DCL: Research Collaboration Opportunity in Europe for NSF Awardees 

Submission Timeline: At least 3 months prior to the proposed visit, but no later than  
May 27, 2022 for funding using Fiscal Year  2022 funds. 

The NSF has just published a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) inviting the community to apply for supplements to existing NSF awards, including Postdoctoral Fellowships, to support visits to labs of European colleagues funded by the European Research Council (ERC). These requests can support travel for the principal investigator (PI), co-PI, postdocs, other senior personnel, and graduate students funded on the NSF award.  The goal is to foster international collaboration between U.S. and European scientists with an emphasis on building the careers of early career scientists.  

NSF awardees may request supplemental funding for a single short-term, single long-term,  or multiple short-term research visits. Multiple short-term visits should aggregate to a minimum amount of time as agreed in advance between the NSF grantee and the ERC-funded PI. For definition, research visits of less than 6 months are considered short-term, whereas visits of 6 months to one year are long-term visits. The maximum duration for either a single visit or the cumulation of multiple visits is 12 months. 

ERC Executive Agency (ERCEA) has provided a list of ERC-funded PIs and research teams interested in hosting NSF grantees. NSF grantees should request this list via email from Roxanne Nikolaus, Office of International Science and Engineering, at rnikolau@nsf.gov, and then communicate directly with ERC PIs to ascertain areas of mutual interest and research goals for a visit. NSF grantees then must discuss plans for the visit(s) with the NSF Program Officer managing their award prior to submitting a supplemental funding request. If approved by NSF, the request is forwarded by NSF to ERCEA for review and confirmation with the ERC-funded project. 

Read the complete DCL HERE