1st Open Call

Last update: 10 January 2025, 16:30 CET

Overall objective of NGI Transoceanic

The main goal of the NGI Transoceanic Open Calls is to incentivise EU – US teams to carry out experiments using EU and/or US based experimental platforms through funding to be provided through a cascade grant process for the EU counterparts of the teams formed. The focus of the Open Calls is a set of priority topics in areas such as computing, communications, information science, advanced cyber-infrastructure, and secure and trustworthy computing.

While the focus is on these topics addressed in other NGI projects, the NGI Transoceanic Open Call also welcomes new EU innovators not already involved in other NGI projects that had their own results related to these topics and who wish to carry out experiments with a US-based team.

1st Open Call Topics

The priority topics for the 1st NGI Transoceanic Open Call are:

  • Internet Architecture Enhancements: Propose enhancing the Internet architecture to increase network performance, adapt it to new application requirements, improve quality of service, and make it more energy efficient.  
  • Network Security, Trust and Privacy: Develop robust mechanisms to ensure security, trust, privacy, and to build resilience against threats to the Internet.
  • Internet and Wireless Measurement: Develop new methodologies and tools for collecting, measuring, anonymising, modelling, and analysing internet and wireless data.
  • Electronic Identities: Advancing the broad adoption of next-generation, open, and trusted digital identity solutions for trustworthy, faster, and safer electronic transactions on the Internet and in real life.  
  • Decentralized Technologies: Exploring decentralized technologies, such as blockchain and distributed ledger technology. This key component of the NGI initiative may have the potential to enable more decentralized, trusted, user-centric digital services and stimulate new business models benefiting society and the economy, as stressed by the European Parliament resolution on the topic.

Duration and available funds for each proposal

NGITransoceanic will run 3 Open Call cycles. Each call will fund EU projects with a maximum duration of 18 months.  There is a limit of 150k to each EU proposal, and a limit of 150k to any individual partner across all NGI Transoceanic open calls.

The caps on US organisations funding can be found in the corresponding DCL page.

How to apply

The application process is a coordinated call between the NSF and the EU commission.

You need an EU-US team of at least one US organisation and at least one EU-27 based organisation

- US organisation and Principle Investigator needs to be eligible for NSF funding (see Guide for applicants or DCL page)

- EU organisation(s) should be coordinated from an EU-27 country. Organisations from other countries can join the EU team.  (Detailed eligibility criteria are listed in Guide for Applicants)

NGI Transoceanic will fund the EU - based partners and the NSF will fund the US partners.

Suggested immediate next steps

 

Step 1.

Read the NGI TRANSOCEANIC research topics and draft a one-page summary of the NGI topic(s) you would like to address in your US – EU collaboration project.

Step 2.

Create an organisation profile in the EU submission system (Grants Platform)

Step 3.

EU partners identify and contact potential US partner(s) and US partners identify and contact EU partner(s) and discuss your one pager summaries to see if there is a fit for joint research interests. For this, we suggest you register to the Twinning Lab. Please note that the US partner must be eligible for NSF funding to participate and there are eligibility guidelines on participation of EU partners described in the Guide for applicants section 1.4.

 

Step 4.

US – EU project teams will collaborate together on the joint sections in the US proposal template and also work individually on their supplemental sections.

Step 5.

The full US application with the common sections is submitted by the deadline to the NSF by the US based coordinator.  The EU application can only be made after the NSF one (deadline for EU is one week following NSF deadline).

Step 6.

Within one week after the US submission, the EU partner will submit the NSF proposal’s common parts of the proposal (the US partner will be able to export this from the NSF platform and provide to the EU partner) and the EU supplemental information will be entered to the NGI Transoceanic Grants Platform.

 

More guidance can be found in the Guide for Applicants and the corresponding NSF page.

Deadlines: Process and Timing

In general NGI Transoceanic will run 3 Open Call cycles. Each call will fund projects with a maximum duration of 18 months.

•    Launch: [Mid-December, 2024]
•    Deadline: 28 February 2025
•    Evaluation: Applicants will be notified on the outcome of their proposal by Mid-May, 2025

If your proposal is successful, you will be contacted within 5-10 business days of notification to take the steps necessary to prepare and sign the contract for the funding. Please note that a deadline of 10 business days will be applied to confirm your intention to take up the contract to enable the funds to be re-allocated to other successful applicants.

Please note these deadline dates will be made more specific once the call is officially launched.  Please check this section again!

Key Reference Documents

Frequently Asked Questions

Which US-based organisations are eligible to apply?

Any Principle Investigator is eligible to apply for NSF funding should they have expertise in the related NGI-Transoceanic topic and works for an eligible organisation.  This includes:

(a) Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) or

(b) Non-profit, Non-academic Organizations or

(c) Tribal Nations

Other organisations may qualify, however, please see https://new.nsf.gov/policies/pappg/24-1/ch-1-pre-submission#ch1E for further details on eligibility criteria.

Which EU based organisations are eligible to apply?

EU funded partners, who:

  • have profound knowledge in one of the priority topics supported by the open calls.
  • reside in European Member States (EU-27) and EU Associate Countries. However, in order to ensure value-add for the European Union:
    1. If a one EU funded partner project, the partner must be from the EU-27 list of countries[1].
    2. If a two EU funded partner team, the coordinating partner must be from the EU-27 list of countries while the second partner can be from the EU-27 list of countries or from and Associated Country[2].
  • Are not receiving support from other NGI open calls or instruments (PPPs, EU or national R&I projects) for the proposed activities.
  • Have a valid EU PIC number [3] at time of proposal evaluation.

 

What are the limits for funding for EU participants?

There is a limit of 150k to each EU proposal team, and a limit of 150k to any individual partner across all NGI Transoceanic open calls.

What are the limits for funding for the US participants?

Up to $600k for the US participant over 3 years. However, please note this contributes to the PI limits for funding as described in the NSF PAPPG.

Can we address more than one topic?

Yes. You can address more than one topic in a single proposal.

Can Hungarian companies or organisations participate?

Yes, they can. 

For Hungarian organisations, the European Commission informed all current and potential future coordinators of Horizon Europe projects, including NGI programme projects, to make sure that they are aware of the Council Implementing Decision 2022/2506. As of 16th December 2022, no legal commitments can be signed with Hungarian public interest trusts established under Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity they maintain. The affected entities can be found here.

If you are a Hungarian organisation and feel that this decision does not apply to your organisation or there are exceptions to this decision. You can participate in Horizon Europe projects. We suggest you submit the feasibility check and also the proposal (if the feasibility check is positive), but please also provide us some evidence as early as possible that your organisation can be funded by Horizon Europe. This would avoid any disappointment later if the proposal is accepted for funding, which isn’t possible from our side due to this Council Decision.

Which EU and Associated Countries are eligible for funding?

The following EU Members States: 

  • Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Any of the Associated Countries listed below are allowed as "non-coordinating" partners:

  • Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia
  • Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia
  • Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

However, please note that there must be an EU-27 partner as a coordinator, as follows:

  1.  If a one EU funded partner project, the partner must be from the EU-27 list of countries[1].
  2. If a two EU funded partner team, the coordinating partner must be from the EU-27 list of countries while the second partner can be from the EU-27 list of countries or from and Associated Country[2].
     
Do we allow multiple uploads of the same application until deadline?

You can save the application in draft and make edits as many times as you want. However, once the application is submitted, you cannot change it anymore.

Do we get a notification when an application submission is made?

Yes, you will receive an email confirmation of your submission.