Cooperation Taiwan (NSTC) Research Visits, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

Call for proposals

Content

1	Introduction		1
	1.1	Background	1
	1.2	Available budget	1
	1.3	Submission deadline(s)	1
2	Aim		2
	2.1	Aim of the programme	2
	2.2	Societal impact	2
3	Conditions for applicants		2
	3.1	Who can apply	2
	3.2	What can be applied for	3
	3.3	Preparing an application	3
	3.4	Conditions for submission	4
	3.5	Conditions on granting	4
4	Assessment procedure		5
	4.1	The San Francisco Declaration (DORA)	5
	4.2	Procedure	5
	4.3	Criteria	7
5	Obligations for grant recipients		8
	5.1	Additional terms and conditions	8
6	Contact and other information		9
	6.1	Contact	9
	6.2	Other information	9

1 Introduction

In this Call for proposals information is provided about the application procedure for the “Cooperation Taiwan (NSTC) Research Visits 2024” funding round. This Call for proposals falls under the responsibility of the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

In this Call for proposals you will find information about the aim of this programme (Chapter 2), the conditions for the grant application (Chapter 3) and how your proposal will be assessed (Chapter 4). This is the information you need to submit a grant application. Chapter 5 states the obligations for grant recipients in the event you are awarded funding. Chapter 6 contains the contact details.

1.1 Background

NWO has a cooperation agreement with the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan (NSTC). The aim of the cooperation programme is to promote contacts between Dutch and Taiwanese researchers. The programme offers the opportunity for a Dutch researcher to visit Taiwan and a Taiwanese researcher to visit the Netherlands. Within this scheme it is mandatory for the main applicants to visit each other.

1.2 Available budget

The available budget for this Call for proposals is € 40,000.00. Within this Call for proposals it is expected that a maximum of 4 proposals will be awarded funding. NSTC will award funding to a maximum of 4 proposals for research visits, each with a ceiling budget of 350,000.00 NTD.

1.3 Submission deadline(s)

The deadline for submitting full proposals is Tuesday 15 October 2024, before 14:00:00 hours CEST.

When you submit your application in ISAAC, you will also need to enter some details online. Therefore please start submitting your application at least one day before the deadline of this Call for proposals. Applications that are submitted after the deadline will not be taken into consideration.

Please note: For a research visit the Dutch and Taiwanese applicants must submit a joint proposal to NWO and NSTC, each for their own team and their own research organisation. The deadline for submissions to NSTC is also on Tuesday 15 October 2024, before 20:00:00 hours TST.

2 Aim

This chapter describes the aim of the programme and the societal impact.

2.1 Aim of the programme

The aim of Cooperation Taiwan (NSTC) is to promote contacts between Dutch and Taiwanese researchers and to stimulate (new) collaborations between the two science communities. For more information about the programme, see https://www.nwo.nl/en/researchprogrammes/cooperation-taiwan-nstc.

2.2 Societal impact

New knowledge and insights from scientific research can make an important contribution to developing solutions for the various issues society faces, including, amongst other things, the energy transition, health and care, or climate change. By facilitating greater interaction and alignment between researchers and potential knowledge users, the chance of knowledge utilisation increases, as well as the likelihood of generating societal impact. Through its policy on impact, NWO promotes the potential contribution that research can make to societal issues by encouraging productive interactions with societal stakeholders, both during the development stage and the subsequent implementation of research. It does so in a manner that is in accordance with the aim of the particular funding instrument.

2.2.1 Tailor-made impact

The primary aim of the funding instrument determines the method that NWO will deploy to facilitate knowledge utilisation in various phases of the project (proposal, realisation, project completion) as well as the effort required from the applicant(s) and partner(s).

In this programme, the Impact Outlook approach is applied. Here, researchers can choose which type of impact they want to specifically focus on, while proportional consideration is also given to what can be done for the remaining impact.

NWO offers an e-learning module that can help interested parties via NWO Impact - Online workshops. For more information on our policy on impact, please visit the website: Knowledge utilisation | NWO.

