Open Call for SINO-MALTA Fund

Deadline: 30-Jun-25

The Xjenza Malta, in collaboration with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of the People’s Republic of China, has launched the SINO-MALTA 2025 Joint Call for R&I Proposals.

The aim of this Science and Technology Cooperation – SINO-MALTA Fund, is to intensify scientific collaboration between the two countries to strengthen R&D activities, technology transfer and to carry out comprehensive, steady, and long-term cooperation through support of researchers’ mobility and the networking of industries, universities and research institutions to generate mutual-beneficial and win-win research.

Thematic Areas

• Health with a focus on:
  • Cancer
  • Cellular therapy
  • Drug development
  • Traditional Chinese medicine
  • Digital tools to support healthcare
• Green and Blue Economy Transitions, with a focus on:
  • Renewable energy
  • Sustainable mobility
  • Smart manufacturing
  • Marine and Maritime technologies
• Digital Technologies:
  • Digital technologies may remain general as a theme
  • Digital technologies as a cross-cutting theme may be equally supported

Funding Information

• Call Budget: €1,200,000.
• Funding: Up to €200,000 for the Malta-based consortium (at least one Malta-based partner).
• Project Duration: Up to 24 months.

Eligible Projects

• The research type(s) of projects eligible within this Call encompass Fundamental Research, Industrial Research and Experimental Development.
• The proposed research project must be consistent with the scope of this Call determined in both the Xjenza Malta and most National Rules for Participation. Each side (Malta-based partners and China-based partners) must adhere to their respective National Rules for Participation, to ensure eligibility. Ineligibility of one side of the consortium, will result in an ineligible proposal overall.
• Malta-based applicants can propose projects of Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs).
• The proposed research project should be novel and not correspond with ongoing or completed projects funded by other instruments, programmes, or projects.
• The proposed research project should strive to be balanced between the countries involved in the project as far as the volume of work is concerned and preferably be balanced in terms of the requests for funding.
• Only proposals that have an approved cooperation agreement signed by all partners and an approved IP agreement signed by all partners.
• Furthermore, proposals on either side must bear matching thematic areas and the applications on either side are to be complementary.
• The proposal submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI), operating from Malta to Xjenza Malta must be written in English. The proposal submitted by the Chinese PI to most must be written in Chinese.

Eligibility Criteria

• In addition, in order to be eligible for participation, the consortium representing the Malta based applicants must include at least one private entity.
• Any Eligible Undertakings, with an Operating base in Malta, may apply and will be eligible for funding, subject to the terms and conditions laid out in the latest version of the National Rules for Participation.
• Any Applicant which at the time of proposal submission is deemed to be non-compliant with respect to Grant Agreement obligations on any other active project funded by Xjenza Malta, may be deemed ineligible at application stage or may be refused funding under this Programme.
• Any Application may be deemed as ineligible in terms of these National Rules for Participation, if it is submitted by or includes the participation of any person or entity having, in totality or in majority ownership, the same shareholders, Partners or persons holding and/ or exercising a controlling power in any other Legal Entity which was at any time declared as non-compliant or defaulting on any other contract or agreement entered into with the Managing Authority.
• Applicant/s and/or Beneficiary/ies shall take all measures to prevent any situation where the impartial and objective processing of their Application for funding, the awarding of the Grant or the supervision or the implementation of the Grant agreement could be compromised for reasons involving family, emotional life, political or national affinity, economic interest or any other direct or indirect or perceived interest (conflict of interests).
• Applicant/s and/or Beneficiary/ies shall formally notify the Managing Authority without delay of any situation constituting or likely to lead to an actual or perceived conflict of interests and immediately take all of the necessary steps to rectify this situation.
• The Managing Authority may verify that the measures taken are appropriate and may require additional measures to be taken by a specified deadline.
• Where a beneficiary wilfully breaches any of its obligations under this Rule this shall be deemed to constitute an Event of Default, and the Application may be deemed ineligible or the Grant awarded may be reduced and/or terminated.

Evaluation Criteria

• Scientific Excellence.
• Research Methodology – including work package details, risk management, distribution of work between partners as well envisaged timelines.
• Appropriateness of requested budget with respect to methods and expected results.
• Impact – including post-project plans and industrial benefits.
• Competence and expertise of the research team/s (including CV’s).
• Strength of the partnership and benefits of proposed scientific collaboration.
• Quality of the Cooperation and Intellectual Property Agreements.

Application Requirements

• Only complete Application Forms submitted by the deadline shall be considered.
• All documentation submitted must be in English.
• Each proposal will be checked for administrative eligibility before it is considered for scientific evaluation. This means that failure of one of the consortium Partners to meet the eligibility criteria may cause the entire project to be rejected.
• In case of multiple submissions of the same application in the same selection round the last version submitted before the deadline will be that considered for evaluation.
• It should be noted that emails larger than 20MB will be automatically rejected by the system. The Applicant may make use of cloud storage. It is the responsibility of the Applicant to ensure that application documents are sent out successfully and properly received by Xjenza Malta.

For more information, visit Xjenza Malta.