The Alliance programme promotes the development of Franco-British scientific co-operation involving universities and public sector research institutes by providing support for new scientific collaborations between two (or more) research teams working on a common project.
The deadline for application for projects starting in January 2010 was 9 june 2009
Alliance, established in 1989, is jointly managed by the British Council and the French Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE). It is funded on the French side by the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères and the Ministry of Research, and on the UK side by the British Council.
Grants are made for one year, renewable for a second year.
The programme is open to joint projects between new collaborative partners from all scientific and technological disciplines, including the social sciences and the humanities. It is also open to researchers based on all French territories (including Dom-Tom) and all UK nations (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).
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Projects will be led on both the French and UK side by early career researchers – those having completed their PhD less than 12 years ago. |
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Applications where the project leaders are more than 12 years after completion of PhD will not be taken into consideration |
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Please note that the involvement of young researchers studying for a PhD, or pursuing post-doctoral research, is an important selection criterion. |
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Projects having previously benefited from Alliance funding are not eligible. |
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Please also note that the UK and French teams must send in separate applications. |
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The British Council is committed to equality of opportunity and inclusion. |
We are keen to encourage applications which could widen the networking possibilities afforded by collaboration.
Applicants may therefore wish to consider submitting two (or more) linked proposals or linking their proposal to one submitted by another UK team. Each proposal will be assessed separately on its individual merits. Where two (or more) linked proposals are successful, it is anticipated that supplementary funding will be made available as a contribution to the additional costs of facilitating networking between them.
UK applicants wishing to submit linked proposals are asked to ensure that they fill in the relevant section on the application form for each proposal forming part of the network.
Alliance is one of the bilateral programmes forming part of the Research Networks initiative which bring together all the British Council’s research partneship programmes in Europe.
UK applicants may also wish to consider applying for one of the other British Council partnership programmes linking the UK and other European countries. (Information available on http://www.britishcouncil.org/science-research-research-networks.htm )
British applications will be assessed by expert referees from the UK, and French applications by French referees. The final selection will be made by a Joint Committee consisting of British and French experts, appointed by the British Council, the French Foreign Affairs Ministry, and the French Research Ministry.
As well as an overall assessment of the project, the UK referees will be asked to evaluate the proposals against the following criteria:
Scientific quality and project conception
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Intrinsic merit of project |
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Aims and objectives |
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Methodology |
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Outputs/Deliverables |
Project implementation
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Expertise, facilities and track record or potential of UK team |
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Complementarity of UK and French teams |
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Level of involvement of young researchers |
Value added by collaboration
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Mutual benefit from exchange of skills and knowledge |
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Prospects for extension of collaboration to other partners |
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Prospects for obtaining “follow-on” funding |
French referees will evaluate the French proposals using similar criteria.
The projects selected under the current call for proposals will normally last two years (2009 and 2010), support for the second year being subject to progress in the first.
The programme provides a contribution towards international travel and subsistence costs only, for exchange visits that are an essential part of the collaborative project. There is no element in the grants to cover bench fees, running costs, equipment, consumables or other expenses. It follows, therefore, that each partner must already have made provision for these and other costs associated with the project.
The project grant for the British team will cover the cost of international travel and subsistence for visits to France by British team members. (In the case of linked projects, funding may also be used for in-country travel and subsistence for meetings involving a second UK partner.)
The maximum award for UK partners is usually in the region of £2000-2300 per year; similar sums are made available by the MAE for French partners. Where funding requests exceed the available budget, awards will be scaled down accordingly.
The deadline for 1st year funding applications is Thursday 9 June 2009. Please read more information on the application process.
For projects which were successful in the previous call for proposals (first-year funding in 2008), project leaders must submit a request for second-year funding by 30 October 2009 at the latest.
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For UK teams , renewal forms will be available from this website. |
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For French teams, renewal forms will be available at the end of the summer 2009 from www.ambascience.co.uk |
Sandrine Mahieu
Projects co-ordinator
British Council
9 rue de Constantine
75340 Paris Cedex 07
T: +33 1 49 55 73 32
F: +33 1 47 05 77 02
Email :alliance@britishcouncil.fr
Contact for French teams :
EGIDE
28 rue de la Grange aux Belles
75010 PARIS
T : +33 1 40 40 57 51
F : +33 1 42 00 70 08
E-mail: recherche@egide.asso.fr
Internet: site d'EGIDE
Responsable du programme à l’Ambassade de France au Royaume-Uni
Dr Claire Mouchot
Ambassade de de France en Grande-Bretagne
Service pour la Science et la Technologie
6 Cromwell Place
London SW7 2JN
Tel : +44 (0) 207 073 1399
Fax : +44 (0) 207 073 1390
E-mail : claire.mouchot@ambascience.co.uk
Internet : http://www.ambascience.co.uk
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