3 Conditions for applicants

This chapter contains the conditions that are applicable to your grant application. Firstly it describes who can apply for funding (Section 3.1) and what you can request funding for (Section 3.2). Subsequently, you will find the conditions for preparing and submitting the application (Sections 3.3 and 3.4) and the specific funding conditions (Section 3.5).

3.1 Who can apply

Full, associate and assistant professors and other researchers with a comparable position¹ may submit an application if they have a tenured position (and therefore a paid position for an indefinite period) or a tenure track agreement at one of the following organisations:

• universities located in the Kingdom of the Netherlands;

• university medical centres;

• institutes affiliated to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) or NWO;

• Netherlands Cancer Institute;

• the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen;

• Naturalis Biodiversity Center;

• Advanced Research Centre for NanoLithography (ARCNL);

• Princess Máxima Center.

Persons with a zero-hour employment agreement or with a contract for a limited period of time (other than a tenure track appointment) may not submit a proposal.

It could be the case that the applicant’s tenure track agreement ends before the intended completion date of the project for which funding is applied for, or that before that date, the applicant’s tenured contract ends due to the applicant reaching retirement age. In that case, the applicant needs to include a statement from their employer in which the organisation concerned guarantees that the project and all project members for whom funding has been requested will receive adequate supervision for the full duration of the project.

Applicants with a part-time contract should guarantee adequate supervision of the project and all project members for whom funding is requested.

Extra conditions:

• The programme is aimed at all fields in the Social Sciences and Humanities domain and Science domain. For more information about research fields and disciplines, please see the website: https://www.nwo.nl/en/research-fields-and-disciplines.

• For a research visit the Taiwanese and Dutch applicants must submit a joint proposal to NWO and NSTC. The Dutch applicant must submit its application to NWO, the Taiwanese applicant to NSTC.

3.2 What can be applied for

For an application in this Call for proposals, a maximum of € 15,000.00 can be applied for in total.

The remuneration of NWO and NSTC for a research visit in the Netherlands or Taiwan are standard amounts.

A contribution can be requested for a research visit in Taiwan with a minimum duration of 1 month and a maximum duration of 3 months. NWO reimburses standard cost categories for the Dutch researcher and NSTC for the Taiwanese researcher. NWO provides a maximum of € 15,000.00 to organise a research visit between at least 1 month and at most 3 months, and NSTC provides a maximum of 350,000.00 NTD for a one- year project to visit the Netherlands.

For these visits standard amounts and limits apply:

• As the sending organisation, NWO reimburses the travel costs for the Dutch researcher to Taiwan for up to a maximum of € 1,400.00 per person, and the subsistence costs and living expenses of € 175.00 per person per day.

• NSTC funds the costs for the visit of the Taiwanese researcher to the Netherlands up to a maximum of 350,000.00 NTD. For details for NSTC, please check their website: https://www.nstc.gov.tw/sci/ch/list/b3aa92b4-989b-43a9-b21d-0122c2ab4bc9.

3.3 Preparing an application

The steps involved in writing your application are:

• download the application form from the NWO web application ISAAC or from the NWO web page (on the grant page of the funding instrument concerned);

• complete the application form;

• save the application form in ISAAC as a PDF file and upload it with any compulsory annexes;

• fill in the requested information online in ISAAC.

You must write your application in English.

An application can only be submitted via the web application ISAAC. Applications that are not submitted via ISAAC will not be taken into consideration.

As the main applicant, you are required to submit the application via your own personal ISAAC account.

It is important to start with your application in ISAAC on time:

• if you do not yet have an ISAAC account, then you should create this on time to prevent any possible registration problems;

• any new organisations must also be added to ISAAC by NWO;

• you also need to submit other details online.

Applications submitted after the deadline will not be taken into consideration by NOW. For technical questions, please contact the ISAAC helpdesk, see contact (Chapter 6).

Applicants are expected to have informed the organization where they work about submitting the application and that the organisation accepts the grant conditions of this Call for proposals.

3.4 Conditions for submission

3.4.1 Formal conditions for submission

NWO will assess your application against the conditions listed below. Your application will only be admitted to the assessment procedure if it meets these conditions. After submitting your application, NWO requests you to be available to implement any possible administrative corrections so that you can (still) meet the conditions for submission.

