Call for Proposals 2023

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

   As ICT is a key part of society’s infrastructure, promoting ICT R&D will increase manufacturing growth, and any proposals which are focusing on manufacturing are appreciated. Not only manufacturing, but 4IR related proposals such as IoT, AI, blockchain, big-data, robotics, etc. are also welcome.

1. Period for proposal submission:    November 11, 2022 - January 10, 2023
2. Evaluation period:                       March 2023
3. Notice of results:                         April 2023

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..

Around 5 projects will be selected in total.

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.
   • Proposal concept, significance, quality and efficiency of the implementation and the management
     • Soundness of concept, significance, and quality of objectives, advantages to this proposal compared to similar projects
     • Quality and effectiveness of the S/T methodology and associated work plan
     • Appropriateness of the management structure, procedures, and the allocation and justification of the resources to be committed (budget, staff, equipment)
   • Benefits to development of collaboration in the applicant country and ASEAN region
     • Balance, equality and complementarity between organizations and between countries within the project team
       (Based on the proposal objective, check member (institution) composition and evaluate the team balance.)
     • Contribution to the technical proficiency of research in developing ASEAN countries
       (Focus on the “helping each other”, if the proposal objective and team composition are contributed to Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, it should be evaluated highly.)
     • Realization of new collaborations as well as reinforcing continuing partnerships
       (It is highly evaluated if it can be to make new collaborations based on the expected outcome, and It could reinforce continuing partnerships within the project team.)
   • Potential to generate sustainable community practices, business models or industry-relevant products with future development
     • Any end users in the team for the development of application or systems
       (End user means the people who use the technology or operate the application or system for daily activities including business or public services.
       Examples: If the project develops a water reuse system for a city, an end user would be a water management authority. If the project develops an application for agriculture, an end user would be a company, or farmers. If the project develops IoT technology for physical distribution, an end user would be an engineer who could create a system by using the technology.)
       (End users from multiple countries are highly evaluated.)
     • Other funds for supporting this project
       (You are encouraged to obtain other funds for advancing the proposed project. This proposal can be part of a total which you are planning, but you must describe the total plan clearly.)
       (An equivalent amount you obtained with evidence is highly evaluated.)
     • Appropriateness of measures for the dissemination and/or exploitation of project results, and management of intellectual property. Any plan for technology transfer in future
       (You are encouraged to transfer technology or applications or implement systems to provide solutions to societal needs. The vision should be clear, and consideration should be detailed.)
       (It is highly evaluated if you have plan and described in the proposal.)
2. Selected proposals will be published on the ASEAN IVO website.
3. 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. For submission, please visit: https://naivo.org/2023/proposal/instruction. The website will be open from November 11, 2022.
2. If you don’t have an ASEAN IVO account, please create an account following the instructions on the website.
3. If you already have an account which you created last year or when you applied to join the ASEAN IVO Forum 2022, you can continue to use that.
4. The submission has two parts.
   1. 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.
   2. The second part is to upload the necessary documents including “Certificate Letter”,“Project Summary” and “Project Proposal”. Please prepare the document “Certificate Letter” in PDF format, and the documents “Project Summary” and “Project Proposal” in both MS Word and PDF formats before your submission.
      
      Please carefully read and follow the instructions on the submission website.