The ESAFORM Proposal grant

ESAFORM offers a maximum of 5 grants, per calendar year, to support the writing of proposals for projects funded by the EU.

The grant will be €2,500 given to the applicant (not necessarily the coordinator of the proposal submitted to the EU). This grant can be used for reimbursement of the organization of meetings, travel, accommodation, secretary costs or any other requirement to support the writing of the proposal.

Eligibility criteria

In order to apply for the ESAFORM Grant, the following criteria have to be met:

1. The EU proposal must clearly focus on material forming.
2. The EU proposal must not have been submitted before for the ESAFORM grant.
3. The applicant must have been a member of ESAFORM for 2 of the last 4 years.
4. The EU proposal must include at least 1 additional party. This additional party must fulfill criterion 3. The applicant and the other party should come from 2 different universities or companies. The proposal may include more partners.
5. For beneficiaries under this scheme, a period of one year must have passed before the same group of 2 or more parties as mentioned above may apply again under this scheme.

The grant award is not tied to the success of the EU application.

Selection criteria and decision

Following review for matching the eligibility criteria, the grants will be awarded on a “first come – first serve” basis. The selection process and award decisions will be made at the meeting of the Board of Directors of ESAFORM. The Board usually meets during ESAFORM conference (spring) and in the second semester (autumn), every year. Grants will be published on the ESAFORM homepage.

How to apply?

Send a brief description of your EU-proposal to the President of ESAFORM using the template from the ESAFORM homepage (3 pages, including one page for the partners description and two pages for the project content, including links with ESAFORM objectives: promoting applied research in University and Industry, spreading scientific information, developing education, teach material forming sciences in Europe, establishing links between Industry and University in the field of material forming, promoting the image of material forming, etc.). Additionally, forward the mail from the EU funding agency confirming your submission to the President of ESAFORM.

The applications have to be sent as soon as the EU project partners take their definitive decision to work on a EU proposal (remember the grants will be awarded on a first come first serve basis). However the 2500€ will be paid only after the confirmation of the EU proposal submission has been sent to the ESAFORM president. The grants are only payable to an account of the institution/company of the applicant.

The applications for 2020 have to be sent by e-mail before March 15 or September 15 to:

Prof. Livan Fratini

President of ESAFORM

e-mail: livan.fratini@unipa.it

phone: +3909123861851

ESAFORM Mobility grant

ESAFORM offers a maximum of 5 grants, per calendar year, to support short term mobility of young researchers (PhD students or Post-Doc’s with less than 5 years after their PhD) with the aim of promoting the cooperation and the development of joint research activities between active ESAFORM members working in different countries. Activities to be carried out during the mobility period should be focused on research fields of the teams who supervise the young researcher. The hosting period should not be devoted to the preparation of proposals for funding, since the present Mobility Grant is different from the grant for project preparations (Proposal Writing Grant).

The Mobility Grant will cover a maximum of 2,500 Euros to be transferred to the associated institutions and based on proofs of the mobility costs involved. Elligible expenses are travel costs to join and go back from the hosting institution and accomodation costs during the mobility. The grant can also be used to cover the fees for the next ESAFORM conference for the young researcher (including associative fee) and his/her mission expenses (travel, accommodation) for attending next ESAFORM conference.

Eligibility criteria

To apply to the ESAFORM Mobility Grant, the following criteria must be met:

1. The research activities to be carried out must clearly focus on material forming, and must be aligned to ESAFORM scientific interests and objectives;
2. The duration of the mobility must be between 3 weeks and 3 months, with the reasonability/feasibility of the working plan during the indicated period being evident in the submitted research proposal;
3. The applicant must be a PhD or a Post-Doc student, working in the research team of an ESAFORM active member. He/She must have in his/her Institution (“sending Institution”) a full-time work contract. The term “active member” indicates ESAFORM members who attended to at least 2 of the last 4 ESAFORM conferences. “Institution” can be either of industrial or academic character;
4. The ESAFORM member in the “hosting Institution” must be an active member as well (see previous point);
5. The sending and hosting Institutions must be in different countries, with the two teams not being linked by an agreement of joint PhD for the involved young researcher;
6. A young researcher can receive this grant only once in his/her career, while his/her supervisors (from sending and hosting Institutions) can only apply once per two years.