These conditions are:

• the main applicant meets the conditions stated in Section 3.1;

• the application complies with the DORA guidelines as described in Section 4.1;

• the application form is, after a possible request to make additions or changes, complete and filled out according to the instructions;

• the application is submitted via the main applicant’s ISAAC account;

• the application is received before the deadline;

• the application is written in English;

• the application budget is drawn up in accordance with the conditions for this Call for proposals;

• the proposed research visit has a duration of at least 1 month and at most 3 months;

3.5 Conditions on granting

The NWO Grant Rules 2017 and the Agreement on the Payment of Costs for Scientific Research are applicable to all applications.

3.5.1 Compliance with the National Knowledge Security Guidelines

World-class science can benefit from international cooperation. The National Knowledge Security Guidelines (hereafter: the Guidelines) helps knowledge institutions to ensure that international cooperation can take place securely. Knowledge security concerns the undesirable transfer of sensitive knowledge and technology that compromises national security; the covert influence of state actors on education and research, which jeopardises academic freedom and social safety; and ethical issues that may arise in cooperation with countries that do not respect fundamental rights.

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that their project complies and will continue to comply with the Guidelines. By submitting an application, the applicant commits to the recommendations stipulated in these Guidelines. In the event of a suspected breach of the Guidelines in an application submitted to NWO for project funding, or in a project funded by NWO, NWO may ask the applicant to provide a risk assessment demonstrating that the recommendations in the Guidelines have been taken into consideration. If the applicant fails to comply with NWO’s request, or if the risk assessment is in apparent breach of the Guidelines, this may affect NWO’s grant award or decision-making process. NWO may also include further conditions in the award letter if appropriate.

The National Knowledge Security Guidelines can be found on the central government website at: Home | National Contact Point for Knowledge Security (loketkennisveiligheid.nl).

3.5.2 Data management

The results of scientific research must be replicable, verifiable and falsifiable. In the digital age, this means that, in addition to publications, research data must also be publicly accessible insofar as this is possible. NWO expects that research data resulting from NWO-funded projects will be made publicly available, as much as possible, for reuse by other researchers. “As open as possible, as closed as necessary” is the applicable principle in this respect. Researchers, at very least, are expected to make the data and/or non-numerical results that underlie the conclusions of the published work resulting from the project publicly available at the same time as the work’s publication. Any costs incurred for this can be included in the project budget.

3.5.3 Scientific integrity

In accordance with the NWO Grant Rules 2017, the project that NWO funds must be carried out in accordance with the nationally and internationally accepted standards for scientific conduct as stated in the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (2018). By submitting the proposal, the applicant commits to this code. In the case of a (possible) violation of these standards during a project funded by NWO, the applicant should immediately inform NWO of this and should submit all relevant documents to NWO. More information about the code of conduct and the policy regarding research integrity can be found on the website: Scientific integrity | NWO.

3.5.4 Ethical statement or licence

The applicant is responsible for determining whether an ethical statement or licence is needed for the realisation of the proposed project. The applicant should ensure that this is obtained from the relevant institution or ethics committee on time. The absence or presence of an ethical statement or licence at the time of the application process has no effect on the assessment of the application. If the project is awarded funding, then the grant is issued under the condition that the necessary ethical statement or licence is obtained before the latest start date for the project. The project cannot start until NWO has received a copy of the ethical statement or licence.

3.5.5 Nagoya Protocol

The Nagoya Protocol ensures an honest and reasonable distribution of benefits emerging from the use of genetic resources (Access and Benefit Sharing; ABS). Researchers who make use of genetic sources from the Netherlands or abroad for their research should familiarise themselves with the Nagoya Protocol (ABS Focal Point - ABS Focal Point). NWO assumes that researchers will take all necessary actions with respect to the Nagoya Protocol.

4 Assessment procedure

This chapter first describes the assessment according to the DORA principles (Section 4.1) and the course of the assessment procedure (Section 4.2). Second, it states the criteria that the assessment committee will use to assess your application (Section 4.3).

