0

Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

Australia, Singapore & New Zealand

D 1.3

Handbook on Australia, New

Zealand, Singapore programmes

for EU researchers

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme (ICT) under grant agreement

No 687794.

March 2018 www.epicproject.eu

Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

Australia, Singapore & New Zealand

Project Title: European – Pacific Partnership for ICT collaboration in research,

development & innovation

Acronym: EPIC

Grant Agreement Number: 687794

Deliverable D1.3 Handbook on Australia, New Zealand, Singapore

programmes for EU researchers

Associated

WP

WP1

Associated

Task

Tasks 1.1 – 1.4

Due Date 31/03/2018

Date

Delivered

4/4/2018

Prepared by

(Lead Partner)

Callaghan Innovation

Partners

Involved

all

Authors Jonathan Miller, Pawel Miedzinski, Erich Prem, Mark

Sanderson, Marc Bailey, Tan Chee Seng, Sam Ge, Christoph

Bartneck

Dissemination

Level

Public

The handbook on target countries programmes equips EU stakeholders with a clear

panorama of local research programmes open to collaboration with Europeans,

detailing the possibilities and the conditions to access, participate, or being funded. It

is composed of three dedicated chapters for Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand.

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

Australia, Singapore & New Zealand

Disclaimer

This handbook serves information purposes only. It is based on public information,

expert input, and desk research by the EPIC team. It does not express any official

views of the European Commission or its services.

Note

Although we took great care that the information in this handbook is correct at the time

of its publication, the information contained herein is subject to change. Please contact

the team of editors at info@epicproject.eu for any change requests, amendments, and

updates. Readers of this handbook should also visit the EPIC project web site at

www.epicproject.eu for updates and further information.

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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1 Content

2 About EPIC ........................................................................................................... 1

3 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 2

3.1 Collaborate internationally ............................................................................. 2

3.2 Purpose and use of this handbook ................................................................ 2

3.3 The funding situation in general..................................................................... 3

4 Australia ................................................................................................................ 4

4.1 Country overview ........................................................................................... 4

4.2 Success story ................................................................................................ 4

4.3 Strategic topics for cooperation ..................................................................... 6

4.4 Priority constituencies (research groups, institutes, organisations) ............... 6

4.5 Funding opportunities: programmes and calls ............................................... 8

4.6 Networks ..................................................................................................... 28

4.7 IDEAL-ist contact point ................................................................................ 30

5 Singapore ........................................................................................................... 31

5.1 Country overview ......................................................................................... 31

5.2 Success stories ........................................................................................... 32

5.3 Strategic topics for cooperation ................................................................... 33

5.4 Priority constituencies (research groups, institutes, organisations) ............. 33

5.5 Funding opportunities: programmes and calls ............................................. 34

5.6 Networks ..................................................................................................... 45

5.7 Ideal-ist and Euraxess contact points .......................................................... 46

6 New Zealand ...................................................................................................... 48

6.1 Country overview ......................................................................................... 48

6.2 Success stories ........................................................................................... 49

6.3 Strategic topics for cooperation ................................................................... 49

6.4 Priority constituencies (research groups, institutes, organisations) ............. 50

6.5 Funding opportunities: programmes and calls ............................................. 51

6.6 Network ....................................................................................................... 59

6.7 Ideal-ist contact point ................................................................................... 59

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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7 Further resources ............................................................................................... 60

7.1 Partners from AU/SG/NZ in H2020 .............................................................. 60

7.2 EU Calls targeting Australia and Singapore ................................................ 62

7.3 Points of contact and further information ..................................................... 68

7.4 Trade associations and missions ................................................................. 70

7.5 Fairs and major annual events .................................................................... 71

Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

Australia, Singapore & New Zealand

2 About EPIC

The EPIC initiative was created in response to a EU call for projects to support

dialogues between the EU/EC and its strategic partner countries to foster cooperation

in ICT R&D. The aim of the call was to organize events, support policy dialogue

meetings, strengthening cooperative research links and reinforce industrial

collaboration as well as coordination with other EU level initiatives.

EPIC, therefore, aims to improve the research and innovation collaboration

between the EU and its strategic partner countries Australia, New Zealand, and

Singapore in the area of information and communication technologies. It targets

both the strategic, more policy-oriented level and the direct cooperation of

researchers/innovators in academia and industry. The aim is to exploit mutually

beneficial opportunities and to prepare new grounds for future collaborations.

EPIC aims to help overcome the current lack of dedicated co-operation support actions

and improve the low visibility of Europe’s ICT RDI capabilities in the target countries.

The project follows a topical methodology: the focus is on specific areas of ICT

research of high strategic importance. Initial topics include artificial intelligence,

internet of things including wearables, cyber security, ICT in transport, digital economy,

next generation internet and spatial intelligence.

The specific objectives of the project are:

• Identify 2-4 priority research topics for collaboration and identify synergies

between the Digital Agenda for Europe international agenda and 3rd

countries/regions' ICT strategies

• Organize and support events – at least 2-3 events per year targeting research,

industry, and policy makers;

• Identify common policy opportunities and the potential for joint activities

• Organize a final event demonstrating impact and highlighting recommendations

for future cooperation

• Create a roadmap for stronger cooperation building on researcher exchanges

and joint projects for lasting cooperation

• Deliver a handbook for EU researchers on opportunities in Australia, New

Zealand and Singapore

• Create PR material including a web site, factsheets etc. to disseminate the

objectives and results of the project among relevant stakeholders

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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3 Introduction

3.1 Collaborate internationally

Recent studies have emphasized the trend towards internationalization of RTD

collaboration.1 This is true for multinational enterprises, as well as for research

organisations and government institutions. The reasons for this development are

manifold and include economic aspects, technological advances, but also social

developments. Economic drivers of international research in ICT are primarily relevant

for companies and very broad by themselves. They range from cooperation as a

means of tapping into expertise not available elsewhere, which includes attracting

scientists and engineers, adapting products for new markets, gaining access to local

knowledge and competences. These are very different reasons for research

collaboration with different characteristics.

At the academic research level, an important driver for researchers to collaborate

across country borders is to exchange knowledge with peers in the field. However,

there are also many other reasons such as gaining access to students and young

researchers and engineers or increasing the reputation and recognition as a

researcher or as an institution. International benchmarking, stimulation of new ideas,

or simply fun are even more reasons for academics to co-operate internationally.

3.2 Purpose and use of this handbook

The purpose of this handbook for EU researchers is to offer a clear overview of local

research programmes open for European researchers who are interested in

collaborating with their peers in Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand. The EPIC

project partners, researchers and research managers from all four involved regions

(EU, AU, SG, NZ) collaborated to collect a broad range of programmes funded by

national or regional authorities. For completeness, we have added current and

forthcoming EU calls in the H2020 programme of relevance to both the EPIC target

countries and focus topics.

The intended use of this handbook is as a reference to sources of funding for research

collaboration. As a handbook, this manual can only provide a panorama of resources

available at the time of its preparation. Most programmes listed in this manual are,

however, fixed deadline calls that are only open for submission during certain periods.

Users of this manual should check availability on the various programmes’ homepages

or on the EPIC website.2 Researchers looking for a support programme should note

1 Cf. L. Georghiou, Global cooperation in research. In: Research Policy 27 (1998), 611-626. J. Hoekman, K. Frenken, R.J.W. Tijssen, Research collaboration at a distance: changing spatial patterns of scientific collaboration within Europe. In: Research Policy 39 (2010), 662-673. 2 https://epicproject.eu/ or https://epicproject.eu/index.php?id=65

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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that most of the programmes described in this manual regularly open for submission,

most of them at least once per year.

3.3 The funding situation in general

Researchers in Europe looking for opportunities to collaborate with Australia, New

Zealand, and Singapore will no doubt realize that finding a suitable funding scheme is

not always easy. Some of the EPIC target countries now offer significantly fewer

programme schemes than only a few years ago and some of the programmes are

rather small. For example, Australia has significantly streamlined its international

collaboration schemes in recent years. It is even harder to identify programmes

particularly targeting collaboration with European researchers and there are only few

programmes of this kind in Australia, New Zealand and in Singapore.

This situation at least partially also reflects the growth of research collaboration with

other areas in the world, particularly in Asia and most notably perhaps with China or

South Korea. In addition, global ICT leaders such as the US remain high on the

business and policy agenda for Pacific countries not least for its huge financial

investments in the technology sector, tech ventures and start-ups.

However, this should not mislead nor discourage EU researchers with an interest in

collaborating with their colleagues in Australia, New Zealand, or Singapore. Europe is

still seen as a reliable partner with outstanding research competencies. Long historical

relations and cultural ties contribute to a generally very welcoming atmosphere and

environment for European researchers. This also leads a large number of EU nationals

who have become long-term or even permanent residents in these countries. They

have created an often-dense network of EU nationals that still maintains close

connections with their home countries and in many cases also with national and

European research and innovation initiatives including in particular the EU’s

Framework Programme for Research.

Consequently, (former) EU nationals now residing in Australia, Singapore, and New

Zealand not only are an important source of information and key entry point to networks

for EU researchers; in many cases they are drivers of EU projects and in general highly

appreciative of maintaining, expanding or re-establishing collaborations with their

colleagues from back home. Beyond the formal programmes described in this

handbook, these (former) EU nationals therefore often provide informal and personal

ways in to longer-term and potentially mutually beneficial research collaborations for

Europeans with an interest in the work of their peers in Australia, Singapore, and New

Zealand. Some EU countries actively maintain networks of their expats in order to

facilitate collaboration both within the network and of those networks with their

countries of origin or the EU. The network of French researchers in Australia – AFRAN

– is a good and active example (see the Australian resources section for points of

contact), but other countries have similar activities.3

3 http://afran.org.au/

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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4 Australia

4.1 Country overview

Australia offers identifiable strengths in key areas and significant ICT research

capability. Australia has over 4,000 ICT researchers in publicly funded organisations

and a similar number of researchers funded by business.

Australian universities rank well internationally with nearly all universities supporting

ICT research. The 2018 QS rankings placed eight Australian ICT schools/departments

in the top 100 in the world. Other publicly funded organisations include Australia’s

Information and Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence, the

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO, whose ICT

branch is called Data61), the ICT Centre and the Defence Science Technology

Organisation (DSTO). These organisations house many world-leading ICT researchers

in a range of ICT fields.

Business funded ICT R&D is undertaken by corporate labs, small to medium

enterprises (SMEs), and companies in the telecommunications, finance, and mining

sectors. Some of the larger ICT corporate employers in Australia are CISRA,

Silverbrook, Google, and Cochlear. The ICT industry in Australia is a strong influence

on the ICT research sector and supports many of the domain areas where Australia

has developed expertise. The Australian Government is making a significant

investment in the creation of a National Broadband Network (NBN), which aims to

deliver fibre-optic broadband to 93% of Australians. This will lead to new opportunities

and research initiatives in networks and applications.

The Australian ICT R&D sector has researchers and research groups with world-class

expertise in a range of ICT fields in established and emerging areas. Some of

Australia’s key ICT capabilities are in the areas of wireless and future internet, artificial

intelligence and information systems including embedded enterprise systems.

Other key capabilities and potential topics of interest include robotics, optimisation,

databases and information retrieval. Australia also has a proven record of success in

medial bionics. This has been further strengthened by significant investments of the

Australian Government in Bionic Eye research. Another important application area and

national priority for Australia is water management that has led to new ICT technologies

such as sensor networks for water information management and modelling and

predicting water flow.

4.2 Success story

There are a number of examples of previously successful European-Australian

research collaborations. Here, we present one example of a longer-term cooperation

in the area of bioinformatics that also provides a more durable support structure in the

form of a joint laboratory.

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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The EMBL- Australia Bioinformatics Resource (EMBL-ABR, http://www.emblaus-

tralia.org) can be considered an example of a successful collaboration between Euro-

pean Union and Australia. To address the imbalance caused by US domination of mo-

lecular biology, the founders of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory EMBL had

a vision of creating a European flagship for the life sciences. EMBL was founded in

1974. It is funded by contributions from its 21 European member states, two associate

member states, Australia, and Argentina. EMBL-ABR was created to maximise the

benefits is of Australia’s membership of EMBL supporting Australian scientist and re-

searchers and delivering an impact in the field of bioinformatics. The organisation was

established as a collaboration with the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) to take

bioinformatics in Australia to the next level. In 2008, Australia decided to join the EMBL

as the first associate member. The EMBL Australia started running in 2010 with the

goal of developing Australia’s global position in life sciences by focusing on early-

career scientists and investing in scientific infrastructure.

EMBL Australia became responsible for supporting the internationalisation of

Australian research and mentoring the best researchers at the beginning of their

careers as well as experienced research leaders. By participating in the EMBL,

Australia links its scientist with a big EMBL Network of 1400 people from 60 nations

and gives them a chance to share and exchange date with the life science community.

According to plan, EMBL Australia will create 18 to 20 research groups spread around

the country, enabling hosting institutions access to the scientific excellence, data and

governance. Participating Australian universities already host research groups in areas

such as:

▪ Skeleton and neural circuits

▪ Maintenance of stem cell fate

▪ Immune regulations of stem cells and regeneration

▪ Innate immune system

▪ Neurological disorders and cancer

and many more – always with an emphasis on the bioinformatics aspects.

EMBL Australia can be regarded solid evidence that international cooperation between

EU and Australia can yield a high-quality research. Among other scientific outcomes,

EMBL activities resulted in a comprehensive collection of databases in bioinformatics

– thus laying a solid and sustainable basis for future cooperation.

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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4.3 Strategic topics for cooperation

EPIC priority topics for Australia include in particular

- Artificial Intelligence

- Cyber security and privacy

- Digital economy and Advanced Manufacturing

- Spatial intelligence

- Fintech

4.4 Priority constituencies (research groups, institutes, organisations)

Many universities have research activities in the priority topic areas. The Australian

government regularly publishes a ranked list of its universities. However, these lists

only provide high-level information, as they are usually not detailed at the level of

smaller topics. For example, top universities in Australia for Information and Computing

Science in general are:

- Australian National University

- University of Melbourne

- University of New South Wales

- University of Sydney

For the area of Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing, there is also a ranking list.

The leading research university with a rank of 5 out of 5 for this area is:

- Australian National University

ANU is followed (with a ranking of 4 out of 5) by the following universities:

- Deakin University

- Federation University

- Griffith University

- Monash University

- RMIT University

- University of Adelaide

- University of Melbourne

- University of New South Wales

- University of Queensland

- University of Sydney

- University of Technology, Sydney

- University of Western Australia

In addition, the following few dedicated research organizations can be of particular

interest in the priority topics.

