The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) announces the start of application submission for participation in the Special-Purpose Funding Programme for research teams acting within the NICA Megascience Project in 2023 (hereinafter referred to as the Programme).
Purpose
The Programme is aimed at enhancing the activity of teams from research and educational organizations of the JINR Member States, which signed agreements with JINR on participation in the BM@N, MPD, SPD, ARIADNA collaborations, as well as on the development of the NICA accelerator complex (hereinafter referred to as MoU).
Management of the Programme
Distribution of the funds within the Programme is performed by the Committee for Consideration of Applications for Funding (hereinafter referred to as the Committee), which includes representatives of the JINR Directorate and VBLHEP, co-leaders of the NICA project, the head of the accelerator department of VBLHEP JINR, spokespersons (or their authorized representatives) of the BM@N, MPD, SPD, ARIADNA collaborations. The composition of the Committee is approved by the order of JINR. The Committee may engage independent experts to evaluate applications.
Program Eligibility
Research teams from scientific and educational organizations of the JINR Member States, which have signed an MoU with JINR for participation in the BM@N, MPD, SPD or ARIADNA collaborations, as well as having agreements on cooperation in accelerator topics, are eligible to participate in the Programme. The Principal Investigator (hereinafter referred to as PI) of the application must be an employee of the organization on behalf of which the application is submitted.
Funding
The financial resources of the Program can be used for the following purposes:
- Support for the work of research group members, including leaders of groups who are also PIs of the applications, other members of the group (no more than 2) determined by PI, as well as students and graduate students involved in the proposed activity;
- Reimbursement of travel expenses (including travel and accommodation) of team members travelling to JINR for the works or participating in shifts of BM@N, MPD, SPD, ARIADNA experiments as well as for maintaining of facilities and equipment of the NICA complex, including accelerator part;
- other purposes of the Program, which do not contradict the regulatory documents of JINR, in the amount not less than 30% of the total funding approved for the team.
Settlements with the recipients of the Programme funds are made by the JINR Accounting Department according to the current rules and procedures and on the basis of the lists of team members, students and postgraduates submitted within the applications.
Application Procedure and Deadlines
The applications are submitted electronically by filling out the forms (in Russian or in English) provided at the official website of the Programme and sending scanned copies of the signed forms to the Programme's e-mail nica_funding@jinr.ru.
The application must contain the following information:
- Description of a specific research project within the framework of the collaboration or a description of specific work on the development of the NICA accelerator complex;
- List of team members;
- CV of the PI with a list of his/her publications for the last five years Preceding the date of application;
- Work schedule;
- Amount of funds requested and its brief justification.
The application must demonstrate that the proposed project is investigating a specific scientific problem relevant to the experiment program of BM@N, MPD, SPD, ARIADNA or to NICA accelerator topics.
Stages and Terms of the Programme Implementation
- Submission of applications: 1 February – 5 March 2023.
- Announcement of results: no later than 1 April 2023.
- Opening of financing: 15 April 2023.
- Submission of interim reports: no later than 15 October 2023.
- Submission of final reports: no later than 31 December 2023.
Annual and Interim Reports of Research Teams
Reports are prepared by PIs of the supported applications according to the forms posted at the official website of the Programme. Reports must contain:
- Description of the obtained results;
- List of research papers published and submitted for publication and/or list of tangible property developed during the implementation of the project;
- List of talks made by team members at conferences, symposiums and meetings;
- List of supported members of research team, including PI;
- List of supported students and graduate students;
- List of team members, students and postgraduates travelled to JINR within the framework of the Programme, indicating the terms of visits;
- Financial report.
In case of non-fulfilment of obligations stated in the application for funding, the Committee has a right to terminate the financing for the team.
