34 pre-proposals selected out of 134
At a meeting in mid-October, an evaluation panel composed of the NRP 79 Steering Committee and other experts selected 34 out of a total of 134 submitted pre-proposals and invited the applicants to participate in the next evaluation phase.
The NRP 79 call, launched in May 2021, invited research teams at Swiss universities to submit their pre-proposals. In response, a total of 134 pre-proposals were submitted, with the total amount of requested funding amounting to 101.8 million francs. An evaluation panel consisting of the NRP 79 Steering Committee and other selected experts discussed and assessed these pre-proposals at a meeting in mid-October. Each pre-proposal was reviewed in advance by two experts.
The evaluation panel assessed the projects according to various criteria, primarily scientific quality, but also their alignment with the objectives of NRP 79.
In total, the panel recommended 34 projects for the next evaluation phase: 22 projects in Module 1 (Innovation), 7 projects in Module 2 (Implementation) and 5 projects in Module 3 (Ethics and Society). The total sum requested for these 34 pre-proposals amounts to 24 million francs. The NRP has 17 million available for funding research projects.
The 34 selected project teams can now prepare and submit a full project proposal. Teams whose projects are approved in June 2022 will be able to start research work.
Due to the low number of submissions in Module 3, the Steering Committee decided to launch a second call for proposals in the area of ethics and society. Detailed information will be available in due course.