Paris Seine Initiative of Excellence Support for scientific excellence and internationalization Call for proposals 2019 Objectives of the call and ...

Paris Seine Initiative of Excellence
Support for scientific excellence and internationalization

                       Call for proposals 2019

                         Objectives of the call
                                 and
                         practical modalities

  Deadline for the pre-submission abstract of the project: January 23, 2019, 1pm
             Deadline for the final proposal: February 14, 2019, 1pm

1. Objectives of the call for proposals

Institutional frame

As part of the Paris Seine excellence initiative (PSI), a third Call for Proposals is launched in
favor of the development of research and its internationalization.

The Paris Seine Initiative (PSI) is supported by four institutions: the University of Cergy-
Pontoise, ESSEC, EISTI and ENSEA. PSI has an annual budget of € 7.4 million. One of the main
challenges of the Excellence Initiative is the strengthening of the scientific potential, the
visibility and the international attractiveness and the promotion of the research excellence of
the partner institutions.

Ambition

This Call for Proposals aims at supporting projects from the scientific community and
contributing to the development of scientific excellence. The scientific quality of the projects,
their contribution to the visibility and the dynamics of excellence will be decisive.

Targeted projects will contribute to the emergence of new research themes, the
strengthening of doctoral and post-doctoral training, the reinforcement attractiveness and
international visibility, the emergence of transversal projects involving several research
entities at Paris Seine University and the development of research related to the socio-
economic world.

The present Call for Proposals aims at favoring the emergence of projects having a structuring
effect on the research strategy of the institutions, the research teams and the researchers and
to remove identified bottlenecks in R&D.

Selected projects are expected to contribute to the development of international scientific
collaborations with the strategic partners of the Paris Seine initiative: notably in Europe, the
University of Warwick1 and more generally the partners of the European University Alliance
EUTopia2 (the University of Warwick, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) 3, the University of
Ljubljana4 and the Pompeu Fabra University5 and the University of Gothenburg6. In Asia, a
special partnership has been established in Singapore with Nanyang Technological University7.
Other partnerships with universities are under development (University of Mauritius,
University of Western Cape...).

1
  https://warwick.ac.uk/
2
  https://www.u-cergy.fr/fr/universite/actualites/l-alliance-europeenne-d-universites-eutopia-annonce-l-
entree-de-son-quatrieme-membre.html
3
  http://www.vub.ac.be/en/
4
  https://www.uni-lj.si/eng/about_university_of_ljubljana.aspx
5
  https://www.upf.edu/en/home
6
  https://www.gu.se/english
7
  http://www.ntu.edu.sg/Pages/home.aspx

The Call for Proposals complements existing structures that support scientific excellence, in
particular Laboratoires d'Excellence (Labex). It allows extending the dynamics of excellence to
other fields of science and to reinforcing already recognized poles of excellence. Projects
within the relevant fields should be first submitted to the Labex.es. If they are also submitted
to the present Call for Proposals, support obtained or requested from the relevant Labex
should be mentionned and disucssed.

Areas of research

The present Call for Proposals welcomes projects in both fundamental and applied research.
It covers all scientific disciplines. Beyond the scientific quality of the projects, PSI aims to shed
light on the major contemporary societal issues through the development of high-level
academic research. These majors issues will be understood in their global complexity, favoring
an interdisciplinary approach, mobilizing different disciplines within the major disciplinary
fields, and crossing, more broadly, social sciences or modeling with other disciplinary fields.

In the field of applied research, as in previous years, three main areas have been identified:
economy, finance and management; heritage, art and luxury; risks, society and security.
Beyond these three domains, all research projects that foster the development of technology
and knowledge transfer, in conjunction with the territory's socio-economic partners, are
encouraged. For applied research projects, joint porting and co-funding with an external
partner are expected.

This Call for Proposals will provide funding for the various actions mentioned below, in
addition to the funding obtained under other external calls.

2. Main dispositions

The third Call for Proposals of the Paris Seine initiative has three main components:

    -   funding for doctorates and post-doctorates,
    -   support for emerging research projects with high potential for excellence,
    -   support for projects selected during AAP2017 and AAP2018 that have demonstrated a
        strong potential for development.

The framing elements given below are indicative. Other projects can be supported if they
significantly contribute to the objectives of strengthening the scientific potential of the
initiative of excellence. The different types of support offered by the present all can can be
combined under a single projet.

PhDs and post-docs

The relevance and the quality of the scientific project, its strategic nature and its contribution
to the scientific development of PSI , the quality of the candidates and their international

potential, as well as the quality of the scientific environment (supervision, laboratory,
interactions with the national and international academic world) ) will be key elements in the
evaluation of the proposal.

    -    Doctoral funding is valued at 40k€ charged / year for the duration of the stay within
         the University Paris Seine (37k€ for the salary + 3k€ for research expenses).

