CORE 2013 Application Guidelines - FNR

CORE 

MULTI-ANNUAL THEMATIC 

RESEARCH PROGRAMME 

APPLICATION GUIDELINES 

CORE 2013 CALL 

These guidelines provide practical information to potential applicants in preparing and 

submitting an application to the FNR’s ‘CORE Multi-Annual Thematic Research Programme’. 

Table of Contents 

1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 2 

1.1. General Principles ....................................................................................................... 2 

1.2. Eligibility of Beneficiaries ............................................................................................. 3 

1.3. Principal Investigator (PI) ............................................................................................ 3 

1.4. Project Characteristics ................................................................................................ 5 

1.5. CORE Junior Track ..................................................................................................... 5 

1.6. International Co-funding by DFG, SNF, FWF and EMBL ............................................ 6 

1.7. Ethical Issues .............................................................................................................. 6 

2. Applying for the CORE 2013 Call .....................................................................................10 

2.1. CORE Application Procedure .....................................................................................10 

2.2. CORE Peer Review ...................................................................................................11 

2.3. FNR Grant Management System ...............................................................................11 

3. Pre-proposal Application ..................................................................................................12 

3.1. Step 1: Completing the Online Application Form .......................................................12 

3.2. Step 2: Submitting the Online Application Form ........................................................19 

4. Full Proposal Application .................................................................................................20 

4.1. Step 1: Completing the Online Application Form .......................................................21 

4.2. Step 2: Submitting the Online Application Form .........................................................36 

5. Completing the Project Plan .............................................................................................37 

6. Completing the Budget .....................................................................................................38 

6.1. Eligibility of Expenditures ...........................................................................................38 

6.2. Budgetary Flexibility ..................................................................................................39 

6.3. The Excel Budget Sheets ...........................................................................................41 

6.4. Direct Cost ................................................................................................................41 

6.5. Indirect Cost ...............................................................................................................45 

6.6. Contribution by Non-contracting Partners...................................................................46 

6.7. Budget Summary .......................................................................................................46 

What is new in the CORE 2013 Call? 

• The domain ‘Sustainable Resources in Luxembourg’ has been rearranged. 

• The domain ‘Biomedical Sciences’: the subdomain ‘Translational biomedical research’ 

has been updated. 

• International cofounding has been extended: Cooperation agreement with the ‘European 

Molecular Biology Laboratories’: Bi-lateral applications have to be submitted through the 

CORE programme. The FNR is the Lead Agency. 

• New rules for subcontracting costs apply. 

Further call information, forms and guidelines are available on the FNR webpage: 

www.fnr.lu/CORE 

FNR / 6, rue Antoine de Saint-Exupéry / B.P. 1777 / L-1017 Luxembourg / T +352 26 19 25 1 / F +352 26 19 25 35 / www.fnr.lu 

Last updated 12 December 2012 

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1. Introduction 

1.1. General Principles 




The research activities under the CORE programme should fulfil the following general 

principles: 

• Research activities should respect fundamental ethical principles, including those 

which are reflected in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. If 

necessary, the approval of the Comité National d’Éthique de Recherche (CNER) and/or 

the Commission Nationale de la Protection des Données (CNPD) need to be sought 

prior to the launch of the project. In case the project has ethical implications, it is 

mandatory to join a plan explaining how these implications will be dealt with in the 

proposal. 

• In the implementation of the research activities, adequate attention needs to be 

paid to gender mainstreaming, as well as to, inter alia, working conditions, 

transparency of recruitment processes, and career development as regards the 

researchers recruited on CORE projects. In this matter, the European Charter for 

Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers offer a 

reference framework. 

• The FNR attaches great importance to the dissemination of research results. The 

dissemination and transfer of knowledge is a key added-value of research actions and 

measures need to be taken to increase the use and impact of results by industry, policy 

makers and society. The FNR expects results to be published in peer-reviewed 

publications 1 . Nevertheless, the FNR also greatly encourages the protection and the 

economic exploitation of research results when it is possible. Besides, the FNR also 

encourages the dissemination of research towards the general public and the media. 

Dissemination will be considered an integral task under all thematic priorities. Financial 

support from FNR must be acknowledged in all publications and other forms of media 

communication, including media appearances, press releases and conferences. 

• Research misconduct, e.g. provision of false information, plagiarism or falsification of 

data, may result in a rejection of the proposal. The FNR reserves the right to pursue 

further steps according to the ‘Research Integrity Guidelines’. Applicants must comply 

with the ‘FNR Research Integrity Guidelines’ accessible under: 

http://www.fnr.lu/en/Calls, Forms & Guidelines/General Guidelines 

1 The FNR considers the following as peer-reviewed publications: 

• A publication in a journal of the list of journals with impact factors published yearly by ISI Thompson, 

• A publication in the journal index established by SCOPUS, or 

• A monograph with a review board. 



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1.2. Eligibility of Beneficiaries 

Funds provided by the FNR in the framework of project funding are aimed at beneficiary 

organisations as specified in article 3 of the law creating the FNR, namely: 

• a public research centre or the CEPS/INSTEAD; 

• the University of Luxembourg; 

• those public bodies, departments or establishments authorised in their respective fields 

to undertake research activities and to develop and transfer technology with a view to 

furthering scientific progress or technological innovation. 

Each proposal must be accompanied by the approval of the person authorised to legally 

commit the institutions of the involved researchers. 

‘Contracting Partners’ are institutions which are eligible for funding and which seek direct 

financial support from the FNR. 

‘Non-contracting Partners’ are organisations or individuals from the public or private sector 

(within Luxembourg or abroad) participating in the scientific implementation of the project 

without direct or indirect (i.e. subcontracting) financial support from the FNR. Participating 

SMEs based in Luxembourg can be eligible with the “Research and Development projects” 

aid state scheme provided by the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy and Foreign Trade. 

‘International Co-funding Partners’ who seek funding from the funding agency in their 

respective countries are also considered ‘Non-contracting Partners’ (cf 1.6). 

‘Subcontractors’ are not considered partners (contracting or non-contracting) in the project. 

1.3. Principal Investigator (PI) 

For each proposal, project partners designate a project leader, called ‘Principal Investigator’ 

(PI). The PI through his/her scientific experience is the researcher having the scientific lead 

of the project on a daily basis. He is responsible for controlling the technical direction and 

academic quality of the project, and will ensure that the project is carried out in compliance 

with the terms, conditions, and policies of the FNR and those of the partner institutions. The 

PI should invest a substantial amount of time to lead the project successfully. The PI is 

assumed to be the author of the proposal. The PI’s institution is referred to as ‘Coordinating 

Institution’. 

As the appropriateness of the PI to successfully lead the project is an essential element of 

the evaluation procedure, PIs are advised to submit proposals which are appropriate to their 

track record and experience. 

1.3.1. Clarification on the eligibility of the PI applying for funding at the FNR 

The FNR’s research programmes seek to fund highly innovative projects as well as the 

building and consolidation of research groups and their research programme in Luxembourg. 

Central to the research group is the PI who conceives and elaborates new ideas and guides 

the orientation of its scientific programme. 

As a general rule, a PI applying for research grants must be employed (full or part-time) at a 

beneficiary organisation (specified under point 1.2) in Luxembourg for the full duration of the 

project (PIs entering retirement before the end of the project are therefore not eligible). 



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As an exception to the general rule, a PI seconded from a different institution (e.g. hospital, 

administration, institute abroad) to perform research at a beneficiary organisation is also 

eligible as applicant providing: 

1. the secondment (the detachment of a person from his/her regular organisation for a 

temporary assignment elsewhere) is contractually agreed between all three parties 

(PI, beneficiary organisation and seconding institution 2 ), 

2. the purpose of the secondment is to enable the PI to conduct a long-term research 

programme at the beneficiary organisation (the secondment agreement should 

therefore run also for a significant amount of time and at least for the full duration of 

the proposed project), 

3. there are valid reasons why the PI cannot be employed directly by the beneficiary 

organisation. 

A person seconded for the sole purpose of undertaking a specific project would not be 

eligible as this is not deemed to be in line with the FNR strategy of strengthening research 

groups. 

The FNR will cover the personnel costs of the seconded PI provided that formal 

arrangements on who pays the salary of the PI exist and that this arrangement will not lead 

to a double financing. 

In programmes other than CORE (e.g. ATTRACT and PEARL), the FNR may refuse 

seconded PIs as applicants if the proposed constellation is not in line with the philosophy of 

these programmes. 

Self-employed, retired and emerited persons are not eligible to apply as PIs, even if the 

beneficiary organisation can establish the contractual framework enabling the person to take 

the lead of a project within the institute. 

Such persons may only contribute to a project as non-contracting partners. 

First-time applicants are encouraged to submit their project application through the optional 

CORE Junior Track (see details under 1.5). 

2 In the special case of the secondment of a person having a civil servant status, a statuary ruling from 

the authority may replace the contractual agreement. 



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1.4. Project Characteristics 

Project duration 

The project must have a duration of 2 to 3 years. 




The suggested start of the projects is 1 January 2014. Earliest possible start is 1 December 

2013 and projects cannot start later than 1 May 2014. Please note that the FNR reserves the 

right to review any offer of support if the start of the project is delayed for more than six 

months after the organisation has received written confirmation of FNR support. 

Number of project proposals per PI 

Up to two project proposals may be submitted per PI. CORE Junior Track applicants may 

only submit one project proposal. 

Language of proposal 

All applications (pre-proposals, full proposals) and following reports (annual reports, final 

report) have to be written in English. 

1.5. CORE Junior Track 

In view of providing non-established PIs with an adequate framework for first project 

applications, the FNR has developed a ‘Junior Track’ within CORE. The CORE Junior Track 

targets early career-stage researchers who have been awarded little or no own project 

funding as yet but who wish to establish their independent research line 3 . It is therefore 

understood that the PIs will work on their project for a large percentage of their time. 

The ‘Junior Track’ applications will be processed and evaluated like a standard CORE 

proposal and the same high peer-review standards will be applied. The reviewers will take 

into account however that these starting investigators do not have an extensive track record 

concerning project management and generally have no or little preliminary data related to the 

proposed project. 

Characteristics of CORE Junior Track 

• PI should work at least 50% on project. 

• Human resources limited to 2 FTE persons (including the PI’s own 

contribution). 

• Extra funding is granted for mentoring and additional training. 

• Maximum 1 national or international collaboration (in addition to the 

mentor). 

To off-set the inexperience of the PI, Junior Track projects are restricted in size and foresee 

guidance through a local supervisor and a mentor abroad. To reduce the project 

management and supervision burden, human resources are limited to 2 FTE (full-time 

equivalent) researchers (including the PI’s own contribution) and one collaborating partner. It 

is understood that the local supervisor provides guidance to the junior PI and that his 

contribution as human resource does not have to be listed per se (cf 6.4.1). In addition to the 

local supervisor, the PI will collaborate with a mentor. The mentor is an established foreign 

3 Non-established PIs may consult the publication ‘Navigating the research funding environment’ available under 

www.info.funding.scival.com/documents/files/overall/pdf/whitepaper.pdf . 



