Call for Projects ECOS-South - Argentina 2020

Presentation of the program :

The objective of the ECOS-South-Argentina programme is to initiate or develop scientific cooperation and relations between the research centres and universities of the two countries through support for joint research projects of excellence for a period of three years. These projects involve the mobility of researchers and give priority to training at doctoral and post-doctoral levels. They must not be recurrent with the same promoters.
The multidisciplinary approach of the project, the emergence of new Franco-Argentinean collaborations (thematic and institutional) and the participation of young researchers, particularly as project leaders, are strongly encouraged.
ECOS-Sud also offers the possibility of submitting tripartite projects, involving, alongside the Franco-Argentinean group, one of the other countries of the group (Chile, Uruguay).
Since 2017, calls are formulated around research themes, grouped into major areas, integrating scientific, technological and social approaches.
In order to ensure that these new orientations do not exclude any of the traditional scientific cooperation sectors of the ECOS-South programme, the calls propose an annual alternation between fields, with cross-cutting themes proposed each year.

General recommendations

The call for proposals (PAA) is open until 21 June 2020.
The Argentinean and French Committees are continuing the thematic AAPs with a projection over two years in order to offer project perspectives to the different disciplines on one or the other call for projects. Five themes are proposed for 2020.
The sub-themes are given as an indication or example. They do not correspond to compulsory declinations.

2020 Themes:

1) "Chronic non-communicable diseases".

• a. Study of the mechanisms involved
• b. New prophylactic and therapeutic strategies
• c. New diagnostic approaches, including artificial intelligence
• d. Impact of ageing and gender
• e. Influence of climate and environmental changes
• f. Societal impact

Note: given the duration of a project (3 years), research based on clinical trials and the establishment of cohorts can only be supported in cases where data are already available (pre-existing cohort, bio-banks, etc.).

2) "COVID-19 and the Pandemic".

• a- Study of virus-specific pathogenic mechanisms and host factors associated with susceptibility to viral infection
• b- New prophylactic and therapeutic strategies
• c- New diagnostic approaches, including the use of artificial intelligence
• d- Impact of ageing and gender on morbidity and mortality
• e- Influence of climate and environmental changes
• f- Nanotechnologies applied to detection, drug development and treatments based on nanotechnology
• g- Growth and development, employment, social inequalities and violence
• h- Health risks and social fears related to coronavirus
• i- Impact of migration and mobility on the spread of the pandemic
• j- Reorganization of the economy and post-pandemic production.

3) "Nanosciences and biotechnologies".

• a- Environmental remediation
• b- Metagenomics from complex environment
• c- Chemistry-biology interface
  • molecular nanoscience, nano-object and application (vectorization, recognition, ...)
  • contribution of biology to nanotechnology (biopaterning, nanotechnology and neuroscience, nanophotonics and biology)
  • understanding the mechanisms of interaction between biomolecules

4) "Earth sciences: geohazards, biogeochemical and hydrological cycles".

• a- Resilience to climatic risks
• b- Seismic and gravity risks
• c- Evolution of river basins and access to water
• d- Entropic disturbances of continental and marine biogeochemical cycles

5) « Populations and sustainable development".

• a- Man in his environment
  • urban and rural dynamics
  • occupation of space and management of territories
  • transport systems, spatio-temporal evolutions
• b- Cohesion and ruptures of societies
  • political passions and cognitive science
  • migration issues
  • violence and inequalities
• c- Health and environmental aspects (ageing, health risks and social fears)

Information about ECOS+ Argentina

The Argentinean and French partners wish to strengthen the joint scientific production of ECOS projects and develop a balanced mobility of young researchers on priority themes of their cooperation.
To this end, the Argentinean and French partners have set up since 2018, for the benefit of ongoing ECOS projects, a support mechanism for mobility of 2 to 6 months, intended for post-doctoral students or young researchers, who are also salaried. The mechanism, called ECOS+, has 3 objectives:
1/ To jointly ensure the supervision of a greater number of young researchers,
2/ To renew the pool of future project leaders between Argentinean and French teams,
3/ Strengthen the scientific production of ECOS projects.
The proposed mechanism is a financial aid for mobility for the stay of one post-doctoral student per project, in France or Argentina.
Subject to renewal of funding, a next call will be open to projects in progress in 2020.