HEC GRAND CHALLENGE FUND (GCF)| BIOCONCERN - BioConcern

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HEC GRAND CHALLENGE FUND (GCF)| BIOCONCERN

January 28, 2020 ,

HEC GRAND CHALLENGE FUND (GCF)| BIOCONCERN




Call for Proposals is now open and Applications can be submitted through HEC online Portal (eportal.hec.edu.pk)
Deadline for submission of Project Outline (PO) = 7th February, 2020 (23:59 hrs, Pakistan Standard Time)
Please refer to "Downloads" section of website for helpful documents regarding GCF call. For any query/complaint, please refer to onlinehelp.hec.gov.pk

The Grand Challenge Fund (GCF) is a key element of the Higher Education Development in Pakistan Project supported by the World Bank and implemented by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).  The GCF is anticipated to promote research excellence in strategic sectors of the economy, and will provide funds to selected institutions based upon a competitive, peer-reviewed evaluation of proposals. 
GCF will support large, multisectoral/multidimensional research projects.  Successful GCF projects are anticipated to be collaborative in scope, with research teams working cooperatively to accelerate research progress for societal impact.  Projects are expected to use a systems-type approach in developing the research agenda, where separate projects come together to achieve a broad-based thematic research advance.  Projects should include:  relevant and cutting-edge research activities and postgraduate student training.
Key Features
  • Expected No. of Grants:  25 per year
  • Max Project Duration: Three (03) years
  • Individual Grant Value: Rs. 15 - 225 million

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Lead Principal Investigators (PIs) must:
Project Team may include:
  • A consortia of faculty members from multiple university departments and/or multiple universities
  • Private sector participants, particularly when they bring prior IP or capability to the consortium and/or significant deployment, implementation, or scale up capability 
  • International partners
International collaborations are encouraged:
  • When the international partner brings a unique added value to the project team.
HOW TO APPLY
Applications can be submitted in response to a call for proposal. New call for proposals is tentatively scheduled for Spring 2020. Submission must be made to the HEC online portal according to the guidelines provided in the call for proposals.
Proposal Submission Stages
  • Project Outline Submission
  • Full Proposal Submission

Evaluation Process
GCF awards are made through an open, rigorous, transparent, competitive and merit-based process consistent with international standards
The Evaluation process consists of three sequential steps: 
  • Project Outline Review
  • Full Proposal Desk Evaluation
  • Presentation to High Level Expert Panel by the project team and Institutional leadership of short-listed full proposals
FUNDING DETAILS
GCF funding may be used for:

  • Salaries for PI and co-PIs based on the amount of time spent on the project
  • Stipends for bachelors, masters, doctoral students, and postdoctoral scholars to conduct the research proposed
  • Travel to national and international meetings to present research results obtained
  • Travel to consortia members' institutions in support of the research proposed
  • Processing fee for open access journals for disseminating research results
  • The purchase and maintenance of appropriate, approved equipment to conduct the research proposed.
  • The purchase of research supplies necessary to conduct the research proposed
  • Grants to attract visiting researchers from outside Pakistan to conduct research that contributes to the grant objectives. These visiting researchers can be either expatriate Pakistani scientists or foreign scientists.
  • A component of the grant will be earmarked for the problem solving (i.e., it will be released only if there is a demonstrable evidence of success in solving a problem).

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