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researcher who will provide independent advice on the scientific orientation of the project and 

career development as well as help establish an international network. 

1.6. International Co-funding by DFG, SNF, FWF and EMBL 

The FNR has signed cooperation agreements with Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 

(DFG), Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF), Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen 

Forschung (FWF) and recently with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in 

order to allow the funding of bi-lateral projects between Luxembourg researchers and their 

colleagues from Germany, Switzerland or Austria. 

These cooperations foresee that applicants can submit bi-lateral proposals for evaluation 

either to the FNR or to the foreign research funding agency. The Lead Agency is the funding 

organisation of the country where the main research effort is accomplished. Both agencies 

base their funding decision on the results of one single evaluation procedure, the so called 

‘Lead Agency’ principle. 

Applicants may submit bilateral projects with researchers from the EMBL in the domain of the 

biomedical sciences. However in this particular case, the FNR will always be the evaluating 

agency i.e. the Lead Agency. 

The procedure for submitting bi-lateral proposals to the FNR is integrated into CORE. 

Bilateral applications for which FNR is the Lead Agency have to be submitted to the CORE 

programme. The applications will be processed as a CORE proposal. The same deadlines, 

application and evaluation procedures apply as for standard unilateral CORE proposals. 

Some additional forms for the partner funding agency need to be provided in the full proposal 

form (for more details see guidelines). 

The applicants are invited to communicate with their foreign partners to clarify their eligibility 

status at the corresponding funding agencies at pre-proposal and full-proposal stage. In 

order to be eligible as a bi-lateral project it is required that the partners requesting funds from 

FNR, DFG, SNF, FWF and EMBL are eligible to get funds. In case of non-eligibility of one of 

the project partners, the project will be returned without review. 

The result of the FNR evaluation will be communicated to the partner funding agency for 

decision. This will lead to a delay of several weeks or even several months in the 

communication of the funding decision for bilateral projects with respect to unilateral projects. 

This is an agreed-upon procedure between the Lead Agency funding agencies. 

If the applicants wish to submit their proposals to the DFG, SNF or FWF, the procedures and 

deadlines of the respective organisations still apply. More information is available on the FNR 

website: www.fnr.lu/INTER 

1.7. Ethical Issues 

The present Ethical Issues Table from the ERC grant proposals provides you with a guide 

to what are considered to be ethical issues. If the answer to any of the questions of the 

Ethical Issues Table is YES, you must provide a brief description of the ethical issue involved 

and how it will be dealt with appropriately. In particular, it should outline the benefit and 

burden of such research, the effects it may have and how the ethical issues will be managed. 



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It is obvious that these ethical issues need to be considered for the whole project not only for 

the activities executed in Luxembourg. 

Please specify as well any authorisation or permission you already have for the proposed 

work and include copies (the copies do not count towards the page limit). On this basis, a 

proper ethical screening is possible if the proposal is considered for possible funding. 



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Ethical Issues Table 

Research on Human Embryo/Foetus 

Does the proposed research involve human Embryos? 

Does the proposed research involve human Foetal Tissues/ Cells? 

Does the proposed research involve human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESCs)? 

Does the proposed research on human Embryonic Stem Cells involve cells in culture? 

Does the proposed research on Human Embryonic Stem Cells involve the derivation of cells from 

Embryos? 

DO ANY OF THE ABOVE ISSUES APPLY TO MY PROPOSAL? 

Research on Humans 

Does the proposed research involve children? 

Does the proposed research involve patients? 

Does the proposed research involve persons not able to give consent? 

Does the proposed research involve adult healthy volunteers? 

Does the proposed research involve Human genetic material? 

Does the proposed research involve Human biological samples? 

Does the proposed research involve Human data collection? 


Privacy 

Does the proposed research involve processing of genetic information or personal data (e.g. health, 

sexual lifestyle, ethnicity, political opinion, religious or philosophical conviction)? 

Does the proposed research involve tracking the location or observation of people? 


Research on Animals 

Does the proposed research involve research on animals? 

Are those animals transgenic small laboratory animals? 

Are those animals transgenic farm animals? 

Are those animals non-human primates? 

Are those animals cloned farm animals? 


Research Involving Developing Countries 

Does the proposed research involve the use of local resources (genetic, animal, plant, etc)? 

Is the proposed research of benefit to local communities (e.g. capacity building, access to healthcare, 

education, etc)? 


Dual Use 

Research having direct military use 

Research having the potential for terrorist abuse 


Other Ethical Issues 

Are there OTHER activities that may raise Ethical Issues? 

If YES please specify: 



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The following special issues should be taken into account: 

Informed consent: When describing issues relating to informed consent, it will be necessary 

to illustrate an appropriate level of ethical sensitivity, and consider issues of insurance, 

incidental findings and the consequences of leaving the study. 

Data protection issues: Avoid the unnecessary collection and use of personal data. Identify 

the source of the data, describing whether it is collected as part of the research or is 

previously collected data being used. Consider issues of informed consent for any data being 

used. Describe how personal identify of the data is protected. 

Use of animals: Where animals are used in research the application of the 3Rs (Replace, 

Reduce, Refine) must be convincingly addressed. Numbers of animals should be specified. 

Describe what happens to the animals after the research experiments. 

Human embryonic stem cells: Research proposals that will involve human embryonic stem 

cells (hESC) will have to address all the following specific points: 

• the applicants should demonstrate that the project serves important research aims to 

advance scientific knowledge in basic research or to increase medical knowledge for 

the development of diagnostic, preventive or therapeutic methods to be applied to 

humans. 

• the necessity to use hESC in order to achieve the scientific objectives set forth in the 

proposal. In particular, applicants must document that appropriate validated 

alternatives (in particular, stem cells from other sources or origins) are not suitable 

and/or available to achieve the expected goals of the proposal. This latter provision 

does not apply to research comparing hESC with other human stem cells. 

• the applicants should take into account the legislation, regulations, ethical rules and/or 

codes of conduct in place in the country(ies) where the research using hESC is to take 

place, including the procedures for obtaining informed consent; 

• the applicants should ensure that for all hESC lines to be used in the project were 

derived from embryos 

• of which the donor(s)' express, written and informed consent was provided freely, in 

accordance with national legislation prior to the procurement of the cells. 

• that result from medically-assisted in vitro fertilisation designed to induce pregnancy, 

and were no longer to be used for that purpose. 

• of which the measures to protect personal data and privacy of donor(s), including 

genetic data, are in place during the procurement and for any use thereafter. 

Researchers must accordingly present all data in such a way as to ensure donor 

anonymity; 

• of which the conditions of donation are adequate, and namely that no pressure was put 

on the donor(s) at any stage, that no financial inducement was offered to donation for 

research at any stage and that the infertility treatment and research activities were kept 

appropriately separate. 

In case of multi-national projects, identify the countries where research will be undertaken 

and which ethical committees and regulatory organisations will need to be approached 

during the life of the project. 



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2. Applying for the CORE 2013 Call 

2.1. CORE Application Procedure 

The application procedure consists of two mandatory stages: 

• Pre-proposal Application 

• Full Proposal Application 

Pre-proposals must be submitted by the coordinating institutions’ administrations (not 

by the PI) in electronic format to the online submission system (FNR Grant Management 

System) https://grants.fnr.lu no later than 14:00 (CET) on 1 March 2013. Projects which have 

not submitted a pre-proposal will not be processed by the FNR at the full-proposal stage. The 

mandatory pre-proposals will be reviewed and the FNR will communicate by 15 March 2013 

whether the applicant may or may not submit a full proposal. 

Full Proposals must be submitted by the PIs and validated by the coordinating 

institutions’ administrations. The final submission to FNR is made by the administrations 

in electronic format using the online submission system (FNR Grant Management System) 

https://grants.fnr.lu no later than 14:00 (CET) before the submission deadline in the following 

table: 

Submission deadlines per domain: 

Innovation in Services 16 May 2013 

Sustainable Resource Management in Luxembourg 15 May 2013 

New Functional and Intelligent Materials and Surfaces 

and New Sensing Applications 

14 May 2013 

Biomedical Sciences 14 May 2013 

Societal Challenges for Luxembourg 15 May 2013 



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2.2. CORE Peer Review 

The CORE Peer Review process guarantees the applicants an independent, state-of-the-art 

evaluation which has the objective to select those research projects that reflect academic 

excellence. All proposals will be evaluated according to a set of weighted selection criteria. 

The CORE review process consists of several stages: 

• Pre-proposals undergo an administrative eligibility check. 

• Full proposals are peer-reviewed by independent, international experts. 

• A thematic expert panel ranks the proposals and recommends funding. 

• FNR decision bodies select and approve the proposals to be funded. 

The applicant has the possibility to send an email to the FNR with a list of maximum 3 

experts who should not be contacted as reviewers for this specific project. The email 

sent to submission@fnr.lu before the Full Proposal submission deadline has to list maximum 

3 experts and their contact information and explain why this/these expert(s) should not be 

contacted to review the proposal. 

The FNR however reserves the right to make the final selection of the reviewers. 

The funding decision (including the full anonymised written evaluations 4 ) will be 

communicated to the applicants by end of October 2013. 

The description of the review process and the selection criteria can be found in the 

publication ‘Peer Review Guidelines’ available on the FNR webpage: www.fnr.lu/CORE. 

2.3. FNR Grant Management System 

All FNR Grants, including the CORE 2013 Call are managed through an online submission 

system (FNR Grant Management System) accessible via https://grants.fnr.lu. This system 

provides applicants a web services interface for automated submission and further 

monitoring of completed grant applications and related services (acknowledgement emails, 

notifications and reminders). 

The system will guide you through the different steps of the application procedure. All forms 

have to be filled in online and submitted in electronic format. 

Please respect the font and page limitations indicated in the application forms! Otherwise 

your application may not be processed. 

The publication ‘e-Tutorial: Online Application’ explains how to log into the system and 

how to create a new application. Please download it from the FNR webpage: 

http://www.fnr.lu/CORE 

For technical questions regarding the ‘FNR Grant Management System’, please contact us 

by email at tech-support@fnr.lu or call our Help Desk at +352 26 19 25 51. 

4 Please note that the comments by the evaluators may not necessarily be convergent. Differences of opinion about the merits 

of a proposal happen and are legitimate. Furthermore the FNR may take a position that is different from what could be inferred 

from the comments of the different evaluations for duly justified reasons. 



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3. Pre-proposal Application 

The CORE Pre-proposal Application for a project consists of 2 different steps: 

• Step 1: Completing the Online Application Form 

• Step 2: Submitting the Online Application Form 

The CORE Pre-proposal Application for a project consists of different elements: 

• The Pre-proposal Online Application Form is the FNR’s online ‘Grant Management 

System’ that contains general administrative and budgetary details of your application. 

