Research Office

Research@SISSA                                                                                           

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SISSA offers a high-level international research environment where outstanding research projects are carried out.

Our mission is to help researchers find the suitable call to carry out their project and to offer the best possible support in the application process and the pre-award phase in general.

SISSA researchers are very active in European and International competitive calls. The School manages over 100 research projects per year and has a longstanding experience in grant administration thus representing a welcoming research environment for foreign researchers.

Within the competitive field of the European Framework Programmes (FP7 and Horizon2020) the involvement of SISSA is substantial, in particular Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, ERC, Research Infrastructure and FET Flagship. 

The Research Funding Office is also responsible for the management of FVG regional programs linked to the European structural funds: European social fund (ESF) and European regional development fund (ERDF). 

What can the Research Office do for you? 

(click on each link for more details) 

• Grant scouting of competitive calls : One of our priorities is to keep SISSA's researchers informed on all the relevant new opportunities to support their research ideas. 
• Training and consultancy: We help researchers to fully understand the call for proposal of a research project in order to comply with all required criteria to be successful in obtainig the funding.
• Support during the application phase: Each funding program has its own rules and regulations, not often straightforward to understand, hence we support professors and researchers during the pre-award phase and the negotiation phase after the grant has been awarded.

•  NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR SISSA PIs!!!

  SISSA FUNDING INCENTIVES TO PROJECTS  UNDER THE ERC PROGRAMME

  SISSA wishes to enhance its European project activity, particularly the ERC's proposals in relation to Horizon Europe, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation, and to support its researchers competing at a European level.

  SISSA intends to award funding to the Principal Investigators(PIs) who obtain an excellent evaluation in submitting a project proposal in response to a call within the framework of the following European Research Council programmes: 

  ERC Starting Grant ERC

  Consolidator Grant ERC 

  Advanced Grant ERC 

  Synergy Grant

  In particular, the following lines of action are suggested: 

  a) Support in obtaining funding for SISSA PIs who have submitted an ERC project identifying SISSA as the Host Institution and have passed the first selection and have been invited to the interview. 

  b) Support for unfunded research projects that, having passed all the evaluation stages, achieved an excellent (A) rating but were not granted any funding due to the lack of the financial resources allocated to the relevant call.

   Guidelines and Application form.

• Support and advice on Open Science practices: The new Horizon Europe framework program provides for the implementation of some Open Science practices already in the presentation phase of the project proposal. We advise researchers on mandatory and recommended practices for Horizon Europe projects. When the project has been awarded, the Research Office supports researchers in the drafting of the Data Management Plan. We also organize seminars and workshops for the training of our researchers on Open Science practices. Inoltre organizziamo seminari e workshop per la formazione dei ricercatori su varie pratiche di Open Science.
• Transfer of research project to SISSA: The environment and Host Institution in which a research project is carried out is fundamental for its success. We help researchers and professors who wish to transfer their current project to SISSA to complete all the administrative procedures and negotiations with the previous Host Institution.
• International research agreements: SISSA is by definition an international training and research center and as such has many interactions with other universities and international research institutions. We are in charge of the negotiation of general international cooperation agreements with international universities or specific agreements for the management of research projects. 
• Memberships and Scientific Associations:  In addition to offering its researchers the suitable environment to foster the exchange of ideas, SISSA promotes networking as an active member of some of the most important scientific associations.

Grant scouting of competitive calls :  Nowadays, researchers must constantly be up-to-date on the various funding opportunities available to support their research projects with external funds which are becoming more and more important due to the lack of national resources.

We are committed to explore the various open calls for the submission of research projects and periodically promote them among all SISSA's researchers highlighting the following information:

• Brief summary of the call
• Criteria for applying
• Financial information
• Eligibility requirements
• Application deadlines
• Funding restrictions
• Contact information

The funding opportunities available under the European Framework Programme like Horizon 2020 or the forthcoming Horizon Europe programme are avilable on the EU Funding & tenders portal, while some of the most important national calls can be found on the website of the Italian Ministry of Education. 

Training and consultancy: An excellent and ambitious research project idea is fundamental to apply for funding, but often it is not enough. Most competitive calls require research proposals to meet  specific objectives and priorities outlined in the calls. Hence, drawing up a well-structured research proposal suited to the appropriate funding opportunity is crucial for the grant to be awarded.

