2019 Open Research Area (ORA) for the Social Sciences is now open for Applications

Deadline: 11 September 2019

The Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR; France), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; Germany), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC; UK) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC; Canada) have launched a sixth Open Research Area (ORA) call for proposals in order to fund the best joint research projects in social sciences.

Project Duration and Budget

Proposals may be for projects with a minimum period of two years and a maximum of three years (24 to 36 months). This covers scientific and administrative duration of a project.
All budget items must conform to the national rules relevant for each applicant.
The budget requested from each national agency should not exceed the funding limit for that agency. The following funding limits will apply:
- ANR Up to €450,000 per project
- DFG No maximum limit per project
- ESRC Up to £600,000 at 100% fEC (£480,000 at 80% fEC) with a minimum of £200,000 (100% fEC) per project
- SSHRC Up to $400,000 per project, with a maximum of $135,000 per year per project

Eligibility Criteria

The roles of the various project participants in ORA sixth call research projects are as follows:
- Main Applicant (MA): the Main Applicant is one nominated Principal Investigator. As a Main Applicant, they are in charge of the online submission of the proposal, at both outline and full stage. They will act as the main contact point with the coordinating agency (ESRC) for all matters related to the proposal as a whole. This person must be entered as the Principal Investigator for Outline and Full proposals in Je-S.
- Principal Investigator (PI): there must be one PI per country involved in the proposal. The PI will fulfil the role of a PI as defined by their respective funding agency, and act as contact point with their agency for all national matters.
- Co-Investigators (Co-I): for countries where funding can be distributed between several teams and work organized accordingly, a Co-I must be named, in conformity with national rules.
- Team Members (TM): all other participants who will benefit from funding must be listed as team members. They are not applicants in the proposal.
- Cooperation Partners (CP): these are Japanese partners (if applicable) and researchers/non-academic partners from any other of the nonsubscribing countries. If a scientific board is set up for the project, members can be listed here.
- For the purpose of the ORA sixth call: Main Applicant, Principal Investigators, and Co-Investigators are all considered project applicants.
The ORA sixth call will be open to proposals from eligible applicants from three or more of the subscribing countries ie Canada, France, Germany and UK.
Proposals with a cooperation partner in Japan do not count against the three country minimum requirement.