• The Pre-proposal Form (Project Description) contains more detailed information on 

the proposed research project, i.e. on its scientific content as well as the organisation 

of the tasks to be undertaken. This Word file which you may download to your own 

desktop and complete off-line has to be converted to PDF before uploading. The ‘Preproposal 

Form’ is part of a web-based online application and cannot be submitted 

alone. 

• The Recent Curriculum Vitae for Applicant and Main researchers (no template 

provided). 

An e-Tutorial for the ‘Grant Management System’ is available in the ‘Help’ section of the 

online submission system and on the FNR website. Information on how to prepare your 

proposal is given on the following pages in blue italic characters inside the forms. 

If you need further advice and support, please contact your FNR Programme Assistant. 

3.1. Step 1: Completing the Online Application Form 

Step 1 of the CORE Pre-proposal Application consists of 4 different tasks, which are 

presented as a ‘To Do’ list: 

• Task 1: Download the Pre-proposal Form 

• Task 2: Consult the Application Guidelines 

• Task 3: Fill in the Online Application Form 

• Task 4: Generate a PDF document 

After completion of each task, press the button ‘Done’ to validate the completion of the task 

and remove it from your ‘To Do’ list. 

The first task named ‘Download the Pre-Proposal Form’ requires you to download a 

WORD document, named ‘Pre-Proposal Form (Project Description)’ Please save it to your 

desktop and complete it off-line. A detailed description of the form is available in section 5.1. 

The second task named ‘Consult the Application Guidelines’ reminds you to read the 

present document to guide you through the application stages. 

A click on the hyperlink of the third task named ‘Online Application Form – CORE’ brings 

you to the Online Application Form (labelled Smartform) for the CORE Pre-Proposal, which 

contains the administrative and budgetary details of your project. 

The Online Application Form is divided into 5 sections that can be accessed individually: 

• Section 1. Principal Investigator and Coordinating Institution 

• Section 2. Research Project 

• Section 3. Research Project Consortium 



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• Section 4. Legal and Ethical Requirements 

• Section 5. Attachments 

The ‘Online Application Form’ may be saved at any time and you may come back to it later 

on. Before you may submit the completed form however, you need to make sure that all 

mandatory questions (marked with *) have been filled out. Please also ensure that all data is 

correct before submission. 

Please note that a scanned PDF version will not be accepted. 

3.1.1. Principal Investigator and Coordinating Institution 

Section 1.1. Principal Investigator (PI) 

• Application ID: Generated automatically 

• First Name: * Given name of the PI. May only be modified through your profile. 

• Family Name: * Surname of the PI. May only be modified through your profile. 

• Gender: * Male/Female 

• Title: * e.g. Dr, Prof. etc. 

• Category of Position: * e.g. Head of Unit, Head of Department, Assistant Professor etc. 

• Discipline of Doctorate (PhD): 

• University/Institution Issuing the PhD Certificate: 

• Date of Certificate: Issuing date of PhD certificate 

• Email: * May only be modified through your profile. 

• Phone Number: 

• Date of Birth: * 

• Nationality: * 

Section 1.2. Coordinating Institution 

• Name of Coordinating Institution: * Name of the Luxembourgish institution where the PI 

works and which will serve as a contact for the FNR throughout the application process 

and possible later project implementation. 

• Department: * Official name (and acronym) of the department and research group. 

• Website of Group: * 

To validate this section and jump to the next one, click the button ‘Save draft and continue to 

next section’! 



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3.1.2. Research Project 

Section 2.1. Research Project 

• Project Title: * Should not be longer than 200 characters. 

• Project Acronym: * The short title or acronym will be used to identify your proposal 

efficiently. Should not be longer than 10 characters. 

• Project Start: * Suggested start of the project is 1 January 2014. Note that the start of 

the project must occur six months after the organisation has received written 

confirmation of FNR support, otherwise the FNR might withdraw any offer of support. 

• Project Duration (in months): * Rough estimation of the total project duration. Note that 

projects should have a duration of 2-3 years. In case a PhD is foreseen to be covered 

by the CORE project budget, the project duration must be 3 years (see 6.4.1 Personnel 

Costs). 

• CORE Junior Track: * Select ‘Yes’ to submit through CORE Junior Track (see 1.5.) 

• Resubmission: * Select ‘Yes’ if the project is a resubmission of a previous CORE or 

INTER project! 

• Follow-up: * Select ‘Yes’ if the project is based upon a previous FNR project. 

• Total Project Costs (e.g. 500000): * Rough estimation of the total project budget. Do 

not use points or commas as decimal separators. 

• Requested Funds from FNR Programme: * Rough estimation of the funds you intend to 

request from the FNR. 

• Total Effort (Person Months): * Person*months is the metric for expressing the effort 

(amount of time) PIs and other personnel devote to a specific project. The effort is 

based on the presumption that each fulltime member of staff can work 12 

person*months per calendar year. Please give a rough estimation of the total 

person*months needed for the duration of the project. 

• Total Effort to be Financed by Project (Person Months): * Rough estimation of the 

person*months for which you intend to request an FNR funding. 

• Total Effort PI (Person Months): * Rough estimation of the total person*months you 

intend to work on the project as PI. 



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Section 2.2. Research Priority in FNR Call 

Please select only 1 of the following research priorities from the list in the online system. 

• Innovation in Services 

- Development and Performance of the Financial Systems 

- Business Service Design 

- Information Security and Trust Management 

- Telecommunication and Multimedia 

• Sustainable Resource Management in Luxembourg 

- Water Resources under Change 

- Sustainable Management and Valorization of Bioresources 

- Sustainable Building and Bioenergy 

- Spatial and Urban Development 

• New Functional and Intelligent Materials and Surfaces and New Sensing Applications 

- New Functional and Intelligent Materials and Surfaces 

• Biomedical Sciences/Regulation of Chronic, Degenerative and Infectious Diseases 

- Regenerative Medicine in Age-related Diseases 

- Translational Biomedical Research 

- Public Health 

• Societal Challenges for Luxembourg 

- Social and Economic Cohesion 

- Education and Learning 

- Identities, Diversity and Interaction 

Section 2.3. International Co-Funding 

• If you request co-funding by an International Funding Agency, which is the International 

Funding Agency? None/DFG/SNF/FWF/EMBL: the FNR has currently cooperation 

agreements with Germany (DFG), Switzerland (SNF), Austria (FWF) and EMBL. 

Section 2.4. Project Abstract 

• Key Words Characterizing the Research Project: 3-8 key words that you consider 

sufficient to characterise the scope of your proposal. 

• Publishable Project Abstract (max. 1/2 page): Short summary of your research 

proposal for FNR internal use. It will not be published without your approval. 





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3.1.3. Research Project Consortium 

Section 3.1. Contracting Partners (different from the Coordinating Institution) 

A ‘Contracting Partner’ is an institution which is eligible for funding and which is seeking 

financial support from the FNR, e.g. the University of Luxembourg, the CRPs, the CEPS or 

other public-sector research organisations eligible at the FNR. Do not add the Coordinating 

Institution here as this information has already been communicated under 1.2. 

Mandatory information: 

• Institution 

• Department 

• Researcher in Charge 

• Web Address. 

Click the ‘Add’ button to validate and/or add new partners. 

Section 3.2. Non-contracting Partners / International Co-funding Partner (Intl. 

Funding Agency) 

A ‘Non-contracting Partner’ is an organisation or individual from the public or private sector 

(from Luxembourg or abroad) participating in the project without financial support from the 

FNR, e.g. foreign university or company. 

An ‘International Co-funding Partner’ is a foreign institution applying for co-funding at its 

respective ‘International Funding Agency’ in his country; FNR being the ‘Lead Agency’. 


• Institution (Intl. Funding Agency) ‘Name of the Non-contracting Partner’. If applicable 

add the ‘International Co-funding Partner’ followed by its ‘International Funding Agency’ 

in brackets. e.g. Universität Trier (DFG) 







3.1.4. Legal and Ethical Requirements 

Section 4.1. Legal and Ethical Requirements 

• Does the Project give rise to Ethical Issues? Yes/No 

• Does the Project need to be submitted to the ‘Commission Nationale de la Protection 

des Données (CNPD)’ and/or ‘Comité National d'Éthique de Recherche (CNER)’ for 

approval? Yes/No. More info on www.cnpd.lu and www.cner.lu 

If applicable, approval(s) is/are required before the start of the project. 

• If 'Yes', how will Ethical Issues be addressed? If the project gives rise to ethical issues, 

please briefly indicate what they consist in and how they will be addressed. Ethical 

issues are not limited to issues handled by the ‘Commission Nationale de la Protection 

des Données’ and/or the ‘Comité National d’Éthique de Recherche’ (see section Ethical 

Issues). The PI should contact the department in charge of ethical issues in its 

research institution for support. 



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Section 4.2. Primary and Secondary Domains of the Research Project 

• Life Sciences (LS) 

- LS1 Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry 

- LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology 

- LS3 Cellular and Developmental Biology 

- LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology and Endocrinology 

- LS5 Neurosciences and neural disorders 

- LS6 Immunity and infection 

- LS7 Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health 

- LS8 Evolutionary, population and environmental biology 

- LS9 Applied life sciences and biotechnology 

• Mathematics, Physical Sciences, Information and Communication, Engineering, 

Universe and Earth Sciences (PE) 

- PE1 Mathematical foundations 

- PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter 

- PE3 Condensed matter physics 

- PE4 Physical and Analytical Chemical sciences 

- PE5 Materials and Synthesis 

- PE6 Computer science and informatics 

- PE7 Systems and communication engineering 

- PE8 Products and process engineering 

- PE9 Universe sciences 

- PE10 Earth system science 

• Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) 

- SH1 Individuals, institutions and markets 

- SH2 Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour 

- SH3 Environment and society 

- SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity 

- SH5 Cultures and cultural production 

- SH6 The study of the human past 






3.1.5. Attachments 

Section 5.1. Project Description 

If you have not done it yet (Task 1), please download the file ‘CORE 2013 Pre-proposal 

Form.doc’ from the FNR website. 

This ‘Pre-proposal Form (Project Description)’ is a WORD file that may be saved to your 

desktop and completed off-line. The ‘Pre-proposal Form’ is part of a web-based online 

application and cannot be submitted alone. After completion of the Word document, please 

convert it to PDF and upload it into the system (no scanned PDF version). Only PDF files 

can be uploaded! 

If you want to replace the file already uploaded, please REMOVE it first, before uploading the 

new file to the system. 



