In principle a node could be a public-private partnership, but please note that the contract will be with one legal entity only. If a partnership is proposed, we suggest providing full details of the arrangement in your application (structure, members etc.). 

You can find a list (even though not comprehensive) of what a Node should do in the call description https://grants.rd-alliance.org/node/108.

As you will see, Nodes organise dissemination events, interact with national funding bodies and ministries to influence the agenda on research data, manage the national page of RDA and grow the local RDA community.

There's no need to provide a sufficiently detailed budget in the proposal, although an approximation would be welcome. You could give an estimate of the cost of the personnel involved in the node and also the activity you are planning to perform. The current nodes have to organise 3 national workshops (one per year, with a total budget of €12,000 so I would advise for a lower figure than this since you'll be running for a slightly shorter period); in addition to this, they are planning other activities, e.g. webinars, collaboration with other initiatives existing at the national level, and so on.

If your proposal is successful, you will be asked to fill in your national plan with a detail on the activities in relation with specific KPIs you will define.

The proposal should cover the duration of the project (starting with the funding of the new nodes, October 2018-May 2020) and provide consistent information on the sustainability of the node after the project end.

All the new nodes will receive a handbook with all the essential information and will be included in the RDA nodes monthly calls with the existing nodes, to listen in others' experiences and to share their action plans. RDA Europe also foresees joint events to get all the nodes together face-to-face.

No in-kind contribution is required.

Of course, if your institution can contribute to funding the node, that would help you in planning your activities, like organising dissemination activities and events to grow the community.

Also, any additional funding you could get extra to the RDA Europe one might help to secure the sustainability of the node after the project end (please note that sustainability is a relevant aspect of the application).

There will be three waves of grants for new nodes, and funding allocated will depend on the number of nodes per each call. You can apply to each of them in case the first application is not successful.

The budget available for this call is 168000 for three nodes. We are expecting to allocate €56,000 per node, covering events as well as personnel costs. 

We foresee to fund up to 13 new nodes by the end of the project; please have a look at slide 24 in this presentation https://rd-alliance.org/sites/default/files/attachment/rdaeuropenodewebi... for the full details of funded nodes per call.

A budget with the amount required for funding and a breakdown of how you plan to distribute the costs to match to the objectives and planned activities would undoubtedly be useful for assessing your proposal.

Please don't forget to include any other information regarding the node sustainability after the duration of the project (e.g. financial support by the Ministry, support by higher-education institutions, and so forth).

Do not hesitate to get in touch in case you need further information or details.