Social Science Collaborative Research between Europe and China

Motivation

Promoting research cooperation with China is a priority in the bilateral research policies of most European countries, and in the international science and technology (S&T) policy of the European Union (EU). In this context, the ERA-NET for “Coordination of Research between Europe and China” (CO-REACH; http://www.co-reach.org) fosters research co-operation between European countries and China in all fields of science. CO-REACH intends to overcome the fragmented S&T relations with China which, until now, have its primary bases in the bilateral cooperation between European countries and China. In pursuing this goal, CO-REACH aims to contribute towards building the European Research Area (ERA) and to strengthen its international dimension by encouraging multilateral research co-operation with China. Within this framework, one of its goals is the launch of European-Chinese joint programmes of research cooperation. These projects may also serve as preparatory actions for future joint research projects.

Research collaboration between Europe and China is especially needed in the social sciences and humanities which contribute to a deeper comprehension of society and the political agenda and thus encourage economic development and social understanding. Social sciences and humanities are therefore a prime example of a research area that would strongly benefit from coordination on a trans-national scale. CO-REACH recognises that the opportunities for research funding for multinational projects between Europe and China are limited, and in launching this programme it hopes to encourage European scholars to collaborate with Chinese scholars working on particular social science and humanities’ topics of mutual interest. 

The joint initiative developed in the framework of CO-REACH is a pilot programme which will lay the foundations for long-lasting co-operation between the European Research Area (ERA) and Chinese partner organisations. 

The following partners have agreed to open the first joint call for funding multilateral research projects in the fields of social sciences and humanities:

European Partners (alphabetical order):

• Austrian Federal Ministry for Science and Research (BMWF)
• British Academy (BA)
• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), U.K.
• Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), U.K.
• Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany
• German Research Foundation (DFG)
• Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)
• The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MAEE)
• The French Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR)
• The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
• The Academy of Finland (AKA)

Chinese Partner:

• Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS)

Partners will open the call simultaneously in their respective countries.

Aim of the call

The aim of this call is to promote research between Europe and China by supporting collaborative research initiatives, such as research projects and workshop series, in order to initiate or strengthen the scientific cooperation in the fields of the social sciences and part of the humanities. (For further details regarding the funding modes see section 2.1). The liaison of European and Chinese scholars will build effective collaboration on a common research question, based on complementarities, and the sharing of expertise, common research questions and methodology.

The CO-REACH Social Science programme intends to bring together Chinese and European social scientists to work on a joint topic of mutual interest and thereby build up a research network.
The programme is aimed both at European and Chinese scholars experienced in collaborating together and at those with little or no previous experience of working together in China and/or Europe. 
The joint programme will therefore provide opportunities for networking and developing experience in unfamiliar research environments and different research traditions.

In order to ease liaison between European and Chinese scientists, a list of potential CASS collaborating institutes is given in Annex II. Theses scientists will serve as contact points to other Chinese colleagues. Non-CASS academics may also be involved in a research group from China. Contacts to non-CASS academics should be arranged with CASS on a case-by-case basis.

The programme offers opportunities in a wide range of research areas in the social sciences, extending into the humanities. The broad definition of research topics is intended to offer maximum opportunity for flexibility among researchers in devising research proposals. Research networks should focus on a research question developed and presented jointly by the network as a whole.

Proposals are invited with respect to five main thematic areas that have been identified as raising issues of common concern in China and Europe. It is expected that projects will focus on specific issues within one of the main themes, but proposers may develop linkages both between sub-themes and across main themes if this is seen as important for their particular research agenda.

1. Demography, Family and Welfare
2. Cultural Heritage
3. Law, Governance and Policy Making
4. Participation, Co-determination, Employment and the Quality of Life
5. Labour Market Change, Migration and Social Cohesion

Funding Instruments/ Modes:
Scientists from different participating partner countries may apply for one or several of the following funding instruments (funding modes). Within a given network one or several funding modes may be applied for.
Projects can therefore include:

• Exchange research visits by European and Chinese scientists between Europe and China (funding of mobility) 
• Workshops, Seminar Series and / or Summer Schools
• Research costs including minor field work, data sets, consumables, small equipment, training for junior researchers; in some cases personnel costs.

Funding will be provided for a period of two years. Joint projects should start by mid 2009.

Details of eligible costs are subject to the specific administrative regulations of the various funding organisations participating in the call and may therefore vary from country to country and institution to institution. Clarification on eligibility may be obtained from the individual funding agencies (see Annex I for details).

