Call for Proposals: India-EU Cooperation on Research & Innovation

Collaboration in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) plays an increasingly important role in the EU-India Strategic Partnership. In line with the EU-India Strategic Partnership: A Roadmap to 2025, and the Joint Science and Technology Steering Committee meeting on 12 February 2021, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), has identified calls for proposals in the Work programmes 2023-2024 of the EU R&I Research and Innovation Programme ‘Horizon Europe’, which it considers of mutual interest and aiming at jointly tackling global challenges.

Co-Funded Call Topics

• Pandemic preparedness and response: Broad spectrum antiviral therapeutics for infectious diseases with epidemic potential.
• Validation of fluid-derived biomarkers for the prediction and prevention of brain disorders.
• Pandemic preparedness and response: Host-pathogen interactions of infectious diseases with epidemic potential.
• New detection methods on products derived from new genomic techniques for traceability, transparency and innovation in the food system.
• Development of smart concepts of integrated energy driven bio-refineries for coproduction of advanced biofuels, bio-chemicals and biomaterials.

To note that the type of collaborative actions, Research and Innovation (RIA) and Innovation Actions (IA) are established by Horizon Europe, and to be understood as follows:

• Research & innovation action (RIA) that establishes new knowledge or explores a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution.
• Innovation action (IA) that produces plans or designs for new or improved products, processes or services including prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication.

Duration

• DBT will fund the Indian partners/entities in a successful project, as per requirement of the project, for the project duration up to 3-4 years.

Number of Indian Entities Per Projects

• There is no legal requirement on number of Indian entities in a given project eligibility condition. Any legal entity/organization (public or private research institute/university) established in India with expertise in relevant and distinct disciplines.
• The call is open to all career groups (i.e. early, intermediate and senior); however, it is expected that each investigator shall have adequate service tenure to accommodate key research, coordination, outreach, post completion handholding and maintenance (if any) responsibilities. Early career investigators are encouraged to participate.
• Each participating legal entity/organisation (public or private research institute/university) should be represented by at least two investigators.
• The number of Indian project partners should be optimum and correspond to the objectives of the project. The proposal should clearly demonstrate each partner’s essentiality, complementarities, and added- value in jointly addressing the topic.

Participation of European

Number of European entities per projects:

• Collaborative research & innovation projects carried out by consortia of organisations working together on specific research & innovation areas. A consortium must include at least 3 partner organisations from 3 different Member States or associated countries. At least one of the 3 partners must be from Member States.
• European Union member states (EU27): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
• Countries Associated with Horizon Europe: Agreements in place: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Gender Balance

• Applicants are encouraged to promote equal opportunities in the implementation of the action by ensuring a balanced participation of women and men at all levels of the research and innovation teams and in the management structures.

For more information, visit DBT.