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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Artificial Intelligence

▪ Advanced Analytics Institute at the University of Technology Sydney (Big Data)

https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/our-research/advanced-analytics-

institute

▪ Centre for Artificial Intelligence at the University of Technology Sydney

https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/our-research/centre-artificial-

intelligence

▪ UBTECH Sydney AI Centre are the University of Sydney

https://sydney.edu.au/engineering/our-research/data-science-and-computer-

engineering/ubtech-sydney-artificial-intelligence-centre.html

Cyber Security and privacy

▪ Australian Cyber Security Institute

https://www.acsri.org.au/

▪ Optus Maxquaire University Cyber Security Hub

https://www.mq.edu.au/about/about-the-university/offices-and-units/optus-

macquarie-university-cyber-security-hub

Fintech

▪ Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre

https://www.cmcrc.com/

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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4.5 Funding opportunities: programmes and calls

4.5.1 Overview of funding opportunities

Table 1- Overview of funding opportunities in Australia

funding schemeinternational

applicants

named partner

with Australian

applicant

funding for

international

partner

funding for

international

visitormax funding

(AUD)

Australian Research Council (ARC)Discovery Program

Discovery Projects ✗ ✓ ✗ ✓ $500 000

Linkage Program

Linkage Projects ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ $300 000

Industrial Transformation

Research Program (ITRP) ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ $5 000 000

Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment

and Facilities (LIEF) ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗

ARC Centres of Excellence ✗ ✓ ✗ ✓ $35 000 000

National Health and Medical

Research Council (NHMRC)Project Grant ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ $4 000 000

Program Grant ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ $25 000 000

Development Grant ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ $1 000 000

NHMRC - European Union Collaborative

Research Grants ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ $500 000

Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs)CRCs ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓ $55 000 000

CRC-Projects ✗ ✓ ✓ ✓ $3 000 000

Global Innovation Strategy (GIS)Global Innovation Linkages ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ $1 000 000

Global Connections Fund

Priming Grants ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ $7 000

Bridging Grants ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ $50 000

Regional Collaborations Programme ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ $500 000

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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Background

Public research and innovation (R&I) in Australia is, like in most nations, focussed on

providing support for domestic actors to increase Australia’s competitiveness in the

international arena. The flow of funds is thus normally restricted to Australian entities

and individuals. Just as in Europe, the policy focus is to spend Australian taxpayer

dollars on Australian taxpayers. However, since a common goal amongst most of these

programmes is to position Australia successfully in the international landscape, many

of these programmes include provisions for international partnerships as well as

opportunities for international actors to contribute to these national goals.

As Australia is a federation of six states and two self-governing territories, there are

three tiers of government (federal, state and local). Whilst most of Australia’s relevant

research funding programmes are managed at the federal level, there are also several

opportunities operated by state governments.

This document aims to highlight all research programme across Australia that may

provide opportunities for European R&I actors, particularly in the ICT (information and

communications technologies) domain. In addition, a separate spreadsheet has been

Australia AwardsEndeavour Scholarships and Fellowships

Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarship ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ $272 500

Endeavour Research Fellowship ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ $24 500

Endeavour Executive Fellowship ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ $18 500

New South Wales (NSW)NSW-Israel Research & Development and

Technological Innovation Program ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ $250 000

VictoriaVeski

Veski Innovation Fellowship ✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ $150 000

Victoria-Israel Science Innovation

and Technology Scheme (VISITS)

Victoria-Israel Feasibility and

Proof of Concept (VISFPC) ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ $50 000

Victoria-Israel Science and Technology

Research and Development Fund (VISTECH) ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ $250 000

QueenslandPhD Scholarship ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓ $45 000

Research Fellowship ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓ $300 000

other opportunitiesAustralia-Germany Joint Research

Cooperation Scheme ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ $25 000

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prepared to identify the level of accessibility of these programmes for European

researchers.4

Several websites serve as excellent portals to information about current calls and

opportunities, in particular:

• https://www.grants.gov.au/

• https://www.business.gov.au/Assistance

Australia has, in contrast to many common misconceptions, a highly urbanised

population. Hence, research and innovation is concentrated in its major (capital) cities.

However, with the current construction of a National Broadband Network, it may be

expected that this focus will be somewhat diluted to regional centres in the coming

decades as businesses take advantage of this new infrastructure.

Federal

In 2015, the Australian Government announced the National Innovation and Science

Agenda (NISA),5 to create a whole-of-government approach to science and innovation.

One of the key aspects in this agenda is the Global Innovation Strategy (GIS),6 which

is the primary mechanism for dedicated support for international collaboration and

engagement. This document details many relevant aspects of this strategy further

below.

More recently, the Australian Government released a summary document titled

Partnering with Australia on Innovation, Science and Research7 that outlines

Australia’s national programmes and institutions and is an excellent resource for those

(particularly executives and research managers) wishing to learn about Australia’s

research and innovation landscape.

The strategy paper Australia 2030: Prosperity through Innovation,8 describes a

roadmap plan released by the Innovation and Science Australia Future. It also provides

an insight in recent national investment directions. This document makes a case for

national missions (i.e. grand challenges) and in particular notes a Genomics and

Precision Medicine National Mission. The document further introduces two more

national missions: Restore the Reef and Hydrogen City.

In the following, we give some details and an analysis of Australia’s federal programs

as well as a description of how they can be utilised for the benefit of European

research.

4 Note that Australia’s national funding initiatives are generally more open than most other nations’ funding programs, including the majority of EU Member States. 5 http://innovation.gov.au/ 6 http://innovation.gov.au/page/global-innovation-strategy 7 http://science.gov.au/international/CollaborativeOpportunities 8 https://industry.gov.au/Innovation-and-Science-Australia/Australia-2030

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4.5.1 Australian Research Council (ARC)

http://www.arc.gov.au/

The Australian Research Council (ARC) is one of the two premier sources of

competitive funding for Australian researchers. It funds all areas of research based on

excellence and impact, excluding medical research that is funded by the National

Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

There are two competitive programs operated by the ARC: the Discovery Program

(which offers funding that is somewhat similar in nature to the European Research

Council grants) and the Linkage Program (to improve the uptake of research outcomes

by industry). The latter includes the ARC Centres of Excellence scheme (to support

critical mass in excellent research, with multi-year flexible funding).

Additionally, the ARC leads Australia’s policy discussions around the funding of

research, which includes engagement with international dialogues such as with the

European Commission, the Global Research Council, and other bilateral and

international efforts.

International researchers cannot apply for funding from the ARC. All funding

proposals must be submitted via a specified Eligible Organisation (i.e. an Australian

university),9 with all funding for successful bids to be administered and spent by these

Eligible Organisations in Australia. However, the rules do allow for individual

international researchers to submit an application via an Eligible Organisation, but in

order to accept the funding they must subsequently be employed by that organisation

to conduct the research in Australia.

As with many European schemes, the ARC funding schemes will generally fund the

direct costs of research, including salary, however will not provide any funds for the

research activities of international partners listed in the application.

The only exceptions to this are where Australian researchers may need to pay for

access to international facilities and expertise, or where the funding scheme allows for

travel and subsistence costs of international visitors to spend time in Australia to

directly contribute to the research activities of the Australian research.

Priority will be given to proposals that articulate their contribution to Australia’s national

research priorities.10

9 http://www.arc.gov.au/university-rms-contacts 10 http://www.science.gov.au/scienceGov/ScienceAndResearchPriorities

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Discovery Program

Discovery Projects

This scheme provides up to $500,000 per year up to 5 years, and can be awarded for

projects by individual researchers, teams and also for collaborative projects. These

funds cover most types of direct costs, including salaries, scholarships, travel,

equipment, access fees, etc.

International actors can be named partners on a project, though they will not be granted

funding for their participation. In this way, Discovery Projects are analogous to many

national project funding schemes in Europe.

Funds may, however, flow through to international partners for appropriate project

costs such as facility access fees where necessary and justified.

Additionally, proposals may include a request for a Discovery International Award,

which can be used to support an Australian-based researcher to spend time overseas,

or to support the travel and subsistence costs for international researchers to contribute

to the project in Australia.

Australian Laureate Fellowships

These three fellowships are somewhat analogous to the ERC’s Starting Grant,

Consolidator Grant, and Advanced Grant. In essence, they provide funds for salary

and some research costs in order to attract and retain early-career, mid-career, and

world-leading researchers to Australia.

The DECRA fellowships are for three years and provide funding for the applicant’s

salary (as per their employment level at their Administering Organisation) plus on-

costs. In addition, up to $40,000 per year may be awarded for a limited range of project

expenses (including research assistants and postgraduate students, travel,

equipment). Approximately 200 DECRAs are awarded each year.

Future Fellowships are for four years, also providing funding for the applicant’s salary.

This fellowship may also award up to $50,000 for a limited range of project expenses.

Approximately 100 Future Fellowships are awarded each year.

The Laureate Fellowships provide significantly higher amounts of funding, over five

years. For the applicant, the salary support provided will be in addition to their normal

salary at their Administering Organisation, approximately $160,000 extra. The

fellowship will also provide funding for up to 2 postdoctoral researchers, up to 2

postgraduate research students and an additional $300,000 per annum for other

research costs. Less than 20 Laureate Fellowships are awarded each year. This level

of funding (approximately $3.5 million total) makes these fellowships globally

competitive and attractive.

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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Linkage Program

The primary aims of the Linkage Program are to foster cooperative research amongst

different research sectors and to enhance the use of research outcomes in the

innovation system. As such, projects usually involve academic researchers working

jointly with actors from other public institutions as well as with private enterprise.

As with the Discovery Program, these is no direct funding for international partners.

However, funds may flow to international partners if they are for allowable cost items

such as facility access fees.

Also, funding may be used to support relevant conferences and workshops in order to

achieve project goals.

Linkage Projects

The mainstay of the Linkage grants are the Projects. These provide up to $300,000

per year for 2-5 years, to undertake research that is of interest to non-university groups,

including industry, the public sector and civil society.

This funding is to provide resources to the Eligible Organisations (i.e. Australian

Universities, plus some other selected public Australian entities) to collaborate with

Partners from outside of Australia’s university environment. Any number of Partners

may be written into the proposal, as long as the collective contributions (in-kind or cash)

of these Partners totals at least as much as the budget requested from the grant.

Additionally, the cash contributions from these Partners must total at least 25% of the

requested grant. This cash contribution requirement does not apply to certain exempt

organisations, including charities and other non-profit organisations. Some Australian

start-ups and SMEs may also be exempt from this cash contribution requirement,

according to their size.

Industrial Transformation Research Program

The ITRP provides funds in specified industrial domains to assist Australian industry

solve critical problems and develop a qualified workforce in order to become more

competitive.

The main partners in these projects will clearly be Australian universities and Australian

businesses. However, international partners are also able to contribute.

Cash and in-kind contributions from partners are necessary. In particular, for the

Industrial Transformation Research Hubs, the cash contribution from partners must

total at least 75% of the requested funding.

The funding available is up to $5 million for 5 years.

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Europe’s ICT innovation partnership with

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Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities

The purpose of LIEF grants is to support large infrastructure facilities in such a way as

to enhance their useability amongst university and industrial organisations, as well as

support access to international facilities via reciprocal arrangements.

Whilst there is no specified maximum funding, minimum funding requests are $150,000

per annum, for up to 5 years. These funds should support the construction or

enhancement of research infrastructure in Australia, but not for conducting research or

maintaining the facilities.

Funds can also be used to coordinate reciprocal access to international facilities,

including subscription or access fees to these facilities.

Centres of Excellence

This funding scheme is perhaps the most flexible and useable in terms of support for

international engagement with international funding programmes such as Horizon

2020.

Typically, the ARC supports Centres of Excellence for 7 years, with funding of up to

$5 million per year with significant contributions from partners. There is a great deal of

flexibility on how these funds can be spent, including supporting the Centre’s research

contributions towards a Horizon 2020 project, for example. And, because the funding

extends to 7 years, a Centre will be in a position to partner on a Horizon 2020 proposal

and know the status of its finances for the duration of the project.

These Centres allow Australian university researchers – usually in partnership with

researchers from multiple Australian universities, other public and private

organisations, and international organisations – to dedicate a significant research effort

towards addressing a focussed research topic, including the development of physical,

virtual and human resources necessary for achieving the objectives.

Whilst there is no direct funding for international partners, the funds can be used for

access costs to international facilities, hosting international workshops and

conferences, and also to provide travel and subsistence costs for international

research visitors to the Centre.

Calls of proposals are open only once every three years, and a complete list of

currently funded projects can be found online.11 In the ICT domain, this includes (but

is not limited to):

• ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems, https://equs.org/

• ARC Centre of Excellence in Future Low Energy Electronics Technologies, http://www.fleet.org.au/

11 http://www.arc.gov.au/arc-centres-excellence

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• ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation and Communication Technology, http://www.cqc2t.org/

• ARC Centre of Excellence for Robotic Vision, https://www.roboticvision.org/

It is expected that the next round of funding will open for applications in mid-2018, for

Centres commencing operation in 2020.

4.5.2 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/

The NHMRC is the medical research counterpart to the ARC. Unlike the ARC,

however, it offers a significantly more diverse range of funding instruments, including

dedicated funds for international engagement. It is also responsible for Australia’s

health-related research ethics rules and guidelines, leading national initiatives related

to medical research, and overseeing Australia’s international obligations and

agreements in health and medical related research matters.

Whilst all of the research funded by the NHMRC is in the medical and health fields

(from basic research, to clinical, public health as well as health services), there are

circumstances where they fund research in areas of ICT and engineering that are

directly relevant to health and medical matters.

Whilst the NHMRC offers numerous fellowships and scholarships, applicants must be

Australian citizens or permanent residents in order to accept these. However, for

project funding it is only necessary to have an appropriate working visa in order to work

in Australia for the duration of the grant. For these reasons, the following analysis will

consider only project funding.

Funding from the NHMRC can only be granted to approved Administering

Organisations, which includes Australian universities, public research agencies and

specified medical research organisations,12 and is typically for a 5-year duration.

Normally, funds must be spent in Australia. However, where necessary and justified

funds can be used for overseas research activities, including salary support for

those activities, but this excludes financial support for named chief investigators at

those overseas organisations.

Project Grants

These grants are the main project funding instrument of the NHMRC. No maximum

funding is specified, though funding requests should be based on specified levels of

12 https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/grants-funding-administering-grants

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direct costs as pre-determined by the NHMRC (such as for salaries, etc).13 In recent

years $3-4 million would be an upper maximum.

