European Peer Review Guide - European Science Foundation

6.
Collaborative Research
Programmes
l l l
6.1 Purpose and scope
Collaborative Research Programmes (CRPs) offer
opportunities for groups of scientists, researchers
and, if appropriate, other specialists from the public
and private sectors to join forces in tackling problems
that would require joint actions. They promote
collaborative research targeting broader or more
complex topics of research within or across scientific
domains. In general, collaborative research projects
are in fact larger in size and scope than typical individual
research projects. They must involve several
principal investigators and may sometimes comprise
more than one individual project. Therefore,
CRPs may include projects with more than one set of
research goals, work plans or work packages as they
may also include different budget lines integrated
into a collaborative framework. Moreover, the CRPs
are a particularly appropriate vehicle for supporting
pluridisciplinary research.
There are variations that may influence specific
aspects of the peer review process as elaborated
below:
(ii) National versus multinational
Whether a programme is national or international
can significantly affect the nature of the required
peer review process. The implications can span the
whole life-cycle of the process from beginning to
end. National programmes can be used to:
• Stimulate research within targeted areas with the
goal of enhancing innovation capacities;
• Promote synergies;
• Maintain or enhance research and knowledge base
within the country;
• Promote pluridisciplinary research.
Within a larger context, the above-mentioned targets
can be defined for a group of countries. These
can take the form of bilateral agreements or larger
scale multilateral programmes.
According to the survey, from the 30 respondents,
19 organisations have reported that they have
International Collaborative Research Programmes
while only two indicated they (also) have National
Collaborative Research Programmes 68 .
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European Peer Review Guide
(i) Thematic or non-thematic calls
In the former, the themes or topics that are to be
addressed by the project are defined in advance.
The proposed research must therefore fall within
the thematic or topical scope of the call, and the
relevance of the proposal to the call can be an
important measure in the peer review evaluation.
In non-thematic calls, normally, a broad scientific
field or domain of research activity is determined
within which collaboration is to be promoted. The
scope of the proposals can then vary substantially
within that field.
(iii) Responsive (continuous calls) versus nonresponsive
(through solicited and time-bound
calls)
Because of their nature, it is usually preferable to
consider non-responsive mode for managing collaborative
programmes, particularly for multinational
collaborative programmes, since they require specific
preparatory steps that need careful attention
(e.g., programmatic agreements, guidelines, dissemination
needs, themes or domains of research, etc.).
68. See European Science Foundation (2010b), ESF Survey Analysis
Report on Peer Review Practices, in particular §4.1.2, Table 4.1.