SmartCow Transnational Access: Fourth Call for proposals launched
Free access to the leading European cattle research facilities
We are pleased to announce the launch of an additional (fourth) call for proposals for Transnational Access (TNA) within the SmartCow project.
The TNA call makes available cattle research facilities of SmartCow partners for research by academic or industry colleagues from other (mainly EU) countries. The facilities include the most advanced animal science technologies applied to cattle in the fields of nutrition, physiology, ethology and animal husbandry.
Successful bidders will receive funding to cover the operating costs of facilities and travel expenses to visit the facilities, but not their own costs.
This section provides details about the TNA call:
- Rules regarding the operation of the scheme and selection of projects (Procedural Manual)
- Data Protection Notice for the processing of personal data
- Descriptions of facilities available for TNA projects
- Contact details for Facility Managers
- Priority research areas (which remain unchanged from previous calls)
This is the final call for proposals within the current project and so there are many restrictions on availability. Most of the remaining cow-weeks are available at Teagasc (Moorepark and Grange Research Centres), though there are opportunities for small studies at IRTA (EVAM) or INRAE (Le Pin or Herbipôle Marcenat-Laqueuille):
- Teagasc (Moorepark): 1,244 cow-weeks
- Teagasc (Grange): 960 cow-weeks
- INRAE (Le Pin or Herbipôle Marcenat-Laqueuille): 80 cow-weeks
- IRTA (EVAM): 68 cow-weeks
NOTE: Whilst we aim to allocate all of the cow-weeks at the specified infrastructure, it may be that these are under-used and could be reallocated to another infrastructure. Applicants could ask for work at a different location, but this would only be considered if the original allocations are not used because of insufficient high-quality applications.
The SmartCow project runs until January 2022 and so need to allocate funding to project as quickly as possible so that projects can be completed and reported in good time. Accordingly, we will adopt a single-stage application process with applications submitted at the following site:
https://app.oxfordabstracts.com/stages/2163/submitter
Although we will use a single-stage process, we invite applicants to check with the SmartCow Access Management Team if there are any questions about eligibility and with the individual Facility Managers if there are questions about the feasibility of projects (e.g. size of study and recording/sampling capabilities).
The SmartCow Access Management Team is available to provide advice on any aspect of the scheme; please contact them by email (smartcow-tna@inrae.fr forwards to them all) or individually:
- Richard Dewhurst (richard.dewhurst@sruc.ac.uk) – Transnational Access leader
- René Baumont (rene.baumont@inrae.fr) – SmartCow Coordinator
- Peter Lund (peter.lund@anis.au.dk)
Timetable
Applications submitted to the above portal: Monday 16th November 2020
Decisions will be notified by: early January 2021
Projects must commence by: 1st June 2021
Projects must be completed by: 30th November 2021