Program Grants

The aim of the Program Grants scheme is to provide support for teams of high calibre

researchers to pursue broad, multi-disciplinary and collaborative research activities.

There is a significant amount of funding available, calculated according to the track

record of the chief investigators rather than articulated project costs. The highest

quality individuals will attract a funding rate of approximately $550,000 per annum

which, when combined with other individuals named in the application, typically adds

up to $10-20 million for the total Grant.

That is, Program Grants are designed to give maximum flexibility to teams to pursue

their research in new and unexpected directions.

Development Grants

These grants are designed to assist proof-of-concept research to reach commercial

outcomes. In particular, it will support commercial development of a product, process,

procedure or service that would result in improved health care, disease prevention or

provide health cost savings.

NHMRC - European Union Collaborative Research Grants

This grant is the only one in Australia explicitly designed to support Australian

involvement in Horizon 2020.

Each year, the NHMRC publishes a list of Horizon 2020 topics for which Australian

partners will be eligible to receive support from the NHRMC. For 2018, this may include

the following topics (this will be confirmed during 2018):14

• SC1-BHC-05-2018: International flagship collaboration with Canada for human data storage, integration and sharing to enable personalised medicine approaches

• SC1-DTH-03-2018: Adaptive smart working and living environments supporting active and healthy ageing

• SC1-DTH-07-2018: Exploiting the full potential of in-silico medicine research for personalised diagnostics and therapies in cloud-based environments

13 https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/grants-funding/apply-funding/budget-mechanism-funding-commencing-2019 14 https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/grants-funding/apply-funding/nhmrc-european-union-eu-collaborative-research-grants-funding

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• SU-TDS-02-2018: Toolkit for assessing and reducing cyber risks in hospitals and care centres to protect data/infrastructures

In order to be eligible for funding, Australian organisations must be listed as full

partners on a successful Horizon 2020 proposal (i.e. they cannot be added to the list

of partners afterwards) in one of the topics selected by the NHRMC.

4.5.3 Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs)

https://www.business.gov.au/assistance/cooperative-research-centres-programme

The CRC programme has been an important component of Australia’s innovation

landscape for over 25 years. It provides matching funding from the Australian

Government for large industry-led research and development efforts.

Each CRC is incorporated as its own business entity, and this entity formalises the

collaborative relationship between all of the partners from industry, academia and the

community. Each CRC has a detailed business and research plan to achieve

commercialisation and use outcomes from research. Funding can be significant, and,

depending on the success of the CRC, can continue for 10 years.

International participants are able to be members of a CRC, however funding

(which is provided to and administered by the CRC entity) should normally be spent in

Australia unless there are strong commercial benefits to Australia for these funds to be

invested in overseas activities.

The building and selection of CRCs is a long and highly competitive process. Only

those consortia with robust business plans, committed partners (particularly Australian

businesses), and strong political support can hope to be successful. For these reasons,

the CRC Association was established to support and enhance both ongoing CRCs as

well as new bids seeking to strengthen their proposal. International researchers and

organisations who are interested in the CRC program would do well to speak with the

CEO of the CRC Association.15

Current CRCs that have specific focus on ICT areas include:

• Innovative Manufacturing CRC, http://imcrc.org/

• Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, http://acecrc.org.au/

• Capital Markets CRC, https://www.cmcrc.com/

• CRC for Living with Autism, https://www.autismcrc.com.au/

• CRC for Spatial Information, http://www.crcsi.com.au/

• Data to Decisions CRC, https://www.d2dcrc.com.au/

• Space Environment Management CRC, http://www.serc.org.au/

15 https://crca.asn.au/

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• The HEARing CRC, https://www.hearingcrc.org/

Although, keep in mind that many other CRCs also involve elements of ICT research

and capability development and should not be discounted for collaboration.

The CRCs also engage with Australia’s Industry Growth Centres, which are a separate

mechanism – funded by government and led by industry – to support Australia’s most

important industries to advance through policy and regulatory reforms, research

engagement improvements, increased access to global markets and supporting

workforce skills.

CRC Projects

A new addition to the CRC schemes are shorter (up to 3 years) and more targeted

project grants called, simply, CRC Projects (or, CRC-P). However, the basic aims are

the same as for their larger CRC counterparts: to achieve tangible commercial benefits

from industry-led research.

4.5.4 Global Innovation Strategy (GIS)

http://innovation.gov.au/page/global-innovation-strategy

The GIS is part of Australia’s National Innovation and Science Agenda (NISA), and is

specifically designed to increase Australia’s competitiveness through collaboration with

highly innovative economies and with Australia’s strategic partners.

Whilst there are numerous schemes available, not all of them are applicable to

collaboration with Europe.

There are two primary schemes of interest, and within each scheme projects must be

topically aligned with Australia’s Industry Growth Centres:16

• Advanced Manufacturing

• Food and Agribusiness

• Medical Technologies and Pharmaceuticals

• Mining Equipment, Technology and Services

• Oil, Gas and Energy Resources

and a third, regional, scheme that may also be relevant in limited circumstances.

16 https://industry.gov.au/industry/Industry-Growth-Centres

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Global Innovation Linkages

This scheme funds Australian consortia (which must contain at least an industrial

partner and a research partner) to collaborate with international partners to develop

new products, services and processes. It provides up to $1 million for up to 4 years for

the Australian partners, which must be matched by these partners via cash and/or in-

kind contributions.

The funds cover many direct costs for the Australian partners and may be used

overseas for necessary activities than cannot be conducted in Australia (however, the

funds cannot be used to cover any costs of the international partners).

Proposals are expected to work closely with the relevant Growth Centre.

Global Connections Fund

The Global Connections Fund builds on the experiences of the Horizon 2020 project

CAESIE.17 It provides seed funding to explore or establish new international

collaborations (to work towards commercialisation outcomes, not for basic research)

between researchers and SMEs.

Each collaboration must involve two partners – an Australian partner and an

international partner – and one must be an SME, and the other a research organisation

(e.g. university, public research agency, etc.).

There are Priming Grants, which provide travel funding for an Australian partner to

explore the possibility of a new collaborative relationship.

This grant is supported by a larger Bridging Grant (up to $50,000), which provides seed

funding to kick-start new projects. This funding must be supported by cash/in-kind

contributions from the partners of at least 50% of the requested funding.

Regional Collaborations Programme

This programme is aimed at supporting strategic research between Australia and the

Asia-Pacific region, in particular where it relates to areas of mandated focus (such as

determined by the numerous multi-lateral fora in the region). It is important to keep in

mind that this includes a number of Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) of

European countries, including New Caledonia and French Polynesia.

Funding will only support direct costs of Australian applicants, and this is expected to

have a matching cash contribution from the Australian and/or overseas partners.

17 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/105220_en.html

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4.5.5 Australia Awards – Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships

http://internationaleducation.gov.au/endeavour

The Australia Awards program has long offered the Endeavour Scholarships and

Fellowships, some of which support overseas students, researchers and professionals

to pursue activities in Australia. There are three opportunities available:

• Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarship, to pursue a PhD or Masters degree at an Australian institution

• Endeavour Research Fellowship, to undertake 4-6 months pursuing research in Australia that contributes to the candidate’s overseas study or research activities

• Endeavour Executive Fellowship, for 1-4 months for the candidate to undertake professional development opportunities in Australia

These awards include support for travel, insurances, and a modest stipend.

4.5.6 Grants and funding on state level

Australia has 6 states:

• New South Wales

• Victoria

• Queensland

• Western Australia

• South Australia

• Tasmania

and 2 self-governing territories (whilst they have their own regional governments, these

governments are subordinate to the federal government):

• Australian Capital Territory

• Northern Territory

Each has its own mechanisms for supporting research and innovation. Most of this

support is in the form of direct financial assistance or concessions to businesses

operating in these regions and budgets for local universities, as well as significant

capital investment into research infrastructure.

Government departments also conduct their own research (both in-house, as well as

in collaborations) that is relevant to state government responsibilities (e.g. agriculture,

water, infrastructure, etc.).

There are a few programs, however, operating at this regional level that can be of

particular value for research and innovation collaborations with Europe.

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New South Wales (NSW)

https://www.industry.nsw.gov.au/business-and-industry-in-nsw/innovation-and-

research

NSW is Australia’s most populous state, and home to Australia’s largest and most

famous city, Sydney. Sydney is also the epicentre of Australia’s capital markets,

including home to the Australian Stock Exchange and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

The NSW Government invests heavily into local R&I capabilities, including universities,

infrastructures, grants, business assistance, medical research, and more.

NSW-Israel Research & Development and Technological Innovation Program

The only scheme operated by NSW that is explicitly open to international participation

is this scheme with Israel. The basic requirement is for a commercial entity in NSW

and a commercial entity in Israel to engage in a joint project.

Funding of up to $250,000 will be provided to the NSW entity, with a requirement that

the NSW entity contribute matching finances (which may be sourced from other

government grants, commercial sources, or indeed from the Israeli partner).

Projects should advance new and innovative products for the global market and have

the potential to contribute to economic growth, skills development and job creation in

NSW.

Victoria

https://economicdevelopment.vic.gov.au/

Like NSW, the Victorian Government provides operational funding and strategic

investments into local research organisations and capabilities.

There are two excellent portals for searching for grants and assistance in Victoria:

• https://www.vic.gov.au/grants.html

• http://www.business.vic.gov.au/support-for-your-business

though most of the listed opportunities are only relevant to Victorian-based entities.

The two exceptions are:

Veski Innovation Fellowship

The Victorian Government provides funding for a number of fellowships, administered

by the Veski foundation (an organisation whose mission is to encourage innovation for

the Victorian economy). In particular, they currently offer the Veski Innovation

Fellowship, which aims to attract international researchers to a Victorian institution

(typically university of research agency) for up to three years. The funding support of

$50,000 per annum must be matched by cash and in-kind by the host organisation in

Victoria. Work must be undertaken in one of the following areas:

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• biotechnology

• biomedical

• advanced manufacturing including food science and bioengineering

• environmental and energy technologies, or

• the enabling sciences.

Victoria-Israel Science Innovation and Technology Scheme (VISITS)

As with NSW, Victoria operates a funding scheme to support collaboration with Israel.

The VISITS scheme provides several different types of support for Victoria-Israel

innovation collaboration.

The Feasibility and Proof of Concept Studies (VISFPC) scheme provides funding for

early feasibility and proof of concept studies directed at advancing solutions to demand

driven challenges. The applicant must be a Victorian entity (not necessarily business),

and applications must name both an Israeli partner as well as a Victorian SME than

would benefit from the studies. The applicant must matched the grant amount (of up to

$50,000).

The other applicable VISITS scheme is the Science and Technology Research and

Development Fund (VISTECH), which supports market-oriented collaborative

research. Partners must include a Victoria company and an Israeli company, and may

also include other entities. However, universities and research agencies are not eligible

for funding. Under this scheme, the Australian partners can seek up to $250,000, which

must be match by a co-contribution. In Israel, there is a matching scheme to support

their participation in the collaboration.

Queensland

https://www.business.qld.gov.au/industries/science-it-creative

Queensland is Australia’s most northern state, and as such it attracts many people for

lifestyle reasons, including researchers and innovators.

In recent years, particularly during the time of the commodities boom (the state exports

half of the world’s supply of coking coal for steel production), Queensland has invested

heavily into research infrastructures and other research and innovation capability

development, including in ICT areas. They offer a wide range of grants, which can be

searched online at:

• https://www.grants-and-assistance.services.qld.gov.au/

Also, the government runs a programme called Advance Queensland that provides

information, training, networking and funding for research and innovation.18

18 https://advance.qld.gov.au/

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In particular, there are scholarships and fellowships available, to attract talent to

Queensland. These awards, however, much be submitted by the host organisation and

offer either a top-up (in the case of the scholarship) or co-funding (in the case of the

fellowship) to contributions from the host organisation or other sources.

Western Australia (WA)

http://www.jtsi.wa.gov.au/what-we-do/science-and-innovation

The state of Western Australia is most famous for its mining endeavours, especially

iron ore. As such, it has been at the global forefront of mining innovation, including site

automation, remote sensing and logistics. WA will also be the primary Australian

location for the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope.19

Like Queensland, the state has also had strong investments into research and

innovation in recent years. In particular, they have recently launched an initiative called

New Industries WA,20 that aims to provide support for new and emerging industries as

a way to provide sustainability via diversity to the WA economy. This initiative will

include fellowships and other opportunities, however they will be launched at a later

date.

South Australia (SA)

In recent times South Australia has made international headlines as being the new

home to the world’s largest lithium-ion battery storage facility, built by Tesla Inc., as a

solution to electricity load smoothing in a state that is the lead in the proportion of its

electricity being supplied by renewables (in particular wind and solar).

It is also a centre of Australia’s defence manufacturing and research, which includes

new large-scale programs for ship-building, in additional to aerospace and cyber-

security undertakings.21

The SA Government’s grant database is online at:

• http://www.grantassist.sa.gov.au/

Tasmania

Australia’s southernmost state is also home to the Australian Antarctic Division – an

agency that, amongst other things, provides facilities, infrastructure and expertise for

use by international researchers.

19 https://www.skatelescope.org/ 20 http://www.newindustries.wa.gov.au/ 21 http://www.defencesa.com/domains/research

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Tasmania also has a vibrant arts community, including digital arts and innovation,

enhanced significantly in recent years by the establishment of the private art museum

MONA – Museum of Old and New Art.22

It is also the smallest state in Australia, so state funding opportunities for international

researchers are virtually non-existent. However, the government has a renewed focus

on economic growth, and has established the Department of State Growth to support

this,23 and provides a number of grants and assistance, which can be searched online

at:

• https://www.stategrowth.tas.gov.au/grants_and_funding_opportunities

Other opportunities

Of course, governments are not the only funders of research in Australia. In particular,

Australian businesses enjoy generous tax support for research via the R&D Tax

Incentive, 24 which offers tax offsets of up to 43.5% of research costs, to encourage

private research undertakings (which may include overseas research activities).

However, the only non-government schemes that support collaboration with Europe

are:

4.5.7 Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) operates numerous agreements

around the world, the foster international cooperation. In Australia, the agreement is

managed by Universities Australia.25

The purpose of this scheme is to support travel (and exchange) between an Australian

university and a German organisation. Costs for Australians are covered by

Universities Australia (up to $12,500), whilst the costs for Germans is covered by

DAAD (up to €8,000).

4.5.8 Fasic Program 2018

FASIC is the Franco-Australian Hubert Curien Programme. FASIC is implemented

jointly by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) and the Ministry of Higher

Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI) in France, and by research partners in

Australia.

