Important Dates:
· Applications open: 25 September 2024
· Call closing: 2 December 2024
· Announcement of the results: December 2024
· Budget spending: Till 15 December 2025 (and reimbursement must be finalized before 15 Dec 2025)
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) permeate and enable virtually all modern application domains through communication- and computing platforms and devices. ICT combines hardware and software, exploiting techniques like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Cloud and Edge computing. It offers a fundamental layer that enables potential solutions to some of the world's grand challenges of sustainable development by providing an understanding of the physical world and controlling it after smartly processing the information about the physical world.
Recognizing the importance of promoting ICT subjects in high schools, as the Netherlands has a shortage of skilled ICT workforce for meeting the needs of its digital economy and sustainable future ambitions, the goal of this funding scheme is to raise the awareness on the ICT challenges connecting Computer Science and Electrical Engineering subjects in high schools to attract more talent to these areas in higher education.
This 4TU.NIRICT funding explicitly aims to support all activities that contribute to attracting high school students to NLT (Nature, Life, and Technology) subjects and supporting teachers with necessary skills for promoting and teaching these subjects (e.g., educational materials, workshops with students and/or teachers).
Application guidelines
To apply for funding, submit a proposal in the following format describing the five items mentioned below. The page limit is two A4 pages.
1.Who are the applicants?
State i) name, ii) position, and iii) affiliation (section/department & university) of the applicants. For the contact person, also add email and phone number. Whether or not to include titles is up to you. In further communication we will use the name (and title) as specified by you in the proposal. At least one applicant from each of the 4TU.NIRICT affiliated universities taking part in the application must be a staff member and the proposal should target the intersection of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.
Proposals with only applicants inside the 4TU.NIRICT community should include staff members from at least three different 4TU universities. Proposals with applicants outside the 4TU.NIRICT community are allowed under the following condition: at least two applicants must be a staff member at a 4TU.NIRICT affiliated university. Due to the aim of this call, it is also advised to have collaborators or co-applicants from the schools. Please note that reimbursements will be done only via 4TUs.
2. What will the funding be used for?
The funding can be used for actual and specific costs/invoices for a certain activity, service, or hardware. Briefly describe the activity or other purpose of the funding. There are no restrictions on what the funding is used for as long as it supports the funding scheme's goal (see "Why" below).
Some examples of what can be applied for are support for developing education materials (e.g., with the help of student assistants), workshops with students or teachers (e.g., training on a subject or supporting teachers for familiarizing themselves with new tools or materials), etc.
3. How much funding is requested?
The total budget for this call is 50k and we aim to fund 3-5 projects. The requested funding is expected to be in balance with expected benefits for the 4TU.NIRICT community. Please include in your proposal a contextual breakdown of costs to motivate the requested amount.
4. Why is it supporting the goal of the funding scheme?
This is the most important part of your proposal. Describe how the students or teachers will be strengthened through the proposed activity/activities and what the added value is of conducting this in 4TU context. Please describe for each activity what the intended audience is.
5. When will the activity be carried out or the funding be used?
The more specific you can be, the better. The funding should be spent before the end of 2025. All the reimbursement requests must be sent by 15 December 2025 (and reimbursement must be finalized before 15 Dec 2025).
Proposals will be evaluated based on
1) the extent to which the proposed activity supports the goals of the funding scheme ("Why"),
2) specificity of the proposal regarding "What" and "When", and
3) appropriateness of the amount of funding requested ("How much").
Procedure
Please submit the proposal following the above format as a two-A4 pdf file by e-mail to Margje Mommers (M.Mommers@tue.nl).
Applications will be evaluated by the 4TU.NIRICT board and applicants will be notified of the decision on acceptance in December 2024.
If funding is awarded, we request a publicly available final report on the activities carried out in the scope of the project or sources (e.g., in the form of a website featuring a written and/or visual report, a short movie, etc.). If the nature of the type of measure or activity does not warrant such publicity, e.g., for privacy reasons, please indicate so already in the proposal.
The financial administration of the funding is to be discussed with 4TU.NIRICT. It can either be via a direct invoice to 4TU.NIRICT or a reimbursement. Both need accordance in advance and must be arranged within one month after the funding has been used.
For questions about this funding scheme, please contact:
Margje Mommers - m.mommers@tue.nl (TU/e)