Seed funding for research activities and African-European collaboration 2025

Background and objectives

CIVIS – Europe’s Civic University Alliance brings together 11 research-oriented universities in Europe (as full members), and 6 leading universities in Africa (as associate members) to jointly design educational programmes, promote mobility of staff and students, and foster a socially engaged academy.

With its own project for designing a Research & Innovation Strategy (RIS4CIVIS, 2021-2023), CIVIS was already committed to strengthening its collaboration in the fields of R&I at European level. In 2024, CIVIS continued its engagement by funding more than 25 projects to promote its strategic partnership to contribute to closer African-European scientific cooperation across all academic missions.

This new call is in line with the ambitions of the CIVIS Research Roadmap, and aims at consolidating joint research among its 17 member institutions. 

The aim of this Call for Applications is to support bottom-up initiatives for joint research, fostering innovation, long-term collaboration and openness to non-academic sectors.

Information session on this Call

Do you want to learn more about the background and possibilities of this Call, or guidelines on how to prepare an application?

An online information session was held on Monday, 14th of April 2025, 12.00-13.00.

Please find the presentation of the call in this document or (re)watch the info session.

Who can apply

• Faculty members from all CIVIS member universities are eligible to apply. However, staff from the University of Tübingen (UT) are not eligible for funding under the 2025 edition of the call. UT members may still participate in projects as collaborators, provided they can secure their own funding independently.
• Applicants must be permanent faculty members or employees with a long-term contract; i.e., a contract longer than the funding period in order to ensure the sustainability of the activity beyond its completion.
• For organisational reasons, the contact person for the proposal/main applicant should be a member from a CIVIS University in Europe.
• Postdoctoral researchers are encouraged to participate in this call.

What types of activities are funded

• New collaborative research activities, such as but not limited to:
  • Doctoral schools or other training measures for PhD students
  • Workshops or topical schools on a research question
  • Network meetings for establishing a research group within CIVIS
  • Network meetings for reaching out to non-academic stakeholders
  • Workshops for preparing a larger publication on research outcomes (pay attention to the fact that the project cannot cover publication cost).
  • Citizen science projects
• Application design measures, such as but not limited to:
  • Meetings of potential or designated applicants/consortium members
  • Meetings of the writing team
  • Visits of the PI and/or other key participants to (potential) consortium members

Since these application design measures must aim at preparing an application for a larger research grant, the applicants will clearly state how the envisioned activities will lead to a fully-fledged research grant and which funding programme and/or call they target.

What are the Eligibility criteria?

Proposals must:

• Involve at least three CIVIS Universities from Europe or Africa (with a minimum of two European universities)
• Relate to one of the CIVIS Hub themes (see above).
• Align with one of the activity types described above (collaborative activity / application design measures)
• Be implemented by June 30th, 2026.

These eligibility criteria should imperatively be met to proceed with further evaluation.

What are the Evaluation criteria?

• Academic criteria (max 10 points, equal sub-items, and minimal threshold 5 points)

The proposal will be assessed according to usual academic quality standards: (i) the research question, (ii) the research method, (iii) the relevance of the research collaboration and (iv) the coherence of the planning.

• Sustainability beyond this seed funding call (max 6 points, and minimal threshold 3 points)

The proposal should demonstrate the potential for a sustainable, longer-term collaboration among project participants.

Activity 1 projects will be assessed on the soundness/feasibility of follow-up activities, the ability to keep research-oriented interaction between participants and on other potential to contribute to CIVIS objectives;

Activity 2 projects must clearly state the targeted funding programme/call (e.g. by indicating the call reference in case of a Horizon Europe). These projects will be assessed on the match between the proposal for future activities and the targeted call, the research impact in case of successful application, the contribution for the institutions and the researchers in case of successful application.

The number of points will be given according to the following scale.

0: non-existent, 1-2: very weak, 3: acceptable, 4: satisfactory, 5: strong/good, 6: excellent.

• Other preference criteria (max 4 points, no minimal threshold)
  • CIVIS consortium: preference will be given to projects including participants from at least one of the six African partners (no partner = 0 point, 1 partner = 1 point; 2+ partners = 2 points);
  • Preference will be given to projects demonstrating interdisciplinarity;
  • Preference will be given to projects addressing societal challenges;
  • Contribution to citizen/participatory science is especially encouraged in the case of collaborative research activities;

Which costs are eligible?

The primary focus of this call is to facilitate the consolidation of networks, and thus to allocate funding for mobility costs

• Each selected project can receive up to 10,000 EUR, depending on the location and number of mobility envisaged.
• For participants from CIVIS universities in Europe: staff mobility costs (travel, accommodation, and subsistence) can be covered according to Erasmus+ rules (up to 850 EUR per participant travelling in Europe and up to 1 500 EUR per participant travelling from Europe to Africa).
• For participants from CIVIS universities in Africa: staff mobility costs (travel, accommodation, and subsistence) can be funded by some but not all CIVIS European universities through co-funding measures (i.e., own institutional funds and/or Erasmus+ ICM). Please consult your local CIVIS office for checking whether such options exist. Alternatively, applicants might want to consider holding meetings/events at a partner institution in Africa.
• For participants from the University of Glasgow (UofG) and the University of Lausanne (UNIL): costs cannot be covered by Erasmus+ budget but own institutional funds will be used (and can therefore exceed the 10,000 EUR limit). Please consult your local CIVIS Office.
• Some universities may have additional funds available for organisational costs; however, not all institutions provide such funds, nor do they allocate the same amount for this purpose.  Please check with the CIVIS Institutional Contact at own university.
• Co-funding from other sources is encouraged.

Double-funding from the same third-party funding institution or programme may however be restricted. In case of doubt, please consult your local CIVIS Office.

How to apply

• Please submit your online application only through the CIVIS Application Portal.
• Application deadline: May 31^st, 2025 (24:00 CEST/UTC+2)
• Applicants who plan to organise an event at a CIVIS university should consult the local CIVIS Office/contact person at the potential host university before submitting the application. All contact persons for proposals (main applicants) should inform their local CIVIS Office about their application. 

Evaluation and Timeline

May 31^st, 2025: Call closes.

June to October 2025: Evaluation process. CIVIS Hub Councils examine the academic relevance of proposed activities. A CIVIS Technical Committee will verify their financial and organisational feasibility. The CIVIS Research Council and Steering Committee will decide on the funding of activities.

By November 1^st, 2025: Applicants will be notified about the funding decision.

By June 30th 2026: Proposed activities are completed.

By July 31st, 2026: All reports are sent to Technical Committee.

Further information

• For general inquiries, please contact: seed-funding-2025@lists.civis.eu
• For inquiries on local funding options and circumstances, please contact your local CIVIS contact