Selection criteria and decision

If the eligibility criteria are met, priority will be given to applications characterized by higher levels of feasibility of the working plan, privileging longer duration mobility actions. The award decisions will be made at the meetings of the Board of Directors of ESAFORM, knowing that a maximum of 5 grants (Mobility + Proposal writing) are available each year. Proposal Writing grants have priority over Mobility Grants, as their eligibility criteria are more difficult to be met. The Board typically meets during the ESAFORM conferences (spring), as well as in the second semester (autumn), every year. The ESAFORM web site will give the updated information of the number of Grants left after spring and autumn decisions.

A notification will be given to the applicant, as well as to other ESAFORM members involved in the mobility action, after the Board meetings. Grants will be published at the ESAFORM homepage and the ESAFORM community will be orally informed about the decisions at the next conference.

What is expected

The beneficiaries must give a presentation focused on the obtained results/joint research at the next ESAFORM conference (proper visibility will be given to such presentations in the conference program). The presenting author (preferably the young researcher) should mention (in a pitch between 2 and 6 minutes) the grant and an overview of the mobility action, and then present his/her work. Finally, beneficiaries (young researchers and supervisors) should mention ESAFORM support in the acknowledgements of all publications that arise from the results, and other knowledge indicators created from the mobility action.

How to apply?

Send a grant application to the President of ESAFORM using the following template.

1. Name of the applicant
2. The mobility period (starting – ending dates)
3. Name of the ESAFORM active members belonging to the sending and hosting Institutions involved in the activities
4. Brief description (max. 2 pages) of the research context, the objectives to be pursued, and the working program to be carried out during the mobility period
5. A declaration from the sending and receiving ESAFORM members, supporting the proposal and accepting the conditions, must be included in the application.

The grant is only payable to an account of the sending or hosting institution (to be indicated in the proposal).

Every year the applications have to be sent by e-mail before March 15. for the first and before September 15. for the second round to:

Prof. Livan Fratini

President of ESAFORM

e-mail: livan.fratini@unipa.it

phone: +3909123861851

ESAFORM supported thematic workshops

To provide the opportunity for engineers and scientists to share and discuss the recent developments and future perspectives of their research, ESAFORM promotes and supports the organization of thematic events, namely thematic workshops, highly focused on one precise topic (clearly related to material forming and without parallel sessions).

The topic of the workshop should be of current academic/industrial interest, not necessarily related to any existing mini-symposium of the ESAFORM Conference, but rather able to attract an international participation: 25-50 attendants working in this specific field are expected. A tangible participation of scientists from foreign centers with respect to the chairman is foreseen. Participants are not required to already be members of ESAFORM, but reasonably, they are expected to be interested in joining the ESAFORM network.

ESAFORM will support up to 2 proposals per calendar year and will:

• publish the info concerning the workshop on ESAFORM website;
• mail the workshop invitation to ESAFORM members;
• pay an amount of 1000 € for each day of the workshop (for max 2 days)

The first two actions will be activated right after the (favorable) decision by the BoD, the third one right after the delivery/check of a short report on the workshop by the Chairman.

Eligibility criteria

To apply for this action, a thematic workshop must meet the following criteria:

1. focus on material forming;
2. strong affinity with ESAFORM scopes, here reminded:
   • promoting applied research in University and Industry;
   • spreading scientific information;
   • supporting education in material forming sciences in Europe
   • establishing links between Industry and University in the field of material forming
   • promoting the image of material forming
3. no more than one proposal per year from the same applicant;
4. one or more ESAFORM members in the organizing committee (not necessary the Chairman).

Selection criteria and decision

The applications will be continuously evaluated by the working group (WG7), while a decision, for each proposal, will be confirmed by the BoD during the meeting in Paris (September/October) or during the ESAFORM Conference (April/May).

Proposals will be assessed according to the following criteria:

• pertinence with ESAFORM objectives and interests
• expected audience (considering both ESAFORM members and non-members)
• potential industrial/academic impact of the topic.

and a notification will be given to the applicant shortly after the Board meeting by the ESAFORM president.

