The following is a translation from Estonian. In case of disputes the Estonian text shall prevail.

Transcription

1 The following is a translation from Estonian. In case of disputes the Estonian text shall prevail. Conditions of and Procedure for Personal Research Funding Application for Postdoctoral Grant Chapter 1 GENERAL PROVISIONS 1. Scope of Application The directive establishes the conditions of and procedure for applying for, evaluating, granting and reporting on personal research funding (postdoctoral grants). 2. Goal 2.1. A postdoctoral research grant is a grant to support launching a research career of persons with a doctoral degree or equivalent qualification at a strong research and development (R&D) institution or in a high level research group either in Estonia or abroad A postdoctoral grant shall be awarded for the implementation of an independent research project and the purpose of the project is not co-funding of other grants awarded under the Organisation of Research and Development Act There are two types of postdoctoral grants: a grant for a postdoctoral fellow coming to Estonia (incoming); a grant for a postdoctoral fellow going abroad (outgoing) In the award of postdoctoral grant to applicants coming to Estonia from abroad, applicants who have previously received Estonian state scholarship in order to obtain a doctoral degree abroad, with the requirement to return to Estonia to continue their research, will be preferred In the award of postdoctoral grant to applicants going abroad, the applicants who are Estonian citizens, have a permanent right of residence in Estonia or hold a long-term residence permit, are preferred In awarding the grants, the Estonian Research Council (hereinafter Council) is entitled to prioritize the R&D fields and the grant types for each year. 3. Postdoctoral Project A postdoctoral project (hereinafter also project) is a description of a scientific study with a clearly defined research problem and fundamental or applied research planned to address the problem. 4. Applicant of a Postdoctoral Grant 1

2 4.1. A person can apply for funding (hereinafter applicant) upon receiving consent from an Estonian R&D institution (hereinafter host institution). The consent must include confirmation that the host institution shall enter into an employment contract with the applicant if such a contractual relationship does not already exist at the time of submitting the application The following individuals can submit an application for a postdoctoral grant: Individuals who have not held their first doctorate or equivalent qualification in the R&D field in which the application is processed for more than five years prior to the call closing date. The date of awarding the doctorate or equivalent qualification is the date indicated in the respective document issued by the awarding institution. If the person has been on parental leave or had compulsory military service after obtaining their first doctorate or equivalent qualification, then the maximum period will be extended accordingly in full month rounded up to a bigger amount of months. In justified cases, the Evaluation Committe may consider a person who has not yet obtained a doctorate or the equivalent qualification to meet the set requirements on the assumption that the said person will obtain a doctorate or the equivalent qualification before entering into a grant contract stipulated in Section 12.1; who has not undertaken doctoral studies nor obtained a doctorate, including the cotutelle agreement, in the same institution where the postdoctoral grant will be implemented; who (in case of outgoing doctoral fellow) prior to the closing date of the call has worked or studied in Estonia at least 12 months 4.3. An applicant can not apply simultaneously for more than one personal research funding grant but may be listed as primary research staff in yet another start-up or team grant A person who has received his/her doctorate in Estonia can not apply for a postdoctoral project at an Estonian R&D institution A person can not apply for a grant if: he/she has previously not received postdoctoral research funding from the Council or the Estonian Science Foundation; his/her application in two consecutive calls has failed to reach the thresholds set in Section 10.3.; he/she has not timely submitted reports of projects previously financed by the Council. 5. Host Institution, Collaborating Institution, and Postdoctoral Supervisor 5.1. The host institution is an Estonian R&D institution which has signed a work contract with the researcher for implementing the postdoctoral project if such a contractual relationship does not already exist at the time of awarding a postdoctoral grant A collaborating institution is a foreign R&D institution where an outgoing postdoctoral fellow will carry out the postdoctoral project The supervisor must have a PhD degree or equivalent qualification. The supervisor of an incoming postdoctoctoral fellow can be a person having an employment contract with the host institution. The supervisor of an outgoing postdoctoral fellow can be a person having an employment contract with the collaborating institution. The supervisor cannot be a person who has been a supervisor of the applicant s doctoral work. 2

