Information for Researchers, No. 11 | February 1, 2024

Funding Opportunities for Costa Rican-German Research Projects: First Joint Call (CONARE-DFG)

Within the scope of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the Consejo Nacional de Rectores de Costa Rica (CONARE), which was signed on 19 October 2023, a first joint call with two submission deadlines for Costa Rican-German research projects has been launched.

This initiative aims to bring together relevant and competitive researchers from Germany and Costa Rica to design and carry out jointly organised research projects of outstanding scientific quality. Funding within this initiative will be available for collaborative research projects consisting of researchers from Germany and Costa Rica. Within these research teams, each national funding organisation will generally only fund those project components that are carried out within its own country (DFG in Germany and CONARE in Costa Rica). The collaborative research projects should involve active communication and cooperation between the participating researchers.

There are no separate funds available for these efforts; proposals must succeed on the strengths of their intellectual merit and teams in competition with all other proposals in the funding programmes “Sachbeihilfe/Individual Research Grants”.

Funding of the joint research projects is contingent upon positive assessment by both funding organisations. Joint Costa Rican-German projects will be co-funded by CONARE; unilateral funding of only one part of the project is not possible. The collaborative projects selected to take part in this initiative will receive research funding for a period of up to three years.

Research Areas

The present funding opportunities are open to joint research projects in all fields of research, including the social sciences and humanities.

Eligibility

Funding is available for bilateral collaborative research projects comprising researchers from Germany and Costa Rica. Applicants are required to fulfil the national requirements for funding and follow the general regulations of their respective funding organisation (see below). Proposals submitted too late and/or which are not fulfilling the national requirements will not be considered. No legal entitlement may be derived from the submission of a project description.

Evaluation Procedure and Criteria for Project Selection

The evaluation of all proposals will be based on a peer review process involving both the DFG and CONARE. The results of these review processes will be shared between the DFG and CONARE. Support will be granted for those proposals where both the DFG and CONARE recommend funding. The usual review criteria for proposals submitted to the DFG apply (DFG form 10.206).

Allowable Costs

All requested cost items must be in accordance with the respective national administrative regulations for the respective programme. At the DFG, only costs for the German share of the projects are eligible. At CONARE, only costs of the Costa Rican share of the projects are eligible according to the regulations of CONARE.

Submission of Project Proposals

Applicants for a bilateral project within this call must submit their joint proposal to their national funding organisation. Costa Rican principal investigators (PI) submit their documents to CONARE, German PIs to the DFG, following the formal requirements of their respective funding organisation. All documents must be written in English. Please note that the projects submitted to the DFG and CONARE must have the same scientific content and the same applicants involved. Additional requirements for German and Costa Rican applicants are specified below.

Within the first deadline for submission, proposals must be submitted by 30 April 2024.

Within the second deadline for submission, proposals must be submitted by 30 September 2024.

Specific Instructions for Applicants from Germany

Proposals may only be submitted under the Individual Research Grants Programme (“Sachbeihilfe”). Applicants to be funded by the DFG are required to fulfil the eligibility requirements of the DFG´s Individual Research Grants Programme. This includes the duty to cooperate (“Kooperationspflicht”) within Germany for members of non-university institutions with permanent positions. Please note that any duty to cooperate for DFG applicants at non-university research institutions can only be fulfilled through cooperation with a partner at a German university. For more information, see the corresponding guidelines for the Individual Research Grants Programme (DFG forms 50.01 and 55.01).

Proposals within this call must be prepared according to the Proposal Preparation Instructions (DFG form 54.01). The project description should outline the joint project. While the budget figures only have to be provided for the German applicant(s) via elan, the proposal itself should contain not only the German budget, but also a budget overview for the Costa Rican part in order to provide appropriate information to the reviewers.

All proposals must be submitted through the DFG´s electronic proposal processing system elan. After logging in, please use the link “Proposal for a Research Grant” in the Proposal Forms column (Proposal Submission > New Project > Individual Grants Programme > Proposal for a Research Grant). Please select the following notation to tag your proposal for this specific call:

For the first deadline:
“COSTA RICA CONARE 2024 – Joint Research Grants”

For the second deadline:
“COSTA RICA CONARE 2025 – Joint Research Grants”

In the proposal submitted by the German applicant(s) to the DFG, an academic curriculum vitae for all Costa Rican PIs should be submitted in English to complete the reviewers’ information. In the DFG proposal and the electronic submission procedure in elan, all Costa Rican partners who apply for funding at CONARE need to be listed under the category “Other Participating Individuals” > “Cooperation Partners”. Employees whose positions are requested for funding should not be assigned to this category.

Opening of Call Periods, Timeline and Notification of Results

Call period 1:

Opening for submission: 1 February 2024
Closure for submission: 30 April 2024
Assessment of results: May 2024 – approx. February 2025
Communication of results: approx. February 2025
Approximate beginning of funding: as of March 2025

Call period 2:

Opening for submission: 2 May 2024
Closure for submission: 30 September 2024
Assessment of results: October 2024 – approx. December 2025
Communication of results: approx. December 2025
Approximate beginning of funding: as of January 2026

As mentioned, all proposals must be submitted by 30 April 2024 (first deadline) and 30 September 2024 (second deadline). If you are using the DFG´s submission system elan for the first time, please note that you need to register yourself and your institution’s addresses before you are able to submit a proposal. Also, if you are planning to move to a different institution, you need to register the new address beforehand. Please make sure that all applicants for your project (if there is more than one) start their registration no later than 23 April 2024 (first deadline) and 23 September 2024 (second deadline). The registration requests are handled manually by the DFG staff.

Specific Instructions for Applicants from CONARE

CONARE applicants are kindly requested to adhere to all the requirements listed in the CONARE call for proposals, which is published on the CONARE website (link below), and to submit their documents to CONARE.

Equity and Diversity

The DFG strongly welcomes proposals from researchers of all genders and sexual identities, from different ethnic, cultural, religious, ideological or social backgrounds, from different career stages, types of universities and research institutions, and with disabilities or chronic illness.

Please note that this joint call focuses on the funding of joint research projects. Researchers, who are at an early stage of their cooperation with Costa Rican partners may apply under the DFG´s programme “Initiation of International Collaboration”. Please contact us for individual guidance if you are interested in this funding scheme.

Further Information

General information for German principal investigators on research grants may be found at:

www.dfg.de/research_grants

To submit a proposal to the DFG, please follow the “Guidelines for the Research Grants Programme“ (DFG form 50.01) and the ”Proposal Preparation Instructions – Project Proposals” (DFG form 54.01) under:

Further general information the DFG´s submission portal elan:

www.dfg.de/elan/en

elan flyer: www.dfg.de/download/pdf/foerderung/antragstellung/elan/flyer_eant_en.pdf

elan FAQ: www.dfg.de/download/pdf/foerderung/antragstellung/elan/faq_eant_en.pdf

DFG´s review and decision-making process:

Arriving at a decision in individual grants programmes

www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/proposal_funding_process/individual_grants_programmes/arriving_decision

DFG’s data protection notice on research funding:

Please note the DFG’s data protection notice on research funding. If necessary, please also forward this information to those individuals whose data will be processed by the DFG due to their involvement in your project: