The International Collaboration Fund is intended to promote connectivity between Scotland and European research partners with the aim of strengthening existing and seeding future research relationships, and creating paths to European research funding.

The focus of ICF 2025 is to stimulate research activity in pursuit of high quality research proposals targeting European sources of funding, and in particular Horizon Europe.  Research Innovation Scotland is particularly interested in supporting early career researchers to secure funded research projects.  ICF awards can be used for a variety of collaborative activities that increase the viability and likelihood of success of an ERC proposal, including but not limited to network development, proposal development and refinement, or researcher training. 

Reviewers will evaluate applications based on the extent to which proposed activities are demonstrated to increase the likelihood of successfully securing future research funding.  Applications should be described for a lay audience, outside of the field(s) of research.

 Proposed visits, exchanges and activities will be expected to take place between 1 November 2025 and 15 July 2026.*

*Award spend must be completed by 31 March 2026, but can fund travel and accommodation from April-July 2026 if booked and paid in advance.

Applicants can be from any discipline or department within a Scottish University or Research Institute.

For bilateral exchanges, funding can be used to support inbound travel for researchers from EU Member States, EEA and EFTA countries and outbound travel for researchers from Scottish Universities and Research Institutes.  

Applicants are expected to demonstrate an alignment to European Research Council funding and training, especially Horizon Europe.

You can apply for up to £5,000 for research visits, exchanges and collaboration activities. Awards will cover travel, accommodation, subsistence, and reasonable additional costs arising from Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) considerations.

Eligibility

• The lead applicant must be actively undertaking research within a Scottish University or Research Institute i.e., postdoctoral researcher, research fellow or principal investigator
• Exchanges must take place between Scotland and an EU Member State, EEA or EFTA country
• Projects may build on, or be extensions to, existing activity or may be new developments
• For visits and exchanges a maximum of £5,000 can be applied for and visits can be a maximum of 3 months, we expect the amount requested to reflect the duration
• We strongly recommend the lead applicant is registered on the Horizon Europe Portal
• We strongly recommend the proposal links to a defined funding call or mission
• We strongly recommend that applications include collaborators from universities or institutes external to their own, whether in Scotland, the rUK or rEurope
• Eligible costs are restricted to economy travel with subsistence and accommodation rates limited to the values detailed below*

* As a guide for justified costs for travel:

• Air travel should be limited to economy
• Accommodation should be no more than £160 per night (for extended trips rented accommodation should be sought). Airbnb is not permitted unless explicitly allowed by your University
• Subsistence should not exceed £60 per day

Conditions

• All funding must be utilised by 31 March 2026.
• All activity must be completed by the 15 July 2026.
• An end of project report must be submitted to Research Innovation Scotland within two weeks of completion and no later than 31 July 2025.
• Requests for further information on outputs/career progression etc. from the exchange at later dates may be requested by Research Innovation Scotland, and must be provided from the recipient.
• Research Innovation Scotland reserves the right to claw back funds should the grant not be used in accordance with these T&Cs.
• Any funds unspent by 31 March 2026 will be returned to Research Innovation Scotland.

Exclusions

• Visa costs for incoming or outgoing exchanges/placements will not be covered.
• Funding must not be used for attendance at conferences, training seminars or similar. You may attend a conference in the country you are visiting but expenses associated with the conference (internal travel, subsistence, conference fees) cannot be claimed.
• Funds cannot be used to cover salaries, equipment or research costs.

Payment of Funds

If successful, funds will be transferred to awardee’s host institution. All funds must be spent by 31 March 2026. Activities may take place between 1 April and 15 July 2026 providing all bookings and purchases are completed by 31 March 2026.

Reporting
A short report (2 pages A4) must be submitted to Research Innovation Scotland within two weeks of the exchange and no later than 25 July 2026. You must provide the Research Innovation Scotland administration with project updates and outcomes when requested for reporting purposes. If funded activity results in publications or leverages further funding, applicants should advise Research Innovation Scotland. Scottish Funding Council and Research Innovation Scotland should be acknowledged in any outputs resulting from funded activity.

About

The Scottish Informatics & Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) is administering this fund on behalf of Research Innovation Scotland.

This scheme has been funded by Scottish Government via the Scottish Funding Council.

Funding is available to all areas of research.

Judging Criteria
Applications will be reviewed by a panel of academics from across disciplines and final decisions made by a panel of Research Innovation Scotland partners. Applications should be written for lay reviewers and non-subject matter experts.

Applications will be judged on the following criteria:

• Inclusion of cross-university and international collaborators
• Alignment to ERC and Horizon Europe funding and training opportunities
• Potential impact of ERC-funded projects arising from collaboration
• Quality of expected outcomes of the collaboration
• Quality and longer-term viability of the collaboration

Submitting Your Application

Please submit your application via the webform by 23:59 on Friday, 10 October 2025. You can email admin@sicsa.ac.uk with questions until Noon on Friday, 10 October 2025.

Applications must be submitted using the webform, however you can download an offline version of the form here to prepare your draft.

Notification of Outcome
Successful applicants will be notified by email before Friday, 31 October 2025.

Please email admin@sicsa.ac.uk with general queries.

The following applicants were awarded under this funding scheme:

Dongyang Sun (Edinburgh Napier University)
Research Exchange Destination: Romania

Julie Cowie (Glasgow Caledonian University)
Research Exchange Destination: Germany

William Johnston (Glasgow Caledonian University)
Research Exchange Destination: Germany

Adam Burgess (Heriot-Watt University)
Research Exchange Destination: Germany

Carlos Moreno-Garcia (Robert Gordon University)
Research Exchange Destination: Spain

Rebecca von Hellfeld (University of Aberdeen)
Research Exchange Destination: Spain

Pengpeng He (University of Dundee)
Research Exchange Destination: Italy

Alessandro Perelli (University of Dundee)
Research Exchange Destination: Denmark

Maria-Chiara Ferrari (University of Edinburgh)
Research Exchange Destination: Italy

Khushboo Pandey (University of Edinburgh )
Research Exchange Destination: Switzerland

Merve Bodur (University of Edinburgh)
Research Exchange Destination: France

Leonidas Doumas (University of Edinburgh)
Research Exchange Destination: Netherlands

Louise Kennefick (University of Glasgow)
Research Exchange Destination: Ireland

Ellen Boeren (University of Glasgow)
Research Exchange Destination: Belgium

Daniela Castro-Camilo (University of Glasgow)
Research Exchange Destination: Spain

Marwa Mahmoud (University of Glasgow)
Research Exchange Destination: Germany

Craig Smeaton (University of St Andrews)
Research Exchange Destination: Ireland

Karen Brown (University of St Andrews)
Research Exchange Destination: Greece

Sanjay Seth (University of St Andrews)
Research Exchange Destination: Portugal

Ale Boussalem (University of St Andrews)
Research Exchange Destination: Italy

Nicole Tausch (University of St Andrews)
Research Exchange Destination: Spain

Christine Ferguson (University of Stirling)
Research Exchange Destination: Spain

Catherine Jones (University of Strathclyde)
Research Exchange Destination: Germany

Edoardo Patelli (University of Strathclyde)
Research Exchange Destination: Germany

Will Shu (University of Strathclyde)
Research Exchange Destination: Poland