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Appel à projets Emergence 2025-2026

The Emergence call for research proposals supports researchers and researcher-lecturers of the Alliance Sorbonne Université, in particular colleagues at the beginning of their careers or recently recruited, who are keen to embark on groundbreaking research projects.

The purpose of this call for proposals is to facilitate the emergence of new fields and/or new practices through research, both at the heart and at the interface of disciplines.

Supported projects are those that are unfunded yet represent a break with the state of art, with the objective of enabling them to reach a level of maturity for submission to regional, national, European or international calls for proposals. Research-creation projects are accepted under this call.

Projects must meet one of the following criteria:

  • enable the launch of a new original research theme with significant development potential at the end of the Emergence funding
  • enable a pilot study dedicated to testing new research hypotheses

 

The research subject and/or the methodological approach must go beyond the state of the art.

This non-thematic call for proposals is open to all researchers and researcher-lecturers from member institutions of the Alliance Sorbonne Université who are conducting their research in an Alliance unit. In line with the strategic project orientations of the Alliance Sorbonne Université, notably in terms of open science, all publications resulting from research projects supported by this funding call must be deposited in an open archive such as HAL.

It is strongly encouraged that submitted research projectsinclude the opportunity to establish new research collaborations within or outside the Alliance.

 

Modality of the Emergence 2025-2026 call for proposals

 

Eligibility

 

Project leaders must be statutary researchers (CNRS, Inria, Inserm, IRD) or statutory researcher-lecturers (ENSCi-Les Ateliers, INSEAD, MNHN, SU, UTC) working in research units, for which at least one of the following Alliance Sorbonne Université member institutions is supervisory authority: ENSCi-Les Ateliers, INSEAD, MNHN, SU, UTC.

A project may involve one or more partner research units, whether or not they belong to an institution that is a member of the Alliance Sorbonne Université.

A project leader who has received Emergence funding in the past can apply for this new call for projects only if 1/ the Emergence funding was obtained under the first call (2019-2020) and 2/ the project presented is significantly different from the one previously funded.

Any other research project that has benefited from previous Emergence funding from the Alliance Sorbonne Université will not be eligible.

 

Terms of finance

Alliance Sorbonne Université will finance projects lasting up to 24 months and for an amount of funding between 20 k€ and 120 k€.

Applications will be evaluated with the same basis independently of the financial amount requested, regardless if it is a funding of 20-30 k€ of operating costs to initiate a project or a larger amount for a recruitment, for example.

Among the eligible expenses are:

  • Operating costs: consumables, travel, internship allowances, ...)
  • Equipment
  • Human resources: recruitment of post-docs, engineers, technicians (cost including salary and contributions). The recruitment will be carried out by the institution managing the Emergence funding granted to the project leader, with a job description to be attached to the application file.

 

The financial requests, in particular for human resources, must be justified in the submission file.

 

Duration and project reporting

The duration of a project is a maximum of 24 months. A final report to be completed on the platform https://emergence.sorbonne-universite.fr/ will be requested from the project leader. This report includes a scientific component and information on the prospects for the development and financing of subsequent research phases. A statement of expenditure may also be requested at the end of the project.

The management of the Emergence funding allocated to a project will be ensured by one of the supervisory authority of the research unit of which the project leader belongs. This supervisory authority must be a member of the Alliance Sorbonne Université.

 

Evaluation criteria

 

The evaluation will take into account:

  • Quality and scientific relevance of the project
  • Degree of breakthrough with the existing
  • Originality of the scientific approach
  • Ability of the project leader to successfully execute the project
  • Potential of the project in terms of subsequent funding
  • Justification and coherence of the estimated budget

 

In their applications, project leaders must clearly explain the breakthrough dimensions of their project, whether thematic and/ or methodological.

The jury will pay particular attention to the degree of involvement of the project leader and the participants in the project.

 

Terms of submission

All applications must be submitted through a dedicated online platform managed by Sorbonne Université : https://emergence.sorbonne-universite.fr/

 

The application is composed of the following:

  • Submission form describing the project, to be written in English. It may be written in French if the specificity of the discipline requires it.
  • CV of the primary investigator including significant recent publications and communications that should be accessible through an open archive such as HAL (5 at most)
  • A job description, if applicable, for recruitment.

 

For all questions related to the submission process, please contact emergence@sorbonne-universite.fr

 

Provisional calendar

15 November 2024 Opening date for the 2025-2026 call for proposals

13 January 2025    Submission deadline for the 2025-2026 call for proposals

June 2025             Results publication

1 September 2025 Start of projects

 

Importantly, no additional elements can be accepted after the submission deadline.