The Transatlantic Research Partnership aims to encourage innovative research and new collaborations, with a view to supporting projects involving young researchers (post-docs, PhDs).
Created by the Embassy of France in the United States and the FACE Foundation, the Transatlantic Research Partnership fosters forward-looking collaborative research that addresses pressing global challenges. To this end, the program will support projects related to one or more United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Responsible research and development, socially aware projects aimed at producing meaningful transformations while advancing peer-reviewed foundations for subsequent generations of scholars are all encouraged to apply. The SDG framework offers a broad set of priorities and applicants are expected to clearly demonstrate how their scientific efforts fall into this theme.
The full list of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is available here:
THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development
Applications are accepted in the three following fields:
Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS)
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
Science for Society (interdisciplinary STEM-HSS projects)
The Fund considers projects jointly submitted by two researchers at the beginning of their careers.
US or French citizenship is not required. Applicants must provide proof that they are employed at either the US or French institution for at least the duration of the partnership, i.e. 2 years.
Senior researchers may be included as team members but not as project leaders.
PhD candidates are not eligible as project leaders. However, the involvement of PhD students in projects is an important criterion in the selection process.
Additional partner institutions may be added to the project proposal, but these additional partners will not receive any funding from the Transatlantic Research Partnership. Only the research or higher education institutions of the project leaders will receive funding.
Selected projects will receive a $20,000 grant, to be shared equally between the French and the American partners over 2 years.
All award funds will be wired in U.S. dollars to the grantees’ institutions.
The grant will be allocated in one instalment to each partner to be used over the two-year grant period.
The funds are to be used specifically to support the research partnership submitted to the Transatlantic Research Partnership.
The grant will cover:
Project Investigators (PIs) are encouraged to obtain « in kind » and/or « in cash » co-funding from their institutions or other sources of funding to cover all other types of expenses necessary to the successful implementation of the joint research project. Grants are not allocated to individuals, but to institutions. It means that if one of the PIs changes their position to a different institution, they will have to find a colleague in the initial institution to replace them as PI, and the grant cannot be transferred to a new institution.
No general overhead or administrative costs can be covered by the Transatlantic Research Partnership.
Grants cannot be used to purchase equipment, or to pay for release time for faculty.
Besides, grants cannot be used to pay salaries or stipends, or to cover everyday living expenses that would be incurred regardless of the project. It may be used for living expenses necessary for project-related travel.
The Albertine Foundation / Transatlantic Research Partnership does not manage intellectual property between institutions.
Publications of any kind resulting from the joint project will explicitly mention the support granted by the Transatlantic Research Partnership with the following sentence: “This material is based upon research supported by the Transatlantic Research Partnership of the Embassy of France in the United States and the FACE Foundation.”
The project leaders must download available templates (application form, budget template, letter of intent) on the website.
The complete application must include the following documents:
If necessary, an annex of maximum ONE page can be added to show a graphic representation or a bibliography to complete the project proposal.
The filled-out budget template.
Two letters of intent (LOI), signed by the President, Chancellor, Provost, Head of Department, Head of Laboratory, Head of the International Relations Office, Head of the Contracts & Grants Office, or any comparable representative: one for each institution.
This letter can be either in French or in English; a translation is not necessary. This letter cannot be signed by the project leaders themselves, even if they are Head of Laboratory or Head of Department.
One curriculum vitae in English of each of the project leaders, stating their current affiliations, with no pictures (each CV shall not exceed TWO pages).
Project proposals are to be submitted by February 26, 2025.
The 6 documents must be merged in ONE PDF file in the following order:
1 / Application2 / Budget3 / CV American Partner4 / CV French Partner5 / LOI American Partner6 / LOI French Partner
Please include the American and the French project leaders’ last names in the title of the file. Example: “APPLICATION_SMITH_MARTIN.pdf”
Once submitted, the application cannot be changed.
Researchers may submit a maximum of ONE application per funding cycle.
Joint applications will be reviewed and evaluated by independent experts.
Then, a Franco-American grant review committee will gather in June 2025 to proceed to the final selection of grantees on the basis of the scientific evaluations made by the independent experts.
The criteria considered for evaluation are:
Jury members will also be committed to gender parity.
An equal number of male and female participants by project is required, and projects led by at least one woman are strongly encouraged.
Following the announcement of the final decision to successful applicants in July 2025, the respective universities of the grantees will sign an agreement with the FACE Foundation.
The contracting phase will take place in the summer 2025, so that planned activities can start in September/October 2025.
The two project leaders will be responsible for the scientific, technical, and administrative management and coordination of the project.
Selected projects will be reviewed twice:
At the end of the first year with an intermediary progress report to confirm both scientific and financial integrity
At the end of the second year with a progress report final activity and financial reports.
The template of the progress and financial reports will be provided by the Transatlantic Research Partnership team to ensure the comparability of information. It will have to be jointly filled by the two project leaders. Complete tracking of all expenditures from the Transatlantic Research Partnership grant is expected as part of the progress report and final report. The reports should highlight the main results and outputs of the projects as well as any problems that have arisen and how they have been solved.
The reported financial activities must be in US dollars in the report, including the French institution financial report and use the exchange rate of the day of the grant transfer for both the first and second year reports.
In case of any significant changes in the work program, the project leaders must inform Transatlantic Research Partnership team, who will discuss with them the proper action to be taken before starting a new activity.
Projects must be completed within two years of their initiation.
All files must be received by February 28, 2025. Late or incomplete applications cannot be considered for funding/be submitted for evaluation.
Indicative Calendar:
Estimated launch of the activities: September/October 2025Selection of 2025 grantees: Expected in June 2025Estimated official announcement of the 2025 grantees: July 2025Contracting phase: July/August 2025
APPLICATION FORM
APPLICATION DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 28, 2025
DOWNLOAD:
2025 BUDGET TEMPLATE [Excel]LETTERS OF INTENT [Word]
TRP Progress Report 2022 – Year 1 [Word]TRP Progress Report 2023 – Year 1 [Word]
Only complete applications will be reviewed and considered.
David Do Paço | Academic cooperation attaché david.dopaco@villa-albertine.org Inès Arcia | Program Officer ines.arcia@villa-albertine.org