Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697750910316.pdf (Georgia)
Annex 1 Approved by the decree # 33 by the Director General of the LEPL-Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia, Dated as of April 8, 2019 Call for Applied Research State Grants 2019 Terms of Reference Article 1.

General terms 1.
Aim of the state grant call for the Applied Research (hereinafter referred to as “the grant call”) is to support: a) Further development of the applied and technological scientific research; b) Development of the long-term innovative and technological applied research projects in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medical and health sciences, and agricultural sciences of the Georgian Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) with international partners and non-scientific sector (private sector – small and medium enterprises, non-governmental organizations, public sector); c) Providing Technology and innovation transfer reflecting on the social and economic challenges of the State; d) Funding the significant research projects through the open competition; e) Implementation of transfer-oriented projects with technology the the f) commercialization perspective; Identifying and supporting innovation researches with the high technological outcomes on the local or/and international market, reflecting on the existed problems in development of New Technologies; 2.
The grant call aims at identifying projects with commercialization potential.

3.

Applications in the grant call can be submitted in the scientific fields defined by the decree #85 of the Government of Georgia, dated as of February 16, 2011, annex 1, article 1, paragraph 3: 1.

Natural Sciences; 2.

Engineering and Technology; 3.

Medical and Health sciences; 4.

Agricultural sciences; 5.

Social sciences (only in case of the multidisciplinary projects); 6.
Humanities (only in case of the multidisciplinary projects).

4.

The project submitted in frames of the grant call is defined as multidisciplinary in case it implies combination of any of the fields from 1- 4 and 5-6, or combination of any fields from 1-4, referred in the 3rd paragraph of the article 1.

5.
5.

Priorities of the call for applied research State grants 2019: a) Priority scientific field: Engineering and technology; b) Priority scientific sub-field: Computer and information sciences (from the field of natural studies).

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Projects in the three categories will be funded under the call: a) 1st category – pilot grant for supporting the technology transfer for organization (s); b) 2nd category – grant for innovative research and technological development for consortium; c) 3rd category – proof of research concept: grant for infrastructure, training and cluster development for a consortium; The project submitted in the grant call should include: a) Involvement of young scientists; b) Training on enterprise/innovative-thinking related issues; c) Innovation, technology transfer and related research component; d) Creating the prototype, sample, software or technological product; e) Creating and the manufacturing sample/prototype new/improved software, materials, medical treatment, devices, construction etc.
formation/improving for 7. International cooperation of the project is desirable.

8.

The grant call is funded by the state budget and it is administered by the Legal Entity of Public Law – Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (hereinafter referred to as “SRNSFG” or “foundation”) in accordance with the decree # 85 of the Government of Georgia dated as of February 16, 2011 and the Minister’s decree.

Article 2.

Eligible applicants 1.


Eligible applicants and grant recipients in frames of the grant call: a) Host and co-participant organization – Legal Entities of Public Law, non-commercial legal entities, which perform research activities defined by their statutory document; b) Key Personnel – Georgian or foreign citizen with PhD, MA/MS, BA or equivalent academic degree as well as the Master or PhD student; 2.
It is required that the project submitted in any category (1-2-3) to have the Host Institution.

3.

Host organization and Key personnel submit the projects jointly to the SRNSFG in the 1st 4. category of the grant call; Consortium (Host and co-participant organization(s)) and the key personnel submit the projects to SRNSFG in the 2nd and 3rd categories of the grant call; 5.

The consortium should involve minimum 2 and maximum 5 organizations.

6.
6.

At least one member of the key personnel should have the background from business and close links with the business sector when submitting the project; the relevant experience should be provided in the professional CV of the personnel; 7.

At least one member of the consortium should be the commercial legal entity registered either in Georgia or in a foreign country when submitting the project in the 2nd category of the call; 8.
Commercial legal entity as well as the foreign organization cannot be the grant recipients; 9.

The project should have the Principal Investigator – PhD or equivalent academic degree holder Georgian citizen, who coordinates the project and research, and is responsible for the scientific outcomes of the project and monitoring activities; 10.

The project should have project coordinator – involved in the project management and administration- related issues.
The project coordinator cannot be the Principal Investigator; 2 11.

The project can involve project co-principal investigator – from the key personnel, who is representative of the co-participant organization and member of the consortium; 12.

The project should involve at least one young scientist - Master/PhD or equivalent academic degree-holder, who has achieved the degree at least 7 years prior to the call announcement, and Master, PhD student.
The young scientist should be involved in every reporting period of the project implementation; 13.

The project can also include supporting personnel – person(s) assisting the key personnel in technical issues of the project implementation.

The key personnel cannot perform the activities of the supporting personnel.