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Please find hereafter the explanation of the different fields of the ‘Pre-proposal Form’: 

1. Accordance with CORE thematic research priorities. (max. 1/2 page) 

How does the proposal fit the description of the thematic research priorities presented in the 

‘Programme Description’ of the CORE 2013 Call? Explain how your proposal fits into the 

context of the FNR CORE thematic research priorities (cf. chapter 4 in the programme 

description of the call). Proposals not clearly related to the CORE thematic programme 

cannot be considered for funding. 

2. Is this proposal a FOLLOW-UP of a granted CORE proposal? (max. 1/2 page) 

If yes, please indicate the title and code of the project, specify the link between both projects 

and justify the need for a follow-up project. 

3. Is this proposal a RESUBMISSION of a CORE proposal or a modified version of a 

proposal submitted in other calls (e.g. INTER, FP7)? (max. 1 page) 

If yes, please indicate the title and code of the project, explain the modifications and describe 

how the reviewers’ comments have been addressed. 

4. Is this proposal a CORE Junior Track? (max. 1/2 page) 

If yes, please describe the planned training and mentoring for the PI. Briefly describe what 

training and mentoring you intend to integrate in your research project that will help to 

develop your research career. 

5. Description of the research project. (max. 2 pages) 

Please write a scientifically oriented executive summary. The summary should provide a 

clear understanding of the following elements: 

• Statement of the research questions and/or hypotheses: e.g. statement of the problem, 

purpose, significance of the project 

• Methodology: e.g. population and sampling, instrumentation, assumptions, scope and 

limitations 

• Expected results 

6. Description of the research environment. (max. 1/2 page) 

• Environment: Shortly describe the research environment in your institution. Does this 

proposal fit into the main research activities of your department or do you intend to 

extend the activity portfolio of your department? 

• Equipment: Concerning the acquisition or the development of equipment exceeding 

€ 25,000, please indicate the precise need for such equipment. Furthermore describe 

which other organisations will contribute to the co-funding of this equipment. 

7. Number and qualification of new staff to be hired (max. 1/2 page) 

Please indicate roughly the profile of the new staff you intend to hire for this project. Specify 

the number of persons, their respective qualification and the person*months on the project. 

Please explain how you will make sure that these people are in place at the start of the 

project. In this context, please be reminded that the start of the project must occur at the 

latest six months after the organisation has received written confirmation of the FNR 

support, otherwise the FNR might withdraw any offer of support. 

8. Bibliography 

Please indicate the most relevant papers concerning your research question and 

methodology, as well as the main literature. 

Each reference must include the names of all authors, the article and journal title, book title, 

publisher, volume number, page numbers and years of publications. If the document is 

available electronically, the website address should be mentioned too. 



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Section 5.2. Recent CVs 

Please upload a Recent Curriculum Vitae for the Applicant (PI) and the Main 

Researchers in the project into the system (max. 3 pages/CV in one PDF File. There is no 

template provided). Only PDF files can be uploaded! 

Please include: 

1. The number of supervised doctoral dissertations as supervisor. 

2. List of 10 most recent accepted publications. 

3. List of most relevant ongoing and completed projects including funding source. 

4. List of own most relevant patents. 

If you want to replace a file already uploaded, please REMOVE it first, before uploading the 


Section 5.3. Declaration 

Please check “We/I hereby declare that this proposal conforms to the call guidelines and the 

‘FNR Research Integrity Guidelines’.” 



If you have finished filling in the different sections of your ‘Online Application Form’, please 

click on the button named ‘Form fully completed and ready for PDF generation’. You may 

as well choose to modify the entered data by clicking on the button named ‘Enter more 

details now’. 

Finally, press the button ‘Done’ to validate the completion of the task and make it disappear 

from your ‘To Do’ list. 

The fourth and last task of step 1 is to generate a PDF document which contains all the 

information of your ‘Online Application Form’. Click on the hyperlink named ‘Generate PDF’. 

The PDF document will appear in the documents list on the right side of the screen. If the 

document named ‘Generated PDF’ does not appear in the list, please click on the refresh 

button of your browser ( or ). 

3.2. Step 2: Submitting the Online Application Form 

The submission of the ‘Online Application Form’ consists of 2 stages: 

• Submission by the applicant 

• Validation and submission by the Coordinating Institution 

After having generated the report in PDF format, please click the button ‘Submit for 

Institutional Check’. 

The report will now be accessible to the administration of the ‘Coordinating Institution’ in 

Luxembourg. The administration has the possibility to amend and validate your ‘Online 

Application Form’ and/or return it to you for changes. 

Please note that the ‘Coordinating Institution’ has to respect the deadline for the final 

submission of the Pre-proposal. 



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4. Full Proposal Application 

The CORE Full Proposal Application consists of 2 different steps: 

• Step 1: Completing the Online Application Form 

• Step 2: Submitting the Online Application Form 

The CORE Full Proposal Application for a project consists of different elements: 

• The Full Proposal Online Application Form is the FNR’s online ‘Grant Management 

System’ that contains general administrative and budgetary details of your application. 

• The Full Proposal Form (Project Description) contains more detailed information on 

the proposed research project, i.e. on its scientific content as well as the organisation 

of the tasks to be undertaken. This Word file which you may download to your own 

desktop and complete off-line has to be converted to PDF before uploading. The ‘Full 

Proposal Form’ is part of a web-based online application and cannot be submitted 

alone. 

• The Recent Curriculum Vitae for Applicant (no template provided). 

• The Recent Curriculum Vitae for Main Researchers in the Project (no template 

provided). 

• The Project Plan contains the planning in time of the work packages and tasks. 

• The Budget is a detailed budget for the ‘Coordinating Institution’ and the various 

contracting partners, and contains a presentation of estimated contributions by the noncontracting 

partners in terms of personnel and financial effort. 

• For CORE Junior projects: please upload a support letter by the mentor abroad (no 

template provided). 

• In the case that a co-funding of a German, Swiss or Austrian partner is required by the 

DFG, SNF or FWF, additional forms need to be completed. 

The PIs will have access to their proposals within the ‘Grant Management System’ as of 

15 March 2013. 

An e-Tutorial for the ‘Grant Management System’ is available in the ‘Help’ section of the 

online submission system and on the FNR website. Information on how to prepare your 

proposal is given on the following pages in blue italic characters inside the forms. 

If you need further advice and support, please contact your FNR Programme Assistant. 



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4.1. Step 1: Completing the Online Application Form 

Step 1 of the CORE Full Proposal Application consists of 4 different tasks, which are 

presented as a ‘To Do’ list: 

• Task 1: Download the Full Proposal Form 

• Task 2: Consult the Application Guidelines 

• Task 3: Fill in the Online Application Form 

• Task 4: Generate a PDF document 

After completion of each task, press the button ‘Done’ to validate the completion of the task 

and remove it from your ‘To Do’ list. 

The first task named ‘Download the Full Proposal Form’ requires you to download a 

WORD document, named ‘Full Proposal Form (Project Description)’. Please save it to your 

desktop and complete it off-line. A detailed description of the form is available in section 7.1. 

The second task named ‘Consult the Application Guidelines’ reminds you to read the 

present document to guide you through the application stages. 

A click on the hyperlink of the third task named ‘CORE Full Proposal Form’ brings you to 

the ‘Online Application Form’ (labelled Smartform) for the CORE Full Proposal, which 

contains the administrative and budgetary details of your project. The ‘Online Application 

Form’ is divided into 7 sections which can be accessed individually: 

• Section 1. Principal Investigator and Coordinating Institution 

• Section 2. Research Project 

• Section 3. Research Project Consortium 

• Section 4. Legal and Ethical Requirements 

• Section 5. Project Outputs 

• Section 6. Financial Part 

• Section 7. Attachments 

Please note that some fields will be populated with the information already provided during 

the Pre-proposal submission. They may however be amended. The form may be saved at 

any time and you may come back to it later on. Before you may submit the completed form 

however you need to make sure that all mandatory questions (marked with *) have been 

filled out. Please also ensure that all data is correct before submission. 

Please note that a scanned PDF version will not be accepted. 



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4.1.1. Principal Investigator and Coordinating Institution 

Section 1.1. Principal Investigator (PI) 

• Application ID: Generated automatically 

• First Name: * Given name of the PI. May only be modified through your profile. 

• Family Name: * Surname of the PI. May only be modified through your profile. 

• Gender: * Male/Female 

• Title: * e.g. Dr, Prof., etc. 

• Category of Position: * e.g. Head of Unit, Head of Department, Assistant Professor, etc. 

• Discipline of Doctorate (PhD): 

• University/Institution Issuing the PhD Certificate: 

• Date of Certificate: Issuing date of PhD certificate 

• Email: * May only be modified through your profile. 

• Phone Number: 

• Date of Birth: * 

• Nationality: * 

Section 1.2. Coordinating Institution 

• Name of Coordinating Institution: * Name of the Luxembourgish institution where the PI 

works and who will serve as a contact for the FNR throughout the application process 

and possible later project implementation. 

• Department: * Official name (and acronym) of the department and research group. 

• Website of Group: * 





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4.1.2. Research Project 

Section 2.1. Research Project 

• Project Title: * Should not be longer than 200 characters. 

• Project Acronym: * The short title or acronym will be used to identify your proposal 

efficiently. Should not be longer than 10 characters. 

• Project Start: * Suggested start of the project is 1 January 2014. Note that the start of 

the project must occur six months after the organisation has received written 

confirmation of FNR support (end of October 2013) at the latest, otherwise the FNR 

might withdraw any offer of support. 

• Project Duration (in months): * Insert the project duration as stated in the “CORE 2013 

Project Plan”. This Excel workbook is available on the FNR’s website. Note that 

projects should have a duration of 2-3 years. In case a PhD is foreseen to be covered 

by the CORE project budget, the project duration must be 3 years (see 6.4.1 Personnel 

Costs ). 

• CORE Junior Track: * Select ‘Yes’ to submit through CORE Junior Track (see 1.5.) 

• Resubmission: * Select ‘Yes’ if the project is a resubmission of a previous CORE or 

INTER project! 

• Follow-up: * Select ‘Yes’ if the project is based upon a previous FNR project. 

• Total Project Costs (e.g. € 500000): * Insert the ‘Total Project Budget’ as stated in the 

‘Budget Summary’ worksheet inside the ‘CORE 2013 Budget.xls’ workbook. Do not use 

points or commas as decimal separators 

• Requested Funds from FNR Programme: * Insert the funds you intend to request from 

the FNR as stated in the ‘Budget Summary’ worksheet inside the ‘CORE 2013 

Budget.xls’ workbook. Do not use points or commas as decimal separators 

• Total Effort (Person Months): * ‘Person*months’ is the metric for expressing the effort 

(amount of time) PIs and other personnel devote to a specific project. The effort is 

based on the presumption that each fulltime member of staff can work 12 

person*months per calendar year. Insert the total person*months needed for the full 

duration of the project as stated in the ‘Budget Summary’ worksheet inside the ‘CORE 

2013 Budget.xls’ workbook. 

• Total Effort to be Financed by Project (Person Months) * Insert the person*months for 

which you intend to request an FNR funding as stated in the ‘Budget Summary’ 

worksheet inside the ‘CORE 2013 Budget.xls’ workbook. 