Calls for applications for this program are launched on an annual basis. Deadline for

submission of applications: 02/04/2018.

22 https://mona.net.au/ 23 https://www.stategrowth.tas.gov.au/ 24 https://www.business.gov.au/assistance/research-and-development-tax-incentive 25 https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/global-engagement/international-collaboration/international-agreements-and-activities/Australia--Germany-Joint-Research-Cooperation-Scheme

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Scientific cooperation is a major pillar of the enhanced bilateral strategic partnership

adopted in 2017 between France and Australia. It enables the two countries to jointly

develop innovative solutions that can benefit our respective communities and to ensure

our global economic competitiveness.

The French Embassy in Australia is putting in place in 2018 new instruments promoting

research collaboration between France and Australia, under the umbrella of the PHC

FASIC Program. This program aims to be a catalyst and to support the launch and

development of bilateral research projects at the critical moment of their initiation, and

more broadly the development of science and technology strategic collaboration.

The PHC FASIC Program will help initiate or strengthen bilateral research

collaborations, and allow scientists from French and Australian research institutions to

meet and discuss future collaborative projects. This program aims to support the

establishment of scientific networks between France and Australia and potentially

future joint research laboratories.

The PHC FASIC Program will be implemented through three specific instruments:

▪ FASIC RESEARCHERS

▪ FASIC DOCTORANTS

▪ FASIC WORKSHOPS

Types of projects

The objective of this program is to develop scientific and technological exchanges of

excellence between laboratories in both countries, by encouraging new cooperation

and the participation of young researchers.

Eligibility criteria

Applications are open to post-docs or researchers affiliated to French higher education

institutions or research organizations. Each project must explicitly associate an

Australian research partner. Industry partners can participate in the project as long as

they are collaborating with an academic partner. French and Australian researchers

involved in the project must have the support of their respective institutions. A letter of

support from their respective research institutions will be attached to the application.

An equivalent level of matching funding from the Australian research partner institution

on the project is required. This can be either cash or in-kind financial support from the

Australian partnering research institution to the French scientist(s) during his mobility

to Australia / or the funding of reciprocal mobility to France of an Australian researcher

to the project (researcher, post-doctoral fellow). Projects that have already received

financial support under PHC FASIC program are not eligible for re-application

immediately upon completion. Priority will be given to new projects.

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Evaluation Criteria

• The evaluation will focus on:

• Clear description of the objectives and expected impact of the submitted

research project

• The quality of the scientific project (originality of the research subject, quality of

the research teams involved, development perspectives and technology

transfer)

• Interest, complementarity and level of the proposed cooperation.

Selection Procedure

For the French part, MESRI's European and International Mission for Research,

Innovation and Higher Education (MEIRIES) ensures the scientific evaluation of the

files.

Management of the program

Grants under the FASIC RESEARCHERS program are managed by the Campus

France agency. Selected French researchers have to mandatorily complete their

mobility to Australia by 31 December 2018. No postponing of the mobility is negotiable.

Travel support covers roundtrip transportation between two international airports. Once

tickets are issued, a change of dates is no longer possible. Grants under the PHC

FASIC RESEARCHERS encompass exclusively the payment of subsistence

allowances and travel costs for researchers affiliated in France. Grants are capped at

3500 euros per application (including travel costs at economy airfare capped at 1600

euros).

Intellectual property

Project managers are responsible for making all the necessary arrangements

regarding IP management. Applicants shall take into account the attached document

regarding good practices and IP management under the PHC program. By submitting,

applicants acknowledge compliance with these IP management good practices.

Project monitoring

A final report is required no later than three months after the end of the projects. French

project managers must download and fill in the report template and attach it to their file

online within this time frame. This report is also to be sent to the French Embassy

within the same deadline (see contact for the program). It is requested that all

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publications resulting from the project supported by this program mention the support

provided by MEAE and MESRI.

Application modalities

Submissions must be done via the Campus France website:

http://www.campusfrance.org/en/fasic

▪ Deadline for submission of applications: April 2, 2018

▪ Dissemination of results: 1st July 2018

▪ Start of projects: 1st August 2018

4.5.9 Australia Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship

Masters/PhD Degree

Deadline: varies, April-Oct (annual)

Study in: Australia

Course starts 2018/2019

https://www.education.gov.au/research-training-program

Brief description:

On 31 December 2016, the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS)

ceased and was replaced by the Research Training Program (RTP) from 1 January

2017. The RTP provides block grants, on a calendar year basis, to higher education

providers (HEPs) to support both domestic and overseas students undertaking

Research Doctorate and Research Masters degrees, known as higher degrees by

research (HDRs).

The participants can take up their Master by research degree or Doctorate Degree at

numerous hosting universities in Australia. The number of awards is not specified. This

scholarship is aimed at both domestic and international students.

Scholarship value/inclusions/duration:

Under RTP, a University provides one or more of the following types of support to an

RTP Scholarship recipient:

• An RTP Fees Offset pays for the tuition fees of a higher degree by research

(HDR) student that would otherwise have been paid by the student. This

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requires that a university to fully offset tuition fee applicable for a student. This

is not a stipend.

• An RTP Stipend to assist students with their living costs while undertaking a

higher degree by research.

• RTP Allowances to assist students with ancillary costs of a higher degree by

research (HDR). This includes relocation costs to undertake a HDR, HDR thesis

printing and academic publication costs and health cover costs for recipients

and their dependents.

RTP scholarships are available for a maximum period of two years for a research

masters OR a minimum of three years, up to a maximum of four years (at the discretion

of the HEP) for a research doctorate degree.

Eligibility:

To be eligible for a RTP Stipend, RTP Fees Offset or RTP Allowance, a student must

be a domestic student or an overseas student enrolled in an accredited HDR course

of study at an Australian HEP. The basic eligibility criteria for an RTP are listed in

Section 1.5 of the Commonwealth Scholarships Guidelines (Research) 2017.

Application instructions:

Applications for RTP Scholarships need to be made directly to participating

universities. Each university has its own application and selection process, please

contact your chosen university directly to discuss how to apply for the RTP scheme.

The deadline varies per university but is around April-October each year.

It is important to read the Frequently Asked Questions and visit the website of the

University where you intend to apply and the official website (link found below) for

detailed information on how to apply for this scholarship.

For further information about the European Art Call refer to chapter 7.2 “EU Calls

targeting Australia and Singapore”

4.6 Networks

There is a wealth of networks, associations and organisations that can provide useful

information and access to expert knowledge and into networks although they are not

focused solely on research collaboration. The following table lists associations and

organisations located in EU member states that have active networks in Australia.

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The only exception in this list is Austrade. Austrade is the Foreign Trade Organisation

of the Australian government with multiple offices in Europe. The Polish Office is in

charge of Poland, Ukraine, Greece, Serbia and other South and Eastern European

countries. The German office of Austrade is in charge of Germany, Austria and

Netherlands. Scandinavian countries are represented by the Austrade’s office in

Stockholm, Sweden. The French office is also responsible for Belgium, Luxemburg

and Monaco. Spain and Portugal are supervised by the Spanish office of Austrade.

Austrade Italy is in charge of Israel.

Table 2- Overview of networks linking Europe and Australia including selected organizations in trade and research.

Network Country Link

Austrian-Australian Society Austria www.australia-austria.at

German Asia-Pacific Business Association

Germany www.oav.de

Sustainable Manufacturing and Life Cycle Engineering Research Group

Germany www.lceresearch.unsw.edu.au/index.htm

Association for Australian Studies

Germany www.australienstudien.org

Austrade Germany Germany https://www.austrade.gov.au/contact/offices/germany

German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce

Germany www.australien.ahk.de

Research Institute for Software and Service Ecosystems

Germany www.internationales-buero.de/en/rise.php

The Networked Service Society

Germany www.internationales-buero.de/en/networked_service_society.php

New Challenge International Consultancy

Poland www.newchallenge.com.au

Austrade Poland Poland www.austrade.gov.au/Contact/Offices/poland

Australia Spain Business Association

Spain www.australiaspain.com

La Camara- Spanish-Australian Chamber of Commerce

Spain www.lacamara.com.au

SRAP- Spanish Researchers in Australia-Pacific

Spain www.srap-ieap.org

Spain-Australian Council Foundation

Spain www.spain-australia.org/en

Austrade Spain Spain https://www.austrade.gov.au/contact/offices/spain

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Australia Spain Business Association

Spain www.australiaspain.com

Austrade Sweden Sweden https://www.austrade.gov.au/contact/offices/sweden

The Australian-French Association for Research and Innovation (AFRAN)

France www.afran.org.au

Austrade France France https://www.austrade.gov.au/contact/offices/france

Austrade Italy Italy https://www.austrade.gov.au/contact/offices/italy

Slovenian Australian Academic Association

Slovenia http://saaa.si/

EU-Australia Leadership Forum

https://www.europeaustraliaforum.eu/

The EU-Australia Leadership Forum (EUALF) is an EU-run project with a diplomacy

focus. It demonstrates a shared commitment to the already strong bilateral relationship

between the EU and Australia. The Forum's overall objective is to broaden and deepen

the existing ties and in so doing, help shape the vision for the partnership, based on

the future EU-Australia Framework Agreement and forthcoming EU-Australia Free

Trade Agreement.

4.7 IDEAL-ist contact point

Ideal-ist aims to help ICT companies and research organisations worldwide hoping to

find project partners for participation in Horizon 2020. Ideal-ist offers a unique and

quality-labelled Partner Search, as well as other services that help proposers with

participation in H2020.

The Australian representative in the Ideal-ist network supporting EU project consortia

in finding partners is:

Cameron Slatyer

Department of Industry and Science

Canberra, A.C.T., Australia

Email: cameron.slatyer@industry.gov.au

Phone: +61 2 62761981

Web Address: http://www.industry.gov.au

For further information about the Ideal-ist project and network refer to chapter 7.3

“Points of contact and further information”.

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5 Singapore

5.1 Country overview

Singapore is considered one of the most successful science, technology and

innovation systems in the region. National IT Plans by the National Computer Board

together with the liberalisation of the telecom markets and e-Government actions in

the 90s resulted in excellent positions of Singapore in many international ICT rankings.

Singapore is also leader in publications in South East Asia. The general strengths of

Singapore’s ICT research at the aggregate level are also confirmed in recent studies

on individual researcher level. As would be expected, researchers from the Nanyang

Technological University and the National University of Singapore – but also from the

Institute of Infocomm research are among the best in the country.

It is therefore not surprising that Singapore – given the small size of the country –

exhibits a number of strengths including Electronics and Electrical Engineering,

Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, Security, Networking, and Digital Media. These

different areas are either strong from the point of view of individual researchers,

dedicated research initiatives and institutes, or from a more market-oriented

perspective.

Joining the different indicators here and based on discussions with experts from

Singapore, a particularly strong case can be made for the area of Interactive Digital

Media (IDM). There are very good scientists located in Singapore contributing to the

different subjects within the area. Also, the field is significantly broad so that this

facilitates co-operation not just in a very narrow sub-domain. The long list of groups in

IDM suggests significant size of the overall area to sustain collaborations also for a

longer period – and thus also into the period of the forthcoming 8th EU Framework for

Research.

A second priority area can be identified in the more hardware- and physical domain of

Future Networks. There is a group of several institutes in the core area of networks

and important related topics such as routing, security, optical technologies, and coding

schemes. The case for this area is further strengthened by the excellent ICT

infrastructure and innovative applications available in the island state and the policies

in place to further invest in innovative networked solutions for the benefit of all citizens.

Thirdly, several top researchers located in Singapore are active in different sub-fields

of Robotics with an emphasis on mobile, autonomous, and social systems and different

areas within Embedded Systems.

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5.2 Success stories

IPAL- Image & Pervasive Access Lab

http://ipal.cnrs.fr/

IPAL is an outstanding example of a successful joint collaboration providing vast

opportunities for both students and researchers from all over the world who are

interested in a personal and professional development in a research laboratory. This

Joint Lab was established to promote and to manage synergic research projects

between France and Singapore. IPAL depicts a best practice of bilateral cooperation

in the field of infocomm and media.

The collaboration is supported by the Institute for Infocomm Research, a member of

A*STAR, as well as by the National University of Singapore (NUS), which is one of the

leading universities in Asia. On the French side, the collaboration is backed by the

French National Centre for Scientific Research, a government-financed research

centre, under the administrative authority of France’s Ministry of Research, as well as

by The Pierre and Marie Curie University, the Institute Mines-Telecom and Joseph

Fourier University. IPAL is supported by the Horizon 2020 Programme.

The joint lab settled down in Singapore, which is known for a very vivid but competitive

research scene. Meanwhile the lab has a strong position on the national and

international level and enables scientific exchanges of students and researchers

between Europe and Singapore. IPAL offers French scientists, students and engineers

a great opportunity to immerge the dynamic and rich research scene in the highly

developed region of Singapore, which is simultaneously a bridge to South-East Asian

region. This collaboration creates new opportunities, supports the development of

innovative research and results in numerous publications, prototypes, intellectual

property rights and copyrights.

The main research fields of IPAL identified by the French national research agency

concern smart city for inclusive society, digital health and biomedical image analysis.

New artificial intelligence solutions are developed to enhance the quality of life of elder

and frail society. As the number of older people is rapidly increasing, new initiatives

and security measures must be taken in order to prepare cities like Singapore for the

necessity of facing with the issues of the aging population.

IPAL also hosts several PhD students who conduct their research in the area of deep

learning, modelling and analysis of tissue organization to understand diabetes, sensor

fusion, and to further impact on the quality of life of aged people.

The aim of the collaboration is to share and transfer the knowledge, expertise,

experiences and human resources in order to connect the ICT and AI solutions with

the needs of preventive healthcare.

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5.3 Strategic topics for cooperation

EPIC priority topics for Singapore include in particular:

- Artificial intelligence and Data Science

- Cyber security and privacy

- ICT in transport

- Spatial intelligence

5.4 Priority constituencies (research groups, institutes, organisations)

Singapore provides a rich environment for research in many areas of ICT. In the

following we list some groups with strong European links that can be useful as a

starting point, but there are many more.

