Call 4 FAQ

Call 4 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The frequently asked questions below concern organizational, legal, financial and practical aspects of  CLARIN-NL Call 4.

For technical questions, consult the Helpdesk pages or contact the CLARIN-NL Helpdesk: helpdesk.clarin@uu.nl.

CLARIN Centres

Q: Which are the CLARIN centres in the Netherlands and how can I contact them?

A: See http://www.clarin.nl/node/130 for more information on the candidate CLARIN Centres in the Netherlands, their profiles,  and their contact persons.

The status and types of CLARIN centres have been described in this document. There is also a Short Guide on CLARIN centres. There are currently no officially recognized CLARIN centres, whether in the Netherlands or abroad. However, a number of organizations intend to become a CLARIN Centre and are working towards this status.

Other organizations that aim to become an officially recognized CLARIN Centre can contact the CLARIN-NL Office.

Participation of Foreigners /Foreign organizations

Q: Can foreign persons participate in CLARIN-NL?

A: Foreign persons (i.e. persons with a nationality other than the Dutch nationality) can participate in a CLARIN-NL project if they carry out the work for the project as an employee of a CLARIN-NL partner that has signed the CLARIN-NL consortium agreement.

Q: Can foreign organizations participate in CLARIN-NL?

A: Organizations from outside of the Netherlands can in principle participate in proposals for CLARIN-NL (in fact, this is encouraged), but:

  • They must do so preferably in cooperation with one of the CLARIN-NL partners (which must be and all are organizations from the Netherlands)
  • It must be justified why certain work must be done by a foreign organization (and not by a CLARIN-NL partner)
  • No funding can be provided by CLARIN-NL to organizations that are not CLARIN-NL partners.
  • Well-justified international cooperation is stimulated by CLARIN-NL and may increase the chances of a project to be awarded funding.

Funding of an awarded project

Q: Which costs are eligible for funding in projects for this Call?

A: Two types of costs are eligible for funding in these projects:

The maximum funding in the open call is 120,000 euro per project and in the closed call 80,000 euro per project.

Q: Which salary table should I use for this Call?

A: The salary table to be used can be found on http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOP_67QK4E, more specifically this table: http://www.nwo.nl/files.nsf/pages/NWOP_8JZB2P/$file/Berekening%20G%20posten%20met%20sal%20peil%2001-07-2011.pdf. If an update is published before the call closes for salary level 2012, you can use that one. Do read the NWO-VSNU contract, esp. art 2.1 on how to apply this salary table.

Q: Are "vakantiegeld" and "eindejaarsuitkering" related to personnel costs eligible for funding?

A: Yes. Personnel costs include, apart from the "basissalaris", also "vakantiegeld" and "eindejaarsuitkering". The applicable percentages are mentioned in the Akkoord NWO-VSNU 2008.

Q: Is the "opslag voor werkgeverslasten" eligible for funding?

A: Yes. See the Akkoord NWO-VSNU 2008, in particular 2.1b and ad b.

Q: Is the "opslag overige personeelskosten" eligible for funding?

A: Yes, see Akkoord NWO-VSNU 2008.

Q: Is the "einde projectvergoeding" eligible for funding?

A: In principle: yes, but if a project is shorter than one year, this does not apply (see Akkoord NWO-VSNU 20082.1, ad d).

Q: Is the "bench fee" of €5000 mentioned in the Akkoord NWO-VSNU 2008 eligible for funding?

A: NO. Instead a yearly "travel and subsistence costs" fee is eligible for funding.

Q: Are material costs other than the ones falling under the "travel and subsistence costs" fee eligible for funding?

A: For projects in this Call such costs are NOT eligible for funding. This has been done on purpose, because it lies in the nature of the projects that such material costs will not be necessary. If one can argue convincingly that that is necessary anyway, please contact the CLARIN-NL office as soon as possible so that the CLARIN-NL Executive Board can assess the issue.

