Global cooperation on FAIR data policy and practice
HORIZON Coordination and Support Actions
Basic Information
- Identifier
- HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-41
- Programme
- European Research Area
- Programme Period
- 2021 - 2027
- Status
- Closed (31094503)
- Opening Date
- June 22, 2021
- Deadline
- September 23, 2021
- Deadline Model
- single-stage
- Budget
- €5,000,000
- Keywords
- EOSC and FAIR dataComputer sciences, information science and bioinfoOpen dataWeb and information systems, database systems, infResearch dataDigital AgendaOpen ScienceInternational cooperationInteroperabilityFair dataResearch data
Description
Projects are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:
- Strengthened international cooperation to increase and mainstream FAIRness[1] of data and digital objects.
- Connection of disconnected initiatives on data management, data stewardship and FAIR data practices, across borders and disciplines, as enablers of open science.
- Increased FAIR data sharing within and across scientific disciplines and innovation sectors.
These targeted outcomes in turn contribute to medium and long-term impacts:
- Proliferation of interdisciplinary research that helps address societal challenges.
- More efficient research practices as a result of an increased reproducibility of research and reduced duplication of efforts.
- Better informed citizens and society about the results and value of research.
- Improved quality of R&I within the EU.
- Contributions to sustainable growth and faster innovation in Europe, and beyond, in the context of the global economy.
Technological advancements have made science more data intensive and interconnected, with researchers producing and sharing increasing volumes of research data. To produce high quality research data, researchers have to follow good data management and data stewardship practices. Beyond proper data collection, annotation and archival, good data management and stewardship include long-term care of valuable digital assets, either alone or in combination with newly generated data. To maximise the value of science, research data should be FAIR: Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. The FAIR principles, introduced in 2014, are a minimal set of community-agreed guiding principles that allow both machines and humans to find, access, interoperate and re-use research data. It is recognised that FAIR data play an essential role in the objectives of Open Science to improve and accelerate scientific research, to increase the engagement of society, and to contribute significantly to economic growth. Accordingly, the EU’s Open Science policy[2] contains the ambition to make FAIR data sharing the default for scientific research and this can be accelerated by focusing on specific scientific disciplines. Although the FAIR principles were initially applied to research data, their coverage extends to all digital objects that are essential to research practice (e.g. algorithms, models, tools, workflows), and to other public sector data. However, initiatives for good data management and stewardship practices and FAIR practice remain fragmented across borders and disciplines. In addition, interoperability remains the least developed to date. Interoperability standards, at discipline-level first, and then across disciplines, are an essential catalyst to foster interdisciplinary science to tackle the global societal challenges of our age. Finally, FAIR digital objects related to the research process are increasingly indispensable to ensure the reproducibility, integrity and re-use of data.
Proposals should support international cooperation on the FAIRness of both data & digital objects in a discipline-specific manner. Applicants should map current initiatives and best practices, globally, within a given scientific discipline, and should facilitate the exchange of best practices across disciplines. They should support case studies and pilots to implement both domain-specific and domain-independent recommendations in FAIR practice (from the Research Data Alliance –RDA-, the Committee on Data of the International Science Council -CODATA-, etc.). They should develop, pilot and possibly deploy interoperability standards and guidelines for increasing FAIRness in specific scientific disciplines, and across different disciplines. They should also develop assessment and evaluation methodologies to appraise FAIRness within disciplines and to develop domain-specific benchmarks.
To ensure complementarity of outcomes, proposals are expected to cooperate and align with activities of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Partnership and to coordinate with relevant initiatives and projects contributing to the development of EOSC. In particular, in areas such as data interoperability, metadata and vocabularies or the use of persistent identifiers, proposals should coordinate the work and establish a feedback mechanism with the awarded proposal(s) from the topic HORIZON-INFRA-2021-EOSC-01-05 in order to ensure alignment with EOSC policies and to identify common useful tools and resources as well as relevant data repositories that comply with EOSC guidelines.
Proposals are also expected to engage and/or align where appropriate with projects funded under topics HORIZON-INFRA-2021-EOSC-01-03 and HORIZON-INFRA-2022-EOSC-01-04. Finally, if appropriate, proposals should further seek alignment with disciplinary use cases for FAIR as will be developed under topics HORIZON-INFRA-2021-EOSC-01-06, HORIZON-INFRA-2021-EOSC-01-07, and HORIZON-INFRA-2022-EOSC-01-03.
Any prospective alignments should be clearly acknowledged in the proposals, which should foresee dedicated activities and earmark appropriate resources for such activities.
Cross-cutting Priorities:[1]‘FAIRness’ is the compliance with the requirements of FAIR data.
[2]https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/open-science
Destination & Scope
Introduction
Horizon Europe has a new level of ambition – to maximise the impact of EU research and innovation funding for European science, economy and the wider society. It marks a paradigm change in the design of the EU R&I Framework Programmes (FP) from an activity-driven to an impact-driven programme. Coupled to this ambition is the relaunching of the European Research Area (ERA) as described in the recently published Commission Communication entitled A new ERA for Research and Innovation (COM/2020/628 final of 30.09.2020).
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the importance of R&I cooperation to deliver solutions to society’s most demanding needs. Delivering Europe’s recovery is a priority as are the green and digital twin transitions. To match these challenges, a new level of ambition that links better R&I with the economy, as well as with education and training, is necessary to put the EU’s scientific knowledge to work.
The new ERA calls for deepening existing priorities and initiatives through new and stronger approaches. The green and digital transitions and the recovery call for cooperation between the Commission and the Member States. They require the setting of new priorities, launching ambitious joint initiatives and developing common approaches between policies.