Artificial intelligence and Data Science

▪ EPIC partner NUS performs research in AI and robotics

http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/about/depts/cs/research/ai/project/

▪ EPIC partner I2R has a strong focus on machine learning and text analytics

https://www.a-star.edu.sg/i2r/RESEARCH/DATA-ANALYTICS

▪ IPAL- Image & Pervasive Access Lab

http://ipal.cnrs.fr/

Cyber security and privacy

▪ Cyber Security Research Centre @ NTU focuses on security-by-design for IoT,

cyber risk management and governance.

http://cysren.ntu.edu.sg/Pages/Home.aspx

▪ I2R of A*STAR – one of the EPIC project partners – is very active in vulnerability

discovery and security analysis, but also in IoT security and digital forensics.

https://www.a-star.edu.sg/i2r/RESEARCH/SECURITY-PRIVACY

▪ NUS and Singtel have established a joint research lab to conduct research in

predictive security analytics and IoT and cloud security.

https://nus-singtel.nus.edu.sg/

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ICT in Transport

▪ TUMCREATE: is a research platform for the improvement of Singapore's public

transportation, including the deployment of electric and autonomous mobility.

Researchers from Technical University Munich and Nanyang Technological

University join forces and are funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation

as part of the Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise

(CREATE).

https://www.tum-create.edu.sg/

Spatial intelligence

▪ EPIC partner I2R of A*STAR is active in satellite image analytics, machine learning

and data analytics as well as Satcom IoT

https://www.a-star.edu.sg/i2r/RESEARCH/SATELLITE

5.5 Funding opportunities: programmes and calls

5.5.1. Overview of funding opportunities

Table 3- Overview of funding opportunities in Singapore.

In Singapore, there are two main organisations offering research funding to

international scientist: A*STAR and National Research Foundation.

A*STAR stands for Agency for Science, Technology and Research and is an important

R&D Agency under the Ministry of Trade in Industry of Singapore, with the mission of

advancing scientific discovery and technological innovation. It connects academia and

industry in terms of R&D to create meaningful and impactful outcomes. A*STAR

collaborates intensively with some EU countries and offers funding opportunities for

bilateral cooperation projects.

National Research Foundation (NRF) is a department within the Prime Minister’s

Office. NRF is responsible for setting the direction for research and development on

funding schemeinternational

applicants

named

partner with

SG applicant

funding for

international

partner

funding for

international

visitor

max

funding

(SDG)

1st Singapore-Germany Academic-

Industry (2+2) international collaborationjust Germany ✓ ✓

$500 000

€300 000

ANRF-NRF Joint Grant Call just France ✓ ✓

Singapore NRF Fellowship

Class of 2019✓ ✓ ✓ $3 000 000

A*STAR

National Research Foundation

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the national level by planning, developing and implementing research and innovation

policies and strategies. The role of NRF is to fund key initiatives and to support young

research talent.

5.5.1 1st Singapore-Germany Academic-Industry (2+2) International

Collaboration

Call opens: 15 January 2018

Submission deadline: 29 March 2018

Summary of initiatives

The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Science and

Engineering Research Council (SERC) and the Federal Ministry of Education and

Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF), jointly announce

the 1st Singapore-Germany Academic-Industry (2+2) International Collaboration call

for proposals.

The goal of the Call for Proposals is to promote research and development bilateral

collaboration between Singapore- and German-based public and private institutes and

organizations, through joint scientific projects. Specifically, this collaboration calls for

the union of 4: one Singapore-based and one German-based public sector research

performer, and representatives from one Singapore-based and one German-based

industry collaborators. Against the backdrop of globalization and Singapore

government’s recent step up to help companies stay competitive through innovation

and technology adoption, this “2+2” cooperation framework could incentivize

Singapore-based companies to undertake open innovation partnership and provide the

additional avenue for them to internationalize.

For the 1st Singapore-Germany Academic-Industry (2+2) International Collaboration

joint grant call, A*STAR and BMBF would like to invite researchers based in Singapore

and Germany to submit proposals for joint research projects in the area of Advanced

Manufacturing.

This Call for Proposal is a joint submission that must involve TWO public sector

research performers and TWO industry collaborators. Applicants are required to

submit their applications electronically via the Integrated Grants Management System

(iGrants) by 29 March 2018, 17:00hrs SGT. The German-based public sector research

performer must also concurrently submit the joint proposal to BMBF.

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All joint proposals will be assessed and evaluated by scientific panels appointed by the

respective implementing agencies from Singapore and Germany. For the Singapore

component, the first stage application (at the pre-proposal phase) will be evaluated by

a combined panel comprising representatives from A*STAR, EDB and SPRING

Singapore. Selected proposals enter a second stage evaluation and will be cross

ranked with nominated proposals from BMBF. Industry collaborators of shortlisted

proposals may then proceed to apply for appropriate funding support from

EDB/SPRING Singapore (subject to assessment by the respective agencies).

Initiative description

This grant call serves to further strengthen efforts in research and innovation between

Singapore and Germany in the area of Advanced Manufacturing, based on the

agreement on scientific and technological cooperation, to build a basis for mutual

market access and sustainable economic alliance. The grant call is both competitive

and multi-disciplinary in nature, and is aimed at encouraging engagements between

the Singapore and German research community and industry collaborators. Projects

should also aim to achieve a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) between 5 and 7

upon completion. Key topics include:

▪ Advanced manufacturing and cyber-physical systems in production (Industry

4.0),

▪ New material and methods for additive manufacturing,

▪ Robust security systems for Industrial Internet of Things, and

▪ Smart sensors and actuators for production.

Up to three projects can be jointly funded through this grant call. All projects can be up

to 36 months in duration. For each project, a funding sum of up to SGD$ 500,000 for

Singapore-based researchers, across public sector research performer and industry

collaborator, while BMBF shall grant a funding sum of up to € 300,000 for German-

based researchers. A*STAR would fund the Singapore-based public sector partner,

while EDB and SPRING could use appropriate existing funding initiatives to provide

funding support to the Singapore-based industry collaborator. The funding application

will also be subjected to the respective agency’s evaluation criteria.

Proposal preparation and submission instructions

The objective of this initiative is to catalyze public-private partnerships between

Singapore and German public sector research performers and industry collaborators.

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It is A*STAR SERC’s intent that the proposed project leverage on existing

infrastructure and other programs that SERC has previously supported and pre-

positioned. No major investments in tools and equipment are envisaged. Allocation of

manpower, service and share time charges for use of equipment should be factored in

proposal submissions. SERC may assist and ensure that adequate time and resource

provisions are made for services and shared activities.

Eligibility

This Call for Proposal is a joint submission that must involve one public sector research

performer and one industry collaborator from Singapore and Germany respectively.

Eligible Singapore-based public sector research performers include the Institutes of

Higher Learning (including universities and polytechnics), A*STAR Research

Institutes, and non-defense-related public sector agencies (e.g., Ministries, Statutory

Boards). Applicants are required to submit their applications electronically via the

Integrated Grants Management System (iGrants) by 29 March 2018, 17:00hrs SGT.

The German-based public sector research performer must also concurrently submit

the joint proposal to BMBF.

Selected research project under this 1st grant call will be funded up to SGD$ 500,000

by A*STAR with its partner agencies (for Singapore-based public sector research

performers and industry collaborators) and € 300,000 by BMBF (for the Germany

component) for up to 36 months, and this includes funding for general overheads (20%

indirect costs).

Companies incorporated in Singapore that are prepared to make significant

investments in R&D activities in science and technology may submit an application to

either EDB or SPRING Singapore (for local Small and Medium Enterprises).

Companies will be assessed on the quantitative and qualitative merits of the proposed

project. These include the employment of research scientists and engineers, total

business expenditure in R&D which generates spin-off to the economy, investments in

fixed assets, and the company’s commitment to growing R&D capabilities in

Singapore. The grant will be subject to incentive terms and conditions requiring the

company to implement its plans to grow and sustain R&D activities in Singapore.

Proposal requirements

Proposals must attempt to fully disclose the research ideas and approaches. It is

important that proposals are well crafted and provide substantial description of the

research plan for a fair review of the scientific and/or technical plans and approaches.

Proprietary or confidential information must be clearly indicated in the proposal.

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Proposals must not be duplicative or substantially similar to any previous project or

proposal submission, and public sector research performers should not be represented

in more than one proposal.

The proposal shall contain the following:

▪ The overall detailed joint project description,

▪ Details on the involvement and contribution of the Singaporean public sector

research performers,

▪ Details on the interaction among public sector research performers of both

countries,

▪ Details for the funding required for the Singaporean effort.

Submission instructions

Only complete proposals will be accepted for review, evaluation and assessment for

awards.

All joint proposals must be submitted by the Singapore-based research performer

electronically via the Integrated Grants Management System (iGrants). Proposals must

be submitted with the appropriate endorsement by the respective Host Institution (by

the Chief Executive Director, Executive Director, the Director of Research or

equivalent) to ensure that the organizational support is clearly associated with the

proposed research plan.

Criteria for evaluation of grant proposals

Other factors will include the level of synergy of the proposed research to the collective

set of activities, the abilities of the researchers, their past performances in prior awards,

comments of the referees (if required), effectiveness of project management, and

appropriateness of the requested budget.

A formal contract involving the relevant Singapore-based public institutions and

German institutions shall be drawn for each project. Each project shall inter alia:

▪ Implement research findings to the industry or society (TRL 5-7).

▪ Apply state-of-the-art methods and advance technologies.

▪ Be tackled in an inter-disciplinary approach involving scientists with different

backgrounds in basic research and/or applied/closed research.

▪ Involve a mix of experienced and young scientists.

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Projects should preferably provide leverage in one or more of the following means:

▪ Provide access to unique and/or specialized characteristics of overseas partner

country (i.e. specific scientific knowledge or technique), available of key

manpower, common interest in seeking a breakthrough in a specific field, etc;

▪ Tap on specialized capabilities of overseas partner agencies, and through this,

create strategic linkages to tap on specialized capabilities in the future; and

▪ Provide opportunities to learn/share/benchmark research with your international

public sector research performer.

Proposal selection and award process

Only complete proposals will be accepted for review, evaluation and assessment for

awards.

All joint proposals will be assessed and evaluated by scientific panels appointed by the

respective implementing agencies from Singapore and Germany. These panels will

consist of scientific experts who will review and recommend complete proposals for

the award. Project proposals with clear strategies for implementing research findings

to industry or society, and show greater prospects of attaining a TRL between 5 to 7

would be preferred.

A*STAR SERC may seek referee reports, written submissions or presentations from

some public sector research performers to justify, elaborate or clarify aspects of the

research approach described in the proposal during the review process.

Notification of awarded projects will be sent to the respective employing organizations

and copied to the respective public sector research performers.

Information ownership

The following should be satisfied prior commencement of the project:

Cooperating parties should enter into formal contract agreement, which should specify

the roles and tasks to be undertaken by each party to the cooperation; and

Share the ownership of IP rights brought to and resulting from the cooperation, as well

as the commercialization rights agreed amongst cooperating parties, and will be

subjected to the contract assigned by both parties in the joint collaboration within

reasonable limitations before the commencement date of the project.

A formal Research Collaboration Agreement (RCA) between the collaborating parties

from Singapore and Germany would need to be signed and forwarded to A*STAR and

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BMBF not later than twelve (12) months after the Letter of Award of the project has

been issued. Permission from A*STAR and BMBF must be sought at least one month

in advance if further time extension is required for the completion of the RCA.

Project review, monitoring and evaluation

Each awarded project will be evaluated and assessed for progress to ensure that

proposed milestones and deliverables can be achieved. Successful grant applicants

will be required to submit an annual progress report and a final report upon project

completion to the review panel comprising of scientific experts appointed by A*STAR

and BMBF representatives.

The assignment of commercialization rights and distribution of any intellectual property

(IP) (made according to the contributions by the respective parties) shall be established

in a RCA between Singapore and Germany research entities within one year of the

issuance of a Letter of Award. The RCA will include the following:

▪ Specify roles and tasks to be undertaken by each party within the cooperation;

and

▪ State the sharing and ownership of relevant IP and commercialization rights

brought to and resulting from this cooperation.

Presentations and public seminars may also form part of the progress review of a

project.

Deadlines

This Call for Proposal opens 15 January 2018. Singapore applicants are required to

apply electronically via iGrants by 29 March 2018, 17:00 (SGT).

German-based applicants are required to submit their applications to BMBF’s online

system.

Grant recipients will be notified in October 2018.

Indicative timeline of grant call activities are as follows:

Activity Timeline (SGT)

Call for Applications 15 January 2018

Deadline for Submissions 29 March 2018

First Stage Peer Review and Cross-Ranking 01 July 2018

Second Stage Review and Final Decision 01 September 2018

Announcement of Outcomes October 2018

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5.5.2 ANR-NRF Joint Grant Call

Call opens: February 2018

Submission deadline: end of March 2018

Background and objectives of cooperation with Singapore

By developing bilateral agreements with foreign funding agencies, ANR enables

French researchers to initiate or intensify their collaborations. Such cooperation fits

into its plans to foster and give rise to outstanding teams in Europe and throughout the

world.

Bilateral agreements are designed to support innovative bi-national projects which

break away from existing national projects and show seamless synergy between both

countries’ teams and genuinely integrated joint research.

In order to simplify and streamline working arrangements, create frontier-free research

funding), ANR and NRF have forged a new partnership. An agreement was signed

between ANR (The French National Research Agency) and NRF (National Research

Foundation) making it easier to set up and implement high-quality scientific projects

jointly proposed by French and Singaporean research teams. Under this agreement,

each country’s agencies evaluate the proposals and fund their respective national

teams according to their own procedures.

The purpose of the partnership between ANR and NRF is to support projects in which

there is effective collaboration between Franco-Singaporean partners. Partners will

ensure that each country provides equitable contributions and scientific inputs. The

same will apply to grant applications made to agencies. French and foreign partners

should strive to align projects’ start and end dates. Please note that NRF has a

maximum project length of 36 months.

Research priorities

The bilateral accord signed with NRF is only open to the following themes:

▪ Materials nanotechnologies, nanosystems applied to challenges: clean, secure

and efficient energy; industrial renewal; sustainable mobility and urban systems;

sustainable information and communication society

Submission of proposals

The French and Singaporean partners shall prepare a joint scientific project. Each

country’s teams must designate a national scientific coordinator. The acronym and title

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of the project provided to each agency must be the same. Projects should be submitted

all at once to respective funding agencies.

French partners:

Projects will be submitted under “PRCI: International Collaborative Research Projects”

funding instrument of the ANR’s Generic Call for Proposals 2018.

Foreign partners:

It is essential to comply with the foreign agency’s procedures for submission, format,

and eligibility, as well as their opening and closing dates.

Submission of full proposals

French scientific coordinator must submit a full proposal to ANR, together with

applicants to the PRC, PRCE and JCJC funding instruments selected at the first

stage’s outcome. The deadline and the URL of the submission site will be

communicated later on the web page dedicated to the 2018 Generic Call for proposals.