3 6. Processing of the Application The Council will arrange the processing of grant applications. Chapter 2 CONDITIONS OF APPLYING FOR GRANT 7. Applying for Postdoctoral Grant 7.1. The applicant draws up the application and the host institution submits it to the Council via the Estonian Research Information System (hereinafter ETIS) The call for projects to be started in 2018 will be open from April 1 through to 5:00 p.m. Estonian time on 5 May The application must be presented in English, except the parts in Estonian stipulated in clauses and The following must be set out in the an application: the applicant and the supervisor; the title of the project in Estonian and in English; a project summary in Estonian and in English; the requested grant period; the grant type applied for pursuant to the fixed grant volumes stipulated in Section 8.5 and its justification, incl. the distribution of direct costs; the general theoretical background of the project; the main objectives of the research project, hypotheses, description of methods and the annual research plans, availability of the research infrastructure necessary for achieving the objectives of the project; expected results and their potential applicability, importance for Estonian science, society and economy as well as possible future research directions; an explanation whether a review or approval from a human ethics committee or an authorization committee for animal experiments is available or requested; a confirmation that research ethics principles will be followed and an explanation how project data will be managed; a description of previous research and development activities of the applicant also indicating his/her contribution to the (relevant from the project s point of view) publications linked to the application; a description of supervisor s research and development activity and experience in supervision of postdoctoral fellows and doctoral students during the last 10 years A postdoctoral applicant going abroad must include an invitation or confirmation letter from the collaborating institution. 3

4 7.6. The Council has the right to demand additional data and documents from the applicant and the host institution A postdoctoral fellow can not act as any of the following during the grant term: the Principal Investigator or primary research staff of another personal research funding (start-up, exploratory, team) project nor as a postdoctoral fellow; A Principal Investigator or primary research staff of an institutional research funding topic. 8. Grant Volume 8.1. A postdoctoral grant contains expenses directly related to the implementation of a project and overhead expenses. The direct costs consist of personnel costs and research related costs: Personnel costs are wages along with any and all state taxes, contributions, benefits and compensation arising from law; Research related costs are travel costs, subcontracting costs, costs relating to the publication and popularisation of results of R&D obtained by way of implementing the project, and expenses relating to the protection of intellectual property as well as other research related direct costs based on the characteristics of the project; 8.2. Overhead expenses are ongoing operational expenses incurred by the host institution related to the management of the grant by the institution and providing a high quality research environment for the project participants The postdoctoral candidate may request a non-recurrent relocation allowance if he/she has not lived, worked or studied 180 days prior to the closing date of the call in Estonia or in a foreign country whe the collaboation institution is located. The relocation allowance is a one-off payment to the host institution. The taxes prescribed by Estonian law shall apply to the relocation allowance The grants are divided into grant types with fixed grant volume depending on the R&D field specifics, specific research methods (incl. experimental methods) The Council shall set in the Guidelines for Budgeting Personal Research Funding Applications the fixed grant volumes for each year and may set the maximum amounts for types of expenses. 9. Grant Term 9.1. The term of a postdoctoral grant is up to three years The postdoctoral funding period is a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 36 months. Chapter 3 EVALUATION OF APPLICATIONS AND AWARD OF GRANTS 10. Evaluation of Applications The assessment of grant applications is organised by the Council Applications are evaluated by the Evaluation Committee on the basis of Regulation No. 74 Procedure for Formation and Rules of Procedure of Evaluation Committee of Estonian Research Council of the 4

