Generic call for proposals – AAPG 2024

The Generic Call for Proposals 2024 (AAPG 2024) is the French National Research Agency’s (ANR) main call. All scientific communities and all public and private actors involved in French research are concerned. It should allow researchers from different scientific fields to access, in addition to the recurrent funding allocated to them, co-funding on a large number of research themes, whether finalized or not.

Funding instruments

The Generic Call for Proposals 2024 involves five funding instruments, each with its own specific submission and evaluation procedures. These instruments aim to fund:

• individual research projects coordinated by young researchers (JCJC)
   
• ambitious research projects led by a team, in the "Single Team Research Project" (PRME) instrument
   
• collaborative research projects between public entities in a national context (PRC)
   
• collaborative research projects between public entities in a bilateral international context (PRCI)
   
• collaborative research projects between public entities and private companies with a potential opening to the business world (PRCE).

When submitting a project, researchers choose the most appropriate funding instrument for their project and partnership. The funding instrument cannot be modified during the selection process.

Research themes

The AAPG 2024 call is structured into 56 research themes, each corresponding to a scientific evaluation panel (CES). When researchers submit a pre-proposal / registered a PRCI project, they select the scientific theme – and therefore the scientific evaluation panel – that most closely relates to the scientific purpose of their research. This choice cannot be changed during the selection process.

• 37 research themes covering 7 main scientific fields: environmental sciences, material sciences and engineering, digital sciences, life sciences, social sciences and humanities, mathematics and its interactions, and subatomic physics, sciences of the Universe and sciences of the Earth.
   
• 19 research themes covering trans- or interdisciplinary challenges and integrating issues from various scientific fields.

Provisional schedule for AAPG 2024

Step I

• Mid-July 2023 : Publication of the Work Programme 2024 and the text of AAPG 2024 call
• Beginning of September 2023 : Publication of the AAPG 2024 guide, the pre-proposal form and the certificate for PRME projects
• Mid-September 2023 : Opening of the website for the submission of a pre-proposal (JCJC, PRME, PRC, PRCE) and registration of a PRCI project
• 19 October 2023, 17h (Paris time) : Closure of the submission and registration website
• 20 February 2024 : Notifying the coordinators of an eligible project of the results of the first stage

Step II

• 22 February 2024 : Opening of step 2 submission website (JCJC, PRME, PRC, PRCE and PRCI)
• 28 March, 17h (Paris time) : Closure of the step 2 submission website
• End of May 2024 : Opening of the rebuttal stage
• July 2024 : Publication of first results (JCJC, PRME, PRC and PRCE)
• From September 2024 : Grant agreement phase
• From September 2024 : Publication of PRCI results according to the schedule of negotiations with the foreign agencies

Registration of PRCI projects

PRCI projects "Collaborative research project - international" for which the ANR is "Lead agency" and "non-Lead Agency" must be registered in Step 1 of the AAPG 2024. All PRCI projects registered in step 1 are qualified for step 2 - if the registered project is eligible -. This measure aims to ensure efficient management of the submission and selection of PRCI projects within the AAPG 2024 process.

Researchers interested in registering a PRCI project must therefore first read the modality "lead agency" ANR / "lead agency" foreign agency / "non-lead agency" for the international collaboration targeted as well as the themes concerned by each of the collaborations.

Consult the provisional table of PRCI collaborations open to the AAPG2024 in the text of the AAPG 2024. Publication to come: appendices dedicated to each bilateral PRCI collaboration opened within the framework of the AAPG 2024

Warning: the results of the PRCI projects submitted to the AAPG 2023 will be known from September 2023 until December 2023 according to the schedule of negotiations with foreign agencies. Pending these results, the coordinators of a PRCI project awaiting results must register their project for the 2024 edition of the call (in the case of a collaboration "lead agency" ANR or "non-lead agency" in the 2024 edition).
 
In the case of selection for funding in AAPG 2023 call, the coordinators must cancel their submission (PRC, PRCE, PRME or JCJC) or registration (PRCI) under the 2024 edition by email to the address aapg.science(at)agencerecherche.fr or else they will be ineligible.

Who can submit a proposal?

The AAPG 2024 call is open to all tenured researchers belonging to an organisation, establishment or public or private research laboratory eligible for ANR funding. Applicants can be involved in a maximum of three proposals submitted to ANR under AAPG 2024 and the Franco-German bilateral call in HSS 2024: no more than one as coordinator and two as partner’s principal investigator, or max. three as partner’s principal investigator.

A coordinator of a PRC, PRCE, PRCI, PRME or JCJC proposal selected for funding in the AAPG 2023 call cannot submit a PRC, PRCE, PRCI, PRME or JCJC pre-proposal as coordinator for AAPG 2024. However, he or she may act as a partner’s principal investigator. In addition, a coordinator of a JCJC proposal cannot act as the coordinator for a PRC, PRCE, PRCI, PRME or JCJC pre-proposal while the initial JCJC project is ongoing.

When submitting a project, researchers must read the criteria of eligibility given in the AAPG 2024 guide.

Evaluation criteria

Panel members and external experts use the same set of criteria to evaluate pre-proposals and full proposals submitted in the AAPG call.

• In step 1, the evaluation process is guided by two key criteria: quality and scientific aims of the proposal (determining criterion), and Project organisation and implementation, including several sub-criteria.
   
• In phase 2, the evaluation process is guided by three key criteria: quality and scientific aims of the proposal, Project organisation and implementation, and Impact and benefits of the project, including several sub-criteria that differ according to the chosen funding instrument.

These criteria should therefore guide the drafting of the pre-proposal (4 pages) in step 1 and the full proposal (20 pages) in step 2.

View the evaluation criteria and evaluation process in the text of AAPG 2024.

Waiting for the opening of the submission and registration website
 
- I read the description of the scientific themes of the AAPG 2024 to make the best choice when submitting my project; cf. text of the AAPG 2024 call
 
- I read the description of the funding instruments applicable to the AAPG 2024 call in order to choose the one corresponding to the objectives of my project and the planned partnership, cf. text of the AAPG 2024 call
 
- I inquire about the update of the RNSR page of my laboratory (Répertoire National des Structures de Recherche https://appliweb.dgri.education.fr/rnsr/)
 
- If necessary, I create an ORCID identifier https://orcid.org/
 
- I check if my company (if requesting a fund) is not in difficulty according to the applicable regulations, using the Excel simulator (in French)
 
- I find out about the categorization of my establishment, cf. webpage dedicated to the Funding regulations, section « Formulaire de déclaration des activités / qualification des bénéficiaires des Aides » (in French)
 
- I contact my future managing authority to anticipate the calculation of the amount of aid requested from the ANR, required for the submission / registration of my project in stage 1

Contacts

For administrative and financial question about your project : aapg.adfi(at)anr.fr

For scientific question about your project : aapg.science(at)anr.fr 

In case of a technical anomaly in the submission website : aapg.si(at)anr.fr please specify :

• The panel and the acronym of the project ;
   
• The email address used to login and your role in the project (coordinator, partner’s principal investigator, …)
   
• The action made and the result – including screenshots -

Erratum of 29/11/2023 to the annex for Franco-American PRCI projects "physics from molecules to cells": Updated hypertext links to NSF information, p.1, p.4 and p.5 / Modification of the eligible duration of the projects, p.3 and p.6 / Clarification concerning the qualification of projects that can be submitted, p.3.