Complexity-NET’s pilot call for research proposals, entitled Interdisciplinary Challenges for Complexity Science, was launched on 8 May 2009. Ten of the eleven Complexity-NET partner funding agencies were able to take part in the call, which also included two further funding agencies, FWO and BELSPO, both from Belgium. The call was administered by the NWO (Netherlands) using a two-stage peer-review process. The call partners selected a panel of distinguished science experts, known as the Scientific Council, to assess the proposals at each stage.

The aim of the call was to support collaborative, interdisciplinary research projects on approaches with the potential to bring new insight to important problems in real-world complex systems. Applicants were not limited to specific challenge domains, but all proposals had to address clearly at least one of three broad, complexity-related themes:

• Emergence and self-organisation, individual to collective behaviour, micro to macro;

• Dynamics and (un)predictability, risk and extreme events;

• Resilience, sustainability, management and control of complex systems.

As well as national promotional activities, a brokerage event was organised in Brussels in May 2009 to publicise the call, inform potential applicants, and facilitate the creation of new transnational research teams through networking activities. Nearly 100 invited scientific researchers participated in the event; each call partner agency was allocated ten places for their own invitees. Prominent scientists gave short talks on the most recent developments in the field of complex systems and complexity science, while round-table discussions were organised on the themes of the call. 

In the first peer-review stage, expressions of interest were solicited with a closing date of 30 July 2009. 117 proposals were received, of which 101 met all Complexity-NET and national eligibility criteria. The expressions of interest were assessed by the Scientific Council at a meeting held in The Hague in September 2009. 28 applicant teams were invited to submit a full proposal by a second closing date of 1 December 2009.

In the second peer-review stage, the 28 full proposals received were sent to well-known complex systems researchers outside the call consortium territories for review. The anonymous reviews obtained by NWO were sent to the Principal Investigators, who were given the opportunity to respond in writing to any issues raised by the reviewers. The full proposals, review documents and PI responses were assessed by the Scientific Council at a meeting held in March 2010, and 15 full proposals were recommended for funding.

The pilot call consortium of funding agencies met in April 2010 to decide which of the recommended proposals could be funded. The pilot call was managed using a virtual common pot, which meant that a proposal could only be funded if each funding agency involved had sufficient funds to support that project. Ultimately nine proposals could be supported, involving all ten nationalities represented in the call and eleven of the twelve participating funding agencies. A list of the successful projects can be found on the news section of the website.

Membership of the Scientific Council

The Complexity-NET Scientific Council included one member nominated by each participating funding organisation. The Scientific Council members were:

Prof. J. Brey (Universidad de Sevilla, Spain)

Prof. E. Colleran (National University of Ireland, Ireland)

Prof. A. Coniglio (Università di Napoli “Federico II”, Italy)

Prof. J. Johnson (Open University, UK)

Prof. T. Papatheodorou (University of Patras, Greece)

Prof. F. Peeters (Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium)

Dr E. Quak (Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia)

Prof. A. Quintanilha (Universidade do Porto, Portugal)

Prof. Z. Rácz (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary)

Dr P. Termonia (Royal Meteorological Institute, Belgium)

Prof. N. Vandewalle (University of Liège, Belgium)

Prof. M. van Steen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands)