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RDA TIGER Cascade Grants 2025

Find out more about applying for Cascading Grants

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This call is now closed for applications.

RDA Europe, under the umbrella of the RDA TIGER project, is currently running an open call for Cascading Grant proposals. Cascading Grants are a European Commission mechanism that aims to distribute public funding to assist beneficiaries in the uptake or development of innovative outputs. With these grants, RDA Europe hopes to enhance the activities of RDA Working Groups through the adoption and further development of Working Group outputs. With a focus on outputs that lead to impact on the Open Science landscape, the Cascading Grants will ultimately contribute to the interoperability of Open Science solutions within the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

The Cascading Grants differ from standard RDA TIGER support in two important ways. Firstly, the monetary value of the Cascading Grants is significantly higher. While RDA TIGER normally offers in-kind support or funding for external expertise up to €5k, the Cascading Grants are worth a total of €50k. Secondly, the Cascading Grants call is open not just to RDA Working Groups, but also to organisations outside the RDA (for instance, research institutes or private companies) who wish to adopt an RDA output or recommendation. Any entity eligible to receive Horizon Europe funding can apply, barring consortium members of the RDA TIGER project.

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Call description and supported activities

This call for Cascading Grants seeks applications from researchers, research institutes, universities, enterprises, consortia and other legal entities who wish to receive financial support to adopt the results of the RDA Working Groups (WGs). Applicants must be eligible to receive Horizon Europe funding, or be affiliated to an entity that is eligible.

Specifically, the call invites applications from:

  1. RDA Working Groups: Groups who require support for projects that aid the adoption or testing of WG outputs. The grant funds can be used to cover the personnel and travel costs of the Group’s existing members, stipends or salaries of new team members, conference and open access fees and fees of external experts (e.g., to solve specific legal, technical, IPR, or standardisation-related issues). See the section “Eligibility Criteria” for more details. We also invite applications from RDA WGs launching a formal standardisation process to have the WG Recommendations recognised as input by an established technical standards organisation.
  2. Entities or researchers who wish to adopt an RDA output. Specifically, the grant funds can be used to support the adoption, testing, harmonisation, and/or implementation of RDA Recommendations or Outputs produced by RDA Working Groups.1 We also invite organisations focusing on the technical implementation, prototyping and/or proof-of-concept using RDA Recommendations or Outputs to support the  interoperability of open science solutions, especially in the EOSC context.

Applications are received up until 27.04.2025 (AoE).2 The selected projects are expected to be launched in May 2025 and need to be concluded by the end of October 2025.

How is this call different from the Open Call for RDA TIGER services?

The RDA TIGER support services (Facilitation, Communications, Landscape Analysis, Output Support) are provided by consortium members, where the supported WGs receive services provided by the RDA TIGER project staff or experts engaged by the project partners. The Open Call for these types of support services is continuous and is facilitated by a separate process with four selection rounds per year.

This Call for Cascading Grants is intended to facilitate the adoption of RDA WG outputs and is open to RDA Working Groups seeking to facilitate the adoption of their outputs or to entities external to RDA who wish to adopt RDA Recommendations or Outputs. 

Important things to note: 

3. About RDA TIGER

RDA TIGER is a project funded by the European Commission (GA 101094406). It supports RDA Working Groups that concretely align, harmonise, and standardise Open Science developments and technologies globally. The services it provides will facilitate and support coherent and consistent working group definitions and increase the impact of the key European initiatives on the global level. More information about the RDA TIGER project can be found here.

The project will directly contribute to the European Open Science Cloud Partnership by supporting (via the Working Groups) the international engagement and alignment of policies, technologies, methodologies, practices and other outputs of EOSC-related and other European Open Science developments.

4. Application process

One person should be selected as the grant holder and representative, also in case of a consortium consisting of more than one legal entity applying for funding. To apply, please take the following steps:

  1. Download and fill in the Application Form (docx format), save the completed form as a PDF with the proposal name in the name of the time.
  2. Register your proposal information using the online form.
  3. Once you complete the proposal information entry, send your completed Application Form to this address: [email protected]

The application form asks for the following  (please follow the indicated word limits):

Your name, affiliation, country where you are based and a brief history of your involvement in RDA, Open Science and EOSC

Clearly outline the purpose of the proposed activity and describe in 200 words its planned outputs

Describe how the activity within the group will create outputs which are connected to one or both of these categories:

  • Open Science principles: for example the FAIR principles,  or connecting via some other demonstrable pathway to the wider Open Science landscape
  • Supporting RDA, especially in its Strategic Goals as outlined in its current Strategic Plan (please refer to the ‘Strategic Directions’ on page 9 of the plan)
  • The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC): Each supported WG should have output(s) with a clear connection to EOSC , such as an internationalisation or standardisation action based on an existing EOSC output and/or responding to an EOSC priority (e.g., in the EOSC Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda SRIA and its updates);

Demonstrate how the expected WG output will be connected to a significant advance in one or more of the following impact areas:

A. Mechanisms and tools for creation, sharing, management and re-use of research

outputs (e.g. data, software, publications, workflows, protocols, and methodologies);

B. Facilitating scientific multidisciplinary cooperation;

C. Efficient handling or providing seamless access to large volumes of research outputs;

D. Increasing FAIRness, openness and quality of scientific research in Europe and

Globally;

E. Creation of more meaningful monitoring and research evaluation mechanisms, enabling better reproducibility, validation and re-use of research outputs, or improving pathways for communication of science to the public.

List of milestones and deliverables with expected delivery dates

The total budget requested and the breakdown of the expenditure between personnel, travel, and other costs (travel, conference, open access, external expert fees). As a guideline, with the exception of small travel/conference participation grants, the “other” cost category should not exceed one third of the total budget requested.

5. Evaluation of proposals

Applications will be evaluated by the RDA Selection Committee panel and invited experts. The panel is primarily composed of people from the RDA TIGER consortium, EOSC Association and the RDA Governance (Technical Advisory Board and Secretariat). 

The following criteria and weighting will be used to fairly and transparently evaluate the applications:

CriteriaTopicWeighting as a percentage
ExcellenceEOSC, RDA and Open Science competences and contributions so far35%
ImpactImpact on the Open Science landscape40%
ImplementationImplementation and International Connectivitiy25%

6. Budget

The total budget made available with this cascade grants call is 50,000 EUR.

We expect to award between 3 and 5 grants with a funding range between 10,000 – 16,666 EUR, depending on applications received. 

The proposed budget in grant applications needs to be based on estimated actual, eligible costs of the planned activity.

7. Eligibility criteria

Applications should come from individuals a) on behalf of an active or completed RDA WG or b) from individuals who have a track record of adopting community recommendations and best practices (produced by the RDA community or similar forums). If the application is submitted on behalf of an active or completed RDA WG, the individual submitting the proposal should be one of the co-chairs of the WG, or submit the proposal with the full knowledge and support of the WG co-chairs.

Applications can come from any individual who is affiliated to and can apply on behalf of an legal entity eligible to receive funding from Horizon Europe. Applicants cannot be part of the RDA TIGER consortium.

In accordance with the Horizon Europe financial regulations, no individual or organisation (third party) will be awarded more than EUR 60,000 (sixty thousand Euro). Explicitly, a third party may apply and be awarded funding in different calls, but only be contracted for a total of EUR 60,000. If the limit is reached, no further contracts can be awarded to that individual or organisation (third party).

RDA TIGER beneficiaries, their linked entities and staff members of the organisations belonging to either of the groups are ineligible to apply or receive funding through this call. 

Recipients of RDA TIGER in-kind support services are eligible to apply, provided they fulfil the Horizon Europe eligibility criteria. 

8. Additional Information

  • The call remains open for two months from the publication date
  • The evaluation process will be completed within 30 days from the closing of the call
  • The grant contracts will need to be signed by RDA Europe and the applicant within 60 days from the end of the review process. RDA Europe retains the right to consider the application as withdrawn if this time limit is passed.
  • In addition to selecting the highest-ranking proposals, the committee can – with the approval of the applicants – retain applications on a reserve list. In case there are unforeseen issues with the grant agreements, applications from the reserve list can be chosen for funding.

Contact us

Please contact [email protected] with any questions. We are happy to discuss your ideas and provide guidance on the application process.

  1. 1. RDA Recommendations and Outputs https://www.rd-alliance.org/outputs/?keyword=&output-status%5B%5D=in-community-review&output-status%5B%5D=in-council-review-open&start_date=&end_date=&sort-by=date-desc ↩︎
  2. 2. Anywhere on Earth, UTC -12 ↩︎