 | | | |  | | | Frequently asked questions
Welcome to the FAQ section of the SNOWMAN homepage. We try to store here every relevant question coming in concerning the following categories. If there is no answer to an important question or maybe mistakes within our homepage please do not hesitate to contact us. |
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Question sections overview |
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Questions concerning SNOWMAN |
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- The duration for a single research project under SNOWMAN seems to be very limited, because SNOWMAN ends in mid 2009.
That is true. And it is the reason, why the actual call for proposals needs to be called a pilot call. The project duration cannot be longer than the time SNOWMAN will exist. But we try to clarify the question about a future SNOWMAN after 2009.
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Questions concerning the call |
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- The SNOWMAN budget seems to be a little small. What would be a realistic budget for one project partner to calculate with?
This question is not easy to answer. There is no fix budget for one partner planned. But the following lines may help you setting up a proposal in realistic circumstances:
SNOWMAN plans to fund between five and seven projects at the end of the evaluation phase. SNOWMAN has a total amount of 700.000€ with a 100.000€ per partner country available. Researchers will be funded via their national funding organisations, so no money will be given from one country to researchers of other countries. The minimum of project partners within one project is two countries. If you combine all this, you will see that a budget of approximately 50.000€ per partner is realistic to plan. This would mean every SNOWMAN partner is involved in at least two projects and the complete budget can be spent.
BUT: This is only a vague model! It is not strict. There can be more partners per project and it will be a bonus to have more in your proposal! The demonstration above only represents a number to calculate with.
- The space available to describe our project in the Application Form seems to be very small. Do we need to keep the description as one page, really?
The frame presented in the Application Form just represents the place, where to describe your project, not the space available. You should describe your project briefly, but keep in mind that the information given in your proposal will be the basis for the project evaluation. Take care of giving all information necessary for the evaluators! The boxes included in our form are not fixed. If you type in text that has more words than the box has free lines, the box will enlarge.
The information presented in your proposal should be as complete and relevant for a) the whole project and b) the single Work Packages that external evaluators are able to see the connections between and being able to get an overall view about your project.
- We want to send you a proposal. Do we have to send it to our national contact partner or is there another body within SNOWMAN to send to?
All proposals need to be sent to the SNOWMAN secretariat. The country where you are from does not affect the address you have to send the proposal to.
- How can I get in touch with other interested researchers?
The SNOWMAN Secretariat will collect all statements of interest from researchers and try to get them in contact by building an "interested researchers table" as a special topic of this homepage. If you are interested in this information you can check here, if there are entries at the moment.
It might also be of help to visit the homepage of the IGLO project. The aim of this project is to introduce contact between researchers from different countries. You only need to register there (IGLO project homepage: http://www.iglortd.org).
- I wonder, if laboratory analysis costs are to be summarized as "Consumables" or "Other costs" in the Application Form tables?
If you hand laboratory work over to sub contracted people the laboratory analysis costs are "Other costs". In other cases, it depends on your own working environment, if parts of these costs are to be given as "Personal costs" or "Consumables".
- We have to include a "Gantt Chart" into our proposal. What is this?
The Project Gantt Chart is a graphic version of the time line you need to follow with your project showing all work to be done from the project's start to the ending date. It will present your project as graphic matrix of all the steps needed to fulfill your objectives. Software tools like Microsoft Project will produce such for you, if you type in the information: What Work Packages do you have, how long will they last, at which time you need to present a special deliverable and so on. It is possible to realise such table also with Microsoft Excel (in a very simple structure). And there are some Freeware products doing the same job as well.
All in all, the Gantt Chart will present which tasks will be done when, in parellel or followed by others, depending on work done before and so on.
- We are not sure how to complete the page 6 of the Application Form, the "Participant Declaration" - and how often.
Every partner organisation within your proposed project other than the coordinator is required to complete one page 6. This means in a consortium of 4 countries, you will complete one page 5 for the coordinator and 3 pages 6 for the other participants.
The page 6 is simultaneously a declaration that you accept the contract rules of SNOWMAN and an ethics/irregularity declaration. The following signatures need to be given: 1) project contact = the person responsible as partner in the project and to be contacted in case of questions appearing; 2) the person responsible technically for the respective organisation and allowed to sign this contract; 3) the administrative person responsible for your organisation that will also state, that the budget planning for the respective organisation is correct.
It is possible, that especially 2) and 3) are signed by the same person. But SNOWMAN will need 3 signatures for one participant on one page 6.
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Questions concerning the homepage |
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- I tried to visit your homepage, but most of the content was coloured in black!
Try to reload the homepage by using the F5 button on your keyboard. It may also help, if you retype the homepage address www.snowman-era.net in the browsers address field with your own hands. Sometimes the link to the graphic producing the white colour of the homepage is not accessible for the homepage and the reason for this problem is not quite clear at the moment.
- I visited your homepage from a link at google - but the page was empty!
Some links presented at search engines (or maybe stored in your browser as a favorite) do not include the whole information necessary to display the SNOWMAN homepage. This page is written in php and uses templates waiting for special codes. If you typein the page's name like "http://www.snowman-era.net/content.php" without these codes, the page will stay empty.
The solution is easy: Just click at the "homepage" button on the left hand side or follow this link: http://www.snowman-era.net/index.php.
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