With this respect, SISSA in collaboration with APRE, organizes:

• Grant drafting workshops addressed to researchers
• Ad-hoc seminars/workshops for specific funding opportunities
• Seminars on general aspects of proposal sections as for instance ethics, data management, relations with companies and enterprises, etc...

In addition to this specific training, we also offer individual consultancy on: 

• Customized support to find ad-hoc funding opportunities
• Revision of administrative forms, eligibility requirements and technical needs detailed in the guide for applicants
• On-demand and personalized assistance to start and sustain new collaborative opportunities among researchers and, in collaboration with the Valorisation and Innovation Office, with companies  

Support during the application phase:  If a researcher has already identified the call or funding opportunity in which he/she wants to participate, we provide assistance in all the steps necessary to submit the proposal. Since there is a variety of funding programs promoted by various sponsors, our experience can facilitate the difficulties that a researcher can face during the application phase.

SISSA internal procedure to submit a new research project: All the research projects submitted by SISSA's researchers or by external researchers that intend to choose SISSA as Host Institution have to be approved by the Scientific Area bodies and are registered and stored in a regularly updated database. 

In order to fulfill these requirements, a researcher has to:

• Download the project data form 
• Fill in the form with all the available information on the project you are willing to present
• Send by e-mail the filled form to research@sissa

PRE-award application phase: In order to give the best possible support, we advise researchers to contact us well ahead of the call deadline. We aim at assisting scientists during the application phase with a general description of SISSA in the proposal drafting and by taking care of the administrative burden of the project's submission.

The pre-award phase is full of challenges and typically our involvement includes:

• Assessment on the applicant's eligibility and adherence to the topic of the grant opportunity
• Working with the Principal Investigator guiding the submission timeline
• Reviewing the call documents, requirements, instructions and, related information
• Setup of the documentation for the project proposal with reference to its requirements
• Providing background information and documentation to non-scientific sections
• Drafting of letters of support or other institutional documents signed by the legal representative of the Host Institution
• Managing institutional registrations to various funding programs platforms (several steps and different time frame to be considered)
• Reviewing applications before the submission, ensuring that the guidelines requirements are met
• Tracking the approval process of the grant submission
• Providing to the funding authorities additional documentation to be submitted upon request 
• Handling official communications with the sponsors

Award application phase: Once the research proposals have been positively evaluated and considered for funding, we support scientists in the activation of the grant.

In the Award stage, we are in charge of:

• Supporting the PI in the negotiation phase with the other project partners (Supplementary agreement, Consortium agreements, ...)
• Supporting the PI in the negotiation phase with the funding authority (Grant agreement)
• Verifying that all the sponsors requests are met
• Arranging all the necessary documents for the grant activation 

After the award of the grant, we take care of the documentation needed for the project setup,  award management, review of all relevant contracts and agreements. 

During the project life cycle we support researchers also in the amendment procedures. 

Transfer of research project to SISSA:  Several individual competitive calls currently use the "money follows researcher  scheme", that allows researchers to leave their current Host Institution to move to a new one taking the project with them. SISSA is willing to welcome top scientists and their prestigious awards. With this respect, we give any kind of support needed in order to complete the project transfer. 

There is not a standard procedure to transfer a research project to SISSA, this means that each funding authority requires different project transfer procedures and documentation and each research institution has its own rules.  

Therefore, if a researcher would like to move to SISSA with his/her grant, he/she has to contact us by e-mail at research@sissa to receive support in:

• Negotiation with the current Host Institution and the funding authority to execute the project transfer
• Preparation of institutional documents signed by the legal representative of SISSA as the new Host Institution
• Arrangement of all internal documents and procedures to finalize the project transfer

Moreover, the Mobility service, offers support for international mobility, such as for example visa procedures and other fulfilments.

International research agreements: SISSA recognizes the value of educational, cultural, and scientific collaborations between international research institutions to encourage the exchange of faculty, researchers, and graduate students.  To accomplish this, SISSA has signed international research agreements with many international research institutes and universities to establish the conditions for the start of a collaborations. Currently SISSA has over 100 international agreements with research institutions all around the world.