• Total Effort PI (Person Months) * Insert the total person*months you intend to work on 

the project as PI as stated in the ‘Budget Summary’ worksheet inside the ‘CORE 2013 

Budget.xls’ workbook. 



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Section 2.2. Research Priority in FNR Call 

Please select only 1 of the following research priorities from the list in the online system. 

• Innovation in Services 

- Development and Performance of the Financial Systems 

- Business Service Design 

- Information Security and Trust Management 

- Telecommunication and Multimedia 

• Sustainable Resource Management in Luxembourg 

- Water Resources under Change 

- Sustainable Management and Valorization of Bioresources 

- Sustainable Building and Bioenergy 

- Spatial and Urban Development 

• New Functional and Intelligent Materials and Surfaces and New Sensing Applications 

- New Functional and Intelligent Materials and Surfaces 

• Biomedical Sciences/Regulation of Chronic, Degenerative and Infectious Diseases 

- Regenerative Medicine in Age-related Diseases 

- Translational Biomedical Research 

- Public Health 

• Societal Challenges for Luxembourg 

- Social and Economic Cohesion 

- Education and Learning 

- Identities, Diversity and Interaction 

Section 2.3. International Co-funding 

• If you request co-funding by an International Funding Agency, which is the International 

Funding Agency? None/DFG/SNF/FWF/EMBL: the FNR has currently cooperation 

agreements with Germany (DFG), Switzerland (SNF), Austria (FWF) and EMBL. 

• ‘International Co-funding Partner’ applying for co-funding at the International Funding 

Agency: Name of foreign institution and research coordinator 

Section 2.4. Project Abstract 

• Key words Characterizing the Research Project: 

3-8 key words that you consider sufficient to characterize the scope of your proposal. 

• Publishable Project Abstract (max. 0,5 page) 

Write a scientifically oriented executive summary. This abstract should provide a clear 

understanding of the prime objectives of the proposal and how they will be achieved. 

It may be used as the short description of the proposal during the evaluation process, 

i.e. by external scientific experts. It will not be published without your approval. 





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4.1.3. Research Project Consortium 

Section 3.1. Contracting Partners (only institutions different from the 

Coordinating Institution) 

A ‘Contracting Partner’ is an institution which is eligible for funding and which is seeking 

financial support from the FNR, e.g. the University of Luxembourg, the CRPs, the CEPS or 

other public-sector research organisations eligible at the FNR. Do not add the Coordinating 

Institution here as this information has already been communicated under 1.2. 


• Institution 





Section 3.2. Non-contracting Partners / International Co-funding Partner (Intl. 

Funding Agency) 

A ‘Non-contracting Partner’ is an organisation or individual from the public or private sector 

(from Luxembourg or abroad) participating in the project without financial support from the 

FNR, e.g. foreign university or company. 

An ‘International Co-funding Partner’ is a foreign institution applying for co-funding at its 

respective ‘International Funding Agency’ in his country; the FNR being the ‘Lead Agency’. 


• Institution (Intl. Funding Agency) ‘Name of the Non-contracting Partner’. If applicable 

add the ‘International Co-funding Partner’ followed by its ‘International Funding Agency’ 

in brackets e.g. Universität Trier (DFG) 









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4.1.4. Legal and Ethical Requirements 

Section 4.1. Legal and Ethical Requirements 

• Does the Project give rise to Ethical Issues? Yes/No 

• Does the Project need to be submitted to the ‘Commission Nationale de la Protection 

des Données (CNPD)’ and/or ‘Comité National d'Éthique de Recherche (CNER)’ for 

approval? Yes/No. More info on www.cnpd.lu and www.cner.lu 

If applicable, approval(s) is/are required before the start of the project. 

• If 'Yes', how will Ethical Issues be addressed? If the project gives rise to ethical issues, 

please briefly indicate what they consist in and how they will be addressed. Ethical 

issues are not limited to issues handled by the ‘Commission Nationale de la Protection 

des Données’ and/or the ‘Comité National d’Éthique de Recherche’ (see section Ethical 

Issues). The PI should contact the department in charge of ethical issues in its 

research institution for support. 

Section 4.2. Primary and Secondary Domains of the Research Project 

• Life Sciences (LS) 

- LS1 Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry 

- LS2 Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics and Systems Biology 

- LS3 Cellular and Developmental Biology 

- LS4 Physiology, Pathophysiology and Endocrinology 

- LS5 Neurosciences and neural disorders 

- LS6 Immunity and infection 

- LS7 Diagnostic tools, therapies and public health 

- LS8 Evolutionary, population and environmental biology 

- LS9 Applied life sciences and biotechnology 

• Mathematics, Physical Sciences, Information and Communication, Engineering, 

Universe and Earth Sciences (PE) 

- PE1 Mathematical foundations 

- PE2 Fundamental constituents of matter 

- PE3 Condensed matter physics 

- PE4 Physical and Analytical Chemical sciences 

- PE5 Materials and Synthesis 

- PE6 Computer science and informatics 

- PE7 Systems and communication engineering 

- PE8 Products and process engineering 

- PE9 Universe sciences 

- PE10 Earth system science 

• Social Sciences and Humanities (SH) 

- SH1 Individuals, institutions and markets 

- SH2 Institutions, values, beliefs and behaviour 

- SH3 Environment and society 

- SH4 The Human Mind and its complexity 

- SH5 Cultures and cultural production 

- SH6 The study of the human past 





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4.1.5. Project Outputs 

Section 5.1. PhD Training 

For each PhD candidate, please fill in the following items: 

• First Name of PhD Candidate For already known candidates, otherwise write N.N. The 

FNR is aware that this may change over time. 

• Last Name of PhD Candidate 

• Title of Thesis or draft title 

• Name of Academic Supervisor Name of the Professor who will supervise the PhD (if 

available). 

• Institution Issuing the PhD Name and country of the institution. 

• Expected Award Date Approximate date when candidate will be awarded his/her PhD. 

• AFR Grant Code (if applicable) 

Click the ‘Add’ button to validate each candidate. 

Section 5.2. Scientific Peer Reviewed Publications 5 

For each estimated publication please fill in the following items: 

• Estimated Total Number: Indicate where you can already foresee the dissemination of 

the project results in the form of a publication. 

• Type of Publication Category: Scientific paper, Review, Book Chapter, Book, 

Manuscript, Monograph. 

• Targeted Level of Publication: Name of possible journals, editors, impact factors that 

you are aiming for. 

• Time Horizon: Indicate whenever possible the year you intend to publish. 

Click the ‘Add’ button to validate each publication. 

Section 5.3. Other Tangible Outputs 

• Description of Output: Prototype, database or other deliverables etc. 

• WP Number WP generating the deliverable 

• Planned for Project Month 

• Partner Responsible Name (or abbreviation) of institution 



5 The FNR considers the following as peer-reviewed publications: 

• A publication in a journal of the list of journals with impact factors published yearly by ISI Thompson, 

• A publication in the journal index established by SCOPUS, or 

• A monograph with a review board. 



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4.1.6. Financial Part 

Data for this part have to be calculated using the Excel workbook named ‘CORE 2013 

Budget.xls’ available on the FNR website under http://www.fnr.lu/CORE. 

The completion of this spreadsheet is described in chapter 6. Please replicate the calculated 

amounts in the following tables. 

Section 6.1. Contracting Partners 

For the Coordinating Institution and each Contracting Partner, insert the amounts for the 

following items: 

• Desired FNR contribution: The totals will be calculated. 

- Personnel 

- Equipment 

- Consumables 

- Travel Costs 

- Subcontracting 

- Others 

- Overhead 

• Other Funding: The total will be calculated. 

Section 6.2. Non-contracting Partners / International Co-funding Partner 

(International Funding Agency) 

For each ‘Non-contracting Partner’ (if applicable also for the ‘International Co-funding 

Partner’) insert the following items: 

• Estimated Person*Months The total will be calculated. 

• Estimated Contribution The total will be calculated. 





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4.1.7. Attachments 

Section 7.1. Project Description 

If you have not done it yet (task 1), please download the ‘CORE 2013 Full Proposal 

Form.doc’ form the FNR website. 

This ‘Full Proposal Form (Project Description)’ is a WORD file that may be saved to your 

desktop and completed off-line. The ‘Full Proposal Form’ is part of a web-based online 

application and cannot be submitted alone. After completion of the Word document, please 

convert it to PDF and upload it into the system (no scanned PDF version). Only PDF files 

can be uploaded! 



Please find hereafter the explanation of the different fields of the ‘Full Proposal Form’: 

1. Project Abstract (max. 1 page) 

Write a scientifically oriented executive summary. This abstract should provide a clear 

understanding of the prime objectives of the proposal and how they will be achieved. It may 

be used as the short description of the proposal during the evaluation process, i.e. by 

external scientific experts. 

2. Accordance with CORE thematic research priorities. 

How does the proposal fit the description of the thematic research priorities presented in the 

Programme Description of the CORE 2013 Call? (max. 1/2 page) 

Explain how your proposal fits into the context of the FNR CORE thematic research priorities 

(cf. chapter 4 in the CORE 2013 Programme Description). Proposals not clearly related to 

the FNR CORE thematic programme may not be considered for funding. 

3. Is this proposal a FOLLOW-UP of a granted CORE proposal? 

If yes, please indicate the title and code of the project, specify the link between both projects 

and justify the need for a follow-up project (max. 1/2 page). 

4. Is this proposal a RESUBMISSION of a CORE proposal or a modified version of a 

proposal submitted in other calls (e.g. INTER, FP7)? 

If yes, please indicate the title and code of the project, explain the modifications and describe 

how the reviewers’ comments have been addressed (max. 2 pages). 

5. Description of the Proposed Research Project. (max. 10 pages for 5.1. - 5.3.) 

5.1. Current state of the art including your relevant previous work. 

Please describe the current scientific state of the art and ongoing developments in fields 

relevant to your proposal including your own previous work. Provide an assessment of 

further research needs (what are the main ideas that led you to propose this work?). Please 

quote references, details of these references have to be presented in part 10 (Bibliography). 

5.2. Project objectives and contribution to knowledge development. 

Outline your project's contribution to the research needs identified above. State your 

hypotheses. Clearly define the objectives to be achieved by the project in a realistic and, as 

far as possible, measurable form. 



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5.3. Methods and approach. 

Describe the methods and procedures you will use in order to reach the objectives defined 

above. Summarise/analyse the underlying theory/theories. 

Please quote references in part 10 (Bibliography). 

