Exchange visits

Exchange grants ClimMani will support a number of travel grants for Short Visits (up to 15 days) and eventually for a longer Exchange Visits (up to 6 weeks).

NEW CALL:
A call for short term exchange grants are launched and the deadline for an application is April 1st, 2012. Welcome with your application!

Short and Exchange visits will be prioritised for networking and work contributing to the ClimMani objectives, and in particular:

- Database development of data from climate change experiments
- Exchange of data, interaction between experimentalists and     modellers and model applications within climate change experiments
- Synthesis of experimental data from climate change experiments across multiple sites, biomes and climates
- Gap filling measurements for use in modelling and synthesis writing
- Writing reviews and scientific papers related based on climate change manipulation experiments.

Application procedure
Application for grants must be issued via the ESF standard procedure - ESF application.

If you wish to apply for support for a visit of 15 days or less, please use the Short Visit application form.
If you wish to apply for support for a visit of 15 days up to 6 weeks please use the Exchange Grant application form.

Applicants should be prepared to complete online:

- Details of their own institute and of their host’s institute (address, contact details)
- The title of their planned project
- Planned starting date of visit and duration (in weeks)
- Estimated travel costs (maximum 500 EUR)

Applicants will also need to have ready to upload a document (.pdf or .doc format, not exceeding 5MB) with the following information:

- A short description (approx. 1000 words) of the proposed project work and the aim of the visit, indicating the scientific motivation and justification, the relevance to ClimMani themes, planned time schedule, detailed work plan, and expected results or benefits of the proposed project
- A curriculum vitae of two A4 pages
- Five most recent publications
- A letter of recommendation from someone familiar with the applicant’s work
- A letter of acceptance from the host at the receiving institute Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Please note that you may encounter problems with the online application form if you are using Netscape as a browser. If this happens, please change to Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. You will also need to enable your computer to accept cookies while completing the form.

Evaluation of applications
The evaluation of applications will be done by the Grants sub-committee of the ClimMani Scientific Steering Committee (SC), which will make recommendations for approval by the SC. There will be a 2 week administration and response time.

Applications will be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:

- Undertake work according to the above focus areas
- Apply to stay in a European country other than the country of origin
- Return to the institute of origin upon termination, so that the applicant’s institute may also benefit from the broadened knowledge of the visiting scientist
- The scientific quality of the project and its relevance for achieving ClimMani aims
- The CV of the applicant and the scientific quality of the hosting group

Priority will be given to applicants who come from or intend to visit countries that financially support the Programme (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Iceland). Priority will be give to applications where both the origin and the host institute are located in countries supporting the programme.

Level of support
Exchange Grants are supported with a weekly subsistence allowance of 400 EUR plus actual travel expenses up to a maximum of 500 EUR. Travel will be refunded on the basis of actual costs and on the basis of APEX-type airfares and 2nd class train travel. A first payment of 80% of the allowance will be made in advance of the visit. Final payment is subject to the submission of a final scientific report, original travel tickets and a signed host statement form - upon approval of the report by the ClimMani Steering Committee.

ESF Short Visit Grants are reimbursed on a per diem basis of 85 EUR plus actual travel expenses up to a maximum of 500 EUR. Payment is subject to the submission of a final scientific report, original travel tickets and a signed host statement form - upon approval of the report by the ClimMani Steering Committee.

Grants DO NOT cover insurance, taxes or retirement scheme contributions.

Reports should be submitted within one month of completion of the visit.

Grantees should acknowledge the support of the ESF ClimMani Research Networking Programme in publications resulting from their work in relation to Short Visit or Exchange Grants.

Previous exchange visits