[CLOSED] Pre-announcement of the call for Short Initiatives 2023

Dear partners & academics, 
Dear VLIR-UOS community,  

We are excited to announce an upcoming Call for Short Initiative (SI) 2023 projects to start as of the 1st of September 2023. This call for proposals will launch on 25 November 2022! Discover all details about this call below ⬇️
   
This is the second SI call within our new Five-Year Programme 2022 – 2027 (FYP2). We've outlined new ambitions for the Five Year Programme 2022-2027 whereby the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and associated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) serve as the main reference point.

Within this new FYP, VLIR-UOS has as specific objectives:

✔️ to stimulate cooperation among academic actors in Flanders, in particular with universities of applied sciences and arts, and between academic actors and civil society actors;

✔️to mobilise young/new academics to engage in “sharing minds, changing lives”. This is why the number of projects (proposals) per promoter has been limited.

Be sure to mark 25 November 2022 in your calendar as the launch date of this call for proposals!

⚠️We are organising an online information session on 6 December 2022 from 13:00 until 15:00 (CET). During this session, we will present the call and the basic formulation guidelines.   

We look forward to receiving your proposals!  
Happy writing!

Best regards, 
The VLIR-UOS team 

Call for Short Initiatives 2023

Aim

Short Initiative (SI) projects are short-term projects of a maximum of two years that aim to explore, build and deepen academic/scientific collaborations among diverse teams of academics and researchers.

SI projects focus on a specific sustainable development challenge. With SI projects, VLIR-UOS aims to strengthen the research and educational capacities of higher education and science institutions in partner countries.

In addition, SI projects are expected to create the conditions for the uptake of new and relevant knowledge, applications, and/or services by academic, civil society, and private and public actors.

Key features

• Short-term results to be achieved within the project duration of two years 
• Easy access, particularly addressing new/young project promoters that were sensitized via the Global Minds framework, or via collaboration in ongoing projects, and/or are eager to go for a first experience as a promoter of a VLIR-UOS project 
• Allows for differentiated aims (exploration, innovation, valorisation, etc) and approaches (education, research, policies, outreach, people, networks) 
• The partnership can vary in terms of size and composition: one or more Flemish higher education institutions and one or more local higher education and science institutions and/or other actors; one or more disciplines; young/new and/or more experienced academics.

Who can apply?

Affiliation of the promoters: 

• Flemish promoter: employed as a professor/lecturer/specialist at a Flemish university or university college;  
• Partner promoter: employed at a recognized higher education institution or national public (not for profit) research institute located in a VLIR-UOS project partner country 

Additional criteria: 

• Applicants (Flemish/partner) can have a maximum of two ongoing SI/TEAM projects, which means they can submit a maximum of two projects in case they have no ongoing projects after 1 September 2023. In fact, for this call, only SI and TEAM 2022 projects should be considered as ongoing projects (e.g. promoters of 1 TEAM/SI 2022 project can submit only one new SI in this round). 
• At the level of the partner institutions, no further criteria apply. Former and present IUC partner institutions are fully eligible, without any restriction. 

Project partner countries

Higher education and science institutions located in 17 project partner countries:

Benin, Bolivia, Burundi, Cuba, DR Congo, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, Philippines, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam

Budgetary Framework 

The project budget amounts to a maximum of 70.000 EUR for two years. The overall budget for SI 2023 amounts to 2.030.000 EUR, put down as max. 29 selectable projects.  

Project duration

Maximum of two years

Important data

How to submit a proposal?

Who?

• An application involves a Flemish and partner promoter, in one of the partner countries. However, it is the Flemish promoter who submits to the ICOS of the Flemish university (association) for quality control. The ICOS will validate and submit to VLIR-UOS. 

How?

• Project applications are submitted online via the project submission tool.  

Assessment Procedure

All project proposals will be assessed and selected based on four standard selection criteria: Relevance and coherence of the project; Quality of the project design; Implementation setup of the project; Potential impact and sustainability. 

Project proposals are assessed by Regional Selection Commissions (Africa 1 & 2, Asia, Latin America) in the 1st half of May 2023.  

The selection decision will be communicated shortly after the ratification of the decision by the Bureau UOS, ultimately in early June 2023.