European Commission’s Grant Programme to extend Rail Network of PhDs

Scope

• The PhD researchers are expected regularly to liaise with the Europe’s Rail JU and to present their research findings to the Europe’s Rail JU events and submit scientific papers to relevant conferences (e.g. TRA, WCRR, etc. but also non-rail related).
• The Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking expects to finance successful proposals from universities or similar high-level institutes covering each at least one PhD student in the following proposed areas or additional or different scientific areas to be proposed, always in relation to the EU-Rail Programme:
  • PhD Topic – Measures and mechanisms to support implementation of rail technical innovations supporting the decarbonisation of transport
    • Innovation will only contribute to the future of rail if they are implemented. Sometimes good R&I outputs encounter barriers that hinder their possibility to become innovations implemented into the market. Those barriers may be linked to market factors, standards, regulations, etc. The barriers may become greater when dealing with seamless integration with other modes of transport.
  • PhD Topic – Change Making for Gender Equality in Rail
    • The main aim of this topic is to research on the gender gap in rail companies with the focus on how to improve the experience of women in rail, both as users of rail services and as members of the workforce.
  • PhD Topic – Education and training in rail
    • Education and training are critical to ensuring a highly skilled and competent rail workforce. ERASMUS+ funded projects have provided valuable feedback on the current state of rail education and training and identified areas for improvement.
  • PhD Topic – Rail enabled urban logistics
    • This topic should look at freight rail and how can freight rail multimodal terminals and rail freight traffic integrate in smart cities and implement efficient and cost-effective integration with sustainable last mile solutions.
  • PhD Topic – Fast Night Train Operations
    • Night trains are an important mode of transportation for passengers traveling long distances overnight. These services will help balancing CO2 footprint offering other alternative that delivers better environmental profile. The main issue is still the long travel times which raise a growing demand for faster night trains, which can reduce travel times and improve the overall passenger experience. To achieve this, there is a need to address several technical, operational, and market-related challenges.

Funding Information

• The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:
  • public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
  • cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).

Expected Outcome

• With this Research and Innovation Action, the Europe’s Rail Joint Undertaking intends further extend the rail research and innovation “community” (cooperation/network/alliance) of scientific research entities (cooperation/network) that was initiated with the recent award of the EU-Rail project.
• The expected outcome is also the realisation of 6-10 PhD positions, teaming up with the industry.
• To apply under this Call topic, the related entities are requested to establish a Consortia with the aim to promote fruitful collaboration and share of knowledge on any topics in the area of works related to the EU-Rail Programme or relevant in the context of other European rail research and innovation activities. In doing so, exchanges should also be identified with the linked project.

Eligible Activities

• Projects must focus exclusively on civil applications and must not:
  • aim at human cloning for reproductive purposes;
  • intend to modify the genetic heritage of human beings which could make such changes heritable (except for research relating to cancer treatment of the gonads, which may be financed);
  • intend to create human embryos solely for the purpose of research, or for the purpose of stem cell procurement, including by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer.
• The following activities are generally eligible for grants under Horizon Europe:
  • Research and innovation actions (RIA) — Activities that aim primarily to establish new knowledge or to explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution. This may include basic and applied research, technology development and integration, testing, demonstration and validation of a small-scale prototype in a laboratory or simulated environment.
  • Innovation actions (IA) — Activities that aim directly to produce plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. These activities may include prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication.
  • Coordination and support actions (CSA) — Activities that contribute to the objectives of Horizon Europe. This excludes research and innovation (R&I) activities, except those carried out under the ‘Widening participation and spreading excellence’ component of the programme (part of ‘Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area’).
  • Programme co-fund actions (CoFund) — A programme of activities established or implemented by legal entities managing or funding R&I programmes, other than EU funding bodies.
  • Innovation and market deployment actions (IMDA) — Activities that embed an innovation action and other activities necessary to deploy an innovation on the market. This includes the scaling-up of companies and Horizon Europe blended finance.
  • Training and mobility actions (TMA) — Activities that aim to improve the skills, knowledge and career prospects of researchers, based on mobility between countries and, if relevant, between sectors or disciplines.
  • Pre-commercial procurement actions (PCP) — Eligible activities include the preparation, management and follow-up, under the coordination of a lead procurer, of one joint PCP and additional activities to embed the PCP into a wider set of demand-side activities.
  • Public procurement of innovative solutions actions (PPI) — Activities that aim to strengthen the ability of a transnational buyers’ group to deploy innovative solutions early by overcoming the fragmentation of demand for such solutions and sharing the risks and costs of acting as early adopters, while opening market opportunities for industry.

Eligibility Criteria

• Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met.
• A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
• To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
  • the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions:
    • Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
  • the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States:
    • Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).
  • countries associated to Horizon Europe:
    • Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine.
• Specific cases
  • Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities are eligible for funding if they are established in one of the countries listed above, or in a country identified in the specific call conditions.
  • Associated partners — Entities not eligible for funding (and therefore not able to participate as beneficiaries) may participate as associated partners, unless specified otherwise in the specific call conditions.
  • Coordination and Support Actions – To be eligible to participate as beneficiaries (or affiliated entities) in ‘Coordination and support’ actions, legal entities must be established in a Member State or Associated Country, unless the specific call conditions provide otherwise. Legal entities established in a non-associated third country may, however, participate in ‘Coordination and support’ actions as associated partners, unless this is explicitly excluded by the specific call conditions.
  • EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law may also be eligible to receive funding, unless their basic act states otherwise.
  • International organisations — International European research organisations are eligible to receive funding. Unless their participation is considered essential for implementing the action by the granting authority, other international organisations are not eligible to receive funding. International organisations with headquarters in a Member State or Associated Country are eligible to receive funding for ‘Training and mobility’ actions and when provided for in the specific call conditions.

For more information, visit European Commission.