It is not formally required that the PI has his/her own group and the grant can be used to build a group. However, the Principal Investigator must have already shown the potential for competitive research, professional independence and evidence of maturity. At the moment of the submission of the proposal, the PI should already have contacted the researchers from the CERIC Partner Facilities and from any other additional facility to be involved.

Yes. Moreover, the PI and each team member have to provide the filled in Statement of Acceptance of Conditions to Host/Participate in a CERIC grant, where the CERIC Representing Entity/Host Institution agrees to commit in-kind its human and/or instrumental resources. The cost of the team members has to be included in the budget table “Resources contributed in kind by the partner institutions”.

The call is open to PIs of any nationality submitting the projects from any country in the world and institution at the time of the application. However, since the project start and throughout the project duration, the PI shall be hosted by a Partner Facility from a CERIC Member State (Austria, Czech Republic, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia).

In case the PI is employed by an institution that is not a CERIC Representing Entity, he/she shall submit, together with the grant application, a declaration of his/her employer:

• Allowing him/her to work for the project in one PF (host institution) in the Member States through either a part-time (30% FTE minimum) or a full-time secondment agreement, that will be formalized between CERIC and the entity only if the project will be granted. (In this case the institution can decide whether to confer its employee in-kind or if it wants the secondment to be reimbursed by CERIC).
  or
• Granting a leave to the PI (for the whole duration of the project), who will then be hired by CERIC.

Download the template of the declaration here.

Yes, in justified cases the team may involve researchers from institutions outside CERIC, also from Serbia. In this case the applicants will have to provide also the Statement of Acceptance of Conditions to Participate in a CERIC grant – for non-CERIC institutions, where the in-kind contributions by the third party are listed (including the researcher).

The amount of 30% is referred to a full time equivalent, considered the minimum necessary to ensure presence and leadership of the team throughout the course of the project to guarantee its proper execution. PI can be employed by the PF or CERIC at least 30% (or contributed to it in kind by the PF) for at least 30% of the full time equivalent for the duration of the project.

Yes, if allowed by the national legislation of the host institution.

Yes, projects should involve more than one of the CERIC Partner Facilities.

Yes, as long as they belong to the different partner facilities. At Elettra, SAXS and DXRL belong to the Austrian PF; MSB to the Czech PF; BaDElPh, IUVS, MCX,Nanospectroscopy, Esca Microscopy, SISSI, SYRMEP, XRD1, Spectromicroscopy, XAFS, SuperESCA and TwinMic to the Italian PF.

The hosting institutions will provide access to the instrumental and human resources as required by the project, as well as the working space suitable to the needs of the research.

In case the PI is employed by a REs or by CERIC, in order to be hosted by the PF, he/she has to provide the filled in Statement of Acceptance of Conditions to Host/Participate in a CERIC grant, where the CERIC Representing Entity/Host Institution agrees to commit in-kind its human and/or instrumental resources, and which has to be signed by both the Director of the PF and the Director of the institution of which the PF is a part (Representing entity). If the PI employed by the REs or by CERIC requires access also to an institution outside CERIC, will have to provide also the Statement of Acceptance of Conditions to Participate in a CERIC grant – for non-CERIC institutions.

PIs not employed by the REs should provide also the documents as specified in question n.3.

The salary should be calculated applying the Horizon 2020 rules, in accordance with the salary policy of the RE/PF hosting the researcher to be hired.

The PI and the team members are either contributed in-kind or paid by CERIC. In the Statement, only in-kind contributions are listed (amount of time/percentage of personnel/instruments, etc.).

The PI and team members to be hired by CERIC are not listed in the Statement and have to be included in the budget table in the CERIC Grant Research Proposal Template.

Due to privacy issues, the salary of specific (named) team members is not needed. In the budget table of the CERIC Grant Research Proposal Template, an aggregated number needs to be specified. In the Statement of Acceptance of Conditions to Host/Participate in a CERIC grant, only the amount of time of each instrumental and human resource contributed in-kind by the PF has to be indicated.

Yes, only in justified cases and when the use of the external facility takes place within a scientific collaboration. This cost should be included in the budget table CERIC Grant under the voice Other goods and services – item: Other

The finance from the budget is managed by CERIC, according to the indications of the PI.

Include the data about FTE, as well as the cost of the personnel paid on project funding, per each category and per year, using the related columns in the table. Please use the updated version of the CERIC Grant Research Proposal Template, where the columns for including the data about the FTE and the cost of the personnel paid by the project funding, are now separated.

The table for the in-kind contributions has to be filled in using the same criteria applied in the table for the CERIC contribution (question n. 16). Please use the updated version of the CERIC Grant Research Proposal Template, where the columns for including the data about the FTE and the cost of the personnel paid by the project funding, are now separated.

Only the FTE value (and not the %) per category and per year is needed. In the mentioned example you would write 1,2FTE in the box corresponding to Postdocs, in the related “FTE“ cell.

Whatever cost is superior to 300 euros has to be considered without VAT.

Yes, a PhD student can be payed by the grant, if the PhD student doesn’t receive scholarship or salary from other sources, e.g. university. Whatever are the tax applied by the institution conferring the PhD, the nett salary of the PhD student should be the same of a PhD student in the Representing Entity of the country of interest. In the budget indicate the total employee cost. Please note that researchers hired with CERIC contracts are not tax exempt.

Yes, it can. The call states that the aim is to pursue high level and ground-breaking research in science and engineering. This can be achieved either by using the research infrastructures available by the Partner Facilities (e.g. on a particular topic) or by enhancing the infrastructure itself through advanced engineering. Both activities are expected to contribute to the quality of the research infrastructure.

All documents must be sent electronically to ceric-grant@ceric-eric.eu . Please send all files (signed where required) in .pdf format within the given deadline. In case the project will be granted, all the original documents will have to be provided to the consortium.