FEMISE is pleased to announce the launch of its Third Internal Competition 2017/18.

Update: Now closed

UPDATE: “Given the Eid Holidays, FEMISE decided to postpone the deadline for receiving the proposals to Wednesday 28th of June” 

I. INTRODUCTION AND THEME OF THE CALL

Members of the FEMISE network who participated as affiliates of FEMISE in the European Commission Call (click here to access the list of these Members)(1) are invited to submit research proposals under the theme of:

The Role of the EU in facilitating the modernization, the transition and international openness of the Mediterranean countries.

The deadline for the submission is on the 28th of June 2017

Winning proposals will meet the criteria of having a real value added (generating fresh knowledge), using rigorous and sound methodology, and having the potential of offering policy recommendations.

This third call for internal competition complements the research rounds:

1. The first, was launched in 2015 and the selected proposals focused on modernisation in the countries in the south in the long run. A list of accepted proposals under this round is given at the end of this call to avoid repetition.
2. The second, was launched in 2016 and the selected proposals focused on the navigating through the transition in the short run.A list of accepted proposals under this round is given at the end of this call to avoid repetition.
3. The third round, which is this round, will be devoted to the role of the EU in facilitating both the transition

Click here to access the details about the research general theme, sub-themes and suggested orientations (in English, pdf . Also available in French, pdf)

II. TIME TABLE

Deadline for submissions of proposals: 28th of June 2017

Estimated time plan:

Evaluation of proposals: 10 July 2017

Selection and Notification of acceptance: 17 July 2017

Signing Agreements for selected proposals: 20 July 2017
Submissions of first drafts: November 2017

Submission of final drafts at FEMISE conference: January/February 2018

III. SUBMISSION PROCESS

The dossier of the research proposals should include the following documents:

(1) The research proposal should not exceed 5 pages and should include the following:

1. Summary (1/2 page)
2. Statement of research stating the problem addressed, brief review of the literature and the knowledge gap the paper will fulfil.
3. Conceptual Framework of the research analysis and how challenges are addressed
4. Research Methodology stating the research question, the hypothesis to be tested, and the methodology that will be employed (e.g case studies, empirical evidence, etc.) and explain the rationale for using the selected methodology.
5. Policy implications, how will the expected results of the paper contribute to the policy making.
6. Time Frame, expected output (number of research reports produced), dissemination plan and division of labour in the consortium.

(2) The filled Application form 2017 (download here);

(3) The CVs of the members of the research consortium (standard forms can be downloaded here)

The dossier of the research proposal of the consortium can be sent to FEMISE bureau by email, fax or courier before June, 28^th 2017 at 12:00 PM (French date and time). Any applications received after this date will not be considered.

IV. ELIGIBILITY

(1) Only Affiliates members’ to the FEMISE-EU Contract on “Support to dialogues, political and economic research and studies of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership” can be funded in this call (Please click here to download the list of those Affiliates to find out if your institute is eligible).

(2) All proposals have to be submitted in Consortiums as follows: at least one Affiliate member from the North AND one Affiliate member from the South.

Each consortium should have one Team Leader who will send the proposal on behalf of the consortium and will be responsible for the project (in terms of its executing, deliverables and admin process); he/she will be the contact person for all correspondence with FEMISE. Details of the legal representative who will be signing the agreement if the proposal is successful should also be provided in the application form. Proposals submitted with ONE member only will not be considered.

(3) No restrictions on the number of proposals submitted per Affiliate, however if the same consortium submitted more than one proposal and their proposals were highly scored, only the highest scored proposal will be selected.

V. Funding Scheme

The total budget envelope for all selected proposals in this third round of the internal competition will be approximate €80,000. Each consortium needs to specify in the application form provided the total budget of the proposal to cover the honorarium of the team that will work on the project. FEMISE will contribute a maximum of 80% of the final amount and the remaining 20%  will be considered as an “own contribution” from the consortium.

For example, if the approved budget for a selected proposal is Euros 10,000, FEMISE will contribute up to a maximum of Euros 8,000 towards this proposal and the remaining amount of Euros 2,000 will be considered as an “Own contribution” from the members of the consortium towards the project.

Teams are encouraged to produce more than one paper. The requested amount in the proposal needs to match the number of research papers produced and their quality, and will be part of the evaluation. The Selection committee reserves the right to modify the requested amount.

The funding through this call will ONLY cover the honorarium of the researchers (verified by Time sheets) that will be working on the selected proposals.

VI. EVALUATION AND SELECTION PROCESS

Following the initial screening for eligibility, proposals will go through the following evaluation process:

A. Evaluation: The FEMISE Evaluation Committee will perform the technical evaluation of the proposals, addressing the following criteria:

1. Scientific quality of the proposal, in terms of:

• Relevance of the topic to the economic policy issues of the Euro-Med Partnership
• Value added of the proposed topic to the existing knowledge
• The quality of the methodology and its ability to address the issue efficiently
• Integration of the ‘policy oriented’ dimension and its relevance to South Med policy framework

2. Other evaluation criteria

• Degree of cooperation between teams (North and South)
• Geographic coverage (number of countries covered, coverage of countries poorly studied (e.g. Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon). Though a comparative approach is encouraged, proposals that are addressing one country specific topic that would required extensive reserach could be accepted;
• Overall Experience of the team of researchers.
• The Dissemination plan included in the proposal

 B. Selection: Based on this technical evaluation, a selection process will take place for the proposals that will receive funding.

The decision of the selection committee will be one of the following:

• The proposal is accepted
• The proposal is accepted with a modification in the requested budget
• The proposal is accepted with suggested modifications (coverage, scope, etc.)
• The proposal is rejected.

Team leader of all proposals will be informed of the decision of the selection committee. The reports of evaluation received by the referees will be sent to all teams. For the accepted proposals, the bureau will send the necessary agreements, general conditions and forms.

VII. RESEARCH QUALITY AND DISSEMINATION

The output of the research should be made in terms of one ore more research report of an average of 40-50 pages, ensuring a good focused analysis and increasing publications’ potentials in scientific journals, articles and policy briefs.

Expected outputs and peer reviewing:

(1) Drafts of the submitted research reports will go through an ex-post evaluation process (‘Peer Review’).

(2) Dissemination plans (other than the channels provided by FEMISE) are very much encouraged but needs to be discussed with FEMISE to ensure proper acknowledgements are made to the support of FEMISE and the European commission

VIII. CONTACT DETAILS

Please send your proposals (before the deadline of 28 June 2017) by:

Email: internal.competition@femise.org

or by fax:  Fax ++ 33 4 91 31 50 38

or by Post to:

FEMISE Association,

CMCI, 2 rue Henri Barbusse,

13 241 Marseille Cedex 01, France

Tel: ++ 33 4 91 31 51 95

[1] The title of the contract is « Support to dialogues, political and economic research and studies of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership » launched in march 2015.