The activities in the funded projects shall enable researchers from Austria, Kosovo and the Western Balkan region to work together on mutually beneficial science driven projects and empower especially young researchers in Kosovo to cooperate within international projects.

The total funding available for this call for proposals is 180.000 Euro. Funding is foreseen for a maximum duration of 15 months and the max. funding per project is €15.000. The allowable funding per project must be justified by the content, work load, duration and number of teams involved. For projects with higher financial costs, co-financing is expected.

Possible project activities are: comparative studies, small empirical investigations, mapping and know-how exchange on European standards and practices in the chosen research areas etc. The activities should therefore build on already existing scientific results.

The contractor has to be a research institution from Austria. The compulsory consortium composition has to include one partner from Austria, at least one partner from Kosovo and at least one partner from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR of Macedonia, Montenegro or Serbia. Research institutions from other European countries can participate in the projects but without funding provided under this call (as so-called ‘silent partners’).

All ethnic groups in Kosovo are explicitly invited to participate in the call.

Proposals should contribute to significant scientific regional cooperation with (a) research institution(s) in Kosovo. The extent and quality of regional collaboration will be an important criteria for the evaluation.

Deadline for the submission of proposals is December 14, 2012. The project activities must be completed after signing the contract and before August 31, 2014.

The call documents are available here.

Contact for further information:

Hanna Scheck

Linke Wienzeile 246

A-1150 Vienna

e-mail: scheck@zsi.at

Tel: +43 1 495 04 42 76