6. Description of the Project Plan and Work Packages 

6.1. Project plan (1 page) 

Present a detailed work plan, broken down into work packages. The number of work 

packages used should be appropriate to the complexity of the project (5-10 work packages 

are suggested). The work plan has to follow the logical phases of the implementation of the 

project. It is proposed to start with filling in the Gantt chart in the accompanying Excel 

workbook ‘CORE 2013 Project Plan.xls’ which forms part of the application documents, and 

then to present a narrative description in this chapter. Additional explanations on how to use 

the ‘Project Plan’ are provided in the chapter 5. 

6.2. Work Packages (WPs) and tasks (1 page/WP) 

Present the work packages (consistent with the Gantt chart in the ‘Project Plan’) in detail, 

using the table provided below. Use one table per work package (please copy the table as 

many times as you need it). The explanations included in the table have to be sufficient for 

justifying the proposed effort and allow for progress monitoring. 

WP number 1 

WP title 

WP leader 

Start date 

Objective 

Only 1 person 

End date 

Provide a general description of the work to be undertaken (including methods to be applied 

where appropriate), identify the partners involved and specify their contributions. 

Tasks 

Break the work package down into major tasks. Explain the sequence of tasks and explain 

interdependencies between tasks where necessary. 

Interdependence with other work packages 

Provide a narrative description or/and a graphical presentation of interdependencies between 

the present work package with other work packages. 

Deliverables and milestones 

A deliverable represents a verifiable output of the work package. Normally, each work 

package will produce one or more deliverables during its lifetime. 

List, specify and quantify deliverables (e.g. prototype, survey results). State the project 

month of delivery (measured in months from the first month the project started). 

Milestones represent a scheduled event signifying the completion of a major deliverable or a 

set of related deliverables (e.g. prototype tested, patient cohort established). State the 

project month of delivery (measured in months from the first month the project started). 



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Human resources 

Name of researcher Partner Qualification level Person*months 

PhD, post-doc, etc. 

6.3. Risk management and quality assurance (max. 1 page) 

Describe how you intend to ensure the quality of your work (e.g. definition of milestones for 

measuring project progress, regular joint progress evaluation, cross-checking of intermediate 

reports or results, etc.). Review the risks identified and describe how you will monitor and 

mitigate them. Mention any significant external factor (assumptions = positively phrased, 

risks = negatively phrased) that are not under the control of the project and may determine 

whether the intended project 1) may start as planned, 2) may be implemented as planned 

and/or 3) may achieve its intended objectives. (Example for an assumption: “Delayed 

equipment delivery.”) 

Please note: If serious risks exist (i.e. risks that could cause strong negative impacts and 

whose probability of occurrence is high), the project design should be reconsidered. 

In this section you should go beyond the description of how you want to tackle risks 

emerging in the project, e.g. regular consortium meetings. 

7. Project Outputs (max. 3 pages for 7.1 - 7.3) 

7.1. Contributions to advancement of knowledge, people and institutions. 

Summarise how the project outputs contribute to the advancement of the development of the 

scientific community of Luxembourg, in particular the participating partners’ organisations in 

terms of capacities, competencies, critical mass and international visibility. 

Describe: 

• the project’s contribution to the advancement of the state of the art, the knowledge 

production in the field and its dissemination to the scientific community, 

• the project’s contribution to training of young researchers, in particular that of PhDs, 

• how you will involve potential stakeholders from the private and public sector throughout 

the implementation of your project (if applicable), 

• the planned strategy for valorisation and dissemination of your results, if applicable (e.g. 

What are the expected results? What will be the strategy of protection (patent, trademark, 

design, copyrights? What will be the strategy of exploitation (licensing, start-up,…)?, what 

is the project’s potential to generate intellectual property and the possible exploitation of 

the IPR? 

• which efforts (publications, public conferences, and other activities) are foreseen in order 

to increase public awareness among the general public and the understanding of the 

research topic by a wider audience. 

Quantify these intended direct outputs of the project like PhDs, scientific publications, and 

other tangible outputs like prototypes, computer programmes, databases, etc. as far as 

possible in the table below. 

In some cases outputs (e.g., a publication) may be the result of one single work package, 

thus they will already have been mentioned above as “deliverables”. In this case repeat them 

here and refer back to the work package concerned. 

You will also have to decide what to include as a direct output in the present chapter and 

what to include as an intended medium to long-term impact in the chapter 5.2. For example, 

exploitation of IPR (in terms of licensing, patenting etc.) may either be part of your direct 

outputs or rather an impact that may eventually occur in the medium term, depending on the 

magnitude and the design of the proposed research project. 



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Please keep in mind that the outputs described in this chapter should be realistic in relation 

to the size of the project (funding and staff effort). Nevertheless the outputs should be 

ambitious (within the level of risk that is inherent to a challenging research project) and at an 

international level of standard in your scientific domain. 

Thus the intended outputs described will serve as measure to assess the ambition of the 

project during peer review and as a benchmark for evaluation in the final report. 

7.2. Only for CORE Junior Track: Advancement of the junior PI’s research career. 

Summarise how the project will contribute to the advancement of your research career (2 

pages). 

Describe: 

• the contribution of the project towards establishing your own autonomous research 

branch. 

• A training and mentoring plan that will help to develop your research career. 

- Training stays, mentoring sessions, networking activities, etc. 

- the contribution of the mentoring to the development of your research and project 

management skills 

- the contribution of the training planned within the frame of the project towards to the 

development of your research and project management skills. 

7.3. Intended long-term impact and contribution to CORE programme objectives. 

Describe how your project intends to contribute (indirectly) in the medium to long term to the 

objectives set out for each research priority in chapter 4 of the programme description. You 

should describe the steps that are necessary and foreseen in the project (and outside of the 

projects) to bring about these impacts (e.g. dissemination and exploitation of project results, 

stakeholder involvement). 

The information provided in this chapter is necessary for FNR impact assessment. Outline 

and, where possible, quantify (realistically) envisaged impacts like spin-offs, licensing 

agreements, PPPs, technological innovations, policy changes, international follow-up 

projects, etc. based on the project’s outputs. 

7.4. PhD student supervision and research lines. 

Provide details about how the supervision and training of the candidate is organised (1/2 

page max.). 

Provide a short description of the PhD project(s) (by making reference to the project 

description and work plan: title of the PhD project; research question, methodology, 

envisaged outcome; number of publications foreseen (1st author publication expected); (1-2 

pages). 

At submission deadline: The academic supervisor provides a support letter (not required if 

the PI is the academic supervisor). 

At project start: The academic supervisor provides an updated support letter until the official 

CORE project start (not required if the PI is the academic supervisor). 

Briefly describe also the profile of the candidate you wish to employ for this PhD position. 

Indicate who will be the academic PhD supervisor and the degree issuing institution of each 

PhD. 



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8. Project Participants and Management. (max. 2 pages for 8.1 - 8.4) 

8.1. Description of the consortium. 

For each participating organisation in the proposed project, provide a brief description of the 

organisation, the responsibilities within the proposed project, as well as the previous 

experiences qualifying participants for the task at hand. Describe how the participants 

collectively constitute a consortium capable of achieving the project objectives, amongst 

others, by highlighting the complementarities between them. Provide short profiles of the 

personnel who will be undertaking the work (also for new staff to be hired), and list the 

persons in the table below. 

If new staff needs to be hired for the project, please explain how you will make sure that 

these people are in place at the start of the project. 

Additional details (CVs, publication lists, organisation descriptions etc.) have to be provided. 

8.2. List of human resources. 

Name of researcher 

Name of researchers working on 

project for all partners (contracting 

and non-contracting). 

Personnel that have to be recruited 

should be indicated between 

brackets. 

Write N.N. when the name of the 

candidate is not yet available. 

Partner 

institution 

8.3. Communication and decision-making. 

Position Qualification 

level 

Group 

leader, 

student 

PhD, postdoc, 

etc. 

Gender Person*months 

M/F 

Person*months 

on project 

For projects with large consortiums, describe how communication (channels, methods etc.) 

between all partners will be organised and how decisions will be taken. 

8.4. Consortium agreement and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management. 

Experience has shown that the signing of agreements governing intellectual property rights 

between all parties is a time consuming process. Therefore fully fledged agreements should 

only be signed when absolutely necessary. A Consortium Agreement and an Intellectual 

property rights agreement is mandatory in the following cases: 

• If intellectual property goes beyond simple authorship rights and a protection via patenting 

of the project results is probable and/or there may be possible commercialisation of the 

project results; 

• A company or private institution is part of the consortium then; 

• One of the parties involved explicitly requests such an agreement. 

Consortium constellations that do not require a fully fledged agreement: 

• If intellectual property is limited to scientific publications (and data sets), the consortium (in 

this case the consortium is usually composed of universities and public research 

institutions in and outside of Luxembourg) should: 

- At least indicate in Annex V, how the authorship of the publications and the 

management and access to the data sets are settled amongst the project partners, 

- Indicate any other agreed upon statement between the parties or 

- Sign a consortium agreement (only if it is specifically requested by the parties). 



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Consortium agreement (CA): Agreement governing the approach and rights and 

obligations among the members of the consortium including authorship rights of publications. 

Intellectual property rights agreement (IPRA): All rights to technical solutions, methods, 

processes and procedures, regard-less of whether or not these are or may be patented, as 

well as all copyrights and other rights to trademarks, authorship rights of publications, design, 

plant species, databases, integrated circuit layout designs, drawings, specifications, 

prototypes, company-internal secrets and the like. 

If the applicants have further questions to this issue, they should contact the administration of 

their host institution and the FNR. 

9. Justification of project budget and requested funding (2 pages) 

Structure and justify the project’s costs. Relate them to the planned outputs and impacts of 

the project. 

Details have to be provided here. The FNR may not fund all costs if the justification is not 

precisely given. 

Details have to be presented in the Excel Annex (see below for further instructions on filling 

out the Excel annex). Explain the distribution of costs amongst the partners and the cost 

categories presented in the Excel Annex. 

10. Bibliography / References 

Each reference must include the names of all authors, the article and journal title, book title, 

volume number, page numbers, and year of publication. If the document is available 

electronically, the website address should be mentioned, too. 

Section 7.2. Principal Investigator CV 

Please upload a Recent Curriculum Vitae of the Principal Investigator (PI) into the system 

(max. 3 pages/CV in one PDF File). There is no template provided. 

Including: 


2. List of 10 most recent accepted publications. 

3. List of most relevant ongoing and completed projects including funding source. 


Section 7.3. Researchers CVs 

Please upload a Recent Curriculum Vitae of Main Researchers in the project into the system 

(max. 3 pages/CV in one PDF File). There is no template provided. 

Including: 


2. List of 10 most recent accepted publications of each of the main researchers. 

3. List of most relevant ongoing and completed projects including funding source of each of 

the main researchers. 


