New Grant Program for Advanced Research
The Science Committee of the RA MESCS announces a Call for Proposals for the Advanced Research Grant Program within the framework of contractual (thematic) funding of scientific and technical activities.
The Grant Program was announced in the framework of the Decision of the Government of the Republic of Armenia dated April 8th, 2021, on allocating additional funds to the science sector from the 2021 state budget,
The Call is being announced for the first time. It is unprecedented in terms of the allocated amount, the duration of the projects, the remuneration of the group members, and the number of researchers involved in the groups.
Grants of up to 5 years will be awarded on a competitive basis to research groups of 6-7 members, including a leading Armenia-based researcher as a Principal Investigator (PI) with a proven track record of relevant publications during the last 10 years, for ambitious and ground-breaking research projects aimed also at training scientific personnel.
The Principal Investigator can be a person over 40 with a scientific degree. The Group may also have a Co-Investigator (CI), whose presence is mandatory if the leader is over 70 and is encouraged if the project pertains to more than one field of expertise.
The Group must also have a Foreign Partner/Collaborator who must spend at least 30 days in Armenia during the project and host Group Members for at least 30 days at their scientific institution. The PI, the CI, and the Foreign Partner/Collaborator must have high-ranking publications in international scientific databases.
Mandatory requirements for the groups include publications in ISD-indexed (International scientific databases) journals during the project, obtaining international research grants (at least one application for an international scientific grant exceeding 30 million AMD is expected), and creating and disseminating popular science materials related to the project.
Three years after the project's launch, following the evaluation of the Group's results, it will be decided whether the funding will be continued for an additional two years.
One year after the project's launch, the PI will have the opportunity to include up to two more participants—students with related specializations. If a student is included in the Group, the Project's funding will be accordingly increased.
A Project shall be deemed eligible if it meets the entry criteria presented in the Call for Proposals.
Thus, implementing the competition will enable more effective utilization of the professional potential of leading scientists, create favorable conditions for the professional development of young scientists, and provide an opportunity to attract new international grants.
Applications must be submitted to the Science Committee through the online system https://grants.scs.am/ until 18 June 2021, 18:00 (GMT/UTC+4), inclusively.
You can find the announcement of the Call in Armenian at the following link: http://scs.am/am/27-04-2021.