The Bulgarian National Science Fund (BNSF) invites applicants to submit proposals in the National Scientific Program “Excellent Research and People for the Development of European Science” (VIHREN) call
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF BULGARIA
BULGARIAN NATIONAL SCIENCE FUND
INVITATION
The Bulgarian National Science Fund (BNSF) invites applicants to submit proposals in the National Scientific Program “Excellent Research and People for the Development of European Science” (VIHREN) call.
/Информация за конкурса на български език: https://www.fni.bg/?q=node/960 /
General goal of the program
The National Scientific Program “Vihren” sets out the objectives and principles of funding, designed to support excellent Principal Investigators (PIs):
The Leading researcher Grant scheme is designed to support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are already established research leaders with a recognised track record of research achievements.
The Established researcher Grant scheme is designed to support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they are consolidating their own independent research team or program.
Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground-breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their scientific proposal. The ”Vihren” frontier research grants operate on a 'bottom-up' basis without predetermined priorities. Applications can be made in any field of research with particular emphasis on the frontiers of science and engineering. In particular, proposals of an interdisciplinary nature, which cross the boundaries between different fields of research, pioneering proposals addressing new and emerging fields of research or proposals introducing unconventional, innovative approaches and scientific inventions are encouraged.
Indicative budget of the call:
The indicative budget for funding projects for the call 2019 is BGN 1 500 000, of which BGN 1 425 000 is for project support and BGN 75 000 is for evaluation of the proposals.
The program is implemented by applying two separate procedures, respectively for the two project calls for "Established researcher" and for "Leading researcher".
The budget per proposal depends on its duration and is calculated as a maximum amount of BGN 265 000 per year for "Leading researcher" grand and a maximum amount of BGN 210 000 per year for "Established researcher" grand for a maximum period of five years. The project budget will be reduced pro rata temporis for shorter project duration.
The Principal Investigator, the host institution and the funding body (NSF) will sign a contract for implementation of the project proposal.
Indicative timetable of the call:
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Publication of call 31.07.2019 Opening of call 05.08.2019 Deadline for submission of proposals 20.09.2019 Eligibility check 1.10.2019 Evaluation of proposals 20.11.2019 Information on the outcome of the evaluation 25.11.2019 Indicative date for the signature of Contract 1.12-10.12.2019 Indicative dates for transfer of the grant 1.12-10.12.2019 Possible start date of the Action 22.01-2.05.2020
Website for proposal submission for the call: http://vh.stko.eu/
Documents for the call:
- Invitation (in Bulgarian)
- General guidelines on National Scientific Programs (in English)
- General guidelines on National Scientific Programs (in Bulgarian)
- Specific guidelines for the National Scientific Program “VIHREN” (in English)
- Specific guidelines for the National Scientific Program “VIHREN” (in Bulgarian)
- Official text of the National Scientific Program “VIHREN” (in Bulgarian)
Templates of the proposal forms:
- Part A (in English)
- Part A (in Bulgarian)
- Part B1 (in English) – established researcher
- Part B2 (in English) – established researcher
- Part B1 (in English) – leading researcher
- Part B2 (in English) – leading researcher
- Letter from the host institution (in English)
- Letter from the host institution (in Bulgarian)
- Appendix 1 (in Bulgarian)
- Appendix 2 (in Bulgarian)
- Appendix 3 (in English)
- Appendix 3 (in Bulgarian)
Additional documents:
- Instruction for submission of proposal documents (in English)
- Instruction on how to sign documents in pdf format with electronic signature using Adobe Acrobat (in English)
- Text of the contract (in Bulgarian)
- Appendices to the contract (in Bulgarian)
- List of descriptors (adopted from ERC call) (in English)
- Rules for monitoring the implementation (in Bulgarian)
- All documents as a single archive
- Order for the call (in Bulgarian)
According to Article 50, subparagraph 1, of the Regulations of Bulgarian National Science Fund (BNSF), the applicants may ask questions, related to the Call's documents no later then 10 days prior to the deadline for submitting the proposals. Questions will be accepted only in English, given that the Call is open to International Researchers, and by email only at: vihren_applications@mon.bg
NB: Before sending your questions, please take a look at the Call's documents and the already published Questions and Answers. Questions that already have published answers, won't be addressed.