Frequently Asked Questions

No Call

Regarding the Ambassador plan, do we have a template or some kind of accomplishment list to focus? In such a way it would help building a effective plan?


Applicants can find guidelines in the call description and more detailed suggestions on the application form, pasted below. There is flexibility in defining the plan to make sure Ambassadors can outline a project that looks into the particularities of a specific community and tailors activities to make the best of the effort and resources available. 

A workplan of activities to be performed as part of the Ambassador role detailing how this will impact not only the community practices but will also make a significant contribution in the context of RDA. As part of your workplan, please list at least 3 types of macro activities and related KPIs for impact assessment.

For guidance, some examples could be:

  • Outreach: presentations, lectures, papers for disciplinary audiences provided as RDA EU Ambassador etc.
  • Communication & dissemination: contributions to the RDA for disciplines webpages, articles, blogs etc.
  • Engagement: facilitating the creation of RDA discipline-specific groups for our community, engaging new RDA members in the existing RDA groups, contributions to group outputs etc.
  • Adoption: identifying and supporting adoption cases in your community, generating adoption stories etc.
  • Training: introduction to RDA session at events, webinars etc.

 

Arguably in a domain such as chemistry, all researchers are data practitioners but some are more expert in data matters. Is it the data experts in a domain you are intending that ambassadors target?


The term "data practitioner" is understood in the widest sense possible. The ambassador programme welcomes applications from researchers who work with data to support their main research activities, they have many lessons to share, as well as qualified data stewards who support researchers in their data management activities for specific disciplines and focus mainly on data matters. 

And is there a fixed hourly rate for time charged against the grant?


Based on the plan objectives and outputs the applicant needs to decide on the amount of time necessary and how that would be spent. The evaluators will review the feasibility of the plan in terms of time and committed effort. The reference for the hourly rate is most commonly your salary but for independent consultants or other persons not receiving a salary, rates will be calculated according to the EC rules for unit costs.

And how can we deal with the timesheets filling?


A template for the timesheets will be provided together with guidelines on how to best be aligned with the procedures at the University of Göttingen, with whom the Ambassador grant recipients will sign the contract. 

Is the call objective limited to domain experts?


The call is not limited to domain / discipline experts. The Ambassadors programme was designed to support the work of RDA in addressing research data stewardship challenges from different domain perspectives but it is open to experts in specific horizontal topics such as PID, data citation, data preservation, data management plans, metadata standards etc The evaluators who will be reviewing the applications will also be looking into and positively evaluating such topic focused expertise. 

 How can I ask these? 


You can ask any questions through the "Ask you Question" function at the bottom of the Open Call page. Please note that you have to be logged in, in order to see the button. 

You can also direct any questions you might have to the grants@europe.rd-alliance.org email address. We will address these as soon as possible. 

Is there a particular application form for the role of ambassadors?


Thanks for your question: the application form is available at the bottom of the page with the call description https://grants.rd-alliance.org/OpenCalls/call-ambassadors

You should register a new account, if you don't have one on this grants' website yet, by just clicking on the button "Submit your application to the open call" and following the registration procedure.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch in case you need further details.