The results since 2014 show that the competition in H2020 is extremely hard. A lot of experienced EU institutions are running for the resources of the framework programme. The readiness for involvement of new parties is extremely low. Since human brain is our most important resource it would be extremely important for Europe to cooperate for a mutual benefit with the knowledge base of different regions. Hopefully, this grant scheme can contribute to the better inclusion of the Black Sea Region to the European Research Area.

The thematic priorities have been defined as follows:

Sustainable agriculture
Resource efficiency in relation to water / water management
Applied chemistry & smart materials

Two calls have been announced by task leader RCISD (HU) during 2016, the maximum funding per grant was EUR 1000. The eligible costs included travel & accommodation and visa costs, on a reimbursement basis. A list of recommended brokerage events has been also published.  The calls have been disseminated to the relevant scientific communities of the Black Sea countries - AR, AZ, GE, MD, RU, TR, and UA – by the local consortium partners. The evaluation of the applications has been performed also by the local partners, based on a specified scoring matrix. The main evaluation criteria included a PhD degree and proper knowledge of English of the applicant, as well as scientific/research excellence. In case of equal scores female and/or young researchers enjoyed preference.

For the first call 15 applications have been submitted. Ukraine and Moldavia showed greatest interest, with 5 and 4 applicants. Altogether 9 applicants received funding from six countries. The most popular thematic field was sustainable agriculture. The last event selected is in January 2017.

The second call has been closed recently, with 29 applications, out of them 12 applicants have been selected to receive funding. Mobility of researchers in this second round will start in next January and be finished by April 2017.

As stipulated in the call, the grantees are requested to deliver a Follow-up report, describing their opinion about the event, the activities performed during the brokerage event including concrete results and letters of intent from partners about possible future cooperation in H2020. Recommendations and comments concerning the grant scheme itself have been also included in the reports (e.g. to pay per diem and minor local transport costs) which provides useful information to the BSH project and also for future similar activities.

Moreover, the grantees have been also asked to send short feedback after 6 – 12 months allowing us the monitoring of the long-term impact and outcome of the grant scheme. As soon as the mobility of researchers is finished, a report will be prepared by RCISD, summarizing the experiences, results and conclusions of this action.