OES-BECS: call for applications 2023

INORE is pleased to announce the 2023 call for BECS (Blue Energy Collaborative Scholarships) proposals sponsored by OES (Ocean Energy Systems). Do you have a research project that has the potential to provide collaborative work with other INOREans? Does your research require use of facilities that are unavailable at your institute, but are available at the institute of a fellow INOREan? Are you looking for funding to help support the travel costs to enable this project to take place or to present your collaboration with another INOREan in a conference? Do you need funding to cover for working hours whilst working remotely? If the answer to any of the above is YES, then you could be eligible for an OES-BECS grant!

The BECS grant, up to 1000€, will be put towards research expenses (raw materials, instrument, and experiment et al), travel expenses and accommodation at the research institutes where the collaborative work will take place or be presented (conference). It is expected that the work will advance formative research in the field of offshore renewable energy and promote collaboration and communication amongst early-career professionals from diverse disciplines, institutions, and nations. In addition to providing an opportunity for international work, the OES-BECS grant seeks to advance the field of offshore renewable energy through publication of research results and journal papers, making the results of the work accessible to a wide audience.

Application process 

1. Complete the form and upload the required documents. APPLY HERE!
2. The call will close on Sept. 24, 2023.
3. On Oct. 17, 2023 INORE will contact the granted group/s and reserve group/s and will inform the final decision.
4. The awarded group/s have time until Oct. 23, 2023 to formally accept or reject the scholarship offer.
5. The first installment of the grant is approved after the formal acceptance of the offer.
6. The second installment of the grant must be approved by Mar. 17, 2024. A budget of how the funds will be used (including quotations) and an update of the plan has to be submitted before this date.

Contact [email protected] for more information or with any questions.

Conditions

INORE wants this grant program to be fair and unbiased. Therefore, the following conditions are presented and should be followed by all the participants.

1. OES-BECS applications must involve at least two INOREans, from two different research organizations and must be early-stage career researchers.

2. This year the aim of OES-BECS scholarships is the international collaboration. Due to this, at least two members of the team must be affiliated to institutions from different countries.

3. Work carried out utilizing support from an OES-BECS grant should result in the submission of a journal or conference paper, and information of the work will be provided for use on the INORE website, and for information for sponsors. A summary (in any case), a Power Point presentation (if the results are presented in a conference) and/or a poster presentation (if the results are presented in a journal paper) should be sent to INORE.

4. OES-BECS and INORE should be part of the acknowledgements.

5. INOREans must send an update of the budget and plan before the second instalment is given. The update must include execution and modifications made, including stage information and more details about the research, using the initial version submitted with the application as a reference. INORE assumes that this deadline is enough to organize the work. The plan and budget must be approved in order to get the second instalment of the grant. If this milestone is not achieved the granted INOREans will lose the funding and it will be offered to another project.

6. 50% of the grant will be transferred to the research team at the time of the publication of the awarded teams list. The rest of the grant will be transferred as follows:

• INORE will refund the costs of the collaboration after receiving tickets for flights and accommodation, or other expenses (up to total funding). This will be awarded as soon as the result of the collaboration is submitted (or planned to be submitted) to a journal or a conference within the 2024 calendar year. The cost of the final expense must be within reason in accordance to the updated approved budget submitted to INORE.
• The deadline for requesting the money associated to the grant or the expected results of OES-BECS grant is at the end of the 2024 Calendar year. The amount of money that will not be transferred to the research team will be invested in other INORE activities.

7. (optional) One bonus point will be awarded to the team with at least one collaborator from underserved regions (Africa, Asia, Pan-America et al)