http://www.itd.cnr.it/page.php?ID=TT_CALL_IIROUND&FlagSelected=en

What is STELLAR?
STELLAR is the only Network of Excellence on TEL (Technology-Enhanced Learning) funded within FP7 with the objective to unify the diverse TEL community. To achieve this objective, STELLAR partners use "integration instruments", designed to increase the research capacity of European TEL at all levels, including institutions and enterprises within and outside STELLAR. Theme Teams are one of the instruments designed to create and/or reinforce synergies at scientific level.

What is a "Theme Team"?
A STELLAR Theme Team is a network of mid-career researchers from different institutions, whose aim is to explore and analyze collaboratively emerging research topics in the field of TEL (see below). A Theme Team may be a completely new network created around a specific topic of common interest, or composed of researchers who have already worked together on a certain issue (e.g. at a workshop or within a longer project). The mission of a Theme Team is to share and integrate competences, methodologies and ideas already developed. The Teams are a means to integrate European research units in the field of TEL, notably enterprises and institutions not included in the STELLAR network.

Who can participate in a Theme Team?
The Theme Teams are intended to bring together mid-career researchers from inside and outside the STELLAR Network and to encourage information sharing and discussion amongst researchers who are interested in the same topics, possibly from different perspectives. Basic requirements for a Theme Team composition are the following:

- a Theme Team must be composed of a small number of mid-career researchers (scholars or post-doc) coming from at least 3 different institutions
- at least one institution involved  must come from outside STELLAR (but more external institutions are welcome)
- at least one of the institutions must be a STELLAR partner.

The Theme Team will be managed and coordinated by a Theme Team Leader (the applicant of the Call).

What are the topics?
A Theme Team should contribute to accomplishing the major goal of the STELLAR Network: to unify the diverse TEL communities within and outside STELLAR, identify and advance emerging topics, methodologies and technologies in the field of TEL.
Therefore Theme Teams should locate their topic within the three STELLAR "Grand Challenges" framework:


For more information about the STELLAR Grand Challenges, see: http://www.stellarnet.eu/programme/wp1/
Drawing on the research framework provided by the Grand Challenges, Theme Teams are required to identify one or two research questions around which the debate and integration will be built. These are expected to contribute to developing and/or advancing the community's understanding of issues within the Grand Challenges.
Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals, whose topics are new in respect to those already funded in the first round (see http://www.stellarnet.eu/instruments/theme_teams/).

What is the expected output?
Each Theme Team is required to plan for some kind of concrete scientific output showing evidence of the created synergies/collaboration among the members and focusing on the identified research questions.
Specifically valued outputs include (but are not restricted to): a special issue journal, an edited book, a workshop at an international conference with concrete outputs (e.g., proceedings), co-authored articles, learning and training materials/modules/lessons for the STELLAR Doctoral Academy or for enterprises, a project proposal, etc.

Budget
Within this second round of funding (the present Call), 4 Theme Teams will be funded (the expected budget of each proposed Theme Team being of maximum  € 16.000). The Theme Team eligibility period is 12 months.
Each applicant should specify how the group is planning to use the budget.
Eligible costs are:
a) Costs for organization of events (e.g. workshops, meetings, seminars, visits) which may include attendees' travel, attendees' subsistence, event catering, venue hire, guest speakers' fees, event marketing, event documents, etc. These costs will be reimbursed after presentation of invoices.
b) Costs related to the production of concrete outputs that may include books, proceedings, other products for result dissemination, creation of products or service which are intended to go beyond the Theme Team life span, etc. (see section "What is the expected output?"). These costs will be reimbursed after presentation of invoices and approval by the STELLAR Scientific Capacity Committee.
Please, note that labour is not an eligible cost.

Content of the proposal
The proposals should follow the template (http://www.itd.cnr.it/download/theme_team_form2.doc), by specifying:

1. Identification data of the Theme Team (title, participants, contact information, etc.)
2. A brief summary (including the reason for the proposed Theme Team, a concise description of the output/results, the innovative character and relevance in the field of TEL)
3. Identification of the "theme" (explaining the topic and its relation to the STELLAR Grand Challenges framework, as well as identifying the research questions around which the debate will be built)
4. A description of the envisaged output (type of output, how it is related to the identified research questions, the kind of synergies it is expected to create/consolidate, etc.)
5. Organization of the work towards the output (plan of activities)
6. Dissemination/Transfer plan (plans for disseminating the output/results)
7. Monitoring and Evaluation (description of concrete instruments to monitor and evaluate the Theme Team work; i.e. how will you measure integration among Theme Team members?)
8. Budget (plan of costs).

The full proposal should not exceed 5 pages.

Selection procedure
The present Call will be closed on January, 15^th, 2011.
The selection will take place in February 2011 and will be managed by the STELLAR Scientific Capacity Committee. Each proposal will be evaluated by at least 2 reviewers (basic requirement for selecting the reviewers will be that of avoiding any conflict of interests between the Theme Team participants and the reviewers themselves).

The main evaluation criteria will include:

By the end of March 2011 all the applicants will be informed of the results of the evaluation process. The selected Theme Teams will be asked to start up within April 2011.

Monitoring and evaluation
During the Theme Team lifespan the work carried out by each Team will be monitored by the STELLAR Scientific Capacity Committee through questionnaires and interviews.
A scientific and financial report will be due at the end of the work. The Theme Team Leader will be in charge of collecting data and submitting both the scientific and financial reports.

How to submit?
Submissions, preferably in PDF format, should follow the schema downloadable at: http://www.itd.cnr.it/download/theme_team_form2.doc.  
Proposals should be submitted to CNR-ITD who has been appointed by the STELLAR Network to manage the overall Theme Teams process.

Theme Team proposals must be sent via email before January, 15th 2011 to: themeteam_call@itd.cnr.it