The NWO Code for Dealing with Personal Interests applies to all persons and NWO employees involved in the assessment and/or decision-making process (Code for Dealing with Personal Interests | NWO).

NWO strives to achieve an inclusive culture where there is no place for conscious or unconscious barriers due to cultural, ethnic or religious background, gender, sexual orientation, health or age (Diversity and inclusion | NWO). NWO encourages members of an assessment committee to be actively aware of implicit associations and to try to minimise these. NWO will provide them with information about concrete ways of improving the assessment of an application.

4.1 The San Francisco Declaration (DORA)

NWO is a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). DORA is a worldwide initiative that aims to improve the way research and researchers are assessed. DORA contains recommendations for research funders, research institutions, scientific journals and other parties.

DORA aims to reduce the uncritical use of bibliometric indicators and obviate unconscious bias in the assessment of research and researchers. DORA’s overarching philosophy is that research should be evaluated on its own merits rather than on the basis of surrogate measures, such as the journal in which the research is published.

When assessing the scientific track record of applicants, NWO makes use of a broad definition of scientific output.

NWO requests committee members not to rely on indicators such as the Journal Impact Factor or the h-index when assessing applications. Applicants are not allowed to mention these in their applications. You are, however, allowed to list other scientific products besides publications, such as datasets, patents, software and code, et cetera.

For more information on how NWO is implementing the principles of DORA, see DORA | NWO.

4.2 Procedure

The application procedure consists of the following steps:

• submission of the proposal;

• admissibility of the proposal;

• pre-advice from the internal Visitors Travel Grants committee;

• assessment Visitors Travel Grants committee meeting;

• decision-making.

An internal committee will be assigned for this Call for proposals, consisting of representatives from the different scientific fields. The task of the internal Visitors Travel Grants committee is to assess the applications and the relevant documents that are submitted, in conjunction with each other and with regard to both the respective merits of each application and the selection criteria outlined in this Call for proposals.

Due to the small size of the grant, NWO has decided with regard to the assessment of these applications to exercise the option outlined in Article 2.2.4, paragraph 2, of the NWO Grant Rules 2017, to assess all applications without involving referees.

Applications received by NWO and NSTC will be independently assessed by NWO and NSTC. After the application has been considered, a member of the NWO Visitors Travel Grants committee writes a pre-advice. The Visitors Travel Grants committee will assess the application and its associated annexes and will issue an advice to the Domain Board of NWO.

Based on the separate assessment results, NWO and NSTC will reach a joint decision in which applications are eligible for granting. Only the highest ranking applications which are recommended by both NWO and NSTC will be granted.

The Domain Board of NWO will decide whether an application will be granted, under the condition that NSTC will grant this application too.

NSTC will award the Taiwanese researcher(s) and NWO the Dutch researcher(s).

4.2.1 Submission of a proposal

For the submission of the proposal, a standard form is available on the funding page of this Call for proposals on the NWO website. When you write your proposal, you must adhere to the questions stated on this form and the procedure given in the explanatory notes. You must also adhere to the conditions for the maximum number of words and pages.

Your complete application form must have been received before the deadline via ISAAC (see Section 1.3). After this deadline, you can no longer submit a proposal. After submitting the proposal, the main applicant will receive a confirmation of receipt.

4.2.2 Admissibility of the proposal

As soon as possible after you have submitted your proposal, you will hear from NWO whether or not your proposal will be taken into consideration. NWO will determine this based on several administrative-technical criteria (see the formal conditions for submission, Section 3.4). NWO can only take your proposal into consideration if it meets these conditions.

Please bear in mind that within two weeks after the submission deadline, NWO may approach you with any possible administrative corrections that need to be made so that your proposal can (still) meet the conditions for submission. You will be given one opportunity to make the corrections, and you will be given five working days to do this.

Please note: If an application is declared inadmissible by NWO or by NSTC, it will also be declared inadmissible by the other funding agency and will not be admitted to the assessment procedure.

