Second Call for Thematic Activities

Second Call for Thematic Activities

Faculty, together with postdoctoral researchers and/or doctoral students in CIVICA universities (Bocconi, CEU, EUI, Hertie School, IE, Sciences Po, SGH, SNSPA, SSE, LSE) are invited to submit proposals for ‘thematic activities’.

The call aims to foster collaborative activities, to further existing links or to establish new ones. Activities may include, but are not limited to, organising CIVICA workshops, or small-scale CIVICA conferences with the involvement of (primarily) CIVICA faculty, postdoctoral, and doctoral researchers. Applications by student-faculty research groups, meeting the same application criteria, are strongly encouraged.

The application deadline is: 

31 January 2025, 23:59 (CET).

  • What types of activities are financed?
  • Who can apply?
  • How will the proposals be evaluated?
  • What is financed?
  • How much money is available?
  • What are the deliverables for winning projects? 
  • How long should project last?
  • The application process
  1. Thematic activities: These are typically small-scale, CIVICA-branded workshops, or conferences that broadly relate to one of CIVICA’s core, interdisciplinary themes (Democracy in the 21st Century; Europe Revisited; Societies in Transition, Crises of Earth; Data-Driven Technologies for the Social Sciences).

    For instance, a two-day CIVICA workshop on the ‘transition to green economy’, led by permanent faculty, accepting applications from CIVICA faculty, postdocs, and PhDs. The event includes at least 4 CIVICA partners and is completed by 21 February 2026. The application can also be for co-financing an event but the benefit for CIVICA will have to be convincingly laid out. The application can be used to cover hosting-related (a dinner, catering) and travel & accommodation costs for participants already known at the time of submission. Travel & accommodation costs should be budgeted under the participants’ home university. Should the event include an open call for abstracts, accepted CIVICA faculty and postdoc participants should apply to one of the bi-monthly Calls for Faculty Short Visits.

Thematic activity leaders should be permanent faculty from CIVICA universities, or employees with long-term contract. The duration of the contract must go well beyond the end of the funding period. Postdoctoral researchers and doctoral students at CIVICA universities are encouraged to be involved in the thematic activities. Only CIVICA faculty/postdocs/PhDs can be financed.

Submitted applications will be evaluated by the ‘Permanent Design Team’ (PDT) of CIVICA. The PDT consists of vice-presidents for research and/or senior faculty of the ten CIVICA universities. Selected applications will be financed by the sending/home university in accordance with the home university’s financial rules and allocated CIVICA budget.

Formal grant decisions are made by each CIVICA partner following the decision of the PDT. Rejected applications may only receive informal feedback.  

The selection committee evaluates proposals on various dimensions: scientific quality, contribution to CIVICA’s effort for integrated research, feasibility, budget, and the diversity of partners. 

All expenses directly related to activities are eligible, provided they are realistic and in line with the expected results as per Erasmus+ rules. Recurring institutional costs, including personnel costs (overhead, faculty salaries) are not eligible. For details on what specific expenses are eligible, please contact grant units at your respective universities before submitting the application. Adequate supporting documents to prove costs may be requested. Local rules may apply.

This call is financed from CIVICA Erasmus+, except for LSE which is self-funded. Each CIVICA partner university may have a slightly different budget for this call. Budget plans should detail costs per institutions participating/represented in an activity/project. Any travel & accommodation costs should be budgeted under the participants home institution as each partner finances their own faculty/postdoc/doctoral student. To find out more on available funding, please contact your local grant coordinating unit before applying. The list of contact persons at each CIVICA partner is attached.  

For thematic activities, workshops/conferences take place. Daily attendance sheets of participants, affiliation, faculty/student must be submitted to research[at]civica.eu after the event. The event, if public or university-wide, must be advertised on the CIVICA website. The host university’s CIVICA coordinator must be contacted, and the CIVICA’s communications team alerted ahead of the event. Public events are also streamed on Zoom.

Projects can officially start in February 2025. Thematic activities must take place within 12 months, i.e. by February 2026.

Applying for CIVICA grants consists of the following steps:   

  1. Applying team members are to contact their respective grant coordinating units (e.g. ACRO in CEU, Research Development Team in LSE, etc.) in the planning stage of the application to enquire about funds available for CIVICA partners at each university, and about formal requirements and eligible expenses. In other words, applying consortia will be required to submit cost calculationsseparated by CIVICA partners with their applications. (See list of contact persons at each CIVICA partner in the call description.)
  2. Applying teams are required to prepareone single joint application (including the separate cost calculations) and submit it to research(at)civica.eu before the deadline. The project must have an acronym. The submitted file must be named the project acronym (e.g. “EUFUTUR.doc” or “EUFUTUR.pdf”).  Through a Single Review Process, CIVICA’s Permanent Design Team (PDT) will select projects on merit and inform the grant units in universities concerned. The PDT will also check whether the application meets the formal criteria set in the application guidelines. If one CIVICA partner finds that its part of the budget does not meet the criteria, applicants are consulted to fix any error.  
  3. Following the decision by the PDT, grant coordinators at partner universities will formally decide on the financial aspects, in line with the decision of the PDT and within the limits of their available CIVICA funds.  
  4. Grant units of CIVICA partners inform the PDT. The PDT announces winners. Members of winning consortia contract with their respective universities for funding.  

Timeline

  • 31 October 2024 – Call for Thematic Activities announced 

  • 31 January 2025 – Application deadline 

  • 21 February 2025 – Announcement of winners on the CIVICA website 

  • 21 January 2026 – Thematic activities completed

Contact persons at partner institutions

Application process and deadline

The application form needs to be submitted electronically to research(at)civica.eu by the deadline: 
23:59 (CET) – 31 January 2025

CIVICA Thematic Activities

The CIVICA Call for Thematic Activities is an annual call (next in October 2025) that can be used in combination with other CIVICA- and non-CIVICA funded activities but the added value to CIVICA has to be convincingly laid out in the application.