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2011 CALL FOR PROPOSALS for Minerva Centers (First Stage) in relation to the following topic: Life under Extreme Conditions Encouraged are applications for interdisciplinary research in all fields of sciences, including: - Natural sciences, technical and engineering sciences - Biological sciences, medicine, lifesciences - Social sciences and the humanities
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The Information of this page is available as PDF-file or RTF-file.
 Call For Proposals (PDF, 30 KB)
 Call For Proposals (RTF, 238 KB)
The Minerva Foundation is collecting proposals for new Minerva Centers. Minerva willl establish up to three Minerva Centers in the year 2012. I. What is a Minerva Center ? Minerva Centers are research groups located in the universities in Israel. They are under the directorship of a Principal Investigator, who has a permanent position in a university in Israel. Minerva Centers deal with topics that are innovative and of special interest to the science community in Israel. The centers carry out research in cooperation with German partners. Funding Minerva Centers is aimed at bridging gaps, training young scientists and building networks in the field of research with other partners in Israel. Centers will involve excellent researchers regardless of their institutional affiliation. A Minerva Center is designed as a long-term effort of a number of scientists to concentrate on a certain field of research. A center may also involve scientists from other than the host university, such as to create an inter-university community in the field. A Minerva Center is not a project which could be funded by a grant or the the university. A Minerva Center ideally is devoted to an emerging research field which is not yet well established in Israel and which does not yet attract grants and donations. Requirements apply to the director of a center with regard to his/her scientific track record and experience in leading projects. The director will be an outstanding, experienced research figure and is responsible for bringing together the critical mass for the subject. II. Funding Objectives Minerva is seeking exciting topics for new centers which are truly interdisciplinary in their approach. Proposals addressing the broad topic of "life under extreme conditions" are welcome from all areas of science. III. Two-stage Proposal Procedure This call for proposals is the first part of a two-stage procedure for collecting applications for new Minerva Centers. 1st stage: Invitation of thematic proposals. In the first stage of the proposal procedure, researchers submit outlines of exciting/promising new topics that are suitable for being best elaborated by a center. The first stage is intended to be a collection of promising ideas. A proposal can be submitted by a scientist who applies to lead a Minerva Center; a proposal can also be submitted by a scientist who proposes another scientist as a director of the center. The proposals must include the names, the CV and a list of not more than five publications of the potential PIs. Thematic proposals are to be sent to Minerva. The PIs are encouraged to inform their host university about the proposals and the university is free to comment on them before submission. The Minerva Centers Committee will then carry out a pre-selection of the proposals. 2nd stage: The selected PIs/leading scientists named in the thematic proposals are invited, together with their university, to present a more elaborated and detailed application. The application must have the support of the host university, which it states in a letter of commitment. The decision on the applications to be selected will be made on the basis of external evaluations and a personal presentation of the PI and a discussion with the evaluation panel (the Centers Committee and additional scientists). IV. Funding Duration of the Center The lifetime of a center will be limited first to an initial period of six years. After an evaluation (during the 6th year), the lifetime of a center can be extended for another period depending on the recommendation of the evaluation committee. This period will not exceed another six years. V. Budget of the Center The center will be funded by Minerva. Minerva funds will be matched with the same amount by the host institution, partially contributed in kind. Both amounts will make up the budget of the center. The budget will comprise a sum of roughly € 150,000 per year. VI. Eligibility Requirements Principal Investigators, who are in a permanent position in one of the universities, are invited to submit proposals. VII. Submission and Deadlines Proposals for the 1st stage must reach the MINERVA office by December 15, 2011. Proposals must be submitted electronically and as one print copy by the Principle Investigator to: MINERVA Stiftung Gesellschaft für die Forschung mbH Postbox 101062 D-80084 München Federal Republic of Germany e-mail: michael.nagel@gv.mpg.de Intended further procedures are: - Evaluation deadline: 1st half of March 2012 2nd step: - invitation of complete applications with a deadline: end of May 2012 - decision on the 2nd step proposals: 10th September 2012 - Interviews in Israel: 15th October in 2012 Israel VIII. Documents to be Submitted The following information are obligatory parts of the thematic proposal in the 1st stage*:
* To be noted: applications that don not adhere to these rules - f.i. exceed the number of pages - are not eligible | |