Writing in English is highly recommended, as evaluation is carried out within a bilateral

cooperation with the foreign agency. If a scientific document is drafted in French, a

translation may be requested. The full proposals for international projects must comply

with the rules on format and content set out in the Guide for Applicants 2018. The

choice of the committee in which the project will be evaluated is carried out by the

French scientific coordinator while submitting the full proposal and can not be modified

during the process. The French coordinator should be listed as scientific coordinator

on the ANR submission site, with the foreign coordinator listed as “country referent”.

The French coordinator shall be subject to the rules (incl. eligibility) applicable to all

national scientific coordinators under the Generic Call for Proposals. The following is

the minimum information required concerning foreign partners: the name and address

of the institution, its category (public/private), the address where research is carried

out, and information concerning the foreign coordinator (country referent), filled in

using the online form. Only the amount of funding requested by foreign partners must

be stated in the online form. No detailed financial breakdown on line is required.

Furthermore, applicants must absolutely provide the following information in the

scientific document:

▪ The scientific contribution of the foreign teams;

▪ Financial data, broken down by item of each expenditure for both foreign

partners and French partners.

Finally, applicants are requested to provide a summary table for each French and

foreign partner (with amounts indicated in each national currency and their equivalents

in euro, if necessary):

▪ The total amount of expenditures;

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▪ The amount of funding requested from each funding agency (ANR, NRF).

Eligibility of full proposals

Each agency decides on projects’ eligibility according to its own rules. For foreign

agencies with separate eligibility criteria, partners are strongly recommended to read

the call text published by Singaporean Agency www.nrf.gov.sg/funding-

grants/international-grant-calls

ANR verifies the full proposals’ eligibility taking into account both the criteria set out in

the 2018 Generic call for proposals and described below:

1) The estimates duration of the project must be the same for both countries’

partners.

These eligibility criteria apply in addition to those of the foreign agency (must be verified

with foreign agency).

A project will be funded by the ANR only if it meets the eligibility rules of the NRF and

the ANR and the terms of its funding regulations.

Evaluation

Projects are evaluated in parallel by ANR and the foreign agency according to their

own evaluation procedures. As regards ANR, projects are evaluated according to the

same criteria as projects submitted under other General Call 2018 funding instruments.

The specific criteria for international collaboration detailed in the Guide for Applicants

are also taken into account.

With regard to the “Balanced scientific and financial contributions from respective

countries’ partners” criterion, the economic context of the partners’ countries is taken

into account. Project coordinators are informed that under the bilateral agreement,

NRF will provide Singaporean partners with up to €250k (430 000 SGD) per project for

the duration of the project. Applicants are invited to present projects justifying ANR

funding for indicative maximum amounts of €250k, including for fundamental research

projects.

Additionally, ANR and the foreign agency shall decide on the projects to be jointly

funded, on the basis of those selected under both selection processes, specific to each

agency.

Funding

Each agency will cover expenditures for their respective country’s teams according to

its own rules. Applicants will ensure that their budget includes participation in at least

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one mid-term and / or end of-term symposium in France and abroad. ANR’s funding

regulations are available at: http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr/RF

Submission

▪ Submission of full proposals to ANR:

▪ Opening of the submission site: end of February 2018

▪ Closing of the submission site: end of March 2018

▪ NRF calendar: it is essential to consult the Singaporean agency website

▪ Joint decision and publication of results: September 2018 (indicative date)

▪ Tentative project launch time: year-end 2018/adjustable depending on foreign

partners’ constraints.

5.5.3 Singapore NRF Fellowship, Class of 2019

Call opens:

Submission deadline: 20 March 2018

The Singapore NRF Fellowship provides opportunities for early career researchers

from all over the world to lead impactful research in Singapore. The Singapore NRF

Fellowship offers:

▪ A five-year research grant of up to SGD 3 million (approximately USD 2.15

million), inclusive of general overheads.

▪ Freedom to lead ground-breaking research in host institution of choice in

Singapore.

This call will have two tracks:

Track A: Applicants in all disciplines of science and technology (Computer Science,

including Infocomm Technologies and Interactive Digital Media, Engineering, Life

Sciences and Natural/Physical Sciences).

Track B: Applicants with research experience in the field of Science of Learning (SOL).

The NRF’s SOL seeks to develop a science-based understanding of the effectiveness

of Singapore’s education methods, as well as develop new methods to realise better

learning outcomes. Applicant’s proposals could be based on, but need not be limited

to, research in the following priority areas:

▪ Developing neuroscience-informed interventions for translation – This refers to

the development of interventions built on existing related neuroscience

knowledge.

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▪ Validation of cognitive theories or interventions with neuroscientific evidence –

This refers to the corroboration of existing interventions/theories with the

development of new neuroscience knowledge.

▪ Development of platform technologies as tools to support scaling of

interventions with neuroscientific evidence – This focuses on methods to scale

up application of established intervention methods.

Eligibility

Outstanding researchers of any nationality, in their early stage of their research careers

and are ready to take on their independent research, are eligible to apply.

PhD holders with research experience in any discipline of science and technology or

Science of Learning.

Application Details

Applications for the NRF Fellowship must be submitted through the Integrated Grant

Management System (IGMS) (https://researchgrant.gov.sg) by 20 March 2018,

3.00pm (GMT+8). Late submission shall not be accepted. Applicants shortlisted to the

final rounds will be invited to Singapore in October 2018 for an interview by the NRF

Fellowship Evaluation Panel (FEP), an international panel of eminent scientific leaders.

5.6 Networks

The identified networks, institutes and organisations can deliver useful information and

access to expert knowledge and into networks in Singapore, although they are not

focused solely on research collaboration. The following table lists associations and

organisations located in EU member states that have active networks in Singapore.

Institut Francais de Singapore leads and supports cultural, scientific and educational

cooperation between France and Singapore. It promotes the teaching of French

language, the French creative industries and the French savoir-faire in the fields of

higher education and research.

The Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SGC) is part of a

network of 130 offices of the German bilateral Chambers of Industry and Commerce

abroad in 90 countries. The Chamber is one of the largest national Business Chambers

in Singapore with a membership of close to 550 representatives from a variety of

industries from Germany and Singapore. The SGC is a valuable and well-established

networking platform and well connected with authorities in Singapore and Germany.

Through its active industry committees SGC gives a voice to businesses.

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Through its groundbreaking collaboration with Singapore’s two leading universities,

TUM has pioneered globalization of German universities with the presence of TUM

Asia in partnership with National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang

Technological University (NTU) to offer post-graduate programmes.

Facing a rapid increase of demand for skilled labour, TUM Asia has also launched

programmes in TUM’s expertise – bringing the best of German Engineering to Asia.

The degrees are taught by TUM faculty combined with relevant lectures from experts

in German and Singaporean industries, integrating a globalized classroom

environment.

Table 4: Overview of networks linking Europe and Singapore including selected organizations in trade and research.

Network Country Link

Institut Francais de Singapour France https://www.institutfrancais.sg/en/

The Singaporean-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce

Germany http://www.sgc.org.sg/

TUM Asia Germany www.tum-asia.edu.sg

5.7 Ideal-ist and Euraxess contact points

Ideal-ist aims to help ICT companies and research organisations worldwide hoping to

find project partners for participation in Horizon 2020. Ideal-ist offers a unique and

quality-labelled Partner Search, as well as other services that help proposers with

participation in H2020.

The Singaporean representative in the Ideal-ist network supporting EU project

consortia in finding partners is:

Institute for Infocomm Research

Phone: 0065 6408 2115

Web Address: http://www.i2r.a-star.edu.sg/

Singapore

For further information about the Ideal-ist project and network refer to chapter 7.3

“Points of contact and further information”.

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Euraxess is a European initiative aimed at researchers from all over the world, which

role is to deliver information and support professional scientists. The aim of this

initiative is to enhance the scientific coorperation between Europe and the rest of the

wolrd by offering mobility, travel and exchange grants and by supporting research

careers. Euraxess gives researchers a chance to connect and collaborate with others

on the worldwide level.

Euraxess is present in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, China, India, Japan,

Norh America (US and Canada) and as of July 2018 it will be present in South Korea.

The members of the Euraxess Community have an opportunity to be updated with

open calls, job positions and funding. They are continuously informed about events

and news by newsletter and have a possibility to contact and connect with other fellow

researchers around the world.

Euraxess ASEAN focuses on Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam

and has already over 7000 members (scientists, researchers, business and other

people interested in research between Europe and Southeast Asia).

The representatives of Euraxess ASEAN frequently visit universieties, research

organisations, conferences and companies across Southeast Asia in order to inform

about the services offered to researchers interested in career opportunities as well as

in exisiting research collaboration in Europe.

In order to get in touch with Euraxess ASEAN and receive more information about

research, funding opportunities and services in Singapore, please contact:

asean@euraxess.net

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6 New Zealand

6.1 Country overview

New Zealand’s geographical location emphasizes the need for international

collaboration. According to the European Commission, the EU already is the most

significant regional science and innovation partner of New Zealand.

From New Zealand’s perspective, there is a strong interest in technological innovation.

Technology has the potential to pass dairy exports to become New Zealand’s largest

source of export revenue. The growth of the Internet has helped the IT sector to

participate in the global marketplace. Still, New Zealand is in a competition for leading

experts and many IT projects can no longer be adequately undertaken by individual

companies. Instead, international consortiums play an increasingly important role.

New Zealand is a thriving technology and ICT country, where IT companies invest in

research and development more than in any other industry sector. Investing in ICT has

a big impact on the process of diversification and digitalisation of New Zealand’s

economy. The ICT companies contribute to the success and a strong growth of New

Zealand. New Zealand’s ICT sector is diverse covering wireless infrastructure, digital

content, payments, geospatial, telecommunications and agricultural technology.

NZ ICT companies have a growing reputation in 3D graphics, Health IT, services, bio

informatics, and security. Recent innovations have also been reported in more

mundane areas such as accounting and tax services, for example. New Zealand is

home to a pool of impressive 11,000 IT companies of whom just 54 companies hire

more than 100 employees. 76% of the companies have no employees as they use

contactors.

More on the academic side, ICT researchers in New Zealand are particularly strong in

Artificial Intelligence (including human-robot interaction) and the timely topic of

Machine Learning. These areas are also closely related to Cognitive Science and

bioinformatics. The field of Human/Computer Interaction is a particularly strong area

and there are excellent groups in Software Engineering. Further academic strengths

exist in distributed systems (GRID, parallel computing) and wireless systems.

Previously, New Zealand and the European Commission have already collaborated in

ICT research and for example engaged in joint calls in the area of the Virtual

Physiological Human in the Framework Programme.

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6.2 Success stories

One of New Zealand’s success stories of collaboration with European Union dates

back to 2005 when a group of researchers from EU countries and New Zealand as well

as a few officers from the European Commission met in Barcelona for a workshop on

the topic of computational physiology and biophysics. The results of the meeting were

published in the form of the While Paper, in which the term Virtual Physiological Human

came across for the first time. This meeting turn out to give rise to a long-term

cooperation between the universities including one non-European project partner from

New Zealand.

The goal of the White Paper was to deliver an overview of relevant current activities

and how they could be implemented as well as to identify potential mid-term and long-

term research opportunities for European researchers. The workshop group had

identified topics within several disciplines which includes a cross-road of ICT and the

biosciences.

The application was submitted for a funding under FP7-ICT in 2009 and started in

March 2011. The duration of the project was 4 years, its budget was 14.3 Mio €. It was

funded by the European Commission, and led by the University of Sheffield. Over 20

international partners from academia and industry took part in the project. One of the

project partners was the Institute of Bioengineering at the University of Auckland.

The aim of the project was to develop a new medical simulation software, which would

be used as a tool for sharing information between researchers and clinicians. VPH

would develop the infrastructure and combine the services to share the data, to grow

multiscale models for creating personalised patient models and to foster collaborations

within the community.

The VHP group came to conclusion that the use of information and communication

technologies can be helpful to understand and manage chronical diseases. The idea

was to capture the whole knowledge of diseases and turn it into predictive models,

which would help to soften the complexity of systemic behaviour.

6.3 Strategic topics for cooperation

EPIC focuses on the following priority areas for cooperation:

- Artificial Intelligence including robotics and human/machine interaction

- Internet of things including wearable computing

- Privacy, data protection, and cyber security

- Advanced manufacturing

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6.4 Priority constituencies (research groups, institutes, organisations)

Artificial intelligence including robotics and human/machine interaction

▪ Auckland University of Technology – Centre for AI Research (CAIR): CAIR focuses

on human language technology, speech technology, robotics and mind theory

https://www.aut.ac.nz/study/study-options/engineering-computer-and-

mathematical-sciences/research/centre-for-artificial-intelligence-research-cair

▪ EPIC partner University of Canterbury has an AI research group that focuses on

machine learning, biologically-inspired computation, Artificial Life and combinatorial

search and the widely renowned human interface technologies lab (HIT Lab)

http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/engineering/schools/csse/research/ai/

http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/Department.aspx?departmentid=47

▪ The University of Auckland’s Intelligent Systems and Informatics group is widely

known for its research in AI, case-based reasoning, pattern recognition, image

understanding and intelligent software agents.

https://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/ourresearch/researchgroups.html#3c6b7

220fabd18a0415571b8d0691609

▪ New Zealand AI provides a useful link to education sites in the country that target

AI

Newzealand.ai

Internet of things including wearable computing

▪ The University of Auckland’s Department of Mechanical Engineering performs

research in Cyber Physical Systems and IoT-enabled smart system, cloud

manufacturing and big data for IoT

http://www.mech.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/ourresearch/research-

facilities/LISMS/research.html

▪ Massey University has a smart environment for home and industry group

www.massey.ac.nz

Privacy, data protection, and cyber security

▪ The University of Waikato runs one of the first Cybersecurity Labs in New Zealand

https://crow.org.nz/

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▪ The University of Canterbury’s Cyber Security Lab works on critical infrastructure,

cloud computing, IoT and software-defined networks.

http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/spark/Group.aspx?groupid=193

Advanced manufacturing

▪ Auckland University has a large research group in its Innovative Manufacturing and

Materials Programme

http://www.immprogramme.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/immprog-research.html

▪ Auckland University of Technology’s Engineering Research Institute hosts the

Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Technology

https://eri.aut.ac.nz/research/centre-for-advanced-manufacturing-technology

▪ EPIC partner Callaghan runs AddLab – a research and support environment for

additive manufacturing

https://www.callaghaninnovation.govt.nz/addlab

6.5 Funding opportunities: programmes and calls

6.5.1 Overview of funding opportunities

Table 5- Overview of funding opportunities in New Zealand.

