PhD funding internal call 2025
Background and key features of the call
On December 11, 2024, the PIANOFORTE Executive Board proposed, and the General Assembly approved, the launch of an internal call for PhD projects funded by PIANOFORTE. The call will be only dedicated to grant eligible costs related to PhD projects. Funding is available for existing partners of PIANOFORTE (beneficiaries and affiliated entities only) (see
APPENDIX 1). The funding allocated will exclusively cover the beneficiary or affiliated entity employing the PhD candidate. The non-funded involvement of other entities outside the current PIANOFORTE consortium, is welcome to strengthen the PhD’s academic environment if needed.
The focus of the call is on the following research topics not selected or not funded in previous open calls for research projects, as follows:
1. Improving the quality of medical imaging and radiation therapy especially but not limited to cancer-treatment.
2. Development of online dosimetry.
3. Sustainable practices and risk management strategies in radiological protection.
4. Development of techniques and methods to go beyond effective dose in case of internal exposures following a nuclear or radiological emergency.
A detailed description of the topics is provided in
APPENDIX 2a.
Funding details
- Total available budget for eligible costs: €1.6 million
- Number of funded projects: 5-6 projects, each supporting only one PhD student.
- Maximum budget for eligible costs per project: €300,000 (with PIANOFORTE contributing 63%)
- Number of entities which can be financed per project: 1
- Eligible costs: PhD personal cost, consumables, and travels for the PhD student
- Duration: Project proposals are expected not to exceed 48 months of realisation subject to the Pianoforte Grant Agreement being extended via an amendment.
Further details are provided in
APPENDIX 2b.
The start date for awarded PhD projects must be before 1 December 2025.
The call will be open for applications for one month, starting on
3 February 2025, and
will close on 3 March 2025 23:59 CET.
Submissions must be made using a straightforward form (see “
Submission and notification” section)
Selection decisions will be communicated via email by 15 May 2025, and published on the PIANOFORTE website and in the Newsletter.
Applicants are strongly advised to read
APPENDIX 2b on eligible costs and financial rules that are specific to this call.
Evaluation process
Due to the smaller scale of these projects, external reviewers will not be engaged. Instead, evaluations will be conducted by PIANOFORTE WP4 “Education and Training”, similar to the approach used for travel grants and courses. Key details include:
- All applications will be reviewed by a subset of the 19 WP4 participating institutions.
- Partners from the same country as an applicant or in an obvious situation of conflict of interest (e.g., any kind of current or past relationships with the applicant institution, financial interests, family relationship…) will abstain from reviewing that application.
- Applications will be first evaluated with respect to relevance to the call text and related topics. The scoring is 1 (yes) or 0 (no). In order to pass to the next stage of evaluation, at least 51% of the scorers must find the project relevant. Relevant projects will be ranked based on total weighted score given to 3 criteria (1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) for each criterion: 1) excellence with double weight, 2) impact with single weight and 3) efficiency of implementation with single weight. The maximal number of points is 20. A total score below 13 (65%) would result in the rejection of the applicant.
- Successful applicants will be selected on the basis of their rank and the available budget for the call. If necessary, a tie-breaking rule based on the distribution of successful PhD projects per call topic will be applied by the PIANOFORTE executive board to resolve situations of equal scores, with a maximum of two projects per topic.
Submission and notification
Applications should be submitted using the provided template by email to
cs.pianofortephd@ncbr.gov.plApplicants may withdraw or replace their submissions at any time prior to the submission deadline.
The call will close 03 March 2025 23:59 Central European Time, and all applicants will receive an email acknowledgment upon submission. Results will be communicated by email no later than 15 May 2025.
Call documents to be downloaded:
Download all documents (zip) Reporting requirements
Successful projects must submit an annual activity report summarising their progress and alignment with stated goals. Reports should include details on engagement with other PIANOFORTE activities, such as meetings and dissemination efforts. Those annual reports will be due by January of each year.
Other specifications
Each applicant will keep its status as PIANOFORTE participant (e.g., a Beneficiary will remain a Beneficiary).
Awarded Beneficiary or Affiliated Entity shall sign a Funding Agreement (FA) which will be provided by ASNR. In case the Awardee is an AE, the FA will have to be signed between the PIANOFORTE Coordinator and the AE. In this case, the Beneficiary will only sign an accession document. This funding agreement cannot be negotiated.
See
APPENDIX 2b for further details.
If relevant, all project partners must sign the funded project consortium agreement and transmit it to the PIANOFORTE Coordinator no later than one year after the official project start date. Partners are strongly encouraged to complete the signing before the official project start date.
For further questions, please contact
contact@pianoforte-partnership.eu
