The number of projects received in the 4th Brazil-European Union Cooperation Program was 28% higher than the previous edition. The organizing committee counted 50 proposals, being 33 in Internet of Things, 13 in Cloud Computing and four in 5G Networks. In 2016, in the 3rd Cooperation Program between Brazil and Europe, 39 proposals were submitted.

According to the project coordinator of RNP's Center for Research and Development Center in Information and Communication Technology (CTIC), Wanderson Paim, the number overcame expectations. "Generally, consortia consist of an average of five Brazilian institutions and five other European institutions, which must coordinate to write a proposal with a hundred pages, including a brief summary of the bidders. The challenges begin from the formation of the consortium, which depends on the interests, the choice of topics and the focus of the proposals, even proper writing and editing. It is a joint effort that requires great effort from the coordinators”, he said. In all, the projects sent to this call include the participation of 213* European institutions and 202* Brazilian institutions.

The next step will be to submit each proposal for the evaluation of four expert reviewers on the themes of the program, two Brazilians and two Europeans. This will require 26 reviewers. The judgment will be based on three criteria: Excellence, impact and quality and Implementation Efficiency. After the individual evaluation of each expert, they will meet in Brasília for a sequence of consensus meetings, in which the different notes will be unified for each proposal, composing a final ranking. “The results are expected to be published in late June or early July”, Wanderson emphasized.

Once the approved proposals are known, the contracting of each institution involved will be carried out. At that time, the Brazilian institutions, which intend to receive resources from the call, will be required to be accredited in the Information Technology Area Committee (Cati), of Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication (MCTIC). The execution of the projects is expected to start in January 2018, when ends the deadline for hiring.

“The joint coordination of the projects with the European Commission has added experience in the management of cooperation programs. As a consequence, we are already enabling the development of a new system to support the main processes performed in the management of calls and selected projects”, the coordinator explained, adding that the 5th program is already under discussion to set the topics and resources to be made available.

* These numbers do not reduce recurrences, as there are researchers and institutions that appear in more than one project.