€700,000 for National Research and Innovation Programme

The government has allocated the sum of €700,000 for the National Research and Innovation Programme. The R&I Programme is administered by the Malta Council for Science and Technology and provides state financing in the form of grants for research, development and innovation in science and technology.

The MCST is currently accepting project proposals for the National R&I Programme 2010. The focus of the programme is technology transfer between academia and industry with specific focus on the four priority sectors identified in the National R&I Strategy namely environment and energy resources, ICT, value added manufacturing and health and biotech.

Project proposals submitted through this call should typically have a duration of between one and three years. However, projects with different timeframes may be considered at the discretion of the MCST. The MCST is looking to fund projects of between €50,000 and €200,000.

The submission and evaluation will be split into two stages: The first stage requests interested parties to submit a preliminary proposal. Following the evaluation, these proposals will be shortlisted to a final evaluation stage requiring proposers to submit a detailed proposal.

The deadline for pre-registration is July 5, 2010, followed by the deadline for preliminary proposals on July 23, 2010. The funds will be awarded in October.

Interested parties are requested to pre-register their interest on the MCST website. Full details of the rules for participation are available on the same website.

www.mcst.gov.mt