / evaluation procedure. The funding scheme will rely on a real (although partial) common pot to which a majority of countries will contribute. Mutualizing part of the budget permits to avoid trade-offs where the selection of projects would be determined by the availability of funds, in a manner detrimental to the objective of supporting the highest quality research. The second phase of the project will deal with the management of the call budget, the follow-up activities and the monitoring of the call impacts. Because of the direct involvement of national agencies, NanoSci-E+ should contribute to blur further the distinction between national and European programmes. It is expected to encourage researchers to “think European” since their agencies give them the opportunity to finance indifferently national or transnational projects. The class of projects that can possibly fit within the scope of the planned call is clearly transverse to many “disciplines” of nanoscience and therefore accessible for the researchers of all the participating countries. In the same time, the topic is ambitious enough and resolutely forward-looking to make necessary a circulation of ideas, competencies and talents as well as a dialogue between different scientific approaches (inter-disciplinarity). It is expected that these two ingredients make transnational collaborations on the proposed topic both likely and meeting a crucial need of the nanoscience community.