VNT Grants

COST Action CA18125
AERoGELS – Advanced Engineering and Research of (aero)Gels for Environment and Life Sciences

Virtual Networking Tools (VNT) Grants

Call for VNT Applications

Second Grant Period, 1 May 2020 – 31 October 2021

AERoGELS COST Action opens a call for applications to VNT Grants to be developed under the scope of the referred Action, in the terms described in this document. Two VNT grant modalities are offered:

Virtual Networking Support (VNS) Grant.
Virtual Mobility (VM) Grants.

The main procedures/regulations concerning VNT Grants are governed by the COST Vademecum, in particular those described in Section 10. Please read this section prior to preparing your VNT application.

Scope of AERoGELS COST Action

AERoGELS COST Action intends to bring together the multidisciplinary knowledge on research and technology of aerogels at the European level, from academia, industry and regulatory experts, in order to further explore their use for environmental and life sciences applications and tackle two of the current main European challenges: circular economy and active ageing. The scope of the Action is to advance the state-of-the art on these topics by joining the efforts of the most renowned experts on cutting-edge aerogel technology, on advanced characterization of materials as well as on biomedical and environmental research. AERoGELS Action will also be a forum to fill the gaps and boost interactions in the trinomial academia-industry-society and to train European young researchers on research, innovation and entrepreneurial skills via, for instance, the STSM exchanges. Finally, these interdisciplinary collaborations are expected to yield innovative and integrated technological solutions for environment and for life sciences, which at long-term will be able to improve the welfare of European people and to move towards cleaner and smarter production in Europe.

For further details, specific objectives and deliverables, please read the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of AERoGELS COST Action at: https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA18125/ or https://cost-aerogels.eu/

Purpose and eligibility criteria of VNT grants

VNT grants aim to build capacity and spread the uptake of virtual collaboration across different research communities within the AERoGELS COST Action. There are two types of Grants with the following aims and eligibility criteria:

Virtual Networking Support (VNS) Grants: These grants aim at promoting virtual collaboration as a complement to traditional ways of collaboration within the AERoGELS community and intends to stimulate virtual collaboration among the members of the Action. The successful applicant will be selected by the COST Action Management Committee (MC) to promote virtual collaboration, such as developing a virtual networking strategy for the Action, taking overall responsibility for Virtual Mobility Grants (see below) and supporting the MC in the discussions and planning of virtual events and collaboration activities.
Eligibility criteria: VNS Grant applicant(s) are Action participants with a primary affiliation to an institution located in a COST Full or Cooperating Member country or MC Observers from a COST Near Neighbour Country (NNC). The applicant(s) shall be prepared to develop a virtual networking strategy, to coordinate the call for expression of interest for the next Virtual Mobility Grants and to draft at the end of the Grant Period a report to be approved by the VNT Committee.

Virtual Mobility (VM) Grants: These grants aim at strengthening the existing networks by allowing scientists to foster collaboration in a virtual setting, to exchange knowledge, learn new techniques, disseminate the Action results, to increase the engagement to the Action activities and explore new ways to enlarge COST AERoGELS network, etc. The successful applicant(s) will be selected by the MC to perform activities that do not necessarily require in-person presence. These activities may include surveys, questionnaires or preparation of protocols, virtual mentoring of activities that can generate capacity, build new skills, etc. The grantee will have the obligation to actively contribute to the activities of the Action WG/Committee relevant to those findings
Eligibility criteria: VM Grant applicant(s) are Action participants with a primary affiliation to an institution located in a COST Full or Cooperating Member country or MC Observers from a COST NNC country. The applicant(s) shall inform the MC about the aim of the VM Grant and how its outcomes will generate benefits to the AERoGELS Action, actively contribute to the activities and overall objectives of the Action and submit a report at the end, to be approved by the MC.

Period of VNT and application deadlines

The period of VNT should be completely framed inside the Grant Period and yet reserve some margin for presenting the report for approval and final payment. Therefore, the VM grants should be finished the latest by 30 September 2021, whereas the VNS grants should be finished the latest by 30 October 2021. The following dates for the submission and notification of results of STSM proposals will apply:

Applications deadline	Notification of results
25 June 2021	2 July 2021
15th September 2021	17th September 2021

Funding

VNS Grants: The total number of VNT grants in the current Grant Period that will be funded is one (1). The VNS Grant cannot exceed €4000.
VM Grants: The total number of VM grants in the current Grant Period that will be funded is six (6). Each Virtual Mobility Grant cannot exceed €1500. The grants will be distributed in one single cut-off date.

A VNT Grant is a fixed financial contribution, which takes into consideration the budget requested by the applicant and the outcome of the evaluation of the VNT application based on the scope and complexity of the task and activities. Please note that VNT Grants do not necessarily cover all expenses related to undertaking the virtual networking coordination role.

