G8 Research Councils Initiative for Multilateral Research Funding: Program Outline

Program Outline and Objective

At the 2008 meeting of the G8 Heads of Research Councils (G8 HORCs), the German Research Council (DFG) proposed the establishment of a program to support multi-national joint research projects among the member countries. Each country considered this proposal and the following seven decided to launch a multilateral collaborative program: Japan, Germany, France, the UK, the US, Canada and Russia. Leading Research Organizations, namely NSERC, ANR, DFG, JSPS, RFBR, RCUK and NSF as Funding Agencies in these countries implement this new program by providing the research funding needed to advance international, cross-disciplinary initiatives.
The Initiative aims to support excellent research on topics of global relevance which can best be tackled by a multinational approach. Funding should facilitate cooperation among the researchers in the consortia which consist of partners from at least three of the participating countries.
These Calls give an unprecedented opportunity for the Funding Agencies to work together across a broad range of disciplines. An important goal of the Pilot initiative is for the Funding Agencies to gain experience in the funding of multilateral research in a flexible manner and eventually allow them to make long-term decisions on how to further promote multilateral research, preferably bottom-up projects.
The Competition will support multinational research teams that pursue the following specific objectives:

• Advancing knowledge and creating innovation
• Supporting top-class researchers
• Opening up the research experience for young researchers
• Increasing multilateral collaborations

Three calls are planned over a period of 5 years.

Under this program, JSPS provides funding for excellent researchers at Japanese universities and research institutes to collaborate with researchers of the participating G8 countries in carrying out multilateral research.

---

Eligibility of Japanese Applicants

Applicants must hold a full-time or equivalent position as a researcher at a university or research institution in Japan. Eligible institutions are listed at:
https://www-kokusai.jsps.go.jp/jsps1/kikanList.do
(Posted only in Japanese)

---

Targeted Research Fields:

1st Call (FY2010):Interdisciplinary Program on Application Software towards Exascale Computing for Global Scale Issues

2nd Call (FY2011): Interdisciplinary Program on Material Efficiency – A first step towards sustainable manufacturing

---

Project Period

Period: 2 to 3 years

---

Application Process

This project is designed to be carried out by research consortia. To apply, a consortium of research projects must be formed among at least three of the participating countries.

Examples:

---

Participating Funding Agencies

Japan: Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Germany: German Research Foundation (DFG)
UK: Research Councils UK (RCUK)
France: French National Research Agency (ANR)
US: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Canada: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
Russia: Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR)

---

Funding from  Funding Agencies to PIs

The Funding Agencies’ funding support individual researchers or teams in their respective countries conducting research and research support activities.The total budget for this call is approximately 10 million € over three years.

JSPS provides funding up to \15 million per project a year (including indirect costs)
Covers: Research expenses, travel, personnel and indirect costs
(Indirect costs: Up to 10% of direct costs)

About five projects are scheduled to be formed with researchers from Japan.
Altogether, 8 to 10 research consortia are scheduled to be selected.