Call for Proposals 2021

From core research to real world application, ASEAN IVO focuses on a broad range of topics in the field of ICT. Particularly with regards to providing solutions for specific regional needs or environmental or social problems, great emphasis is placed on not just fundamental research but practical solutions. Projects would ideally have a strong outlook to conduct a demonstration by the final year of the project. Proposals from all technical fields are welcome and they will be evaluated on the potential benefit of the output.

1. ICT for food

   As food is a common need for all people, ensuring food security (i.e. food availability and regional self-sufficiency) is a key concern for every country. The focus of this topic is for ICT applications providing specific solutions to food security issues in the ASEAN region, specifically the development of applications and integrated systems for R&D in all fields addressing food availability, from environment and agriculture through the supply chain to consumption and waste management.

2. ICT for Environment Protection and Disaster Prevention

   As the population grows and becomes more urbanized, there has been a massive increase in material needs and environmental impact as well as demand for digital infrastructure to support people’s lifestyles and communication, so that environment monitoring and protection has become an important issue to human society. Today, natural disasters are occurring more frequently and with increasing intensity. As well as disaster prevention and response, environment monitoring is key for stable infrastructure. This topic focuses not only on technologies, but also applications and integrated systems for R&D.

3. ICT for a Secure and Smart Community

   With the internationalization and regionalization of ASEAN, we are facing many difficulties, such as cultural differences and social adaptation. Additionally, with rapid urbanization, cities face a variety of risks, concerns, and problems. The unprecedented rate of urban growth creates an urgency in finding smarter ways to manage the accompanying challenges. This topic is a challenging one which not only focuses on technologies, but also applications and integrated systems, including development of useable applications in a real-life context.

4. ICT for Health and Welfare

   Population growth and environmental destruction is causing an ever-increasing list of global health crises. From aging societies to global pandemics, humanity needs to develop new ways to tackle global health problems. Recent disease outbreaks make clear the need to develop new technologies, integrated systems and applications to prevent pandemics and fight infectious diseases like COVID-19 and Ebola. This is particularly relevant in South-East Asia where many countries are home to at least three diseases that are classified as Neglected Tropical Diseases, meaning prevention and treatment are poorly implemented and underfunded, like dengue fever. Care for the elderly and coping with aging societies is also a growing problem. R&D for new systems and technologies to support older people and relieve the burden of caring for them is essential to maintain societal equilibrium.

5. ICT related Technologies and Applications

   Proposals in any ICT-related topic are welcome, if sufficient relevance to the above themes can be demonstrated.

1. Period for proposal submission:    November 14, 2020 - January 11 25, 2021
2. Evaluation period:                       March 2021
3. Notice of results:                         April 2021

1. The institution of the applicant should be an ASEAN IVO member, and the applicant should be the project leader. Non-members can submit proposals for new projects as project leaders, but they must apply for membership and obtain approval before the deadline for proposal submission.

2. The members of the proposed project must be at a minimum 2 institutions total, and from at least 2 different countries in the ASEAN region.
   • Multiple institutions from one country as well as NICT and other Japanese institutions are also welcome to be members of a project team but will not count towards this minimum requirement.

3. Institutions that are not members of ASEAN IVO can also be members of the project team.

4. Leaders of ongoing projects cannot make new applications.

5. Researchers can join a maximum of 2 projects as a project member, including ongoing projects..

6. All institutions of project members should provide a “Certificate Letter” to certify the researchers of the institution have been authorized as project members to join the project team and the institution is ready to sign a “Collaborative Research and Development Agreement” for ASEAN IVO project..

1. The duration of the project can be from 6 to 24 months. If the duration is more than 12 months, the project will be reviewed once by the Steering Committee.

2. To advance ICT R&D in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, at least one project from these three countries will be selected from the proposals this time. If there are more than two proposals, the proposal with the highest score will be selected. Only 4 projects will be selected from other countries this time.

1. The ASEAN IVO Steering Committee will evaluate each submission from the following viewpoints. In some cases, modifications may be recommended.
   • Scientific and/or technological excellence (relevant to the topics addressed by the call)
     • Soundness of concept, and quality of objectives
     • Progress beyond the state-of-the-art
     • Quality and effectiveness of the S/T methodology and associated work plan
   • Quality and efficiency of the implementation and the management
     • Appropriateness of the management structure and procedures
     • Quality and relevant experience of the individual participants
     • Quality of the consortium as a whole (including complementarity, balance)
     • Appropriateness of the allocation and justification of the resources to be committed (budget, staff, equipment…)
   • Potential impact through the development, dissemination and use of the project results
     • Contribution, at the ASEAN and/or international level, to the expected impacts listed in the work program under the relevant topic/activity.
     • Relevance of potential impact to national or ASEAN official guidelines, such as the ASEAN ICT Master Plan.
     • Appropriateness of measures for the dissemination and/or exploitation of project results, and management of intellectual property.
     • Potential to generate sustainable community practices, business models or industry-relevant products with future development.
   • Benefits to the development of collaboration in the applicant country and the wider ASEAN region
     • Balance, equality and complementarity between organizations and between countries within the project team
     • Contribution to the technical proficiency of research in developing ASEAN countries
     • Realization of new collaborations as well as reinforcing continuing partnerships
2. The following points will be evaluated highly, and additional points will be added:
   1. There is more than one end user in your project team for the development of application systems.
   2. There is more than one support fund, e.g. a matching fund you are getting from your institution, or government, or private company, etc.
   3. There are descriptions of advantages of your proposal if your proposal is similar to  ongoing or finished projects.
3. Selected proposals will be published on the ASEAN IVO website.
4. Members of the selected projects, especially project leaders, are asked to cooperate with NICT for administrative procedures.

• Progress reports once a year.
• A final report at the end of the project.

1. Institutions in non-ASEAN regions can be a member of your project, but the budget provided by NICT can only support the institutions of project members which are located in the ASEAN region.
2. Personnel expenses should not be included in your proposal, because the budget provided by NICT cannot support personnel expenses for your project.

1. Please prepare necessary documents following the “Guidelines”, if you are planning to submit a proposal to the “ASEAN IVO - Call for Proposals 2021”. The documents include “Certificate Letter”, “Project Summary” and “Project Proposal”.
2. Please note, the number of pages for your “Project Summary” is limited to one page, and the “Project Proposal” must be no more than seven (7) pages. Otherwise, your submission will be rejected.
3. A website for submissions will be open from around November 14, 2020.
4. If you don’t have an ASEAN IVO account, please create an account following the instructions shown on the Home Page.
5. If you already have an account which you created when you applied for joining the ASEAN IVO Forum 2020, you can continue to use that.
6. The submission has two parts. The first part is to provide basic information for your submission, for which there is a Check List, Applicant Information and Project Members Information. If you didn’t provide any one of these, you cannot advance to the next step for submission. Please read the Guidelines carefully.
7. The second part is to upload the necessary documents including “Certificate Letter”, “Project Summary” and “Project Proposal”. Please upload the document “Certificate Letter” in PDF format, and the documents “Project Summary” and “Project Proposal” in both MS Word and PDF formats. Each document’s size should be no more than 5 MB.
8. Please submit your proposal from your account through the website.
9. You will receive an email automatically when your submission has been successfully submitted.
10. Any revisions can be accepted by January 11 25, 2021.
11. Please note: the website for “Submission” will close at 23:59 on January 11 25, 2021 (JST).
12. Any revisions after the deadline cannot be accepted.