4.2.3 Pre-advice internal Visitors Travel Grants committee

After this, your proposal will be submitted for comments to a member of the internal Visitors Travel Grants committee (the pre-adviser). The pre-advisers will provide a written substantive and reasoned response to the proposal. The pre-advisor will formulate these comments based on the substantive assessment criteria (see Section 4.3.1) and will give the proposal a numerical score per assessment criterion. For this, the NWO score table will be used (on a scale of 1 to 9, where “1” is excellent and “9” unsatisfactory).

4.2.4 Meeting of the internal Visitors Travel Grants committee

The internal Visitors Travel Grants committee will make its own assessment based on the available material. Although the pre-advices will ‘guide’ the final assessment to a large extent, it will not be blindly accepted without question by the committee. The committee will consider and compare the arguments of the pre- advisers (also amongst each other).

Following the discussion, the committee draws up a written recommendation addressed to Domain Board of NWO about the quality and ranking of the proposals. This recommendation is based on the assessment criteria. The proposal must receive an overall qualification of “excellent” or “very good” to be eligible for funding.

For more information about the qualifications, see Applying for funding, how does it work? | NWO.

If, after the discussion of the proposals, two or more of the proposals cannot be distinguished from each other based on their weighted total score, then this will result in an ex aequo situation (see the paragraph about ex aequo).

4.2.5 Ex aequo

NWO understands ex aequo to be a situation in which two or more proposals based on their weighted score cannot be distinguished from each other. An ex aequo situation is relevant with respect to the borders of the available budget or the selection borders. The existence of an ex aequo situation is determined as follows.

The starting point in this process is the ranking drawn up by the Visitors Travel Grants committee, with the final scores rounded down to two decimal points. The reference score here is the score of the lowest-ranked proposal within the borders of the available budget or the selection borders. All proposals with a score that is within 0.05 or less of the reference score will be considered. In this way, the proposals that are equal within a score of 0.1 will be selected. If an ex aequo situation occurs at the borders of the available budget or the selection borders, then in order to help increase the number of women working in the scientific field, the proposal from a female applicant will end as the highest. If the ex aequo situation is not resolved via this procedure, then the proposal with the highest score for the criterion 2 will be ranked highest. If the proposals subsequently still remain tied, then the assessment committee, with the help of an (anonymous) majority vote, will determine the ranking (in accordance with Article 2.2.7, third paragraph, sub a, part iv of the NWO Grant Rules 2017). If this vote also fails to provide a resolution, or if it is deemed to be undesirable to vote, then the ex aequo situation will be sent onto the decision-making body.

4.2.6 Decision-making

Finally, Domain Board of NWO will assess the procedure followed as well as the advice from the assessment committee. They will subsequently determine the final qualifications and make a decision over awarding or rejecting the proposals.

4.2.7 Timetable

Below, you will find the timetable for this Call for proposals. During the current procedure, NWO and NSTC might find it necessary to make further changes to the timetable for this Call for proposals. You will be informed about this in time.

Proposals
15 October 2024 before 14:00:00 hours CEST	Deadline proposals to NWO
15 October 2024, before 20:00:00 hours TST	Deadline proposals to NSTC
October 2024	Exchange of list of applications NWO and NSTC
December 2024	Exchange screening results NWO and NSTC
January 2025	Joint selection decision NWO and NSTC

4.3 Criteria

4.3.1 Substantive assessment criteria

The applications submitted within this Call for proposals will be substantially assessed on the basis of the following criteria:

• 1. Quality of the researcher(s) and quality of the Taiwanese-Dutch collaboration, including fair, equitable, and mutually reciprocal partnership (40%).

• 2. Scientific quality, originality, and relevance of the proposed research visit with work plan feasibility and tangibility (including suitability of budget and location), progress in the future; urgency, need for cooperation, added value and mutual research progress due to the transfer of knowledge and expertise, contribution to interaction of researchers in the research progress participation of young researchers, and contribution to their supervision (40%)

• 3. Knowledge utilisation, including: impact of results on improving the quality of life, contributing to social economic development and/or solving current social problems (20%).

