Strong network for European research
Planning a research project with partners abroad? The SNSF and European research funders have signed a multilateral agreement to further simplify the submission of such proposals: Weave.
The SNSF already has bilateral Lead Agency agreements in place with various funding agencies. This means: a single funder is the Lead Agency for projects with international partners, either the SNSF or its partner agency abroad. A single submission to the Lead Agency is sufficient, saving a great deal of time and effort.
Standardised framework conditions
Now the SNSF and other funders are taking this a step further with Weave, the multilateral agreement that enables collaborative projects under the same framework conditions with all participating countries. Researchers can now choose the funder they wish to submit their application to. Researchers submitting to the SNSF will need to meet the SNSF deadlines of 1 April and 1 October, the others the deadlines announced by the agency abroad. Moreover, trilateral projects are also possible now. To ensure a level playing field, the agencies participating in Weave are all striving to achieve a success rate of 20 per cent.
Part of SNSF project funding
Both the existing Lead Agency agreement and the new Weave agreement are embedded in the SNSF's project funding scheme. There is no additional budget and the usual project funding requirements apply. For instance, researchers may only submit a Lead Agency application if there are no thematic overlaps with applications under evaluation at the SNSF or with ongoing projects.
Start with nine countries and regions
In a first step, Weave will replace the existing Lead Agency agreements with Austria, Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Czech Republic, Croatia, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland and Slovenia. Norway and Sweden will be added to this list within the next few years. The bilateral Lead Agency agreements with France, Sao Paulo, South Africa and South Tyrol will remain in place without any changes.