Apply and Selection process

Funding

We will fund up to five two-year projects. The funding follows a “distributed common pot” approach. Each participating institution will cover its researchers’ costs, with no transfer of funds between institutions. Additional in-kind contributions are welcome. The total cost of each project will be the combined contribution from all hosting institutions and in-kind contributions.

Eligible costs may include core facility access, consumables, small equipment purchases, and salaries for the research staff involved, excluding the PIs. Each collaborating institution will apply its own financial rules regarding eligible costs. Therefore, researchers must consult their institutional representatives for budget approval. Overheads are not an eligible cost.

Funding contribution of each participating institution:

EMBL: 5 projects, 100 000€ funds/project, total 500 000 €.
Pasteur: 4 projects, 100 000€ funds/project, total 400 000 €.
MIMS: 2 projects, 100 000€ funds/project, total 200 000 €.
HZI: 2 projects, 50 000€ funds/project, total 100 000 €.
GIMM: 2 projects, 1000 000€ funds/project, total 200 000 €.
 

Eligibility

• Projects should have a clear focus on infection biology, including microbiome-related projects connected to infection biology.
• Applications must involve at least two PIs from two institutions (one being EMBL); multi-institution collaborations are preferred.
• The project must include at least one PI from EMBL’s Infection Biology or Microbial Ecosystems Transversal Theme.
• The project must include at least one PI from any of the four collaborating institutions (Pasteur, MIMS, GIMM, and HZI).
• There is no limit to the number of PIs per institution in a project. At least one PI per institute has to be employed for the project’s duration.
• Funding is only available for PIs within the five collaborating institutes, PIs from other institutes can be involved only with in-kind contributions.
• PIs can apply to multiple projects if they involve different partners and topics.
• EMBL PIs are expected to present at the annual retreat of EMBL’s Infection Biology Transversal Theme to report on the project’s progress.
• PIs are expected to present at relevant events organized by collaborating institutions.
• Institut Pasteur PIs participating in ongoing projects funded with Amplifyin Funds cannot apply in 2025. EMBL PIs participating in ongoing projects can apply in 2025 with a different collaborating team than in 2024.

Apply

1. Use the application template available on the EMBL website.

2. Complete all relevant details in the application following the instructions herein.

3. Please submit your application by the advertised deadline as a single PDF document emailed to borja.esteve@embl.de.

4. If you have questions about the funding scheme, or encounter problems during the application preparation, please contact the Infection Biology Transversal Theme co-chairs at ib-chairs@embl.org.

5. IMPORTANT: Check with your institutional contact to confirm elegibility and budget approval before applying.

Selection process

The evaluation process will be coordinated by EMBL’s Infection Biology Transversal Theme. An expert panel, comprising representatives from all collaborating institutions and external experts, will evaluate all submitted projects and rank them based solely on scientific excellence. Most outstanding projects will be selected for funding following their ranking, but only if all institutions involved in a given project have sufficient remaining funds to cover their respective portions of that project’s budget. This ensures that no institution overcommits its allocated funding contribution.