FAQ

Why do I have to fill out a membership form?

The DIM BioConvS has initiated a mapping project of the network in the fields of biotherapies, bioproduction, and synthetic biology in the Île-de-France region. It is essential for the progress of our initiatives to identify all the actors in the sector, their research themes, and their approach to innovation. That's why, starting from January 2024, we will progressively ask all teams applying for funding (including those who have already received it and are registered in our previous initiatives and calls for projects) to formally join our network through this form.

Given the extensive scope of BioConvS, this form is also a way for us to understand where your lab fits in the areas that interest us, and for you, it is a means to determine if your project is eligible. The BioConvS team will review the forms and will send you a letter confirming your membership as soon as possible if your research topics align with our themes.

It is necessary to submit the form before the deadline of the call, but please note that the response letter will arrive with a few days or weeks of delay. This does not hinder your application.

More on co-funding

Every DIM’s equipment funding come with a clause of a minimum co-funding of 34%. It means that, of the total expense of equipment that you buy (could be multiple equipments belonging to the same platform), at least 34% of the total price (HT) has to be financed by another source of funding than this call. The source of funding could be your institute, or any other grant you want that is not coming from Région Ile-de-France. Please note that any discount from the manufacturer is not counted as co-financement. Here are a few examples:

You buy a flow cytometer worth 200k€ HT. The DIM BioConvS could pay up to 66% of that (132k€); the remaining of the funding comes from your institute, or another grant, or another company that sponsors your lab (cannot be the company that is selling you the instrument).

You buy a flow cytometer worth 200k€ HT, the company is giving you a discount of 20%, so the final price HT is 160k€. The DIM can pay up to 66% of that (105600€), the rest should come from co-financing (your institute or private company or any orther non-regional grant).

You buy a microscope setup with an incubation chamber: you buy the microscope, a set of filters, lasers, an incubation chamber etc. The total expense is 150k€. The DIM can pay up to 66% of that (99k€HT); these could come up from a single or multiple invoices, but you still have to present all invoices amounting to 150k€ in order to justify the funding of 99k€. The co-financing, again, can come from the sources mentioned above.

Please note that any equipment eligible for this call (also the equipment bought as co-financing) should been have bought after june 1^st 2023. Here's again a few exemples.

If the equipment was bought after june 1^st 2023: then it can count as co-financing.

1. If the equipment already purchased amounts at least up to 34% of the total expense, you don’t need an attestation of co-financing, you only need a letter from your institute stating what you already bought and the total amount of the expense HT, and you have to attach the invoices you already have.
2. If the equipment already purchased has a total value that would be inferior to 34% of the expense, then you need to complete the co-financing with an additional purchase. For exemple you aim at spending 100K€ HT in total and you already made purchases for 14k€; you still need a letter stating what has been already bought and which engages your institute (or another funding source) to spend an additional 20k€ HT in order to receive a subvention of 66k€ from the DIM.

If the equipment was bought before june 1^st, 2023: then the purchase is ineligible and you would need to justify another co-financing entirely. So in case your total expense is 100k€ and you already spent 30k€, these do not count. You have a remaining 70k€ to spend on your platform: of these, 66% can be financed from the DIM (46200€ HT) and for the remaining, you need a

Is maintenance eligible?

Shipping, installation and training costs as well as maintenance may be eligible if this information appears clearly on the initial quote and therefore if these services are covered directly by the supplier. Computers and software are also eligible if they are essential to the operation of the equipment.

Please note, no management fees may be deducted from the amount allocated for the acquisition of equipment by the managing and/or beneficiary and/or co-financing establishments of this grant.

All expenses are recorded excluding tax.

letter from your institute stating that they’ll provide the 23800€ HT remaining.

Drafting a Co-Funding Letter

The co-funding letter is an official commitment from your institute to provide the minimum co-funding specified in the project call. Starting from January 2024, this letter must be signed by the legal representative of the organization that will make the purchase.

We do not provide a template for this letter; however, here is a list of the minimum information it must contain:

• The name of the researcher and the laboratory submitting the project
• The title of the project
• The equipment for which funding is requested
• The total net price of the equipment, the amount of co-funding, and the percentage it represents
• The source of this funding (to verify that it is not another type of funding from the Ile-de-France Region)

How to submit a project

At the request of the Ile-de-France Region and for the protection of your data, the DIM BioConvS relies on the sciencescall.org portal to manage call submissions. To be able to submit a project, it is first necessary to create your profile at the following address on sciencesconf.org (sciencescall is the version of sciencesconf.org for the management of grant calls. Both are managed by the CCSD (Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) of the CNRS):

https://portal.sciencesconf.org/user/createaccount

You can then check this short video which will guide you through the submission process.

I ran into a bug in your platform

Please contact us immediately (bioconvs2023-equip@sciencesconf.org) and describe the issue. If we cannot solve it, we'll tell you to contact the technical support platform (contact@sciencesconf.org).