Application

Funding recipients
Applications may be submitted by academics, higher education institutions and/or non-university research establishments. The eligibility of different individuals and institutions and the costs which may be covered in a project will vary according to the regulations of the national institution providing the funding.

Only trans-national projects will be funded. Each proposal must involve researchers from a minimum of two different participating European CO-REACH-SSR member states, as well as one or more researchers from China.

The number of participants should be appropriate for the aims of the research project and reasonably balanced in terms of national participation. Each collaborative project should clearly demonstrate the added value from working together.

There should be one principal investigator on the European side. The principal investigator who represents the project externally will be responsible for its internal management. Within a joint proposal, each researcher /research group leader (depending on the size of the network) will act as contact person for the relevant national funding agency.

There should also be a principal investigator from China. This should be an academic based in one of CASS’ institutes. (Please see Annex II for a list of potential collaborat-ing institutes.) Non-CASS academics may not act as principal investigators on the Chinese side.  CASS academics intending to act as principle investigators are required to contact the CASS national contact person before pre-registering for the call (cf. list of national contact persons in Annex I of the call text). Non-CASS academics involved in a research group should secure their own funding.

Research groups from non-CO-REACH partner countries may participate in projects if they secure their own funding. They should state clearly in the proposal whether these funds are already secured or how they plan to secure funding before the start of the project. If the contribution of the third party is considered essential for the success of the entire proposal, the third party will be required to document the availability of their funds before the final funding decision.

Financial and legal modalities
Funding is available for projects of a duration of two years and is subject to national regulations. Eligible costs may vary according to the corresponding national funding agency’s regulations. Each research group is subject to the rules and regulations of its respective national funding agency.
 
Application Process

Application forms

Electronic application forms for the pre-registration and full proposal stages are avail-able on the CO-REACH joint programme website.

Pre-registration
A proposal for a research network has to be pre-registered electronically on the CO-REACH joint programme website (in order to allow the Joint Call Secretariat to gain an overview of the number of applications and their thematic breadth). The pre-registration process consists of naming the partners of the research network and giving a very brief description of the project’s scientific objectives.

The joint pre-registration document (in English) should be prepared by the designated partners of a joint trans-national research network and should be endorsed by the principle investigators on both the Chinese and the European side. It must be submitted electronically to the Joint Call Secretariat by its principal investigator by October 28.

Pre-registration must include the following information:

• Names and affiliation(s) of the principal investigator
• Names and affiliation(s) of other partners participating in the planned research network
• Title of the research project (research network)
• Thematic identification of the proposal plus keywords
• Abstract (max. ½ page)
• Applicants are invited to name potential experts suited for the evaluation of their proposal, as well as experts not suited due to a conflict of interest.

Please note: Only pre-registered proposals will be allowed to submit a full proposal.

Full proposal
Following pre-registration, a full proposal should be submitted. The joint proposal document (in English) should be prepared by the partners of the joint trans-national proposal and should be endorsed by the principle investigators on both the Chinese and the European side. It must be submitted electronically to the Joint Call Secretariat by the principal investigator by December 10. Data inserted for pre-registration can be reused and, if necessary, altered when submitting the full proposal.

Full proposals must include the following information:

Basic project data:

• Names and affiliation(s) of the principal investigators
• Names and affiliation(s) of the researchers participating in the planned research project; if necessary, identification of research group leaders
• Title of the research project (research network)
• Thematic identification of the proposal plus keywords 
• Abstract (max. ½ page)

Detailed information:

• Background and  current state-of-play in the research field in China and in Europe and rationale for project (max. ½ page)
• Added value of the proposed Chinese-European collaboration: including, motivation for cooperation and, if applicable, history of Chinese-European interac-tion (max. ½ page)
• Work plan: including, aims, methodology, envisaged funding modes, involvement of participants, time plan, project coordination and management (max. 3 pages)
• Financial plan for each participating researcher. Justification of requested budget, specifying co-funding from other sources necessary for the project, if applicable (max. 1 page)
• Annexes
  • CVs and relevant publication records for the last five years for each participating researcher (1-2 pages for each researcher/research group)
  • If applicable: possible use of expected project results, including data management and data sharing (max. ½ page)
  • If applicable: handling of intellectual property rights (IPR) (e.g. any barri-ers to sharing materials or results), both within and outside the research consortium (max. 1 page)
  • If applicable: outline of programme of workshops/summer schools etc. (max. 2 pages)
  • A letter of intent declaring the project partners willingness to collaborate if the project is approved has to be annexed to the full proposal submission.