5 Minister of Education and Research of 27 December 2011 and the Guidelines for evaluating personal research funding applications for postdoctoral grants (hereinafter guidelines) approved by the Council The Council may set thresholds in evaluating the research project applications. No grant will be awarded if an application does not pass a threshold In order to evaluate applications, the Evaluation Committee forms research field based expert panels. The Evaluation Committee is entitled to decide which expert panel shall process an application Expert panels shall use the opinions and scores of at least two independent reviewers Expert panels shall rely on the opinions and scores of reviewers when drawing up their opinion and scores but these are not binding for the panel Expert panels submit to the Evaluation Committee reasoned evaluations and scores of the applications belonging to their field of expertise. The Evaluation Committee shall rely on the opinions and scores of the expert panels when drawing up its opinion and scores but these are not binding for the Evaluation Committee The Evaluation Committee shall assess applications and draw up the final evaluation of each application on the basis of the evaluations and scores of the expert panels and taking into account the following: justification, and extent of elaboration of the project; justification, and extent of elaboration of the project; expected results and their potential applicability, bearing in mind also the R&D field or application specifics, and the potential impact and importance for Estonian science, society and economy; the qualification of the applicant and the supervisor; extent of elaboration of research ethics principles and data management; justification of the grant type applied for; The Council retains the right to demand additional data and documents from the applicant and the host institution regarding the data specified in clauses In case intentional false information, plagiarism or fraudulent activities become evident, the Council has the right to reject the application Based on the final evaluations and scores, the Evaluation Committee shall draw up ranking lists of applications for postdoctoral grants in each research field separately In the final evaluation of an application, the Evaluation Committee may prescribe the conditions that the postdoctoral fellow and the host institution are required to fulfil upon receipt of the grant The Council makes the opinions stipulated in Section 10.5., the evaluations stipulated in Section 10.8., the initial financing proposal (hereinafter proposal) of the Evaluation Committee, and the position of the applicant in the ranking list stipulated in Section available to the applicant and the host institution. The applicant and the host institution have the right to submit a written joint opinion and objections within the time limit established by the Council. If the Evaluation Committee has prescribed in the final evaluation of the application the conditions that must be fulfilled for receiving the grant, the applicant and the host institution will submit the consent to fulfill the conditions In case a postdoctoral fellow whose whose application was proposed to be approved by the Evaluation Committee or who has been awarded a grant by the Directive of the Board of the Council waives the grant, then the grant will be awarded to the next applicant in the ranking list of the postdoctoral 5

6 grants in the same research field. By providing reasoned opinion, the Evaluation Committee may propose to award the grant to the next applicant in the ranking list of postdoctoral grants in another research field. 11. Award of Grant Taking into account the final evaluation and the written joint opinion and objections received from the applicant and the host institution pursuant to clause 10.13, the Evaluation Committee submits to the Board of the Council a reasoned and impartial proposal: to approve the application; not to approve the application Upon reasoning its decision, the Board of the Council has the right to submit a proposal to the Evaluation Committee for a repeat review A decision to approve or not to approve an application is made by a directive of the Board of the Council. In case of approval, the directive shall indicate the grant period and the annual grant amount The decision of the Management Board of the Council stipulated in Section 11.3 may be contested pursuant to the requirements set in the Administrative Procedure Act. 12. Allocation of Grant A grant is awarded to the host institution based on an annual tri-partite grant contract entered into by the Council, the host institution and the postdoctoral fellow (hereinafter grant contract), which entails the rights, obligations and responsibilities of the parties The grant contract shall be entered into at least three months after a decision stipulated in Section 11.3 has been made The grant will be allocated annually to the host institution. The grant installment for the next calendar year will be transferred to the host instituion in Month 13 after the transfer of first installment The host institution shall enter into an employment contract with the postdoctoral fellow within one month, if such a contractual relationship does not already exist at the time of awarding a grant, or shall amend the existing employment contract If the employment contract between the postdoctoral fellow and the host institution expires during the grant term and the parties do not enter into a new employment contract the Council: will unilaterally terminate the grant contract and shall enter into a new grant contract with the postdoctoral fellow and the R&D institution with which the Principal Investigator has signed a new employment contract and that consents to enter into the grant contract. Before entering into the grant contract, the Council shall assess whether the new host institution has the necessary research environment and infrastructure required for the implementation of the project and in case primary research staff were involved in the project, the sustainability of the project. In the event of a negative assessment, no new grant contract shall be entered into After the premature termination of a grant contract, the host institution with which the employment contract of the postdoctoral fellow has expired is required to refund the unused part of the grant along with a proportional fee of the overhead to the Council no later than 7 calendar days upon receiving the corresponding claim for refund. The postdoctoral fellow and the host institution shall be obliged to present 6

