International Funding for Marine Research

 Breaking News: The European Commission has established a new web-site advertising Marine and Maritime Research Funding Opportunities: http://ec.europa.eu/research/mmrs/funding_opportunities/index_en.htm

 

International Grant-Aid Programmes, and in particular European Funding Programmes (e.g. FP7, INTERREG-IV), represent a major source of competitve grant-aid for Irish researchers and an opportunity to participate in collaborative international/European marine research projects and related initiatives.

During the period 2007 -2009, irish marine researchers are participating in over 40 collaborative research projects worth €21.5million in grant-aid.  A summary of these projects is contained in:

• Summary information on current (2007-2009) and past (2002-2006) EU Framework Research Projects with Irish participation
• Summary Information on current (2007-2009) and past (2000-2006) INTERREG projects with Irish participation

 

So why participate in international marine research?

Participating in an internationally funded research project:
• Provides a valuable source of research funding (50% - 75% of full costs);
• Is the best way to get involved in cutting edge international marine research;
• Can help to raise the profile of your research group;
• Can help you gain access to skills and resources at international centres of excellence.

 

There are  significant opportunities for Irish marine researchers to compete for international funding from a range of European programmes. The Marine Institute International Funding web pages contain regularly updated information on:

• EU 7th Framework Programme
• IINTERREG IV
• COST & ESF
• International Marine Tenders 
• Scholarships and Courses

Useful Information / Events

• Enterprise Ireland's FP7 Ireland website provides information on the FP7 Programme, notices of relevant events and info-days and acts as a communication channel for the Irish FP7 support network. Further details on FP7 support services can be found on our dedicated FP7 page.
• The Irish Liaison Office for EU RTD in Brussels  offers a range of services to Irish participants in FP7.
• The Irish Researcher's Mobility Portal provides information on fellowships and mobility for graduates, postgraduates and doctoral researchers
• Hyperion Ltd specialises in training for research managers. The company runs regular training courses in proposal writing, negotiating, managing and administering EU RTD contracts, research dissemination and innovation. Details on available courses can be found on the Hyperion website.
• Further information and registration details can be found on the Enterprise Ireland FP7 Events page.

 

Finding a Partner

The best means of finding project partners is through your own networking activities. Attending and presenting at international conferences is, therefore, very important. However, if you are still unable to find a suitable partner or wish to join a consortium preparing a bid under a particular topic, you should use the Irish national contact point for the relevant FP7 Theme or Interreg programme. The Irish national contact points are linked into to a European network of contact points and can send an e-mail request for partners on your behalf.

 

Other Sources of Useful Information

You can research potential partners yourself by using the EurOcean portal. Eurocean provides information on researchers, projects and networks that are currently active in European Marine Research.