The « Initiative d’excellence » (IDEX) Université Grenoble Alpes launches a call for projects to promote its international strategic partnerships. More specifically, this call seeks to achieve the following objectives:

- Development of projects with foreign universities through joint funding of PhD or Post-Doc.

- Development of the collaboration with strategic partners (see list below), with CNRS International Laboratories (UMI), and with International Associated Laboratories (LIA) and with Unités mixtes des instituts français de recherche à l’étranger (Umifre).

- Development of the collaboration with the local international research facilities (see list below).

- Support international projects in the field of the humanities and social sciences.

- Preparation of proposals in response to European calls.

Projects involving strategic partnerships with UGA, CNRS International Laboratories (UMI), International Associated Laboratories (LIA) and/or International research facilities are encouraged, as well as any other project with international universities which UGA could count as one of its future strategic partnerships. 

We urge candidates to submit outstanding proposals with at least one international partner. Only high-quality projects in which major advances in research and education that would not occur without international collaborations will be funded.

The duration of the projects should not exceed 4 years. However, the funding will be given for 3 years to cover the whole period of a PhD thesis in France. Funding consists in one PhD or two twin PhDs, where half of the funding will be provided by the IDEX as long as co-funding is also provided by one of the international partners. The IDEX funding must be spent during the first 3 years of the thesis.

This call may also cover the co-funding of Post-Docs if this solution is preferred by the partner. In this case, the IDEX funds will cover half of the Post-doc’s salary during 2 years or 1 year of his/her full salary.

For the selected projects, the PhD or Post-Doc candidate will have to share his time (preferably 50%) between Grenoble and the foreign institution.

List of UGA strategic partnerships

Other target countries

North America: USA - Canada

Asia: China - India

South America: Argentina - Mexico

French speaking countries: Lebanon - Morocco - Senegal – Vietnam – Tunisia – Belgium – etc.

List of international research facilities

- ESRF - European Synchrotron Radiation Facility,

- ILL - Institut Laue-Langevin,

- EMBL - European Molecular Biology Laboratory,

- IRAM - Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique,

- GHMFL - Grenoble High Magnetic Field Laboratory,

- CERN - Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire.

Evaluation

The criteria of the selection committee to evaluate the proposals are :

- Ambition and scientific quality of the project,

- Effectiveness of the collaboration,

- Potential offered by the international collaboration,

- Relevance of the consortium to strengthen the partnership.

Eligibility

- Projects must be presented by a research team from laboratories belonging to one or several research departments (CBS[1], MSTIC[2], PAGE[3], PEM[4], PSS[5], SHS[6]) or CEA-tech, in collaboration with an international partner listed above.

- The international partner has to provide a written statement as a proof and justification of his co-funding.

- The project’s main investigator must be a permanent member of a research unit of one the IDEX partners (e.g. a doctoral student cannot submit his/her own project).

- The project’s main investigator should not be a member of the IDEX Research and Transfer Executive Commission or a member of the International Relationships Commission or a member of the board of directors of a research department or of the IDEX steering board.

- The electronic submission file must be complete, comply with the mandatory structure given below and be submitted before the deadline.

Funding

IDEX funding will not cover operational costs, equipment or mission expenses.

Application file

Applications should be submitted on the platform: http://projects-call.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

The following documents must be provided:

Short bio of the project investigator (1 page),

Short bio of the international co-project investigator (1 page),

Executive summary (1 page),

Project description (5 pages),

Project description of the PhD program for the whole period.

Partner's financial commitment letter.

Notice of submission

Calendar 2020

- Call for Proposal: January 29^th 2020

- Submission deadline: March 9^th 2020, 17:00

- Selection Committee meeting: March 2020

- Notification: April 2020

- Beginning of the Ph.D. (or Post-Doc) projects: December 2020 at the latest

[1] Chemistry, Biology, Health
[2] Maths, Information Science and Technology
[3] Particle physics, astrophysics, geosciences, environment, ecology
[4] Physics, Engineering, Materials
[5] Social Sciences
[6] Humanities and Social Sciences