Open Research Area (ORA) for the Social Sciences 2019

The sixth round of ORA is based on an agreement between the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR; France), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; Germany), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC; UK) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC; Canada).

In order to strengthen international co-operation in the field of social sciences, wishing to fund high quality scientific research within their own countries, and aware that some of the best research can be delivered by working with the best researchers internationally, ANR, DFG, ESRC and SSHRC are launching a sixth ORA call for proposals in order to fund the best joint research projects in social sciences. The scheme will provide funding for integrated projects by researchers coming from at least three of the four subscribing countries – in any combination of three or more countries. Please note that the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO; Netherlands) will not be participating in this sixth ORA Call - for further information see in Dutch and in English.

Proposals may be submitted in any area of the social sciences. However, the disciplinary coverage varies according to the involvement of the national agencies. Applicants who are uncertain of whether their proposal would be eligible should contact the relevant national agencies for clarification.

There is again a special opportunity for cooperation with projects in Japan. With the aim to strengthen cooperation between researchers in Japan and ORA partners, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) as the national funding organization of Japan renews the funding scheme to support projects which are associated with ORA. For details please see the following website for the Japanese call.

To date five rounds of ORA have been successfully completed, funding over 60 international collaborative proposals.

This call will follow a two-stage procedure consisting of an outline proposal and a full proposal. Applicants who are successful at outline will automatically progress to full stage. Unlike the previous round, applicants will be invited to submit outline and full proposals at the same time, rather than waiting for the results of the outline stage.

Funding will be distributed among the national agencies according to the place of work of the researchers, and according to the funding rules of each agency.