Call for Twinning: Spreading excellence and widening participation (H2020-TWINN-2015)

Specific challenge: The specific challenge is to address networking gaps and deficiencies between the research institutions of the low performing Member States and regions and internationally-leading counterparts at EU level. Driven by the quest for excellence, research intensive institutions tend to collaborate increasingly in closed groups, producing a crowding-out effect for a large number of promising institutions. This is the challenge that a specific Twinning action will try to address.

Scope: Twinning aims at significantly strengthening a defined field of research in a particular knowledge institution (a research active university or a public research organisation or a private non-profit research organisation) by creating a link between this institution and at least two internationally-leading research institutions in other Member States. Twinning will:

Enhance the S&T capacity of the linked institutions;
Help raise staff’s research profile as well as the one of the institutions involved.
Successful Twinning proposals will have to clearly outline the scientific strategy for stepping up and stimulating scientific excellence and innovation capacity in a defined area of research as well as the scientific quality of the partners involved in the twinning exercise. They are also encouraged to explain how the Twinning activity will contribute to the overall Smart Specialisation Strategy of the specific location of the initiating institution.

Such a strategy should include a comprehensive set of measures to be supported. These should include at least a number of the following : short term staff exchanges; expert visits and short-term on-site or virtual training; workshops; conference attendance; organisation of joint summer school type activities; dissemination and outreach activities. Twinning activities will provide no support to infrastructure and equipment and no support for hiring new permanent research staff.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of EUR 1 million, would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Deadline Application: 02-12-2014

Related link:
http://ec.europa.eu