Deadline: 15 November 2022
Submit straight away for the EO Africa R&D Facility’s Call for Research Proposals 2022-2023.
By utilizing cutting-edge cloud-based data access and computing infrastructure, the ESA EO AFRICA R&D Facility, in partnership with the AUC, issues a Call for Research Proposals 2022-2023 to support African-European collaborative efforts to develop innovative, open-source EO algorithms and applications tailored to African solutions to African challenges. The EO AFRICA R&D Facility’s first phase’s second and final call held right now.
Up to 16 (16) research applications for one-year projects supported by the ESA EO AFRICA R&D Facility in association with AUC as follows:
Research Subjects
The two main topics of the EO AFRICA R&D Facility’s Research Calls are water shortage and food security. The goal of the current invitation is to address research questions concerning the modeling and observation of environmental processes. The following subjects encouraged for proposal submission:
- EO’s role in hydrological forecasting
- A river’s runoff and discharge
- Evapotranspiration and hydrological stressors in the region
- Demand for irrigation
- forecasting crop progress and yield
- Support for precision farming from EO
- Processes in forests and rangelands
- Ocean/coastal processes that affect the availability of food
Benefits and Funding
- The projects chosen will receive the following from the EO AFRICA R&D Facility:
- A budget of up to 25,000 EUR allocated to fund research activities over the course of the project (maximum 12 months), including personnel costs, fieldwork, data collecting, bilateral visits, scientific meetings, training sessions, etc.
- Free use of cloud-based Virtual Research Environments (VREs), an interactive geospatial computing platform with ready-to-use EO software, and facilitated access to EO data (such as Sentinel and other ESA missions) through the host DIAS infrastructure are all provided by the Innovation Lab of the Facility. For more details on VREs, refer to the Appendix.
- For using VREs and creating geospatial computing processes, dedicated user and technical support available.
- Senior researchers and specialists from the EO AFRICA R&D Facility collaboration provide guidance and help in the scientific field.
- Access to the EO AFRICA Space Academy and its Digital Campus for activities aimed at building capacity and expertise, such as online training courses, webinars, and in-person training sessions on subjects including EO, cloud computing, food security, and water scarcity.
- Integration with the EO AFRICA Network for networking, collaboration, and visibility among scientists worldwide.
Eligibility
Project submissions must adhere to the following standards:
- The proposal must come from two scientists who are part of a partnership between an African and a European research organization (e.g., institute, laboratory, university). The co-principal investigators should either already have a PhD in a field related to the call’s topics or be pursuing one as PhD candidates.
- There may be more researchers on project teams.
- Projects should be finished in a year.
- Project submissions should center on one or more of the call’s research themes.
- Each proposal must include a research strategy outlining how African and European partners would collaborate scientifically to create an original EO algorithm or workflow, ideally as an open-source interactive notebook (e.g., Jupyter Notebook).
- The proposal should detail how the partners will divide the work, as well as the responsibilities of the project team members and their expected contributions.
- One of the partners’ ongoing (collaborative) projects connected to the proposed research. Therefore, the proposal can include initiatives that would seek to advance current research projects.
- A thorough budget that includes estimated expenditures for the research endeavor should be included with the research plan.
- ICT resources for computing (such servers) cannot be included in the proposed budget because they will be provided independently by the ESA’s Network of Resources.
Furthermore,
- Since the budget belongs to both partners equally, its distribution must be decided in full agreement. However, the European partner should manage the money due to the regulating laws.
- The algorithm/workflow, as well as additional analyses and calculations, developed using the Innovation Lab of the EO AFRICA R&D Facility. The resources not used for commercial purposes.
- The algorithm or procedure created should make use of EO data from ESA missions like Sentinel. Data from third parties may also be used. It is recommended to employ analysis-ready data and EO data services.
- The created algorithm/workflow and its application in the call’s thematic context published at least once in a peer-reviewed journal or in the proceedings of an international conference. Publications with open access welcomed and will receive further funding support from the Facility. Thus, the budget shouldn’t account for the expenditures of open-access publications.
Submission
- The ESA’s EO AFRICA R&D Facility will accept proposals sent as one PDF file along with all necessary supporting materials (such as resumes and letters of recommendation) by email to proposals@eoafrica-rd.org.
The submission of the proposal must include:
- Completely filled out in accordance with the provided template (in English or French), with all required signatures from the Co-PIs from universities doing research in Africa and Europe and their authorized representatives,
- detailed resume of the co-principal investigator from Africa,
- detailed resume of the co-principal investigator from Europe,
- brief bios of the team’s other researchers.
The optional things listed below viewed as assets:
- letters of support from the beneficiaries
- any further appropriate paperwork.
Visit EO Africa for further information on Call for Research Proposals 2022-2023
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