SFI Principal Investigator (PI) Programme

SFI Community Webinar 22 June 2011 - Changes to Principal Investigato Programme in 2011

SFI hosted a webinar on Thursday 22nd of June from 16.00 – 16.30 to inform the SFI Community of the cancellation of future calls of the Research Frontiers and Principal Investigator programmes and their replacement with a single, consolidated programme to be launched by end of 2011. For details of the webinar please click here.

The SFI Principal Investigator (PI) Programme supports those fields of science and engineering that underpin biotechnology, information and communications technology, and sustainable energy and energy-efficient technologies. PI grants may range from €100,000 to €500,000 direct costs per year and may be 3-5 years in duration.

Objectives of the Programme:

World Class Research

To offer funding opportunities that focus on developing and enhancing internationally competitive research talent and excellence in Ireland.
To provide funding opportunities that help third level institutions attract and retain world-class researchers in Ireland.

Researcher Training

To provide excellence in training and development for students and postdoctoral fellows, through state-of-the-art research opportunities with world class researchers and teams.

Internationalisation

To fund a period of intensive research to enhance the candidates’ research and provide capacity and reputation to promote Ireland’s participation in the international research forum.

Additionally and where appropriate, a further objective of the PI programme is to build research capacity, expertise and reputation to attract and promote interdisciplinary links among researchers and partnerships with industry to support technology development needs.

Calibre of Applicants

An applicant wishing to apply to the SFI PI Programme must be an established independent investigator with an internationally recognised track record. Lead and co-applicants are reviewed equally in the SFI PI Programme.

The applicant/co-applicant must hold a Ph.D./M.D. or equivalent (1) for at least 8 years by the pre-proposal deadline*

AND

The applicant/co-applicant must be senior author (first, last or corresponding, or in those fields where alphabetic order of authorship is the norm, joint author) on 10 International peer reviewed articles. Only original research publications, and not review articles, are acceptable (2).
Applicants must demonstrate a proven record of internationally recognised independent research accomplishments.
Applicants are expected to have demonstrated research independence through securing at least one independent research grant as lead investigator or as co-investigator.
Applicants are expected to have the capability and authority to mentor and supervise postgraduate students and team members.

1. An equivalent qualification and/or demonstrated research accomplishments may be accepted in exceptional circumstances and must be approved in advance by SFI.

2. Exceptions to the 10 publication requirement are allowable if an applicant meets the eligibility criteria for PICA categories 1 and 3. Please examine section 4a of the call document.

* The official date of a Ph.D./M.D. is defined as the year that the degree was conferred, i.e. the year printed on the official Ph.D./M.D. certificate. The number of years is determined per calendar year. Therefore, only individuals with an official date of 2003 or prior are eligible to apply.

Key Dates: 

Deadline for pre-proposal submission: 19 January 2011, 13.00 
Call open for full proposal submission: Late March 2011
Deadline for full proposal submission: 10 May 2011, 13.00

Download: 

Call for Proposals (word) (pdf)

SFI Principal Investigator FAQs (pdf)

SFI reserves the right to make amendments to the documents if required. Please ensure that you are referring to the most recent version of the Call document and FAQs. Research Offices will be contacted in the event of any updates to the call document.

How to apply:

As detailed in the SFI PI Programme call, pre-proposals and full proposals, by invitation after the pre-proposal evaluation stage, are to be submitted via SESAME, SFI’s online grants and awards management system. SESAME will be accessible online with the launch of this call. In order to access SESAME, all researchers should contact their local Research Office to be set up on this system.

To view SESAME User Guides please click here

Questions specific to SESAME are answered on the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for the SESAME system.

PI 2011 Webinar:  

PI Webinar 03 December 2010 and Webinar Presentation

A webinar will be held at 11am on 3 December 2010, which will outline the PI 2011 programme as well as key aspects of SESAME. Researchers should register for this webinar but can also access a recording of the Webinar at this location after the event.

To register for the webinar, please click on the link below:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/465285563

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Grant writing tips: 

A general presentation on grant-writing tips and common pitfalls can be found here - presentation.
Any queries should be e-mailed to pi@sfi.ie Please be aware that response time for queries may be up to 5 working days.