14.

The project can have co-funding – financial resource from the legal or natural person(s), providing additional support for the research project; Article 3.
Major financial requirements 1.

Duration of the project can be 2, 3 or 4 years, and the duration of reporting period is defined as 1 year (12 months); 2.

Requested budget from the foundation for one organization should not exceed 140 000 GEL per year, and 420 000 GEL per consortium and should be in compliance with categories in the following scheme: Maximum annual budget requested from SRNSFG I. II.

III.
III.

Project category for for supporting Pilot research grant technology transfer for organization (s); innovative Grant technological consortium; Proof of research concept: grant for cluster and training infrastructure, development for consortium(s) research and for development For organization 140 000 GEL For consortium - 140 000 GEL 420 000 GEL 140 000 GEL 420 000 GEL 3.
The grant budget can include the following categories of expenditure: a) Funding for the key personnel; b) Salary of the supporting personnel; c) Business trip; d) Goods and services; e) Non-financial activities; f) Overhead; 4.

The categories of expenditure are defined in the budget classification approved by the Director General of the SRNSFG; 5.

The total sum of monthly amount of funding the key personnel and supporting personnel should not exceed 50 % of the requested budget from SRNSFG; 6.
Overhead cost- total amount of the overhead costs for host and co-participant organizations should not exceed 7 % of the requested budget from SRNSFG.

Grant recipient host and co- participant organization is entitled to use the amount for technical administration and for funding the scientific –research of the host/co-participant organization(s); 3 7.

Consortium member commercial legal entity as well as a foreign organization cannot be the grant recipients; 8.
The grant requested from SRNSFG can include expenses related to creating intellectual property and its registration based on the research; 9.

The project can have co-funding – additional source of funds, which together with the funding requested from SRNSFG, provides the total budget of the project.

Grants received from the SRNSFG cannot be identified as co-funding; 10.

The foundation doesn’t cover expenses related to the project preparation and submission; 11.
The grant should not include expenses related to purchasing real estate / lease, car, computer and cell phone or building-renovation/repair/reconstruction –related costs; 12.

The property purchased during the project implementation is the property of Host/co- participant organization or/and natural person/group of natural persons based on the agreement between them; Article 4.

The grant call administration 1.


Stages of the grant call are as follows: a) First stage – submission of a concept of the project proposal; b) Results of the first stage of the grant call, information about the selected projects for the second stage.

c) Second stage – submission of the full project proposals; d) Results of the second stage of the call, information about the selected projects for the third stage.
e) Third stage – Project presentation to the commission; f) Approving the final list of selected projects for funding by the Director General and announcement of the results; g) Signing the grant agreement.

2.

The foundation is entitled to perform eligibility check of submitted projects and act in accordance with the law.

3.
The foundation is entitled to dismiss/reject the project at any stage of the grant call if the submitted project: a) Is violating the decree # 85 of the Government of Georgia, dated as of February 16, 2011 and the Terms of Reference of the call approved by the Individual Administrative-legal Act of the Director General of foundation; b) The submitted documents are incompliance with the guidelines and the documentation includes false information and/or violating the approved guidelines and forms; Article 5.
Evaluation 1.

Projects are evaluated in accordance with the decree # 85 of the Government of Georgia, dated as of February 16, 2011, according to the articles 9 and 10 and evaluation criteria (annex 2 of the minister’s decree); 2.

The foundation ensures that projects are not assigned to undesirable experts, named by the applicants during the project registration.

4 Article 6.

Additional conditions for the grant holder 1.


The grant holder is obliged to create intellectual property based on the research material: patent, copyright, trademarks intellectual property.

2.

It is desirable to publish the publication in the international peer-reviewed journal in frames of the grant call based on the research material.
Such publications can be journals, books and collections, which are accessible in the scientific databases: Scimago Journal Ranking, Elsevier (Scopus and ScienceDirect), Web of Science, ERIH plus.

3.

The host organization’s field-related publishing/scientific/academic council or equivalent 4. structural unit should approve the monograph based on the research outcomes.

It is required that publication (article, monograph, conference abstract etc.)
describing research outcomes to indicate the following indication: “This work was supported by the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG) [grant number …]“.

If the publication is missing the above-mentioned indication, it will not be considered during the monitoring.

Only one grant number is required to be indicated on one article.

5.
5.

It is required that any visual product (printed, photo, audio, video, electronic production and webpage) created in frames of the grant project contain logo of the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia and indication/note that the project was implemented by the support from SRNSFG.

6.

The foundation is entitled to use the abstract, project programme reports and printed and/or visual material in its activities, in the printed or electronic publications or on the foundation’s webpage.
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