7 the project final report pursuant to Section A new grant contract stipulated in clause is entered into not later than within three months as of the termination of the previous one. Until conclusion of a new grant contract, the Council will suspend grant payments If a new grant contract has not been entered into by the end of the term specified in Section 12.7., the Board of the Council will repeal the decision to approve the application In cases not stipulated in the present Conditions and Procedure the Management Board of the Estonian Research Council shall have the discretionary power to act, involving experts if need becomes evident. Chapter 4 TEMPORARY SUSPENSION OF GRANT AND TERMINATION OF GRANT 13. Temporary Suspension of Grant The grant can be temporarily suspended only upon receiving a reasoned application from the postdoctoral fellow if his/her employment contract is temporarily suspended due to parental leave, service in the Defence Forces, serious illness, or other reasoned circumstances, due to which the implementation of the project has become impossible or is impaired to a significant extent The application for a temporary suspension of a grant which is concorded with the host institution shall be submitted to the Management Board of the Council prior to the start date of the suspension period A temporary suspenson of the grant may be requested by the postdoctoral fellow for the set periods in cases of pregnancy, maternity or parental leave, during service in the Defence Forces, or in other exceptional cases for up to three years The grant contract will be ssuspended for the temporary suspension period of the project. 14. Premature termination of Grant Contract The Council has the right to revoke a decision to award a grant and premature terminate the grant contract if: the host institution or the postdoctoral fellow have submitted a respective application; the required annual report stipulated in Section has not been submitted on time; the host institution or the postdoctoral fellow have fundamentally violated the requirements of the Organisation of Research and Development Act or this procedure; the host institution or the postdoctoral fellow have intentionally presented false information, or plagiarism or fraudulent activities have become evident in the project-related activities of the postdoctoral fellow; 7

8 other substantial and reasoned circumstances exist After the revocation of a decision to approve an application and termination of a grant contract, the host institution is required to refund the unused grant along with a proportional fee of the overhead to the Council no later than 7 calendar days upon receiving the corresponding claim for refund. The postdoctoral fellow and the host institution shall be obliged to present the project final report pursuant to Section Reclamation of Grant The host institution is required to allow the Council or a person authorised by it to audit the use of a grant and assist it in every way, incl. allowing access to the premises and the territory of the host institution and submitting all the requested documents for the purpose of verifying the correctness of the submitted information A grant not used for the intended purpose may be reclaimed by the Council from the host institution along with a proportional fee of the overheads. 16. Termination of Grant All the activities financed from the grant must be carried out by the final date of the grant The host institution is required to refund the unused grant along with a proportional fee of the overhead to the Council no later than 7 calendar days upon receiving the corresponding claim for refund from the Council. Chapter 5 REPORTING, ASSESSMENT AND MAKING PROJECT S RESULTS PUBLIC 17. Reporting and Evaluation The postdoctoral fellow draws up an annual report on each calendar year of receipt of the grant which shall contain an overview of grant usage and a summary of grant activities of the reporting year The annual report is drawn up by the postdoctoral fellow in Estonian or in English. The host institution submits it to the Council via the ETIS not later than by 1 March of the year following the reporting year. No annual report needs to be submitted on the last year of the research project, but the respective data are submitted in the final report of the project The postdoctoral fellow prepares the final report in English (except the main results in Estonian in a popular essay format as stipiulated in clause ) or in Estonian (except the main results in English in a popular essay format as stipiulated in clause ) and the host institution submits it to the Council via ETIS during the three months following the end of the funding period The following is indicated in the final report of a project: the results (incl. the main results in in English and in Estonian a popular essay format which shall not be evaluated in providing the final evaluation as stipulated in Section 17.7.) pertaining to the research goals contained in the application; other important information that the postdoctoral fellow or the host institution deem relevant; A report on the usage of the grant; 8

9 fulfilment of conditions stipulated in Section in case of conditional award of grant In case of a premature termination of the grant award, the postdoctoral fellow jointly with the host institution are obliged to submit the project final report as specified in Section In case the postdoctoral fellow is not able to draw the final report (serious illness of the postdoctoral fellow or death, commencing other work, moving to permanent residence in another country or other substantial and reasoned circumstances), the host institution shall draw the final report and submit it to the Council Based on the final report, the Evaluation Committee will assess the implementation of the project. The assessment will be made available to the postdoctoral fellow and the host institution via ETIS. 18. Making Research Project s Results Public Consolidated texts of publications (with reference to the grant) drawn up as a result of the implementation of the project are made freely available to the public via ETIS by the host institution, unless the conditions of publication, copyright or intellectual property protection state otherwise If a publishing house temporarily restricts access to the public publications, the consolidated texts of the publications drawn up as a result of the implementation of the project will be made freely available via the ETIS by the host institution after the expiry of the restriction Upon publication of the results of implementation of the project, it is indicated which funds were used for the project. Scientific articles which do not contain such an indication, will not be considered in the final report The final report of a research project (except the report on the usage of the funding as specified in clause ) shall be made available to public by the Council via ETIS. 9