To address these requirements, Destination 3 of Annex 11 of the Horizon Europe Work Programme, will support efforts to reform and enhance the EU R&I system. Destination 3 is built around four strands corresponding to the four objectives set out in the ERA Communication: 1. Prioritise investments and reforms; 2. Improve access to excellence; 3. Translate R&I results into the economy and 4. Deepen the ERA. The principle of excellence, meaning that the best researchers with the best ideas that respond best to the societal challenges obtain funding, remains the cornerstone for all investments under the ERA.
Strand 1 recognises the importance of prioritising investments and reforms to accelerate the green and digital transformation and to increase competitiveness as well as the speed and depth of the recovery. It offers support for policy makers and addresses the need for better analysis and evidence, including simplifying and facilitating the inter-play between national and European R&I systems.
Strand 2 addresses the need to improve access to excellence and to increase the performance of R&I systems, building on dedicated Horizon Europe measures as well as complementarities with smart specialisation strategies under the Cohesion Policy.
Strand 3 addresses the importance of translating R&I results into the economy. R&I policies should aim to boost the resilience and competitiveness of our economies and societies.
Strand 4 addresses the challenge of deepening the ERA and includes Open Science, Higher Education and Researchers, Citizen Science, Science Education, Gender and Ethics. It aims at underpinning a new ERA benefiting from knowledge creation, circulation and use. This empowers higher education institutions and research organisations to embrace a transformative process; where a highly skilled workforce circulate freely; where research outputs are shared; where gender equality is assured; where the outcomes of R&I are understood, trusted and increasingly used, by educated informed scientists and citizens to the benefit of society.
Expected impact:
Proposals for topics under this Destination should set out a credible pathway to contributing to the following expected impacts:
- Reform and Enhance the EU R&I system
- Prioritisation of investments and reforms, realisation of the recovery and the twin transitions
- Improved access to excellence
- Greater quality of the scientific production and stronger translation of R&I results into the economy
- Deepen the ERA
- Coordinated national and regional R&I programmes by pooling national resources and contributing to the alignment of national research and innovation policies
- Improved knowledge for policy making about the networking patterns of research support staff and research management
- Synergies between research & innovation and higher education policies and programmes
- Modernised higher education sector, benefitting from targeted transformations in higher education, research, and innovation
- Increased number of interconnected knowledge ecosystems, strong in knowledge creation, circulation and use
- Researchers benefit from attractive careers
- Inclusive gender equality is promoted in the European research and innovation system
- A more open and inclusive research and innovation system
- Increased capacity in the EU R&I system to conduct open science and to set it as a modus operandi of modern science
- Increased engagement of citizens with research and innovation
- Increased alignment of strategic research with society needs, expectations and values
- Identified synergies between second and third level education, and between education and business;
- Increased trust in science and R&I outcomes, and greater two-way communication between science and society
- Knowledge and a highly skilled workforce circulate freely
- Improved capacities within the EU R&I system to conduct open science
- A more open and inclusive research and innovation system
Eligibility & Conditions
General conditions
1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex A and Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes
Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System
2. Eligible countries: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes
Legal entities established in non-associated third countries may exceptionally participate in this Coordination and support action.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes
5. Evaluation and award:
- Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex D of the Work Programme General Annexes
- Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual
- Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes
Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional dissemination obligations:
Beneficiaries must make proactive efforts to freely share, in a timely manner and as appropriate, all relevant results with the other grants awarded from the same call topic, and with the EOSC Partnership[[https://ec.europa.eu/info/files/european-open-science-cloud-eosc_en]]. Beneficiaries must acknowledge and incorporate these obligations in the proposal, outlining the efforts they will make towards meeting them, and in Annex I to the Grant Agreement.
Beneficiaries will be subject to the additional exploitation obligations: Beneficiaries must make all relevant results generated in the action available for re-use, through a well-defined mechanism, to the EOSC Partnership. Beneficiaries must acknowledge and incorporate these obligations in the proposal, outlining the efforts they will make towards meeting them and in Annex I to the Grant Agreement.
Specific conditions
7. Specific conditions: described in the specific topic of the Work Programme
Documents
Call documents:
Standard application form — call-specific application form is available in the Submission System
Standard application form (HE CSA)
Standard evaluation form — will be used with the necessary adaptations
Standard evaluation form (HE CSA)
MGA
Call-specific instructions
Essential Information for Clinical Studies
Additional documents:
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 12. Missions
HE Main Work Programme 2021–2022 – 13. General Annexes
HE Framework Programme and Rules for Participation Regulation 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Support & Resources
Online Manual is your guide on the procedures from proposal submission to managing your grant.
Horizon Europe Programme Guide contains the detailed guidance to the structure, budget and political priorities of Horizon Europe.
Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – find the answers to most frequently asked questions on submission of proposals, evaluation and grant management.
Research Enquiry Service – ask questions about any aspect of European research in general and the EU Research Framework Programmes in particular.
Enterprise Europe Network – contact your EEN national contact for advice to businesses with special focus on SMEs. The support includes guidance on the EU research funding.
IT Helpdesk – contact the Funding & Tenders Portal IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc.
European IPR Helpdesk assists you on intellectual property issues.
CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk and ETSI Research Helpdesk – the European Standards Organisations advise you how to tackle standardisation in your project proposal.
The European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for their recruitment – consult the general principles and requirements specifying the roles, responsibilities and entitlements of researchers, employers and funders of researchers.
Partner Search Services help you find a partner organisation for your proposal.
Latest Updates
No updates available.