5. Profiles of the researcher to be newly hired for the project (and candidates – max. 1 page). 



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Section 7.4. Project Plan 

Download the Excel workbook named ‘CORE 2013 Project Plan.xls’ from the FNR website 

by clicking on the link above. 

The ‘Project Plan’ gives an overview of the project planning and presents the work 

packages (WPs) and tasks. It contains one single worksheet named ‘Project Plan’. 

The completion of this separate spreadsheet is described in chapter 5. 

Section 7.5. Budget 

Download the Excel workbook named ‘CORE 2013 Budget.xls’ from the FNR website by 

clicking on the link above. 

The ‘Budget’ contains the following sheet: 

• For the presentation of detailed budgets per coordinating institution and the various 

contracting partners (worksheets ‘COORD.’, ‘CONTR. P. 1’, ‘CONTR. P. 2’, ‘CONTR. 

P. 3’) 

• For the presentation of estimated contributions by the non-contracting partners 

(including ‘International Co-funding Partners’) in terms of personnel (total 

person*months) and financial effort (worksheet ‘NON-CONTR. P.’) 

• The presentation of the Budgetary Overview (worksheet ‘Budget Summary’). Note: The 

main content of this worksheet does not have to be completed manually but will be 

populated with the data that you input in the sheets mentioned above. 

The completion of this separate spreadsheet is described in chapter 6. 

Section 7.6. International Co-Funding (if applicable) 

In the case that a co-funding of a German, Swiss or Austrian partner is required by the DFG 

SNF or FWF, please download the additional and country specific documents which are 

necessary for the partner funding agency. Please complete all necessary forms, convert 

them to PDF and merge them into one single PDF file and upload them. For more 

information, see webpage: http://www.fnr.lu/International Cooperation/Funding 

Section 7.7. Declaration * 

Please check “We/I hereby declare that this proposal conforms to the call guidelines and the 

‘FNR Research Integrity Guidelines’.” 





If you have finished filling in the different sections of your ‘Online Application Form’, please 

click on the button named ‘Form fully completed and ready for PDF generation’. You may 

as well choose to modify the entered data by clicking on the button named ‘Enter more 

details now’. 



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Finally, press the button ‘Done’ to validate the completion of the task and make it disappear 

from your ‘To Do’ list. 

The fourth and last task of step 1 is to generate a PDF document which contains all the 

information of your ‘Online Application Form’. Click on the hyperlink named ‘Generate Full 

Proposal PDF’. The PDF document will appear in the documents list on the right side of the 

screen. If the document named ‘Generated PDF’ does not appear in the list after a few 

minutes, please click on the refresh button of your browser ( or ). 

4.2. Step 2: Submitting the Online Application Form 

The submission of the ‘Online Application Form’ consists of 2 stages: 

• Submission by applicant 

• Validation and submission by coordinating institution 

After having generated the report in PDF format, please click the button ‘Submit for 

Institutional Check’. 

The report will now be accessible to the administration of the ‘Coordinating Institution’ in 

Luxembourg. The administration has the possibility to amend and validate your ‘Online 

Application Form’ and/or return it to you for changes. 

Please note that the ‘Coordinating Institution’ has to respect the deadline for the final 

submission of the Full Proposal. 



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5. Completing the Project Plan 

The ‘Project Plan’ is part of the ‘Full Proposal Online Application Form’ and has to be 

uploaded under annex 7.4. The ‘Project Plan’ gives an overview of the project planning and 

presents the work packages (WPs) and tasks. It consists of a separate Excel workbook 

named ‘CORE 2013 Project Plan.xls’ containing one single worksheet named ‘Project Plan’. 

Please download it from the FNR’s webpage: http://www.fnr.lu/CORE 

The form is self-explaining and contains several examples. Please note that the Excel 

workbook is write-protected and that only white cells can be filled out. If the project is 

financed by the FNR, the same file and its worksheets will be used later on for monitoring as 

well. Therefore the worksheet contains presently hidden columns and rows not to be used for 

the application. 

The first part of the form contains the following mandatory fields: 

• Project Acronym 

• PI Name 

• Coordinating Institution 

• Start Date 

• End Date 

• Reference Date (As Of) Insert the date of your submission 

• Instance (Phase) Select Submission 

The second part of the form lists the Work Packages (WPs) and planned outputs and 

presents them in time. It contains the following fields: 

• Work Package WP number 

• Related tasks Task number 

• Name of Work Packages and related tasks Should be short enough to enter the 

available space. Extensive descriptions of the WPs and tasks are already in the ‘Full 

Proposal Form’. 

• Planned start and end date For each WP and task enter the relevant dates in the 

format ‘dd/mm/yy’ or ‘dd.mm.dd’. The Excel input and output formats depend on your 

system and MS office regional settings. 

• Actual start and end date Used later for annual and final reports 

• Gantt Chart Will be displayed when you insert the dates. 

• Deliverables Just list them without description 

• Milestones Just list them without description 

• Status Select ‘Not started’ in the drop down list 

• WP or Task Leader One single name per WP and task 

The worksheet must contain all work packages and tasks you describe in the Full Proposal 

Form. In any case, mention for any output the number(s) of the work packages leading to its 

completion. 

If necessary, you may add additional tasks and work packages. Please refer to the 

procedure for adding additional WP2 described under the help flag in row 96. 



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6. Completing the Budget 

Download ‘CORE 2013 Budget.xls’ 




The ‘Budget’ is part of the ‘Full Proposal Online Application Form’ and has to be uploaded 

under annex 7.5. The ‘Budget’ allows the financial planning of the proposal for all the 

members of the project consortium. It consists of a separate Excel workbook named ‘CORE 

2013 Budget.xls’ containing the following worksheets: 

• Coordinating Institution (abbreviated ‘COORD.’), Contracting Partners 1 to 3 

(abbreviated ‘CONTR. P. 1’, ‘CONTR. P. 2’ and ‘CONTR. P. 3’) are detailed budget 

forms for the Coordinating Institution and the various Contracting Partners. To add 

additional Contracting Partners please contact FNR. 

• Non-contracting Partners (abbreviated ‘NON-CONTR. P.’) are estimated 

contributions by the ‘Non-contracting Partners’ and by ‘International Co-funding 

Partners’ in terms of personnel and financial effort. 

• Budget Summary is a budgetary overview of the project. 

Please download it from the FNR’s webpage: http://www.fnr.lu/CORE 

The form is self-explaining. Please note that the Excel workbook is write-protected and that 

only white cells can be filled out. 

Additional rows may be added however if necessary. 

6.1. Eligibility of Expenditures 

If not otherwise stated in the specific calls (may change from call to call), there are no 

funding maxima defined by the FNR, but the project plan should be cost-efficient (see 

selection criteria) in relation to the intended outcomes. This funding may not have the 

purpose or effect of producing a profit for the beneficiary. This funding may in no case result 

in a duplicate funding of operating costs, acquisition costs or staff costs. The expenditure 

listed must be essential for implementation of the project. 

Certain types of expenditure may be indicated on a lump-sum basis (e.g. if they relate to 

operations routinely performed by the partner in question), provided the expenditure does not 

differ significantly from the actual cost and these operations are acceptable to the FNR. 

Where appropriate, calculations for lump sums need to be provided. 

The FNR distinguishes between direct costs and indirect costs (see below). 

For CORE Junior Track proposals: The projects submitted under ‘CORE Junior 

Track’ will have to comply with special budgetary rules. If applicable, they are 

indicated under each section. The expenditure maxima for the various cost 

headings for ‘CORE Junior Track’ are given in the sections below. For regular 

CORE projects there are no funding maxima defined by the FNR if not otherwise 

stated. Applicants should note that the project plan should be cost-efficient (see 

selection criteria) in relation to the intended outcomes. 



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6.2. Budgetary Flexibility 

Applicants should note that during the course of the project, budgetary flexibility is given in 

order to allow for appropriate project management. A reallocation of funds within a budget 

heading does not require the prior approval of the FNR and does not result in an addendum 

to the contract, provided the specific rules of the various budget headings are adhered to (a 

budget heading is defined as one of the main titles of the budget e.g.: Consumables, Travel, 

etc.). 

A reallocation of funds between budget headings is not subject to the prior approval of the 

FNR provided that it satisfies the following criterion: 

• The reallocation does not modify the budget heading from which it is taken or 

transferred to by more than 20%. 

The 20% rule is NOT applicable to: 

• increase unit rates applied to personnel costs or modification resulting in changes to 

profiles of personnel; 

• the budget heading “overheads”. 

In cases involving a variation greater than 20%, a request for a modification has to be sent to 

the FNR at least 30 calendar days before the date the modification should take place. This 

request has to be fully substantiated and justified. After approval by the FNR, an addendum 

to the contract will be prepared if necessary. This addendum will be signed by both parties 

and will become an integral part of the contract. If the request is deemed unfounded by the 

FNR, the beneficiary will be advised in writing. The basis for the calculations is the FNR 

funded budget. 

Eligible project related expenditures can be expensed on the project budget until the end of 

the project (plus 3 months). Costs foreseen to cover the PhD salary and PhD related 

overhead, the project related scientific conferences and publications can be expensed on the 

project budget until the end of the contract (max. 12 months after the project end). 



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Valid from October 2012 for contracts 

CORE/OPEN/INTER 

1 month 36 months 48 months 

Implementation period of the project 

(Période d’éxécution) 

extension 

+3 months 

Eligible project related expenditures 

Submission period Annual Report(s) 

Dissemination period 

of the project 

(Période de diffusion) 

- PhD 

- Publications 

- Conferences 

Eligible dissemination 

period expenditures 

(max. 12 months) 

Submission period 

Final report 

extension 

+ 1 month 

Project start Project end Contract end 

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6.3. The Excel Budget Sheets 

The Excel Annex provides Excel sheets that contain formats for an indicative breakdown of 

estimated expenditure for each partner and calendar year and the funding expected from the 

FNR. 

Please also refer to the financial guidelines for specific rules concerning each budget 

heading. 

The budget sheets are subdivided into direct costs, indirect costs and external financial 

contributions. 

• Direct costs and indirect costs designate estimated expenditures that are needed for 

the implementation of the project. 

• External financial contributions designate funding that is received by the institution from 

other sources than their own or the FNR. 

The Total Budget of a project = the FNR contribution + external financial contribution + the 

institute’s own financial contribution. 

The FNR assumes that the difference of the total budget - the FNR contribution - external 

financial contribution is covered by the institution. 

The budget forms must be completed for each phase of the project and each contracting 

partner, giving an estimate of the eligible expenditure required and the amount of funding 

expected from the FNR. 

Fill in the worksheets named ‘COORD.’ etc. by completing the white cells. All other cells are 

locked for editing. Additional rows can be added if necessary. 

Additional justification and information should be given in section 9 of the ‘Full Proposal 

Form’. 

6.4. Direct Cost 

Direct costs are expenditures that are to be directly incurred for the particular project and are 

supported by an auditable record. 