Please note: While applications will be submitted jointly by groups from several countries, individual components (or, where applicable, subprojects) will be funded by the individual CO-REACH funding organisation(s) according to the country from which the applicants have applied. Applicants are therefore strongly advised to discuss their intentions and confirm eligibility with their respective funding organisations in advance of submitting an application.

Co-operation Agreement
Before a project starts, it is recommended that all network/project members sign a Co-operation Agreement (please see Information for Applicants on Cooperation Agreements on the CO-REACH Joint call website). The Cooperation Agreement and any other information required by national regulations should be made available to the relevant national funding agency on request.

Further Information
If you need additional information, please contact the representative of the International Bureau or the Joint Call Secretariat.

Contact person at the International Bureau:
Dr. Martin Barth
Internationales Büro des BMBF
beim Projektträger im Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR)
Heinrich-Konen-Str. 1
D-53227 Bonn
Internet: http://www.internationales-buero.de
Phone:  +49 (228) 3821-1417
Fax:  +49 (228) 3821-1444
E-mail:  M.Barth@DLR.de

Joint Call secretariat:
Ruth Narmann
CO-REACH Joint Call Secretariat (JCS)
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- International Affairs -
D-53170 Bonn
Phone:  +49 (228) 885-2340
Fax   +49 (228) 885-2795
E-Mail:  dfg@co-reach.org

Evaluation

Formal check of pre-registration and full proposals
The pre-registration step will enable the Joint Call Secretariat to pre-structure the peer-review based evaluation process and to conduct a (preliminary) eligibility check of the applicants.
   
The Joint Call Secretariat, together with CO-REACH partner organisations, will assess all full proposals to ensure that they meet the Call’s formal criteria (date of submission; number of participating countries; inclusion of all necessary information in English; appropriate limits on length) and that applicants are eligible to submit applications according to national rules. Full Proposals not meeting the formal criteria will be declined.

Peer-review of full proposals
Internationally renowned scientific experts in the relevant fields will carry out the scientific evaluation of full proposals according to specific evaluation criteria (see below), using a common Evaluation Form. This review process will involve written peer review and a panel meeting.

The names of the scientific experts involved in the review process will be published on the CO-REACH website after the review process has been finalised.

A scoring system from 0 to 5 will be used to evaluate the proposal’s performance with respect to the different evaluation criteria:
0: fails or missing/incomplete information; 1: poor; 2: fair; 3: good; 4: very good; 5: ex-cellent.

          Primary Criteria:

1. Scientific quality and originality of the project and of the research (innovative potential, adequate methodology)
2. Relevance to the aim(s) of the call
3. Academic excellence of the applicants (e.g. previous scientific track record, publi-cations in scientific journals, standing of the institute the applicants belong to).
4. Feasibility of the project (project governance, adequate budget, resources, time schedule)
5. Level of collaborative interaction between the groups and added value of the consortium
   
   Secondary Criteria:
   
6. Social relevance of the expected results
7. Contribution to the scientific community

No additional criteria will be used for evaluation and selection.

Decision:
Based on the recommendations from the review process, the Programme Steering Committee, consisting of representatives from CO-REACH partner organisations will suggest the projects to be funded. Based on these recommendations, final decisions will be made by the national funding agencies.

Funding procedure, responsibilities, reporting requirements

Projects can be funded for a period of two years. Funding is expected to start mid-year 2009.

Individual research groups (subprojects) of successful collaborative projects will be funded directly by the respective national funding organisations. Funding will be administered according to the terms and conditions of the responsible national funding organisations, taking into account all other applicable national regulations and legal frameworks.

The principal investigator, who represents the research network/project, will be responsible for its internal management. Although he or she bears the overall responsibility for the project, each researcher/research group leader is fully responsible for the research outcome towards the respective joint call partner organisation from which he or she receives funding for the joint project.

Each project coordinator, on behalf of all participating teams, has to submit a halfway report to the CO-REACH Joint Call Secretariat after one year of the project.

In addition, each research group will be expected to report to its funding agencies, in accordance with each national funding agency’s regulation. The final project report has to be submitted to the respective national funding agencies.

For both the halfway and the final report, deliverables may, for instance, comprise

• reports on workshop/summer schools
• a comparative report on current European-Chinese research approaches to the issues addressed in the project
• reports on joint research activities, e.g. questionnaire development and testing, or reports on pilot interviews or field work
• a draft joint research proposal for a more extensive research project