Dans le cadre de ses précédents appels à projets, l’I-SITE ULNE a retenu 4 projets portés par des partenaires extérieurs de l’I-SITE. Cependant, à l'aune d'un échange récent avec l'ANR, nous sommes au regret de devoir modifier une des conditions d’éligibilité de notre appel à projets Sustain et Expand 2.

En effet, le règlement financier des I-DEX/I-SITE prévoit que seuls les membres fondateurs de l'I-SITE ULNE sont directement éligibles aux financements I-SITE de l'ANR. Les établissements partenaires extérieurs peuvent participer aux projets lauréats mais ne peuvent pas être directement bénéficiaires des fonds (y-compris via un reversement).

A titre exceptionnel, une dérogation peut être sollicitée auprès de l'ANR, si et seulement si les deux conditions suivantes sont remplies :

1) Le projet concourt à la construction de l'établissement cible et implique significativement des équipes des membres fondateurs de l'I-SITE ULNE.

 2) L'affectation de fonds à un partenaire extérieur correspond à une contrainte technique qu'un membre fondateur ne peut satisfaire.

Cette dérogation implique un délai d'instruction conséquent et aucune garantie ne peut être apportée avant la décision de l'ANR. Nous ne pouvons que vous recommander, dès lors que cela est possible, de faire porter le projet par un établissement membre du consortium.

Par ailleurs, nous vous encourageons à formaliser votre projet avec les services d'ingénierie de projet de l'établissement gestionnaire, et vous rappelons que la signature par le responsable de votre établissement est obligatoire.

1.      Framework 

Labelled I-SITE in February 2017 as part of the second wave of the French “Investissements d'Avenir” Programme, the Université Lille Nord-Europe (ULNE) project brings together 14 founding members[1] with the aim of transforming the landscape of research and training in the French region of “Hauts-de-France”, by sustaining and expanding its excellence. Internationalization and valorization are also core priorities of I-SITE ULNE.

The I-SITE goal is the creation of a major international university, ranked among the top 50 in Europe before 10 years: the Université Lille Nord-Europe (ULNE).

The project is built around 3 thematic hubs, integrating researchers from all disciplines: “Health”, “Planet” and “Digital World”. Each of this 3 themes is made of 3 challenges:

Health

• promoting systemic biology and precision medicine;
• catalysing the digital revolution in biomedical research;
• optimising impact for the patient and society.

Planet

• understanding, analyzing, and monitoring global changes;
• developing alternative solutions to the exploitation of fossil resources;
• evaluating the impact of global changes and alternative solutions on people, the Earth and societies.

Digital world

• humanities for a user-friendly digital world;
• mastering complexity with innovative conceptual tools;
• moving from a disruptive concept to a user-friendly device.

2.      Goals of the call

The goal of this call is to sustain and expand excellence in research by founding innovative, cutting-edge research proposals, including the recruitment of a PhD student, leading the way to a scientific breakthrough in science and/or a strong impact on society.

The Sustain call is open to PI from teams of the Peridex. Members of the Peridex are: scientific coordinators or part of the scientific team with an ERC, IUF, H2020 projects coordinated in Lille, Labex, Equipex, and other PIA objects coordinated in Lille, which have not been completed before 01/01/2016. In addition, the PI must be a permanent researcher or teacher-researcher of the consortium.

Researchers and teacher-researchers of the Peridex will select the excellence item they belong to (see application form) and give the name of the coordinator of this item.

The Expand call is open to all researchers and teacher-researchers of the Consortium[2]  who are not members of the Peridex.

3.      Eligibility criteria

The proposals have to:

- be linked with at least one of the themes of the hubs,

- be interdisciplinary (or multidisciplinary),

- include the recruitment of a PhD student. Projects must involve one or more senior researchers with a qualification to supervise research. If different from the PI, please indicate his/her name and position on the application form.

This interdisciplinary aspect will be judged according to the European Commission definitions of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary projects:

1) Multidisciplinarity – different disciplines working together but not trying to synthesise cognitive structures. Intellectually, they go home to their own discipline after work;

2) Interdisciplinarity – different disciplines working together and trying to synthesise cognitive approaches.

In the present call, we use the term “interdisciplinarity” to cover both approaches.

To attest the interdisciplinarity of the proposals, the promoter and co-promoter(s) speciality(ies) will be clearly highlighted by using the ERC Panel references. That is to say, each co-promoter will indicate which panel(s) he/she belongs to. For instance, an interdisciplinary project will be led by a research of Panel SH 1 and SH 3.

4.      Conditions

The project will last 3 years (duration of the PhD).

The projects must be submitted in English.

A minimum of 10 projects will be founded: 5 for the Sustain and 5 for the Expand

The total budget of the call is 1,5 million €

Each project will ask for a grant of 150,000 € maximum. Co-founding are strongly encouraged. However, I-SITE ULNE's grant must finance at least 50% of the PhD student.

The jury may adjust the budgets to fit within this envelop.

In accordance with the ambitions of I-SITE ULNE, special attention will be given to projects from the human and social sciences: the ambition is to have at least 20% of the selected projects will be carried by a principal investigator (PI) from human and social sciences.

Eligible expenses are: non-permanent staff costs, equipment, consumables, external expertise and services, travel, dissemination.

The budget must take into account 8% of administrative costs, calculated on the amount of global, eligible expenses.

5.      Selection process

 All proposals will be reviewed by 2 external international reviewers. An external service provider (ESF or other) will manage this first stage.

 For the second stage, an external jury will receive all the projects and external evaluations, and then select up to 30 proposals for the third stage.

 The third stage is an oral presentation of the projects by the principal investigator and co-promoter to the jury. The 2 co-promoters will highlight the interdisciplinary approach of their project.

 This jury will choose the final laureates, taking into account the maximal financial envelope dedicated to this call and the objective to have 20% of the projects coordinated by a researcher in human and social sciences.

• Evaluation criteria

  1)   Quality and originality of the project

     Originality of the topic

     Clarity of the objectives

     Potential for progress with respect to the state of the art

     Capacity of the project to address the objective of the chosen hub(s), or to expand them

     Quality of the interdisciplinary (or multidisciplinary) approach

2)   Implementation of the project

     Skills, expertise and commitment of the supervisors

     Appropriateness of the means with respect to the objectives

     Work plan and methodology

     Analysis of the risks of the project and means to overcome them.

     Expected outputs and calendar

3)   Impacts of the project

     Capacity to enhance the international visibility and reputation of I-SITE ULNE and its partners

     Potential to attract external grants, other funding (H2020, ERC, etc.)

     Scientific, technological, social, economic and/or cultural impacts

     Strategy for the dissemination and exploitation of the research

6.      Calendar and submission process

No intention letter will be asked.

Application forms will be submitted on this platform latest on Sunday, the 30^th of September 2018.

For submission, please register first, and then click on submission button to download the template. Once filled and signed, upload the file under the same section by clicking submit a paper

Projects will be reviewed from October to January.

Auditions will be held by the jury in February, 2019

Helpdesk / contact:

scheherazade.boudaoud@isite-ulne.fr

france.merimee@isite-ulne.fr