Q: When and how do I get the actual money for my project?

A: If your project is awarded, you will first receive an e-mail with the evaluation reports, next  receive a commitment letter describing in detail what your rights and obligations are in relation to your project. This letter will also contain a list (that must be provided by the project leader) containing the goals of the projects and a list of deliverables, their target dates and types (documents, software, etc.).

  • This letter has to be signed for approval by all project partners and returned to the CLARIN-NL office.
  • Once the signed commitment letter has been received by the CLARIN-NL office, you are entitled to an advance payment of maximally 75% of the costs of your project.
  • The funding will be declared definitive by the CLARIN-NL board if
    • Your project has finished, achieved the goals it has set and delivered all deliverables, and
    • A final technical report and a financial report on the project have been made available to the CLARIN-NL office, and
    • The CLARIN-NL board has approved these technical and financial reports.
  • The remaining 25% of the funding for your project will be paid as soon as the funding for your project has been declared definitive.

Q: Who will the advance payment and the remaining funding be paid to?

A: To the organization (which must be a CLARIN-NL partner that has signed the CLARIN-NL consortium agreement) where the project leader is carrying out the project as an employee, i.e. the "penvoerder".

Q: How do I get my money if I am a project participant?

A: The organization of the project leader will receive the money for the whole project from CLARIN-NL and this organization must distribute the portion of it assigned to your organization in accordance with the commitment letter.

IPR

Q: What are the general rules that apply in relation to IPR and Ethical Issues for projects and project proposals in this Call?

A: These are described in the Call Text. See also the CLARIN-NL policy with regard to Open Data and the new NWO Rules and Open Access Policy.

Q: The IPR of my resource is arranged in a way as required by CLARIN-NL, but not all subjects whose speech or audio occur in it have given explicit permission. Can I put such data on a server of a CLARIN centre?

A: In principle yes, though it may depend a little bit on the policy of the specific CLARIN centre where the data reside. At least you should have procedure in place so that subjects who object to this, can make this known to your organization and measures can be taken to accommodate the subject’s objections (e.g. by restricting access to these data or in the extreme case by removal of the relevant data from a CLARIN server). You also will have to describe this procedure in your project deliverables and list its functionality as one of the functionalities that should be offered by the CLARIN infrastructure.

Q: What happens to derivatives created by CLARIN partners that have made use of data for which a subject has requested removal?

A: If such a derivative contains or presents the relevant data in a recognizable way, they are subject to the same measures as applied to the original data (see the answer to the previous question). However, if such a derivative does not contain the relevant data in a recognizable way, CLARIN-NL will support all parties involved in obtaining an agreement that allows the derivative to stay available and maximally accessible in the CLARIN infrastructure.

Project Proposal and Template

Q: Must I use the project proposal template as provided on the CLARIN-NL website?

A: Yes, this is obligatory.

Q: Must I use the table for calculating the costs in the project proposal template?

A: This table has been added for your convenience. We strongly advise you to use this table. If, for some reason, this table is not suited to your needs (e.g. you want to compute the costs by another unit than Person Months (PM)), you are allowed to replace the table by another table. Of course, the overview of the costs must in all cases be clearly specified and the calculations must be correct.

Q: In what format must I submit my proposal?

A: The mandatory format is PDF. Though the template is in the MS Word format, you must convert your finalized proposal from Word into PDF before submitting it.

Q: Is it possible to submit a pre-proposal?

A: Yes, actually you are encouraged to submit a pre-proposal. CLARIN-NL offers this service to ensure that simple mistakes or omissions are avoided and eligibility chances are assessed. Send your pre-proposal to the CLARIN-NL Office.

Q: When must I submit my proposal?

A: The deadline for submitting proposals is September 26th, 2012, 13:00 hours CET. At this time the web submission form will be closed and submitting a proposal via the web form is no longer possible. All proposals submitted after the deadline will be considered to be formally non-compliant and will not be taken into consideration.