Application Procedure

The application procedure is legally bound to the Vademecum. Eligible VNT applicants must submit their applications online by logging into e-COST platform and clicking on the VNT Application tab.

The page “Apply for a new Grant” contains the following mandatory information:

Applicant name: pre-filled and non-editable
Applicant primary affiliation: pre-filled and non-editable
Type: selection type of VNT Grant, among Virtual Networking Support (VNS) grant and Virtual Mobility (VM) grant
COST Action: please type CA18125
Grant Period: please type GP2
Title: title of the VNT grant application
Amount: requested financial contribution
Bank account: selection among bank accounts encoded in the e-COST user profile

Finally, the applicant also needs to upload the actual VNT application by uploading a supporting document using the standard templates available:

Template of VNS grant application: www.cost.eu/virtual_networking_support_grant_application
Template of VM grant application: www.cost.eu/virtual_mobility_grant_application

Selection committee

A committee – VNT Committee – composed by the Action Chair, Social Media Manager, Science Communication Manager, STSM Coordinator and ITC Conference Grant Coordinator – will evaluate all the VNT proposals and define a seriation for the attribution of the grants. In case of conflict of interest, the member that is constrained in his/her duties should designate a substitute (the Action Vice-Chair or a member of the Science Communication Committee).

Applications assessment and communication of results

The VNT Committee will perform the assessment of the applications considering the contributions to the overall objectives of the AERoGELS Action and the implementation of the COST Excellence and Inclusiveness Policy. Moreover, a tentative goal of minimum 50% of VM grants attributed to ECIs (researchers with PhD + up to 8 years of research experience) and PhD students, and minimum 50% to ITC countries.

The following more specific criteria will be considered for the second Grant Period. The evaluation will return a value between 0 and a maximum of 15 points. These points will be divided between the assessment of the work plan quality and VNT framework (10 points) and the applicant’s CV (5 points). The CV template that should be followed can be downloaded from the site of the Action

VNS assessment criteria
1. VNS workplan: max. of 10 points 1.1 Contribution to Action objectives and deliverables, expected impact: up to 6 points 1.2. Plans to support researchers in ITC Countries: 1 point 1.3. Plans for stakeholder engagement: 1 point 1.4. Plans for industry engagement: 1 point 1.5. Plans for promoting participation of researchers from NNC and IPC countries: 1 point	2. Curriculum Vitæ of the applicant: max. of 5 points 2.1 Young researcher (PhD student/ECI): 2 points 2.2 Applicant from ITC country: 2 point 2.3 Applicant from NNC country: 1 point 2.4 Number of contribution (abstracts, publications, STSM, etc.) to AERoGELS Action activities: 0.25 point each

VM assessment criteria
1. VNS workplan: max. of 10 points 1.1 Contribution to Action objectives and deliverables, expected impact: up to 5 points 1.2. Support to the harmonisation and standardisation of methods and procedures within the Action networking activities: up to 3 points 1.3. Research contribution to WG4 or WG5: 1 point 1.4. Contribution to ECI training/mentoring: 1 point	2. Curriculum Vitæ of the applicant: max. of 5 points 2.1 Young researcher (PhD student/ECI): 2 points 2.2 Applicant from ITC country: 2 point 2.3 Applicant from NNC country: 1 point 2.4 Number of contributions (abstracts, publications, STSM, etc.) to AERoGELS Action activities: 0.25 point each

Once approved by the VNT Coordinator (or the Action Vice-Chair, in case of conflict of interest), he/she will inform the Grant Holder of the approved grants, who will inform each approved applicant by sending a Grant Letter Notification generated from e-COST. VNS Grantee will also be designated as VNS manager of the AERoGELS Action.

VNT Reporting and Payment

VNS Grant

The VNS Grantee has 15 calendar days from the end of the Grant Period (31 October 2021) to submit a report to the Action Chair.

The template of the report can be downloaded at:

Template of VNS report: www.cost.eu/virtual_networking_support_grant_report

The report shall consider only virtual activities carried out in their entirety within the Grant Period.

The report should include:

The Action’s strategy on virtual networking approved by the MC.
The list and brief description of virtual events and collaboration activities organized during the Grant Period.
The contribution to the COST Action MoU objectives for each of the virtual events and collaboration activities
The contribution to the COST Excellence and inclusiveness Policy, especially towards the support of researchers in COST Inclusiveness Target Countries.
Stakeholder engagement and promoting participation of researchers from Near Neighbour Countries and International Partner Countries.
Description of identified successful practices and lessons learned.

Please note that failure to submit the report within the due time will effectively cancel the grant.

The payment of the Grant is subject to the approval of the VNT Committee, on behalf of the Action’s MC, and the final decision is uploaded in e-COST by the VNS Manager. Based on this, the Grant Holder will execute the payment of the grant directly to the grantee or the host institution as requested in the application.

VM Grant

The VM Grantee has 30 calendar days from the completion of the Virtual Mobility Grant to submit a report to the Action Chair.