The National Research Foundation (NRF) will be able to announce the first competitions for scientists and propose grants for the best projects. The resolution procedures and conditions for competitive selection and funding were approved by the Government on its meeting today, December 27, 2019.
“The National Research Fund is an entirely new structure to support Ukrainian scientists, created in analogy with the world’s leading scientific foundations. The NRF will provide grants for researchers regardless of the departmental affiliation of the institutions where they work. The Foundation itself was set up last year, but certain procedures still needed to be defined and a number of documents needed to be adopted to fully launch it.
Today, the Cabinet approved the latest government-level document needed to launch the NFD. Now the Fund will be able to start internal procedures for announcing the first contests of scientific projects, ”explained Minister of Education and Science Anna Novosad.
She also noted that the first calls for proposals and grants should take place next spring. To this end, the NRF budget has been doubled in 2020 to almost UAH 526 million.
The Foundation will provide individual, collective or institutional grants.
The decision to hold the competition and its conditions will be taken by the Scientific Council of the NRF, which consists of 30 leading Ukrainian scientists from scientific institutions and universities. The decision on grants will be made by the competition commission consisting of at least seven leading scientists on a given subject.
The competition announcements will be posted on the NRF official website. It will be obligatory to indicate the topic, the amount of funding and duration of the projects, the criteria for their selection and evaluation, requirements for participants, conditions, time and place of the competition, the list and method of submission of documents, contacts and more.
The application deadline must be at least 30 days.
Projects that meet all conditions will be submitted for consideration by the experts – there will be no less than 3. Based on the examination results, the competition committee will form a rating list of projects and will submit proposals on winners and the volume of financing of their works.
The final results will be approved by the NRF Scientific Council, and will then be published on the Foundation website. After a winner is selected he will be able to fill a contract. Grants will be available for both full and partial cost of work, depending on whether the project is funded from other sources.
Upon completion of the project, the grantee will submit a final report to the Fund. This document, together with the results of the project and the report on the use of budget funds, will be posted on the Foundation website for free access.