VAT is not an eligible cost in case the institute can reclaim VAT from the Luxembourg tax 

authorities in conformity with Luxembourg indirect tax regulation. 

6.4.1. Personnel Costs 

The payroll costs of all staff, full or part-time, who work on the project, and whose time can 

be supported by a full audit trail, may be included. The concerned staff must have a work 

contract with the institution eligible at the FNR. The need for such staff should be justified in 

the application form. The FNR will not cover costs of persons already funded by the State or 

by other funding sources. 

The FNR will only finance the profiles of the personnel indicated in the budget sheets of the 

application and changes of profile (e.g. Post-doc to technician) have to be requested in 



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writing in advance and receive formal approval by the FNR. An addendum to the contract will 

be prepared if necessary. 

The project may involve researchers who still need to be hired by the institutions but the 

respective responsible persons in the institutions need to make sure that the project is able 

to start at the latest 6 months after formal approval by the FNR. The applicant should state 

how he/she will make sure that the new personnel are in place for the start of the project. 

Lump sums for staff categories may be used provided these are based on a real-figure 

calculation (which must be added and explained in the application form). 

The salary of PhDs and associated costs (travel, consumables, overhead) may be 

covered by CORE project funding provided that the PhD works 100% on the project 

during the whole project duration. Costs for PhD salary and overhead costs, conferences 

in Luxembourg and publications can be claimed for up to one year after the CORE project 

end. The CORE project duration will remain the same as fixed in the CORE project contract. 

Other sources of funding for PhDs can be institutional funds or AFR grants 6 . The FNR 

encourages the involvement of (Bachelor or Master) students in the project in order to 

strengthen their interest in research. 

The FNR expects project staff to use timesheets so that their actual time is recorded against 

a project to form the basis of the costs charged. Where a person is contracted to work 100% 

of their time on a single project (whether they are working full-time or part-time), timesheets 

are not necessary as their costs can only be charged to that activity. In all other cases, 

timesheets or project time records are required. This includes those who may be contracted 

to work on two or more projects, since it is essential when charging to have a means of 

recording and verifying the actual time applied to each activity. 

Please indicate for each person working on the project (in section 9 of the ‘Full Proposal 

Form’ and the ‘Budget’ respectively): 

• Name and first name; 

• Function or staff category (post-doc, research nurse, PhD, etc.); 

• How many person*months the person will work over the course of the project; 

• Monthly salary (lump sums for staff categories may be used); 

• Whether the person is already on the payroll or will be recruited specifically for the 

project; 

• How much of the estimated amount is to be covered by the FNR. 

For CORE Junior Track proposals: The total working time to be covered by 

the junior PI and other staff should not exceed 2 FTE. It is understood that the 

local supervisor provides guidance to the junior PI and that his/her contribution 

as human resource does not have to be listed per se. 

6 Please be aware that the AFR funding decision may take some time. In order not to jeopardize the 

start of the project, the FNR encourages applicants to submit AFR proposals before the final funding 

decision of the FNR. Additional costs (overhead, consumables, etc.) for PhDs are eligible project 

costs. 



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6.4.2. Equipment 

This heading provides for new equipment dedicated to the project. This includes, but is not 

limited to, laboratory/workshop equipment (including computers and servers), software and 

installation costs. 

Please indicate in section 9 of the application form and the Excel sheet respectively: 

• the precise nature of equipment with specific technical requirements; 

• its unit cost and number of units; 

• its relevance to the project; 

• the necessity of the equipment taking into account the equipment currently available in 

the institution; 

• its expected useful life (technical and financial) and its use beyond the project; 

• its use by other national or international research groups/institutions (if applicable). 

Large equipment which is more expensive than € 25,000 will only be funded to the pro-rata 

of its use within the project, duly taking into account the depreciation rules within the 

research organisation. 

For equipment which is to be developed during the course of the project and where the 

development costs exceed € 25,000 (total costs, not individual assembly parts) it is 

recommended to foresee own institutional co-funding and to indicate the co-funding source 

for all equipments. 

The FNR may decide to limit its funding on a case by case basis. 

For equipment costs over € 100,000 (FNR part and own funding combined), a business 

and/or utilisation plan is required at submission stage. 

The FNR will only finance equipment listed in the original proposal. Additional equipment has 

to be requested in writing in advance and receive formal approval by the FNR. This 

modification will not result in an addendum to the contract. 

6.4.3. Consumables 

The applicant needs to indicate the nature (chemicals, Glassware, etc.) of the consumables 

and justify the estimation of the total costs and requested budget in section 9 of the ‘Full 

Proposal Form’. The total amount can be indicated as a lump sum in accordance with the 

institutions’ rules. 

Lump sums for various consumable categories may be used provided these are based on 

reasonable assumptions. 

6.4.4. Travel Cost 

The FNR will cover the real expenses for travel, training, subsistence and conference 

participation fees. Expenditures should be in accordance with an institution’s own 

regulations. 

To avoid administrative burdening at submission and in order to give the applicant team 

(including the PhD student) the necessary flexibility, the budget for travel expenses, training, 

subsistence and conference participation fees is calculated on a lump sum basis: 



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€ 2,000 per year and per 12 person*months (in relation to the total project effort). 

It is therefore essential to provide the total person*months effort of all the people working on 

the project. If the project team requires a higher budget for travel, please justify in detail the 

amount in section 9 of the ‘Full Proposal Form’. 

The FNR expects that all researchers involved in the project (in particular the PhD students) 

may benefit from the travel and training lump sum provided by the FNR. 

For CORE Junior Track proposals: The applicant is encouraged to apply for 

additional travel money to permit additional training sessions in research 

groups/labs abroad, attendance to specific training programmes and 

attendance at additional conferences. The total budget for travel is limited to 

€ 25,000. 

6.4.5. Subcontracting 

This budget line is for expenditures related to services provided by subcontractors. 

Contracting partners may subcontract specific services (limited in time and scope) essential 

for the realisation of the project but not central to it, in case this work cannot be directly 

undertaken by one of the partners. It is understood that subcontracting cannot be provided 

by contracting or non-contracting partners of the project (see section 1.2.). This would be 

regarded as a direct scientific contribution to the project and should be budgeted for the 

partner in the appropriate budget line. Sub-contracting to non-contracting partners is 

therefore explicitly not possible as it is considered a circumvention of the laws and 

regulations defining the direct beneficiaries of project funding by the FNR. 

All subcontracting costs need to be duly justified. Please describe the service, indicate the 

price (market price), duration of the service and specify the reason why you resort to a third 

service in section 9 of the ‘Full Proposal Form’: 

The FNR limits the subcontracting costs to a maximum of 25% of the FNR requested funding 

(without overhead costs). 

In addition: 

1. The subcontractor (person and institution) has no IP rights; 

2. The subcontractor has no publication rights on tangible project outputs; 

3. Consultancy fees for scientific advisory boards set up by the PI are not eligible 

project costs. 

For CORE Junior Track proposals: Costs associated with mentoring should 

be budgeted under this budget heading. The total budget for subcontracting is 

limited to € 25,000. 

6.4.6. Other Costs 

This heading provides for costs that are not reflected in the budget sheet. They include, but 

are not limited to: 

• Organization of Scientific Conferences held in Luxembourg; 

• Scientific Publications (peer reviewed articles, monographs, conference proceedings 

as well as PhD publications) related to the project; 



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• Documentation (not expected in institutional libraries); 

• Initial submission costs for the protection of a patent, license, trademark, etc.; 

• Costs generated by the use of existing equipment within partner institutions. This may 

include rental/access charges for equipment or analysis costs. Please specify in the 

application form: 

- The type of equipment in question. 

- Justification of the costs. 

- Information on whether the existing equipment was purchased by the State. 

- Its residual useful life, and details of the calculation on which the budget estimate 

figure is based. 

- Field work/fees. 

- Recruitment and advertising costs for staff directly employed on the grant. 

- Equipment-related items, such as relocation, maintenance (external contracts/ 

agreements). 

- Depreciation costs of equipment which has been completely funded by the FNR in 

other projects cannot be included here. 

- Equipment which is to be developed during the course of the project is not eligible 

under this heading (see 6.4.2 Equipment). 

The nature of the costs and their relevance to the project has to be explained in detail in 

section 9 of the ‘Full Proposal Form’. 

6.5. Indirect Cost 

6.5.1. Overhead 

This heading may provide for ongoing expenses which cannot be attributed to any specific 

activity, but are still necessary for the action to be realised. 

Overhead expenses may include, but are not limited to, accounting, advertising, 

depreciation, indirect labour, insurance, interest, legal fees, rent, repairs, supplies, taxes, 

telephone, travel and utilities. 

Overhead costs may not include depreciation costs of large equipment having been 

completely funded by the FNR in other previous programmes. 

Overhead costs have to be reasonable and based on an auditable calculation in order to 

guarantee proper audit trail. Overheads must be identifiable and justified by the accounting 

system of the participant as being incurred in direct relationship with the eligible direct costs 

attributed to the project. Indicate the method of calculation in relationship with the eligible 

direct costs (i.e. as a rate calculated with respect to total personnel costs). 

6.5.2. External Financial Contribution 

Sources of funding outside of the FNR and the contracting institution should be indicated. 

The grants ‘Aides à la formation-recherche’ (AFR) are considered an external source of 

funding. Please indicate the total of the (projected) AFR grant support in the Excel sheet. 

Other external financial contribution could be a donation by a charitable organisation, 

revenues from licenses, etc. 



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Contributions by non-contracting partners (i.e. the partner’s research effort in the frame of the 

project) are not considered as an external source of funding. These contributions should be 

indicated in the excel sheet ‘NON-CONTR. P.’. 

6.6. Contribution by Non-contracting Partners 

The worksheet ‘Non-contracting Partners’ (abbreviated ‘NON-CONTR. P.’) presents 

estimated contributions by the ‘Non-contracting Partners’ and by ‘International Co-funding 

Partners’ in terms of personnel and financial effort. 

Please provide an estimation of the contributions of each of the ‘Non-contracting Partners’ 

to the project in terms of person efforts and estimated budget. 

If you apply for ‘International Co-funding’ by DFG, SNF, FWF or EMBL select the name of 

the International Funding Agency. 

In the following rows, list the ‘International Co-funding Partner(s)’ which shall receive 

funding by the International Funding Agency and provide an estimation of its contribution in 

terms of person efforts and estimated budget. 

6.7. Budget Summary 

The worksheet ‘Budget Summary’ provides an overview of the budgetary and person*months 

efforts by each project partner. 

Please complete the following fields: 

• Reference Number of the Project 

• Project Acronym 

• PI Name 

Note: The rest of the worksheet does not have to be completed manually but will be 

automatically populated with the data that you input in the previous sheets. 



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CORE 2013 Application Guidelines - FNR

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