To facilitate the support of collaborative work between German and Japanese research groups, the German Research Foundation and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science have opened the possibility for joint German-Japanese project proposals in the fields of geosciences (themes falling in the responsibility of the elected grant committees (Fachkollegien) 313–318) for the period of 2019 to 2021. Collaborations of research teams from both countries are invited to submit joint proposals.
These joint proposals have to be based on a close interaction between the German and Japanese research teams and should present joint project goals and a joint work plan with balanced contributions from all project partners.
Joint projects within the scope of this call can only be funded if both, JSPS and DFG finance their national parts of a joint project. Up to ten projects can be funded within this call; JSPS provides a budget of up to JPY 10,000,000 (approx. € 75,000) per year/per project. At the DFG the proposals in this call are submitted in the funding scheme “Sachbeihilfe/Research Grants” and will be reviewed in competition with all other proposals in this scheme. It is important to note that there are no separate funds available for these efforts, proposals must succeed on the strengths of their intellectual merit in competition with all other proposals in the funding scheme. Based on written reviews, a joint panel will select up to ten projects for funding. The funding period for the projects should be three years starting in early 2019.
The eligibility to submit a proposal follows the regulations for the programmes for the funding scheme “Sachbeihilfe/Research Grants” at DFG side (DFG form 50.01). This includes the duty to cooperate (“Kooperationspflicht”) within Germany for members of non-university institutions with permanent positions. At JSPS side, the eligibility follows the regulation of JSPS International Joint Research Programmes. All prospective Japanese applicants should be eligible to apply for a Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research – KAKENHI and her/his affiliated institution must judge them able to implement the project and to provide an appropriate research environment (e.g., laboratory, equipment, personnel) for it.
Proposals shall be written in English and must be submitted to DFG through German principal investigators in accordance with the proposal preparation requirements, this means submission via the DFG elan system according to the guidelines for the Research Grants Programme. DFG will forward all relevant documents to JSPS.
For submission via the DFG elan system German partners should select under “Call for Proposals” the “DFG-JSPS-Call 2018: Geosciences”. In the elan system please go via Proposal Submission – New Project – Individual Grants Programme. In the field “Proposal for a Research Grant” click the button “Start online form” – “Continue”. There you will find the call.
The proposal must include a description of the full proposed research programme and research team and describe the total resources for the joint project (that is, the funds requested for both the Japanese and German groups). In the electronic elan system it is only requested to fill in the German budget, because only applicants in Germany can receive funding from DFG. However, the budget for the Japanese side needs to be filled in the designated form by JSPS and uploaded as additional document.
Additional documents as CVs of the principal investigators (PI) from both sides must be uploaded following the rules of each organisation respectively. Please note that the reviewers will need the full information on the PI from Germany as well as from Japan. Japanese scientists are requested to submit their basic information to JSPS via the JSPS electronic application system.
Proposals to the DFG and the JSPS should be submitted no later than 5 June 2018.
