Funding criteria

The aim of "Sparkling Science 2.0" is to promote high-quality research projects in which research and educational institutions and, as far as possible, partners from business and society work together. The funding is intended to continue the successes of the predecessor programme and thus deepen the dialogue between science and society.

Sparkling Science exclusively promotes projects,

that meet scientific standards and that are also expected to produce new findings in the relevant research fields,
in which the content and methods are designed in such a way that pupils and, if applicable, other citizen scientists can contribute significantly and comprehensibly to the achievement of the research goals,
that ensure project-accompanying joint activities that the participating research and educational institutions can continue for at least two years beyond the duration of the funded projects and without the approval of further financial resources at affordable expense (e.g. provide topics for pre-scientific work (VWA) or diploma theses, invite the schools to lectures or to laboratory visits and experiments, offer internships during the school holidays, visit the schools for lectures and workshops, etc.), and
that digitally archive and publish (e.g. on www.eduthek.at) the teaching and learning materials developed during the project so that they can be used after the project ends.

Who can submit projects?

Austrian Universities, private universities, non-university research institutions
legal entities established by the federal government of Austria as maintainers of university of applied sciences degree programmes and universities of applied sciences,
Austrian university colleges of teacher education,
non-profit associations, societies or NGOs that pursue a scientific purpose and cooperate with universities, universities of applied sciences or non-university research institutions within the framework of the funded projects.

The conditions

Projects can be submitted in all disciplines.
The duration of the projects is intended for a maximum of three years.
The maximum funding amount is 350,000 euros per project. The maximum funding amounts may be exceeded in the following cases:
Funding of "Development of Citizen Science know-how through international networking"
Projects that cooperate with international, thematically appropriate Citizen Science projects or international research partners in order to create up know-how in the Citizen Science sector can exceed the maximum funding amounts by up to 10%.
Funding for "Science at Schools"
Projects with special measures to promote the participation of schools from peripheral regions or schools in Austria that have not yet been reached or have hardly been reached with Citizen Science activities, or projects that additionally involve university colleges of teacher education as cooperation partners in order to jointly support schools in advancing the autonomous school focus areas in the field of science within the framework of the project can also exceed the maximum funding amounts by up to 10%.
Further information will be available shortly in the special guidelines and in the call for proposals.