If a SISSA PI is willing to collaborate with an international university, we advise to check if an international agreement already exists between SISSA and the foreign university of interest. A complete list is available for consultation. Otherwise, the PI should contact us by e-mail at  research@sissa  submitting the request for drawing up the agreement. We periodically monitor active  international agreements, when an international agreement is about to expire, we take care of contacting the scientist in charge for an eventual renewal.

Memberships and Scientific Associations: Being part of a large and active scientific community helps young researchers to increase and encourage their network of contacts. It also supports the most experienced researchers to consolidate their contacts and still offer the opportunity to create new ones. The research feeds on the sharing of experiences by the researchers themselves.

Therefore, SISSA supports networking and is an active and proactive member of various scientific associations:

• INAF and INFN: The National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF)  and the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) are  national research bodies and have the task of carry out, promote and enhance scientific and technological research in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics and disseminate the related results, promote and encourage technology transfer to industry pursuing goals of excellence at an international level. SISSA researchers work in close collaboration with these two research institutions. In order to do so, if a SISSA researcher needs an official declaration (nulla osta) to be associated with INAF or INFN he/she can contact us by e-mail at  click to show email.
• EOSC: The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)  is an environment for hosting and processing research data to support EU science. The EOSC brings together institutional, national and European stakeholders, initiatives and data infrastructures to develop an inclusive open science ecosystem in Europe. This can lead new insights and innovations, higher research productivity and improved reproducibility in science. EU countries and countries associated with Horizon 2020, represented in the EOSC Governance Board, agreed unanimously to run the EOSC as a co-programmed European Partnership under Horizon Europe from 2021. In July 2020, an EOSC association was set up to provide a single voice for advocacy and represent the broader EOSC stakeholder community. This association aims to become operational by early 2021 and rapidly expand its membership. SISSA became one of the first members of EOSC to actively contribute to its goals.
• EBRAINS: Its goal is to accelerate the effort to understand human brain function and disease, with the ambition to enable a new era in brain research. EBRAINS provides digital tools and services which can be used to address challenges in brain research and brain-inspired technology development. Its components are designed with, by, and for researchers. The tools assist scientists to collect, analyse, share, and integrate brain data, and to perform modelling and simulation of brain function.
• EMUNI: SISSA is part of the Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI), which is an international association of universities with headquarters in Slovenia. EMUNI represents one of the six projects of the Union of the Mediterranean. The goal of the EMUNI University is to create specialised study programmes , which are significant for the Euro-Mediterranean Area, among the Euro-Mediterranean universities. EMUNI performs research in areas relevant to the university’s mission. Research work is conducted either by its own research staff or by academics from institutions belonging to the EMUNI network.
• AARC:  The Alps-Adriatic Rectors’ Conference (AARC)  is a network of over 40 universities, including SISSA, from the Alps-Adriatic area and includes the Western Balkans since 2011. The main goal of AARC is to promote transnational dialogue and cross-border cooperation in the fields of university education and scientific research between Higher Education Institutions across the region, as well as transdisciplinary cooperation with different partners in the spheres of culture, industry, the arts, business and public institutions. AARC cooperates with the requisite institutions of the European Union in scientific research and in the different cycles of higher educational training, including life-long learning.
• SAR: Scholars at Risk (SAR) is an international network of higher education institutions based in the United States. SAR supports and defends the principles of academic freedom. The network includes over 400 higher education institutions, including SISSA, in 39 countries. The SAR Italy national section was established in 2019. SAR protects scholars suffering grave threats to their lives, liberty and well-being by arranging temporary research and teaching positions at institutions in our network as well as by providing advisory and referral services.
• APRE: The Agency for the Promotion of European Research (APRE), is a non-profit research organization. For over twenty-five years, APRE, in close collaboration with the Ministry of  University and Research (MUR), has provided its members as well as companies, government agencies, and private individuals, information, support and assistance to participate in national and European programmes and collaborative initiatives (today, with particular reference to Horizon 2020) in the field of Research, Technological Development and Innovation (RTDI) and in the transfer of research results. APRE was created in 1989 as a joint initiative of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) and some public and private bodies in order to meet the growing demand for information on European research programmes. APRE hosts the Italian National Contact Points (NCP) for Horizon 2020, which is a network acknowledged by the European Commission and provides advice and assistance in all aspects of the EU RTDI programme. APRE is supported by more than 100 supporting and ordinary members, including SISSA.

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