5 Obligations for grant recipients

This chapter details the various obligations that – in addition to the conditions stated in Section 3.5 – apply after funds have been awarded.

5.1 Additional terms and conditions

• NWO receives within three months after the end of your visit a short scientific report in Dutch or English with at least the dates of the visit, the purpose of the visit within the Dutch research project, names and affiliation of the Dutch and Taiwanese counterparts, activities, results and plans for the future. For this grant standard amounts are used, therefore no financial documents are required. After the report NWO will send a letter with the final subsidy amount. You must offer the report through the electronic ISAAC system of NWO.

• If the visit is less than the stated in the proposal, the subsidy will be reduced proportionally.

5.1.1 Socially responsible licensing

The knowledge that emerges from the project could be suitable for use in society. When agreements about licensing and/or the transfer of research results developed under this Call for proposals are made, due consideration should be given to the ten principles for socially responsible licensing, as stated in the NFU factsheet “19.4511_Ten_principles_for_Socially_Responsible_Licensing_v19-12-2019.pdf (nfu.nl)”.

5.1.2 Open Access

As a signatory to the Berlin Declaration (2003) and a member of cOAlition S (2018), NWO is committed to making the results of the research it funds openly accessible via the internet (Open Access). By doing this, NWO gives substance to the ambitions of the Dutch government to make all publicly funded research available in Open Access form. Scientific publications arising from projects awarded on the basis of this Call for proposals must therefore be made available in Open Access form in accordance with the Open Access Policy.

Scientific articles

Scientific articles must be made available in Open Access form immediately at the time of publication (without embargo) via one of the following routes:

• publication in a fully Open Access journal or platform registered in the DOAJ;

• publication in a subscription journal and the immediate deposition of at least the author accepted manuscript of the article in an Open Access repository registered in Open DOAR;

• publication in a journal for which a transformative Open Access agreement exists between UNL and a publisher. For further information, see Open Access |.

Books

Different requirements apply to scholarly books, book chapters and edited collections. See the Open Access Policy Framework at Open Science | NWO.

CC BY licence

To ensure the widest possible dissemination of publications, at least a Creative Commons (CC BY) licence must be applied. Alternatively – in case of substantial interest – the author may request to publish under a CC BY- ND licence. For books, book chapters and collected volumes, all CC BY licence options are allowed.

Costs

Costs for publication in fully Open Access journals can be budgeted in the application using the budget module for “material costs”. Costs for publications in hybrid journals are not eligible for reimbursement by NWO. For Open Access books, a separate NWO Open Access Books Fund is available.

For more detailed information about NWO’s Open Access policy, see Open Science | NWO.

6 Contact and other information

6.1 Contact

6.1.1 Specific questions

For specific questions about this Call for proposals, please contact:

NWO secretariat Cooperation Taiwan (NSTC)

Mari-Luz Kerkhoven, tel +31 6 57494934

e-mail: bezoekersbeurzen@nwo.nl

https://www.nwo.nl/en/researchprogrammes/cooperation-taiwan-nstc

NSTC

Ching Mei Tang (Program Director)

e-mail: cmtom@nstc.gov.tw

6.1.2 Technical questions about the web application ISAAC

For technical questions about the use of ISAAC, please contact the ISAAC helpdesk. Please read the manual first before consulting the helpdesk. The ISAAC helpdesk can be contacted from Monday to Friday between 10:00 and 17:00 hours on +31 (0)70 34 40 600. However, you can also submit your question by email to isaac.helpdesk@nwo.nl. You will then receive an answer within two working days.

6.2 Other information

Detailed information about the Taiwanese side of the programme can be found on the NSTC website (https://www.nstc.gov.tw/sci/ch/list/b3aa92b4-989b-43a9-b21d-0122c2ab4bc9).

NWO processes data from applicants received in the context of this Call in accordance with the NWO Privacy Statement, Privacy Statement | NWO.

NWO might approach applicants for an evaluation of the procedure and/or research programme.

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1 A comparable position refers to a researcher that has a demonstrable and comparable number of years of experience in carrying out scientific research and supervising other researchers as a full, associate or assistant professor.