Application Support

Nowadays, researchers must constantly be up-to-date on the various funding opportunities available to support their research projects with external funds which are becoming more and more important due to the lack of national resources.

We are committed to explore the various open calls for the submission of research projects and periodically promote them among all SISSA's researchers highlighting the following information:

  • Brief summary of the call
  • Criteria for applying
  • Financial information
  • Eligibility requirements
  • Application deadlines
  • Funding restrictions
  • Contact information

The funding opportunities available under the Horizon Europe programme are available on the EU Funding & tenders portal, while some of the most important national calls can be found on the website of the Italian Ministry of Education.

An excellent and ambitious research project idea is fundamental to apply for funding, but often it is not enough. Most competitive calls require research proposals to meet specific objectives and priorities outlined in the calls. Hence, drawing up a well-structured research proposal suited to the appropriate funding opportunity is crucial for the grant to be awarded.

With this respect, SISSA in collaboration with APRE, organizes:

  • Grant drafting workshops addressed to researchers
  • Ad-hoc seminars/workshops for specific funding opportunities
  • Seminars on general aspects of proposal sections as for instance ethics, data management, relations with companies and enterprises, etc...

In addition to this specific training, we also offer individual consultancy on:

  • Customized support to find ad-hoc funding opportunities
  • Revision of administrative forms, eligibility requirements and technical needs detailed in the guide for applicants
  • On-demand and personalized assistance to start and sustain new collaborative opportunities among researchers and, in collaboration with the Valorisation and Innovation Office, with companies

If a researcher has already identified the call or funding opportunity in which he/she wants to participate, we provide assistance in all the steps necessary to submit the proposal. Since there is a variety of funding programs promoted by various sponsors, our experience can facilitate the difficulties that a researcher can face during the application phase.

SISSA internal procedure to submit a new research project

All the research projects submitted by SISSA's researchers or by external researchers that intend to choose SISSA as Host Institution have to be approved by the Scientific Area bodies and are registered and stored in a regularly updated database.

In order to fulfill these requirements, a researcher has to:

Pre-award phase

In order to give the best possible support, we advise researchers to contact us well ahead of the call deadline. We aim at assisting scientists during the application phase with a general description of SISSA in the proposal drafting and by taking care of the administrative burden of the project's submission.

The pre-award phase is full of challenges and typically our involvement includes:

  • Assessment on the applicant's eligibility and adherence to the topic of the grant opportunity
  • Working with the Principal Investigator guiding the submission timeline
  • Reviewing the call documents, requirements, instructions and, related information
  • Setup of the documentation for the project proposal with reference to its requirements
  • Providing background information and documentation to non-scientific sections
  • Drafting of letters of support or other institutional documents signed by the legal representative of the Host Institution
  • Managing institutional registrations to various funding programs platforms (several steps and different time frame to be considered)
  • Reviewing applications before the submission, ensuring that the guidelines requirements are met
  • Tracking the approval process of the grant submission
  • Providing to the funding authorities additional documentation to be submitted upon request
  • Handling official communications with the sponsors

Award phase

Once the research proposals have been positively evaluated and considered for funding, we support scientists in the activation of the grant.

In the Award stage, we are in charge of:

  • Supporting the PI in the negotiation phase with the other project partners (Supplementary agreement, Consortium agreements, ...)
  • Supporting the PI in the negotiation phase with the funding authority (Grant agreement)
  • Verifying that all the sponsors requests are met
  • Arranging all the necessary documents for the grant activation

After the award of the grant, we take care of the documentation needed for the project setup, award management, review of all relevant contracts and agreements.

During the project life cycle we support researchers also in the amendment procedures.

The new Horizon Europe framework program provides for the implementation of some Open Science practices already in the presentation phase of the project proposal. We advise researchers on mandatory and recommended practices for Horizon Europe projects. When the project has been awarded, the Research Office supports researchers in the drafting of the Data Management Plan. We also organize seminars and workshops for the training of our researchers on Open Science practices.

SISSA wishes to enhance its European project activity, particularly the ERC proposals under Horizon Europe, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation, and to support its researchers competing at a European level. SISSA intends to award funding to the Principal Investigators (PIs) who obtain an excellent evaluation of a project proposal submitted in response to a call under one of the following European Research Council programmes:

  • ERC Starting Grant
  • ERC Consolidator Grant
  • ERC Advanced Grant
  • ERC Synergy Grant

The suggested lines of action are:

  • Support in obtaining funding for SISSA PIs who have submitted an ERC project identifying SISSA as the Host Institution, have passed the first selection and have been invited to the interview.
  • Support for unfunded research projects that, having passed all the evaluation stages, achieved an excellent (A) rating but were not granted any funding because of the lack of financial resources allocated to the relevant call.
  • Guidelines for the ERC incentives, 2026 (PDF)
  • Application form for the ERC incentives (PDF)
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