Research Newsletter – Issue 71: Information and Updates
Please click on the headings below to access further information:
We are pleased to announce that the Framework to Enhance Research Integrity in Research Collaborations is now available to researchers. The framework is the latest output from the National Research Integrity Forum, and seeks to provide guidance for researchers on how to reinforce a culture of responsible conduct of research in their collaborations so they can, as far as possible, avoid incidences of serious research misconduct and unacceptable research practices occurring during the collaborative work.
The document outlines a series of topics that should be considered by partners in a research collaboration before the collaboration commences, which may help to avoid problems arising later on. DCU is an active member of the Forum and participated in the working group which produced the framework.
Two new services are available in the Funding & Tenders portal:
Individual users can now launch a search for partners for new proposals (previously this was only possible at organisation level). Find a call topic of your interest and post an expertise offer or request. Other interested users will be able to contact you to discuss your ideas. See here for more guidance.
Beneficiaries in grants providing for financial support to third parties (‘cascade funding’) can now register their cascade calls for proposals directly in a web form. Log in to the Portal, go to ‘My Projects’, select the relevant project and choose the action ‘Manage cascade funding calls’. Once you have submitted it, your project officer will be alerted and subsequently approve it. All cascade calls will then become available in the standard funding opportunities page, providing thus a much higher visibility for your calls. See here for more guidance.
The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science invites interested parties to participate in the online stakeholder consultation on the development of a National Standard Research Classification. This online consultation will be open from 7th February 2022 to 21st March 2022.
Having a national standard research classification will create a common language around research and improve transparency across the Irish research ecosystem. The classification will be used for the categorisation of all exchequer-funded research in the Republic of Ireland. All researchers and research organisations are encouraged to examine the draft classification and ensure their research activities and interests are included in the structure. The classification will be used in future Government reporting on nationally funded research across all Departments and Agencies and so it is important that researchers ensure their activities are accurately represented.
We would encourage you to familiarise yourself with the structure of the classification, which is available on the DFHERIS website, before completing your submission.
You can contribute to the consultation by completing a short survey on or before Monday 21st March 2022.
Open Research Europe is the European Commission’s open access publishing platform for scientific articles for Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. Open Research Europe is an original publishing venue, like a journal, not a repository (where papers already published somewhere else are deposited): submitted research must be original, not be submitted anywhere else for publication, and stem from a Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe grant in which at least one of the authors is involved.
The platform implements rigorous scientific standards which are overseen by an international Scientific Advisory Board. Since its launch in March 2021, more than 160 articles have already been published, showing the interest of the research community in this new publishing venue. The publishing venue accepts articles in all fields of science including the natural sciences, engineering and technology, medical and health sciences, agricultural and veterinary sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts. It showcases a variety of article types ranging from research articles to methods and essays.
Publishing in Open Research Europe is an optional service. Because the European Commission covers all costs upfront, there is no author fee, which means also no administrative burden. Moreover, there is the guarantee of automatic compliance with the open access requirements of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. Lastly, Open Research Europe is also a solution to publish articles even after the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe grant has ended. Open Research Europe champions open science principles and scientific transparency by immediately publishing articles, followed by transparent, invited and open peer review with the inclusion of all supporting data and materials. The names of the reviewers are open, as well as their reviews, which are also citable. Article-level metrics will continuously track the scientific and social impact of publications.
More information on Open Research Europe is available on the website, which contains helpful tips, guides and FAQs, including how to prepare articles and data for submission.
A new version of the generic proposal templates for Horizon Europe is now available on the Funding & Tenders Portal. It includes changes in the proposal part B template, taking into account feedback from participants and stakeholders after the first calls of Horizon Europe. These changes focus on the tables in section 3 of proposal part B, which have been adapted to avoid duplication of information. In addition, the points in the impact section have been re-organised. Moreover, definitions of the different roles of participating organisation have been added in proposal part A.
Please note that participants, when actually preparing a proposal, have to use a call/topic specific template provided directly in the submission system. Calls/topics for which the submission system is already configured (i.e. currently open and soon to be opened) provide the previous version of the proposal template and applicants to those calls have to use this previous version.
The I-Corps@SFI Academy provides introductory training for researchers in evidence-based entrepreneurship, and provides training for research translation professionals (e.g. Technology Transfer Office staff) based at Irish RPOs that enables them to support researchers in the application of this evidence-based methodology.
The I-Corps@SFI Academy is a cohort-based programme that is delivered virtually over a number of weeks to train researchers in evidence-based entrepreneurship using the NSF I-Corps methodology. Training in the Academy is led by a team of experienced instructors from I-Corps South/Georgia Tech Venture Labs. This team is supported locally in Ireland by a dedicated team of national instructor trainees and mentors. Instructor trainees and mentors are drawn from RPOs across Ireland and each have significant experience in research translation and commercialisation. This training may also be of interest to researchers who wish to explore the impact potential of their work using evidence-based entrepreneurship methodologies.
Application Deadline for Cohort 3 applications (Stream: Researchers): 13:00 March 2nd 2022. The cohort will run from March 8th to April 13th.
An information webinar will take place on February 18th @ 14:00 Local Irish Time. Please join here (Zoom pre-registration required). For further information please contact i-corps@sfi.ie for further information on the I-Corps@SFI Academy.
The Horizon Europe NCP Portal, developed by the Bridge2HE project, aims to offer both NCPs and participants access to the vast knowledge, support tools and services that NCPs develop to support the wide participation in Horizon Europe. The mission of this portal is to serve as a stable entry point during the whole duration of the programme, complementing the official Funding and Tender Portal.
The Annex G to the Horizon 2020 Work Programmes provides guidance and definitions of the TRLs for the innovation to be developed in the projects. However, such definitions are very general, and not adapted to the different sectors of applications. The aim is therefore to create an anonymised repository of innovations from successfully funded projects, with a description of the status of the technology at the stage of the application, with the corresponding TRL, differentiated by domain of application.
The aim of this survey is to extract information from project coordinators of previous Horizon 2020 projects and to provide concrete examples of TRL development according to project and sector.
The link to the survey is here.