New Zealand’s research scene offers a few funding opportunities for both national and

international scientists and PhD Students searching for grants and fellowships.

The Royal Society is an independent, non-profit organisation with one of the premier

sources of research funding in New Zealand in the fields of science and the humanities.

The aim of the Royal Society is to foster science, technology and the humanities and

funding schemeinternational

applicants

named

partner with

NZ applicant

funding for

international

partner

funding for

international

visitor

max

funding

(SDG)

max

years

International Leader

Fellowship (RSNZ)✗ ✓ ✓ ✓ NZ$ 20 000 3

Julius von Haast

Fellowship (RSNZ)✓ ✓ NZ$ 20 000 3

New Zealand International

Doctoral Research Scholarship

(Education New Zealand)

✓ ✗ ✗ ✓ NZ$ 25 000 3

just Germany

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to promote research activities by raising public awareness and advancing education.

The Royal Society offers different funding opportunities for both national and

international cooperation in all areas of research (https://royalsociety.org.nz/).

There are currently two programmes including either funding for direct international

applicant or funding for international partners: International Leader Fellowship and

Julius von Haast Fellowship.

Another important funding agency is the Ministry of Business, Innovation &

Employment which offers plenty of support opportunities for programmes of enduring

importance to New Zealand in the area of science and innovation. Every year the

Ministry announces calls for funding proposals for excellent research projects with high

potential for a transformation New Zealand’s future economic performance. The

current calls can be found on the official website (http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-

services/science-innovation).

Education New Zealand offers a prestigious and significant scholarship (New Zealand

International Doctoral Research Scholarhips- NZIDRS) for international students who

would like to undertake their PhD research in New Zealand. The scholarships are

awarded based on academic assets and profits of the research project to New Zealand.

6.5.1 International Leader Fellowships

Call opens on 25 January 2018.

Deadline: 19 April 2018

Specific Programme requirements:

Background

International Leader Fellowships supports incoming targeted international fellowships

for exceptional individuals that cannot be supported through other means. The

International Leader Fellowships is a new initiative under Catalyst: Leaders. The

Programme enables a Fellow to catalyse science and innovation capability and

capacity development in New Zealand for a minimum of four weeks per year for up to

three years.

Objective

The International Leader Fellowships are intended to support the attraction by New

Zealand Research Organisations (the Hosts) of international fellows who can have a

catalytic impact on New Zealand science capabilities and promote the importance of

international cooperation in science.

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International Partner

Proposals can be submitted by New Zealand research organisations for Fellows from

any country.

Activity Description

The successful Leader will: be recognised for excellence in their area or areas of

expertise; have the ability to support an increase in New Zealand’s capability in their

area of expertise; and be internationally recognised.

The Applicant must be a New Zealand-based Research Organisation, which will act as

the New Zealand Host (the Host). The Host will have the ability to leverage strategic

benefit of the Leader to catalyse capability and capacity development in New Zealand.

The Host is expected to connect the Fellow beyond its own institution.

▪ Each year up to three International Leader Fellows may be awarded.

▪ The Fellow must spend a minimum of 4 weeks per year in New Zealand with

the Host institution for a period of up to three years.

Funding

The International Leader Fellowships will provide the following funding (GST exclusive)

per annum of the Award:

▪ NZ$20,000 maximum stipend paid to the Leader via the New Zealand Host;

▪ NZ$20,000maximum research and travel allowance paid to the Host; and;

▪ NZ$10,000 maximum host institution administration allowance paid to the Host.

Fields of Research

The International Leader Fellowships are open to all fields of research, science and

technology (including social sciences and the humanities), and related areas of

expertise.

Specific Requirements

The New Zealand Host is expected to connect the Leader beyond its own institution.

Notification

The Society will notify Applicants of the outcome by email through their Host

Institutional Research Coordinator no later than 7 weeks after the close of applications.

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Successful Grants

Contract Timeframes

Contracts Initiated Required Starting Date

Contracted Activity must be complete

Activity Report(s) required

No later than 8 weeks after close of Call

Between 01 July 2017 and 30 June 2018

12, 24 and 36 months after contract commence, for 1, 2 and 3 years projects respectively.

Annually

Payments

The Fellowship will be paid over four payments. The first payment will be made upon

signing of the contract, with additional annual payments being made following the

acceptance of a satisfactory annual report detailing progress on milestone activities

achieved within each year. Any deviation from this principle must be justified and

accepted by the Society’s Director – Research Funding, in advance. Payment will be

by direct credit, upon receipt and assessment of the Annual activity report.

6.5.2 Julius von Haast Fellowship Award

Call opens on 26 April 2018.

Deadline: 19 July 2018

Specific Programme requirements:

Background

The Julius von Haast Fellowship is offered to internationally recognised German

researchers in conjunction with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment

and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The application process is administered

by the Society.

Objective

The Fellowship allows internationally recognised German researchers to spend time

working collaboratively with their New Zealand colleagues, and to establish, or

enhance, collaborative research of benefit to both countries.

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International Partner

Germany – in partnership with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH).

Activity Description

The successful Julius von Haast Fellow will be recognised for excellence in their area

or areas of expertise; have the ability to support an increase in New Zealand’s

capability in their area of expertise; and be internationally recognised. The Applicant

must be a New Zealand-based Research Organisation, which will act as the New

Zealand Host (the Host). The Host will have the ability to leverage strategic benefit of

the Fellow to catalyse capability and capacity development in New Zealand. The Host

is expected to connect the Fellow beyond its own institution.

▪ The successful Fellow will undertake research in New Zealand for a minimum

of four weeks per year over the three-year award period.

Funding

A Julius von Haast Fellowship will be awarded for three years. Each year of tenure the

Fellowship Award will comprise an annual payment of:

▪ NZ$20,000 maximum stipend paid to the Leader via the New Zealand Host;

▪ NZ$20,000 maximum research and travel allowance paid to the Host; and;

▪ NZ$10,000 maximum host institution administration allowance paid to the Host.

Fields of Research

The Julius von Haast Fellowship is open to all fields of research, science and

technology (including social sciences and the humanities), and related areas of

expertise.

Specific Requirements

In addition to the general eligibility requirements of the Catalyst: Leaders:

▪ The Fellow must be a German national or permanent resident with an

international reputation as an innovative researcher. He/she must be currently

working within the German research/science sector and have been employed

for no less than five years (in total) in public or private German research or

academic institutions.

▪ The New Zealand Host is expected to connect the Leader beyond its own

institution.

▪ Previously unsuccessful applicants are not excluded from re-applying.

▪ Previous recipients of the Julius von Haast Fellowship are not eligible to apply.

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The application must include a copy of each of the following documents for the German

researcher:

▪ Passport / Birth Certificate / Permanent Residency.

▪ Full Academic Transcript OR Confirmation of Doctorate.

Notification

The Society will notify Applicants of the outcome by email through their Host

institutional Research Coordinator no later than 7 weeks after the close of applications.

Successful Grants

Contract Timeframes

Contracts Initiated Required Starting Date

Contracted Activity must be complete

Activity Report(s) required

No later than 8 weeks after close of Call

No later than 12 months after Application Closing Date

36 months after Contract Starting Date

Annually

Payments

The Fellowship will be paid over four payments. The first payment will be made upon

signing of the contract, with additional annual payments being made following the

acceptance of a satisfactory annual report detailing progress on milestone activities

achieved within each year. Any deviation from this principle must be justified and

accepted by the Society’s Director – Research Funding, in advance. Payment will be

by direct credit, upon receipt and assessment of the Annual activity report.

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6.5.3 New Zealand International Doctoral Research Scholarship

(NZIDRS)

Call’s opening date for 2018 is to be announced.

Specific Programme requirements:

Background

The New Zealand International Doctoral Research Scholarship (NZIDRS) is a

Government funded scholarship, administered by Education New Zealand.

The scholarship aims to attract and retain the best international researchers to New

Zealand. The scholarship provides full tuition fees and a living stipend for up to 3 years.

Eligibility Criteria

The NZIDRS is a prestigious, highly competitive scholarship. It is awarded based on

academic excellence and the benefit of the candidate’s proposed research to New

Zealand. Recipients of this award will have an academic record placing them within

the top 5% of PhD candidates worldwide.

In order to apply for the NZIDRS you must meet all five eligibility criteria.

These criteria are non-negotiable.

▪ holding a minimum grade equivalent to a GPA of 3.7 on a 4.0 scale or an A to

A+ average in your most recent or highest post graduate tertiary qualification

▪ having a confirmed, non-conditional offer of place for a (direct-start) PhD

programme at a New Zealand university

▪ in case of commenced PhD studies in New Zealand, a start date must be after

01 July 2016

▪ PhD study must be conducted in New Zealand (not from a distance)

▪ citizenship or PR status in New Zealand or Australia is not allowed

Selection Criteria

The NZIDRS are awarded based on academic excellence and the impact of the PhD

research for New Zealand. Applications must propose research that has a clear, direct

and tangible positive effect on:

▪ New Zealand’s economy, in terms of international trade and business

development in key sectors, OR

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▪ New Zealand’s population in terms of health and safety, OR

▪ Research and scholarship in either of the above two areas

Fields of research

The NZIDRS is open to all fields of research, science and technology, and related

areas of expertise.

Applications are welcomed from eligible candidates undertaking relevant research in

any discipline.

International partner

Application can be submitted by any international researchers.

Specific requirements

To apply, following documents are required:

▪ Evidence of citizenship for every country for which you hold citizenship

▪ Evidence of an unconditional offer of place for a PhD programme from a New

Zealand university

▪ Academic transcripts, grading scale and certificates of completion

▪ Curriculum Vitae

▪ Two references provided by academic referees (including names and emails)

Payments

New Zealand University annual tuition fees and associated student levies; an annual

living stipend of NZ 25,000 per year (tax free); Medical insurance coverage up to NZ

600 annually.

For further information about the European ART Call in the area of Transportation,

refer to chapter 7.2 “EU Calls targeting Australia and Singapore”

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6.6 Network

Another project to be mentioned as an example of a successful collaboration. Germany

and New Zealand work together on the topic of the smart renewable energy so as to

find out how for instance, machine learning can be combined with interactive data

visualisation tools to make people aware of their energy consumption patterns.

Table 6: Overview of networks linking Europe and New Zealand including selected organizations in trade and research.

Network Country Link

IT4SE Germany http://it4se.hs-augsburg.de/

IT4SE was part of the APRA initiative on the establishment of joint research structures

between German universities and partners in the Asia Pacific Research Area. As all

APRA projects IT4SE was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and

Research (BMBF). The IT4SE project expired by the end of 2016. However, network

activities are now continued under the umbrella of the IFIP working group WG13-10.

6.7 Ideal-ist contact point

Ideal-ist aims to help ICT companies and research organisations worldwide hoping to

find project partners for participation in Horizon 2020. Ideal-ist offers a unique and

quality-labelled Partner Search, as well as other services that help proposers with

participation in H2020.

The New Zealand representative in the Ideal-ist network supporting EU project

consortia in finding partners is:

FRENZ

Name: Bruce McCallum

Email: Bruce.McCallum@mbie.govt.nz

Phone: 0064 7343 7123

For further information about the Ideal-ist project and network refer to chapter 7.3

“Points of contact and further information”.

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7 Further resources

7.1 Partners from AU/SG/NZ in H2020

The EC H2020 project database – CORDIS – provides an overview of previously

successful partners in H2020. The following projects are listed on CORDIS as

participating in an EU H2020 project with an Australian, Singaporean, or New Zealand

partner. From experience previously successful participants tend to return to the

Framework Programme and therefore are recommendable networking contacts.

7.1.1 Australia

BELS

Building European Links toward South East Asia in the field of GNSS

Co-ordinator in Italy: Instituto Superiore Mario Boella Sulle Tecnologe

Dell’informazione e delle Telecomunicazioni Associazione

Partner in Australia: University of New South Wales

BRAVE

Bridging gaps for the adoption of Automated Vehicles

Coordinator in Spain: Treelogic Telematica y Logica Racional Para la Empresa

Europea Sl

Partner in Australia: The University of Sydney

ESSENTIAL

Evolving Security SciencE through Networked Technologies, Information policy And

Law

Coordinator in Netherlands: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

Partner in Australia: Edith Cowan University

EarthServer2

Agile Analytics on Big Data Cubes

Coordinator in Germany: Jacobs University Bremen

Partner in Australia: The Australian National University

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My-AHA

My Active and Healthy Aging

Coordinator in Italy: Universita degli Studi di Torino

Partner in Australia: University of the Sunshine Coast

OrganiCity

Co-creating smart cities of the future

Coordinator in Denmark: Aarhus University

Partner in Australia: University of Melbourne

STORIES

Stories of Tomorrow – Students Visions of the Future of Space Exploration

Coordinator in Germany: Universität Bayreuth

Partner in Australia: Curtin University of Technology

THOR

Technical and Human Infrastructure for Open Research

Coordinator in UK: The British Library Board

Partner in Australia: Monash University

BIoTope

Building an IoT Open Innovation Ecosystem for connected smart objects

Co-ordinator in Finland: Aalto University Finland

Partner in Australia: CSIRO – Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial

Research Organization

7.1.2 Singapore

No ongoing projects.

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7.1.3 New Zealand

AENEAS

Advanced European Network of e-Infrastructures for Astronomy with the SKA

Coordinator in Netherlands: Stichting Astron Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy

Partner in New Zealand: The Research Trust of Victoria – University of Wellington

7.2 EU Calls targeting Australia and Singapore

Several H2020 calls target international collaboration.26 Countries outside the EU with

specific resources or expertise are explicitly mentioned in the call texts. The current

H2020 programme specifically includes several calls in the area of ART – automated

road transport.

In case of the ART calls, Singapore is certainly of high interest as there is an

autonomous vehicle test centre at NTU. Legislative and regulatory bodies are open for

testing new technologies in real life settings with a strong focus on rapid

implementation and exploitation. This makes Singaporean organisations valuable

partners for European developers.

In Australia, German multinational Bosch developed a self-driving vehicle in its

Australian plant in a joint venture with the Victorian government. Bosch worked on the

project with the Transport Accident Commission and VicRoads.

7.2.1 Testing, validation and certification procedures for highly automated

driving functions under various traffic scenarios based on pilot test data.

