RDA TIGER Cascade Grant Call for Adoption Grants

Description

Call description and supported activities This call for Cascading Grants seeks applications from researchers, research institutes, universities, enterprises, consortia and other legal entities who wish to receive financial support to adopt the results of the RDA Working Groups (WGs). Applicants must be eligible to receive Horizon Europe funding, or be affiliated to an entity that is eligible. Specifically, the call invites applications from: RDA Working Groups: Groups who require support for projects that aid the adoption or testing of RDA WG Recommendations or Outputs. The grant funds can be used to cover the personnel and travel costs of the Group’s existing members, stipends or salaries of new team members, conference and open access fees and fees of external experts (e.g., to solve specific legal, technical, IPR, or standardisation-related issues). See the section “Eligibility Criteria” for more details. We also invite applications from RDA WGs launching a formal standardisation process to have the WG Recommendations recognised as input by an established technical standards organisation. Entities or researchers who wish to adopt an RDA output. Specifically, the grant funds can be used to support the adoption, testing, harmonisation, and/or implementation of RDA Recommendations or Outputs produced by RDA Working Groups. We also invite organisations focusing on the technical implementation, prototyping and/or proof-of-concept using RDA Recommendations or Outputs to support the interoperability of open science solutions, especially in the EOSC context. Applications are received up until 27.04.2025 (AoE - Anywhere on Earth, UTC -12). The selected projects are expected to be launched in May 2025 and need to be concluded by the end of October 2025. How is this call different from the Open Call for RDA TIGER services? RDA TIGER support services (Facilitation, Communications, Landscape Analysis, Output Support) are provided by consortium members, where the supported WGs receive services provided by the RDA TIGER project staff or experts engaged by the project partners. The Open Call for these types of support services is continuous and is facilitated by a separate process with four selection rounds per year. This Call for Cascading Grants is intended to facilitate the adoption of RDA WG outputs and is open to RDA Working Groups seeking to facilitate the adoption of their outputs or to entities external to RDA who wish to adopt RDA Recommendations or Outputs. Important things to note: Project(s) funded by these Adoption Grants will need to be completed by the end of October 2025. The standardisation-related grants are expected to present a roadmap showing how the standardisation process can be completed after the cessation of the activities funded by the grant. About RDA TIGER RDA TIGER is a project funded by the European Commission (GA 101094406). It supports RDA Working Groups that concretely align, harmonise, and standardise Open Science developments and technologies globally. The services it provides will facilitate and support coherent and consistent working group definitions and increase the impact of the key European initiatives on the global level. More information about the RDA TIGER project can be found here. The project will directly contribute to the European Open Science Cloud Partnership by supporting (via the Working Groups) the international engagement and alignment of policies, technologies, methodologies, practices and other outputs of EOSC-related and other European Open Science developments.

Beneficiary & submission

Application process One person should be selected as the grant holder and representative, also in case of a consortium consisting of more than one legal entity applying for funding. To apply, please take the following steps: Download and fill in the Application Form (docx format) from the RDA TIGER webpage, save the completed form as a PDF with the proposal name in the name of the time. Register your proposal information using the online form. Upload the completed application to B2DROP using the link provided to you after you complete the proposal information entry. The application form asks for the following (please follow the indicated word limits): Your details: Your name, affiliation, country where you are based and a brief history of your involvement in RDA, Open Science and EOSC. Abstract: Clearly outline the purpose of the proposed activity and describe its planned outputs in 200 words. Excellence: EOSC, RDA and Open Science Connectivity: Describe how the proposed activity creates outputs which are connected to one or more of these categories: a. Open Science principles: for example the FAIR principles, or connecting via some other demonstrable pathway to the wider Open Science landscape; b. Supporting RDA, especially in its Strategic Goals as outlined in its current Strategic Plan (please refer to the ‘Strategic Directions’ on page 9 of the plan); c. The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC): Each supported activity should have output(s) with a clear connection to EOSC, such as an internationalisation or standardisation action based on an existing EOSC output and/or responding to an EOSC priority (e.g., in the EOSC Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda SRIA and its updates). Impact: Demonstrate how the proposed activity contributes to a significant advance in one or more of the following impact areas: A. Mechanisms and tools for creation, sharing, management and re-use of research outputs (e.g. data, software, publications, workflows, protocols, and methodologies); B. Facilitating scientific multidisciplinary cooperation; C. Efficient handling or providing seamless access to large volumes of research outputs; D. Increasing FAIRness, openness and quality of scientific research in Europe and Globally; E. Creation of more meaningful monitoring and research evaluation mechanisms, enabling better reproducibility, validation and re-use of research outputs, or improving pathways for communication of science to the public. Workplan: List of milestones and deliverables with expected delivery dates. Budget outline: The total budget requested and the breakdown of the expenditure between personnel, travel, and other costs (travel, conference, open access, external expert fees). As a guideline, the “other” cost category should not exceed one third of the total budget requested. Evaluation of proposals Applications will be evaluated by the RDA Selection Committee panel and invited experts. The panel is primarily composed of people from the RDA TIGER consortium, EOSC Association and the RDA Governance (Technical Advisory Board and Secretariat). The following criteria and weighting will be used to fairly and transparently evaluate the applications: Evaluation Criteria: Excellence: (EOSC, RDA and Open Science competences and contributions so far) [35%] Impact: Impact on the Open Science landscape [40%] Implementation: Implementation and International Connectivity [25%] Budget The total budget made available with this cascade grants call is 50,000 EUR. We expect to award between 3 and 5 grants with a funding range between 10,000 - 16,666, depending on applications received. The proposed budget in grant applications needs to be based on estimated actual, eligible costs of the planned activity. Eligibility Criteria Applications should come from individuals a) on behalf of an active or completed RDA WG or b) from individuals who have a track record of adopting community recommendations and best practices (produced by the RDA community or similar forums). If the application is submitted on behalf of an active or completed RDA WG, the individual submitting the proposal should be one of the co-chairs of the WG, or submit the proposal with the full knowledge and support of the WG co-chairs. Applications can come from any individual who is affiliated to and can apply on behalf of an legal entity eligible to receive funding from Horizon Europe. This includes eligible entities in Member States and Associated Countries. The current list of participating countries in addition to the Member States can be found here. Applicants cannot be part of the RDA TIGER consortium. In accordance with the Horizon Europe financial regulations, no individual or organisation (third party) will be awarded more than EUR 60,000 (sixty thousand Euro). Explicitly, a third party may apply and be awarded funding in different calls, but only be contracted for a total of EUR 60,000. If the limit is reached, no further contracts can be awarded to that individual or organisation (third party). RDA TIGER beneficiaries, their linked entities and staff members of the organisations belonging to either of the groups are ineligible to apply or receive funding through this call. Recipients of RDA TIGER in-kind support services are eligible to apply, provided they fulfil the Horizon Europe eligibility criteria.

Further information

Additional Information The call remains open for two months from the publication date; The evaluation process will be completed within 30 days from the closing of the call; The grant contracts will need to be signed by RDA Europe and the applicant within 60 days from the end of the review process. RDA Europe retains the right to consider the application as withdrawn if this time limit is passed; In addition to selecting the highest-ranking proposals, the committee can – with the approval of the applicants – retain applications on a reserve list. In case there are unforeseen issues with the grant agreements, applications from the reserve list can be chosen for funding. Contact us Please contact liise.lehtsalu [at] rda-foundation.org with any questions. We are happy to discuss your ideas and provide guidance on the application process.