The Rheinland-Pfalz & Scotland x Life Sciences Fund aims to support international networking and mobility for PhD Students and Postdoctoral Researchers in the fields of Life Sciences, Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences. It is expected that these bilateral research exchanges will lead to outputs such as increased connectivity and further opportunities for funding. In addition, this call will support the career progression and professional development of early-stage researchers through gained technical skills, scientific outputs, and an expanded research network.

PhD Students and Postdoctoral Researchers can apply for a maximum of €8,000 to complete a research exchange project as a visiting researcher. Exchanges can range in length from 2 weeks to 3 months and must be bilateral in nature.

This fund has been jointly funded by the Ministry of Science and Health in Rheinland-Pfalz and the Scottish Government Office in Berlin to support research collaborations between academic institutions in the Rheinland-Pfalz (RLP) land of Germany and Scotland. The Fund is being delivered by the Scotland Hub at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (JGU Scotland Hub) and the Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance (SULSA) (Herein referred to as the administrative team).

• The Germany-based applicant must be a registered PhD student or contracted Postdoctoral Researcher at a university or research institute in Rheinland-Pfalz. This applicant can either be a) a PhD student or postdoctoral researcher who will take part in a bilateral exchange or b) the supervisor hosting the lead applicant.
• The Scotland-based applicant must be a PhD student or Postdoctoral Researcher at a SULSA university or institute. Please refer to our SULSA Funding Eligibility Key in Useful Resources to confirm you are eligible for this call.
• Proposed projects must include bilateral travel of applicants i.e., one researcher in Scotland must travel to Rheinland-Pfalz and a return visit from a researcher in Rheinland-Pfalz to Scotland must take place or vice versa.
• The contracts/studentships of all applicants must be valid for the duration of project
• Applicants can be from any discipline but research projects must fall within the field of Life Sciences, Biotechnology and Environmental Sciences.
• Visits can be a minimum of 2 weeks to a maximum of 3 months
• We recommend co-applicants draw up a collaboration agreement
• Please refer to the Guidelines on Cost Breakdown in the Additional Information tab for rules on where funding can be allocated and cost limits.
• Funding can be used for
  • Travel, subsistence and accommodation (mobility).
  • Research costs including consumables and facilities access.
  • Running a workshop/seminar during the visit.

Funding Information and Conditions:

• • The collaborative aspect of the project must be clearly justified.
  • Your project must be completed within 12 months of being awarded, or (if less) the duration of your contract at your host institution.
  • You must have your application signed by your Principal Investigator to demonstrate their support.

Eligible Institutions
Please find a list of eligible institutions in the RLP region.

Judging Criteria

Applications will be reviewed by an international panel and will be judged on:

• Feasibility of project with reasonable milestones.
• Opportunity to learn new skills and share knowledge (away and at home).
• Opportunity to benefit to wider research community.
• Opportunity to strengthen collaboration between Rheinland-Pfalz and Scotland.
• Opportunity for career progression/benefit to researchers.
• Quality of science and potential impact of findings.
• Opportunity to leverage further funding and other longer-term benefits.

 Key Dates

• Call Opens: Wednesday 27th November 2024
• Information Session: Tuesday 10th December 2024 at 11:00 – 12:00 GMT
• Application Deadline: Thursday 27th February 2025
• Applicants Informed of Outcome: w/c Monday 31st March 2025
• Funding End Date: Tuesday 31st March 2026

Submitting Your Application
Please submit your application (merged into a single PDF) to admin@sulsa.ac.uk by 5pm on Thursday 27th February 2025.

Notification of Outcome
Successful applications will be notified by email w/c Monday 31st March 2025.

Payment of Funds
Mobility funding will be transferred to the home institute of the applicant(s) travelling whilst research costs will be transferred to the host institute. Funds must be spent by 31st March 2026.

Awardee Reporting
You must provide the administrative team with project updates and outcomes when requested for reporting purposes. A proof of spend report must be submitted by this date. An update will be requested at 9 months and a written report will be requested at 3 months post award ending. The lay person summary of the project will be used as a case study to showcase outcomes. Reports and other outcome information will be shared across the 3 funders (the Ministry of Science and Health in Rheinland-Pfalz and the Scottish Government Office in Berlin) and the administrative team.

If this project leads to a published article, or leverages grant funding, or any other outputs please contact the administrative team to make us aware.

Applicant Reporting
After awarding the administrative team will circulate a demographic survey to all applicants of this funding call. The information is collected anonymously and is used internally by the administrative team to understand the diversity of our applicants and identify areas for improvement. This information will not be shared with reviewers and will be held in accordance with the administrative team’s privacy policy.

Useful Resources

• A map of RLP Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences by location or expertise
• SULSA Member institutions and their expertise
• SULSA Eligibility key (for Scotland-based applicant only)

Guidelines on Cost Breakdown

– Applications should not exceed the following upper limits:
Researcher 1 travel, accommodation, subsistence = €2,500 maximum
Researcher 2 travel, accommodation, subsistence = €2,500 maximum
Project costs (not including day-to-day consumables) = €3,000 maximum
Maximum funds sought per application = €8,000

– Project Costs
Bench fees and day-to-day consumables cannot be covered by this funding and should be provided by the host lab. Project specific consumables and access to specialised facilities for training or data generation can be requested as above

– Breakdown of costs must follow the below rules:
Local travel – a maximum of €50 per month can be claimed towards commuting costs when visiting
International travel – a maximum of €450 can be claimed per return flight booking

• Mr Angelo Joshua Victoria (University of Edinburgh): Research exchange to University of Kaiserslautern for project ‘Producing the natural cyanobacterial chromophore, phycoerythrobilin, in the highly productive marine strain, Synechococcus sp. PCC 11901’
• Dr Aida Cardona-Alberich (University of Edinburgh): Research exchange to Institute of Molecular Biology (Mainz) for project ‘Identifying common therapeutic targets for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) through multi-omic analysis of cellular models of TDP-43 pathology’
• Ms Inga Schmidt (University of Aberdeen): Research exchange to University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern for project ‘Comparative study of molecular phenotypes along the gut-brain axis in two different mouse models of Parkinson’s disease’
• Dr Louis Dwomoh (University of Glasgow): Research exchange to Johannes Gutenberg University for project ‘Investigating the effect and underlying mechanism of M1 muscarinic receptor activation on disease pathology in the 5XFAD Alzheimer’s disease model mice’

Check out Johannes Gutenberg Universities article on the above projects. 

Connect with researchers in Germany today via International Coffee Break at RIS!

The aim of this scheme is to drive the establishment of new international collaborations between Scotland and Germany via short, informal coffee breaks conducted over video call. 

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The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) have considerable funding available for collaborative academic research and a strong interest in working with Scottish researchers. Learn more via our Scotland-Germany Research Collaborations page.

Application Deadline: 5pm on Thursday 27th February 2025

How to Apply: Please complete the RLP-Scotland Application Form (merge all required files into a single PDF document) and e-mail to admin@sulsa.ac.uk by the above deadline

If you have any questions about this call please contact Alison.Hughes@glasgow.ac.uk