What is expected:

In case of approval of the workshop proposal, the applicant will implicitly accept to carry out the required duties, i.e. to provide, at the end of the workshop, a short report about the event (short description of the activities, number of participants, affiliations by countries – no personal or sensitive data will be required).

How to apply?

Send a proposal to the President of ESAFORM indicating:

1. topic of the workshop;
2. name of the applicant/organizer;
3. brief description (max. 2 pages) of the workshop, highlighting the topic and its relationship with ESAFORM interests, the expected audience, the industrial and academic impact;
4. venue and date;
5. name of the ESAFORM active members involved in the organization of the event.

The ESAFORM contribution is only payable to an account of the organizing institution (to be indicated in the proposal).

The applications must be sent by e-mail to:

Prof. Livan Fratini

President of ESAFORM

e-mail: livan.fratini@unipa.it

phone: +3909123861851

The ESAFORM Benchmark grant

The ESAFORM Benchmark grant corresponds to a budget of maximum 15 000€. This grant aims to help the coordinator of a benchmark related to material forming to face the benchmark organisation costs (including overheads of the involved institutions).

The first ESAFORM Benchmark in 2021 was a success, after 8 professors/researchers joined to address a forming problem and proposed a case to study. They have attracted 13 research teams, corresponding to 40 scientists working on a review article on the subject of the deep drawing of a highly textured aluminum alloy.

The adventure continues and we are waiting for proposals for the 2022 ESAFORM Benchmark grant, for a the call that is very broad: measurement of a characteristic, understanding of a phenomenon during a process, a technique, a numerical methodology related to the modelling of forming, the development of a process, any material is eligible.

The coordinator of an ESAFORM Benchmark is an ESAFORM member who gathers a Benchmark committee with at least 2 other ESAFORM members (each one coming from a different country) to manage the benchmark.

For participants, the ESAFORM benchmark result consists of 4 deliverables:

1. A technical one (predicted or measured property, shape, …) to be sent to the coordinator before the conference.
2. The active participation to ‘private’ sessions during the conference during which all the participants
   1. discuss and analyse the results
   2. define the common article content and the list of authors
   3. distribute the work for the article and the public ESAFORM Benchmark session.
3. The participation to the benchmark public session summarising the results.
4. Interaction with the coordinator to help him/her with an open access common article at the International Journal of Material Forming (IJMF, Springer). All Benchmark participant teams are coauthors (deadline of submission at 31 March, before the next ESAFORM conference).

For the participants, and in addition to the gained knowledge, the IJMF publication provides another motivation. Even if they are not yet ESAFORM members, Benchmark participants will become member as it is mandatory that at least one scientist of each team attends the conference to provide the deliverables.

How to handle a benchmark for a coordinator?

• to find an idea that has a scientific and industrial interest and of course which is related with material forming and to gather a Benchmark committee;
• to send before 5 September a proposal to the ESAFORM president (livan.fratini@unipa.it) under the form of a document (4 pages in readable font) describing the Benchmark topic, the Benchmark committee and its motivation, its communication policy with participants (time schedule, communication tools), its long term result storage policy (public data base or ?) and its budget (maximum 15 000€, for which any reasonable costs related to the benchmark organisation is eligible, including the overhead costs of the involved institutions);
• to (virtually or physically) present the Benchmark on the September (or October) board of ESAFORM, which will then select (or not) the proposal to proceed.

Selection criteria:

1. Interest of the proposal according to the vision and mission of ESAFORM and its community
2. Proposal quality
3. Not overlapping with previous benchmarks within 3 previous years, except for a logical follow up action.

Timeline:

1. During October: to handle a budget negotiation with ESAFORM treasurer, if initial budget is not accepted, and to prepare information package for participants
2. From November to March: to exchange information with participants and handle their results
3. In April or May during the conference: to chair private and public benchmark sessions
4. From May to the next ESAFORM conference: to motivate all Benchmark participants and gather their information to submit a high quality Benchmark analysis paper to IJMF before 31 March.

More details?

Please contact anne.habraken@uliege.be.