    -    Postdoctoral contracts are valued at 56k€ / year for a two-year period (53k€ for the
         salary + 3k€ for research expenses).

For PhD funding, the financial support of the initiative of excellence will be exclusively given
when a co-funding is provided. This co-funding can be obtained from foreign universities or
foreign agencies in the case of a co-tutelle or a co-supervised PhD8 involving mobility. The co-
funding can also come from private partners in the case of research projects developed in
partnership with the socio-economic world. It is reminded that for partner companies, this co-
funding is eligible for the research tax credit.

A co-supervision scheme has already been established with the University of Warwick,
opening up to 5 co-supervised WU-PSI PhD for the year 2019. Project leaders are encouraged
to use this opportunity. The other strategic partner universities may also be requested on a
priority basis. Other foreign partnerships may, however, also be mobilized.

Support for emerging research projects

Emerging research projects with high potential can be supported for a period of two years, up
to 50k€. The purpose of this financial support is to enable the progress of research and the
submission for external funding at the national (including ANR), European (ESF, ERC, PCRD) or
international level. Applicants for these different funding opportunities are requested to apply
to funding agencies during the two years covered by the project.

The submitted project must involve the work of a team (at least two researchers), allow the
exploration of new research themes and be part of the scientific development strategy of the
supporting entities, institutions and the initiative of Paris Seine excellence.

Support for selected projects during AAP2017 and AAP2018

This component aims to reinforce the steps initiated in the two previous Calls for Proposals to
promote research excellence and internationalization. Only projects that are able to
demonstrate a strong progress in the objectives they had previously set will be considered for
additional funding. Selected applicants will commit to submitting an application for an
ambitious project (ERC, coordinator of a FET project, ITN, RIA ...). Researchers will specify the
impact of the previous funding and the way the current request can strengthen the dynamic
towards the application.

8
 In the case of a co-supervised PhD which is not a co-tutelle, the PhD candidate will have to register at Paris
Seine University.

3. Practical arrangements.

Timeline and submission process.

      The deadlines for submission are:
       Pre-submission of on abstract of the project until 23 January 2019, 1 pm
       Submission of the final proposal until February 14, 2019, 1 pm

      The submission will be made online from December 17, 2018 via the application
       platform: https://apply.theparisseineinitiative.org,

      Application material will be made available online from December 17, 2018 via the
       application platform: https://apply.theparisseineinitiative.org,

      Project leaders should refer to the administrative and financial rules available on the
       deposit platform: https://apply.theparisseineinitiative.org.

Application material.

• The application will include a presentation of the scientific project and a description of the
scientific development strategy in which the project fits. The objectives of the project, in terms
of scientific quality, impact and visibility, should be described. The application file may be
supplemented by an appendix.

• The application may be written in English or French. English will be favored to promote
international expertise.

• The application may be submitted by a research team, a department or an individual
researcher. In the latter case, the researcher must already be working in one of the partner
institutions of the Paris Seine initiative. Doctoral students and applicants for a doctoral or
post-doctoral fellowship are not entitled to submit an application on their own.

• In all cases, the reasoned and detailed recommendation of the head of the research center
hosting the project must be included and will be sent online after the application file has been
submitted.

Recruitment - Incomplete files at submission date

• For proposals including a doctoral or a post-doctoral funding, it is expected that the
candidate has been identified beforehand and that the application includes the elements
allowing the assessment of the quality of the candidate. If at the time of the submission, the
candidate has not been identified, an agreement may be given by PSI, conditional on the final
later validation of the candidate. Complete applications will however be privileged.

• External partners for co-funding of PhD should be clearly identified at the time of
submission. It is required that a pre-agreement of the partner should be attached to the
proposal. The final agreement of the partnership described in the applications, including
financial and intellectual property aspects, can however be finalized in the months following
the announcement of the results.

Contacts.

• In the institutions, correspondents are:
    - ESSEC: Celine Alves-Pinto
    - EISTI: Rachid Chelouah
    - ENSEA: Aymeric Histace
    - UCP and more widely for all establishments: Stéphane Roy

• For support in setting up research projects with the socio-economic world:
    - Jean-François Lipskier

• Contact for the coordination of this call for proposals:
aap-excellence-scientifique@universitéparisseine.fr.

Evaluations and results.

• Applications will be evaluated by the scientific committee whose evaluations and selection
proposals will be transmitted, for decision, to the executive board of the initiative of
excellence Paris Seine.

• Results will be published in mid-April 2019.

• The criteria taken into account in the evaluation will be:
    - The scientific quality and the innovative aspect of the project
    - The strategic nature of the project and its contribution to the scientific development
       of the initiative of excellence
    - The expertise of the researchers involved in the project and the quality of the scientific
       environment
    - The impact of the project
    - The quality of the candidate (PhD, Post-doc if already identified).