The French National Research Agency (ANR) has selected 41 new projects from the additional lists for the 2019 Generic Call for Proposals (AAPG). The additional projects were funded upon completion of the appeals process, using surplus funds from its budget at end-2019 following the cancellation of eight projects and the postponement of third-party programmes.
The ANR funded 1,065 projects in total across the three French instruments: Collaborative Research Projects (PRC), Young Researchers (JCJC) and Collaborative Research Projects Involving Enterprise(s) (PRCE). This figure was 24 higher than in 2018, representing a total budget of €436.9 million. The combined selection rate for these three instruments was 16.2%, up from 14.8% at end-2018.
The funded projects were distributed as follows:
In addition to these domestic projects, the ANR awarded €27.2 million in funding to 92 projects under the PRCI instrument. The selection rate for the PRCI instrument was 14.0%.
Some 51 projects operated in partnership with the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) were selected, out of 313 proposals, i.e. a selection rate of 16.3%. These bilateral projects were awarded a total funding of €14.2 million, and the partnership received €3 million of priority funding under the 2019 Work Programme.
The partnership with the DFG also covers the Franco-German SSH programme, with an allocation of €3.1 million (12 projects funded in 2019, at a selection rate of 20.3%).
The 2019 AAPG accounted for 81.6% of the ANR’s funding budget for Work Programme calls for proposals, benefiting research teams across all institutions and scientific disciplines.
The ANR supported 1,157 projects in total across the four instruments under the 2019 AAPG (PRC, JCJC, PRCE, PRCI), with average per-project funding standing at €401K (up 2.5% compared with 2018). The combined selection rate for the 2019 AAPG was 16.0%, up from 15.1% in 2018. The 2019 AAPG, the ANR’s main call, accounted for 81.6% of the agency’s funding budget for calls for proposals under the Work Programme, amounting to €464.1 million, some 4.7% higher than in 2018 (€443.4 million).
Legend:
Breakdown by number of projects funded
The AAPG assessment process is the responsibility of the scientific evaluation panels (CES), each of which corresponds to one of the areas of research in the call and the Work Programme. At the second stage of the AAPG, each panel ranks the best projects on a primary list and drafts an additional list of projects to be funded if any projects on the main list withdraw, if additional funding becomes available, or if budgets are reallocated at the end of the year. Once this process is complete, the ANR publishes a combined list in July, per panel and per funding instrument, showing both the primary and additional lists. These are adjusted to reflect estimated additional funding that may become available at the end of 2019.
Projects are selected from the additional lists in the order they are ranked by the panel, according to how much surplus funding is available or to replace any projects cancelled between July and the end of the year.
Detailed breakdowns of results per panel will be published in the first quarter of 2020.
Initial results of the 2019 AAPG (in french)
Generic call for proposals 2019
Results of the 2018 generic call (in french)
