EPICUR SEED Funding Scheme 2025 – Call for applications

The Seed Funding scheme can finance the following types of activities (not exhaustive):

• Scientific activities to prepare pilot studies or research, establish proof of concepts;
• Activities to initiate a research cooperation (meetings, seminars, workshops, etc.);
• Activities related to developing a future funding application;
• Joint learning activities that will be offered in the framework of EPICUR.

The joint learning activities can be developed as curricular or co-curricular offerings and each learning activity must be the equivalent of at least 6 hours of teaching. Some examples of joint learning activities are the following (not exhaustive list):

• Courses;
• Summer schools;
• Seminars;
• Workshops;
• Master classes;
• Pop-up courses;
• Conferences.

Researchers, of any scientific area, affiliated to one of the 9 EPICUR partner universities can apply to the EPICUR Seed Funding Scheme. R2- and R3- level Early Career Researchers are actively encouraged to participate in the consortium.

Only researchers affiliated to the nine EPICUR partner universities can participate.
Projects should have at least 3 partners from 3 different EPICUR countries.
Each project should identify 1 main coordinator and 1 local coordinator.

The Seed Funding Scheme is aimed to foster scientific collaboration between EPICUR full partner universities (https://epicur.edu.eu/about-epicur/presentation-epicur/). External Higher Education Institutions cannot participate, but are welcome to join the consortium at a later stage.
However other external non-HEI institutions, such as industry, start-ups, civil society, and governmental bodies, can take part in the project, but are not eligible to receive any funding. All external non-HEI institutions must finance their own participation/ activity in the project.

Applicants can only be awarded funding from their own affiliated university. The final funding amount for each project will be allocated based on the results of the scientific evaluation score and the total budget available at each partner institution.

The maximum amount that can be awarded to one project is 150.000EUR but it depends on the selected projects and the available institutional grants.

Applicants can only be awarded funding from their own affiliated university.
The total budget per EPICUR partner earmarked for the funding of all projects under the 2025 call is indicated in the call documents. Potential applicants should contact their affiliated university institutional contact concerning the maximum budget available from their institution per project application.

The types of costs eligible depend on each benficiairy’s affliliated institution, and could include (not exhaustive):

• Staff costs;
• Travel costs;
• Research costs;
• Communication and dissemination.

Potential project applicants should contact their local institutional contacts for more information.

The project lead is the researcher from the University who is leading the proposal.
The project partners are the researchers from the Universities participating in the consortium.

The main coordinator for the project within the partner institution is the researcher who is involved in the development of the research proposal.

The main coordinator for the project within the partner institution is the researcher who is involved in the development of the research proposal.

The local coordinator of the partner institution is usually the Head of the Research Institute/ Faculty of the University of the researchers applying to the EPICUR Seed Funding Scheme. They are requested to countersign the application to ensure that the local institution is aware of the grant request.

All call documents can be downloaded from the EPICUR website here: https://epicur.edu.eu/news/epicur-seed-funding-scheme-2025-call-for-applications/
The project applications should be submitted in English as one folder labelled “PROJECTname_CoordinatingInstitution”, including the following four documents:

• Application form;
• Budget form;
• Short CV of all applicants in the consortium in one PDF file;
• Letter of intent from all participating partners in one PDF file.

The application documents must be submitted via the SEED FUNDING file link based at the University of Strasbourg: https://seafile.unistra.fr/u/d/60c6fbe182834c089986/.