Call opens on 31 October 2017

Deadline: 04 April 2018

26 A full overview of international cooperation topics, not limited to but including Australia,

Singapore and New Zealand, can be found at:

https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/h2020/ftags/interna

tional_cooperation.html#c,topics=callStatus/t/Forthcoming/0/1/0/default-

group&callStatus/t/Open/1/1/0/default-group&callStatus/t/Closed/0/1/0/default-

group&+title/desc

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Topic Description

The automotive industry commits significant efforts and resources to test and validate

advanced driver assistance functions. For systems with high levels of automation, the

need for testing and validation will drastically increase as a comprehensive range of

driving situations and scenarios have to be considered. Current available procedures

do not provide an efficient and cost-effective solution. There is a great need for a

comprehensive approach to develop common procedures for testing, validation and

certification for highly automated driving functions in various traffic scenarios.

1. Eligible countries

Singapore and Australia are both eligible for funding have made specific provisions for

making funding available for their participants in Horizon 2020 projects.

2. Eligibility and admissibility conditions

To be considered admissible, a proposal/application must be:

(a) submitted in the electronic submission system before the deadline given in the call

conditions or rules of contest;

(b) readable, accessible and printable;

(c) complete and include the requested administrative data, the proposal description,

and any obligatory supporting documents specified in the call/contest;

(d) include a draft plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results, unless

otherwise specified in the call conditions. The draft plan is not required for proposals

at the first stage of two-stage procedures

All requirements are specified in the Annex of the Work programme.27

3. Evaluation:

Evaluation criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex H of the Work

Programme.28

27 Annex B: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-b-adm_en.pdf Annex C: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-c-elig_en.pdf 28 Annex H: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-h-esacrit_en.pdf

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Proposals must be submitted electronically using the electronic submission system of

the Participant Portal.

4. Indicative time for evaluation and grant agreements:

Information on the outcome of evaluation (single-stage call): maximum 5 months from

the deadline for submission.

Signature of grant agreements: maximum 8 months from the deadline for submission.

7.2.2 Support for networking activities and impact assessment for road

automation

Calls open: 31 October 2017

Deadline: 04 April 2018

Topic Description

Besides technological progress in developing new automated driving functions, there

are still many challenges and uncertainties related to the deployment of connected and

automated vehicles. Many of these challenges can be better addressed when

European partners work together and cooperate with international partners. Therefore,

a coordinated and harmonised approach to support the deployment of automated

driving systems at European and international level is needed. More cooperation is

also necessary to assess the impacts of connected and automated driving systems.

Several methodologies to assess impacts of connected and automated transport

systems have already been developed and applied. However, a commonly agreed

methodology to assess the impacts of connected and automated driving systems that

would allow for informed decision making does not exist.

1. Eligible countries

Singapore and Australia are both eligible for funding have made specific provisions for

making funding available for their participants in Horizon 2020 projects.

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2. Eligibility and admissibility conditions

To be considered admissible, a proposal/application must be:

(a) submitted in the electronic submission system before the deadline given in the call

conditions or rules of contest;

(b) readable, accessible and printable;

(c) complete and include the requested administrative data, the proposal description,

and any obligatory supporting documents specified in the call/contest;

(d) include a draft plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results, unless

otherwise specified in the call conditions. The draft plan is not required for proposals

at the first stage of two-stage procedures

All requirements are specified in the Annex of the Work programme.29

3. Evaluation:

Evaluation criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex H of the Work

Programme.30

Proposals must be submitted electronically using the electronic submission system of

the Participant Portal.

4. Indicative time for evaluation and grant agreements:

Information on the outcome of evaluation (single-stage call): maximum 5 months from

the deadline for submission.

Signature of grant agreements: maximum 8 months from the deadline for submission.

7.2.3 Human centred design for the new driver role in highly automated vehicles

Call opens: 04 December 2018

Deadline: 24 April 2019

29 Annex B: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-b-adm_en.pdf Annex C: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-c-elig_en.pdf 30 Annex H: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-h-esacrit_en.pdf

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1. Eligible countries

Singapore and Australia are both eligible for funding have made specific provisions for

making funding available for their participants in Horizon 2020 projects.

2. Eligibility and admissibility conditions

To be considered admissible, a proposal/application must be:

(a) submitted in the electronic submission system before the deadline given in the call

conditions or rules of contest;

(b) readable, accessible and printable;

(c) complete and include the requested administrative data, the proposal description,

and any obligatory supporting documents specified in the call/contest;

(d) include a draft plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results, unless

otherwise specified in the call conditions. The draft plan is not required for proposals

at the first stage of two-stage procedures

All requirements are specified in the Annex of the Work programme.31

3. Evaluation:

Evaluation criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex H of the Work

Programme.32

Proposals must be submitted electronically using the electronic submission system of

the Participant Portal.

4. Indicative time for evaluation and grant agreements:

Information on the outcome of evaluation (single-stage call): maximum 5 months from

the deadline for submission.

Signature of grant agreements: maximum 8 months from the deadline for submission.

31 Annex B: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-b-adm_en.pdf Annex C: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-c-elig_en.pdf 32 Annex H: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-h-esacrit_en.pdf

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7.2.4 Developing and testing shared, connected and cooperative automated

vehicle fleets in urban areas for the mobility of all

Call opens: 04 December 2018

Deadline: 24 April 2019

Topic Description

Shared, connected and cooperative automated vehicles may become a game changer

for urban mobility. They can provide seamless door-to-door mobility of people and

freight delivery services, which can lead to healthier, more accessible, greener and

more sustainable cities, as long as they are integrated in an effective public transport

system. Since a few years the development of shared automated vehicle pilots are

emerging around the world. Today, most of these pilots are small-scale and involve

either on-demand ride services or low-speed shuttles operating in controlled

environments. In order to accelerate the uptake of high quality and user oriented

mobility services, based on shared, connected and cooperative automated vehicles,

there is a need for demonstrating these services in real life conditions to test the

performance, safety and viability of these systems and services and to prove that they

are attractive for and accepted by users. Furthermore, the potential impacts on

reducing CO2 emissions and pollutants, safety and overall transport system costs

need to be assessed.

1. Eligible countries

Singapore and Australia are specifically mentioned in the call – together with the

U.S.A., Japan, and South Korea as countries that should be considered for a

cooperation or project partner.

2. Eligibility and admissibility conditions

To be considered admissible, a proposal/application must be:

(a) submitted in the electronic submission system before the deadline given in the call

conditions or rules of contest;

(b) readable, accessible and printable;

(c) complete and include the requested administrative data, the proposal description,

and any obligatory supporting documents specified in the call/contest;

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(d) include a draft plan for the exploitation and dissemination of the results, unless

otherwise specified in the call conditions. The draft plan is not required for proposals

at the first stage of two-stage procedures.

All requirements are specified in the Annex of the Work programme.33

3. Evaluation:

Evaluation criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex H of the Work

Programme.34

Proposals must be submitted electronically using the electronic submission system of

the Participant Portal.

4. Indicative time for evaluation and grant agreements:

Information on the outcome of evaluation (single-stage call): maximum 5 months from

the deadline for submission.

Signature of grant agreements: maximum 8 months from the deadline for submission.

7.3 Points of contact and further information

7.3.1 EPIC website

EPIC’s website is the main online dissemination channel presenting the project and its

goals in general and giving detailed information on EPIC’s findings and activities.

The website delivers information on funding opportunities, open calls, international

partners and networks. The website is systematically updated with relevant news and

events. A news section provides regularly updates on the projects activities and

funding opportunities in both the EU as well as the Asia-Pacific region. Furthermore, a

download section enables to share EPICs deliverables, briefs, brochures, with the

public.

The website is the project’s main point of reference and its contents are regularly

updated. It connects all of EPIC’s dissemination activities and addresses all of the

project’s target audiences. While the general description of the project and its goals is

33 Annex B: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-b-adm_en.pdf Annex C: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-c-elig_en.pdf 34 Annex H: http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/other/wp/2018-2020/annexes/h2020-wp1820-annex-h-esacrit_en.pdf

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meant for the audience unfamiliar with the subject, other subpages such as events,

news and downloads address users that are part of the research community.

The contact person for EPIC is Erich Prem who is a project coordinator.

www.epicproject.eu

7.3.2 Ideal-ist

Ideal-ist is an international network encompassing ICT National Contact Points and

supporting scientists, specialists, research and innovation institutes from the ICT

sector within the EU Framework Programmes. The network consists of over 60

partners from and outside the European Union.

The services offered by Ideal-ist include support and expertise in the process of

proposal writing. A team of international experts accompanies the proposers from the

very beginning until the submission of a proposal. The target group of Ideal-ist are

SMEs, large enterprises, research and academic organisations as well as public

administration. The Ideal-ist helps with the interpretation of the ICT Work Programme

of Horizon 2020 and coaches the proposers in the writing process.

Ideal-ist plays an advisory role helping the proposal writers to undergo the application

process. The applicants can receive relevant information about participation in the

Horizon2020 and other ICT funding programmes.

https://www.ideal-ist.eu/

It should be noted that the national contact points are not equally active. The three

EPIC target countries (AU, SG, NZ) do not currently have contact points that are

supported by dedicated projects or funding initiatives.

7.3.3 CORDIS

CORDIS stands for Community Research and Development Information Service and

is a data bank of the European Commission, including information on all running and

closed research project funded by the EU.

The website delivers public information such as factsheets, reports, deliverables;

editorial content fostering communication and exploitation (news, events, success

stories, magazines etc.); and links to external sources such as open data platforms

and websites.

Another important task of CORDIS is delivery of project results based on a report

summary. CORDIS provides short summaries of the results in different languages and

fulfils an informative role.

https://cordis.europa.eu/home_en.html

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7.4 Trade associations and missions

Australia

The European Australian Business Council

http://www.eabc.com.au/

The EABC enables business leaders to engage in high-level dialogue on economic

and public policy issues with Australian and European political leaders, senior officials,

diplomats and business delegations. As part of its annual programme, the EABC

organises each year a Business Mission to Europe, as an initiative to strengthen

bilateral relationships with European leaders, institutions, officials, peak business

groups and policy organisations.

The Delegation of the European Union to Australia

https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/australia_en

The European Union is represented in Australia by a Delegation in Canberra

established in 1981. It is responsible for the official relations, makes contact with key

interlocutors, keeps players in Australia informed about EU developments, and

facilitates the preparation and implementation of bilateral agreements. It also maintains

links with several EU Centres in Australia. There are now five such centres in Australia:

• The Hawke EU Centre for Mobilities, Migrations and Cultural Transformations

at the University of South Australia;

• The EU Centre for Global Affairs at the University of Adelaide;

• The University of Melbourne EU Centre on Shared Complex Challenges;

• The EU Centre at RMIT in Melbourne;

• The Australian National University Centre for European Studies (ANUCES).

Singapore

EU-ASEAN Business Council

https://www.eu-asean.eu/

The EU-ASEAN Business Council represents European Business in the ASEAN

region, promoting trade, investments and various business groups. The aim of the

council is to simplify rules, laws and policies so that it is easier for European businesses

to invest and develop their capital in ASEAN region. The Business Council was formally

established in 2014 and has been very successful in organising and promoting many

activities between European Union and ASEAN member countries. EU-ASEAN

regularly interacts with trade, commerce and investment organisations in Europe.

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EuroCham

https://eurocham.org.sg/

EuroCham is the European Chamber of Commerce settled in Singapore. This

independent non-profit organisation was established in 2011 with a mission of

promoting bilateral trade, investments and collaborations between Europe and

Singapore. EuroCham supports European business in approaching Singaporean

market and economic circles and creates networking opportunities for the European

Business community in Singapore.

New Zealand

New Zealand Europe Business Council

http://www.nzebc.org.nz/

The New Zealand Europe Business Council Incorporated was incorporated 2005, with

the primary objective to promote the establishment of closer economic cooperation

between New Zealand and Europe, with twenty-two European countries initially

represented. NZEBC provides a forum and structure for the co-ordination of activities

of various trade organisations, chambers of commerce, delegations, and various

representatives. It acts as an umbrella organisation to bring together the many and

varied interests of those involved in New Zealand - Europe bi-lateral trade.

7.5 Fairs and major annual events

The following provides a selection of particularly noteworthy large-scale fairs and

conferences that take place every year. This does not include tech events or scientific

conferences with changing locations or events that are more academic.

7.5.1 Australia

CeBIT Australia

http://www.cebit.com.au/

CeBIT Australia is the Australian version of the widely known German technology fair

of Deutsche Messe. In 2018, CeBIT Australia celebrates its 17th year. It attracts more

than 15,000 attendees from Australia’s most important organisations. It now positions

itself as the prime business technology event for the region and attracts technology

professionals from enterprises, Government, SMEs and start-ups.

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INTEGRATE

http://integrate-expo.com/

Integrate is one of the largest Australian trade shows in audio-visual and has been

running for over a decade.

Research Innovation

https://researchinnovation.iqpc.com.au

This conference is now in its 3rd year with an aim to maximise commercialisation of

research. It brings together industry and universities to discuss challenges and good

practices in developing partnerships and commercialisation.

7.5.2 Singapore

Singapore is a bustling location for tech events and many larger conferences change

location between a few Asian cities. Singapore is also known for a large number of

startup events. The following are a few larger events happening in Singapore annually

of particular interest for the innovation landscape.

CommunicAsia

This large-scale event is one of Asia’s most established meeting place for industry

professionals in the telecommunications sector. It runs jointly with BroadcastAsia and

EnterpriseIT.

https://www.communicasia.com/

Cybertech Asia

This relatively young event aims to showcase innovative solutions in cybersecurity with

a strong emphasis on IoT, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, but also for smart homes

and wearables.

http://asia.cybertechconference.com/

7.5.3 New Zealand

Technology Week

https://techweek.co.nz/

Techweek originated as a technology industry (NZTech) association event. The week’s

success led to join forces with several agencies from the Auckland region and has now

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resulted in a weeklong festival of innovation ecosystem events. The aim is to foster

growth of New Zealand’s tech sector and to tell inspiring innovation stories. Techweek

usually takes place in May with a strong focus in the Auckland region.

Canterbury Tech Summit

http://canterburytech.nz/tech-summit/

The Canterbury Tech Summit emerged from the Canterbury Software Cluster as a

regionally focused tech sector event. In the last years it has become one of New

Zealand’s prime events that explores trends, opportunities, and major shifts in ICT. In

2017 over 700 members of the tech ecosystem gathered to be inspired by world-class

speakers, build lasting connections and grow New Zealand’s technology sector. The

event typically takes place in September in Christchurch on New Zealand’s South

Island.

Mobile Tech

https://mobiletech.events/

Mobile Tech is now in its 3rd year. With over 300 speakers from businesses, innovation

and the industry it is one of New Zealand’s primary event for showcasing digital

technologies in the agricultural, horticultural and forestry sectors.