The Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States of America are promoting a bilateral call for the funding of research projects, within the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two institutions aimed at strengthening cooperation in the field of Artificial Intelligence, with a focus on joint research, innovation, and training activities.

The MoU establishes an international collaboration agreement under which U.S. researchers may receive funding from the NSF and Italian researchers from the MUR. Through a Lead Agency Opportunity, the NSF and MUR will allow applicants from both countries to submit a collaborative proposal, which will undergo a single peer-review process managed by the NSF.

 

Project proposals must be prepared and submitted in accordance with the guidelines available on the official NSF webpage.

 

Following the submission of the application through the NSF portal, the Italian partners must submit an additional national application through the MUR platform — within one week of the submission to the NSF, and in any case no later than 3:00 p.m. on April 30, 2025. This national application must include administrative and financial data relevant only to the Italian partners, the proposal ID assigned by the NSF and a copy of the proposal submitted to the NSF.

 

Failure to submit the national application, duly signed by the legal representative (see paragraph below) or their delegate, will result in ineligibility for funding.

 

The eligibility criteria for Italian partners (in addition to the international criteria applicable to all partners), as well as the funding modalities, are detailed in the Avviso integrativo nazionale.

 

 

 

To obtain the signature of the legal representative (Rector), applicants must send the following documents to the Scientific Cooperation and Networks Unit (cooperazionepvs@uniroma1.it) by April 23, 2025 h. 11:59 a.m:

 

For information on the call, please refer to the official Ministry webpage.

 

For questions regarding the internal procedure at Sapienza, you may contact the Scientific Cooperation and Networks Unit – Research Area at cooperazionepvs@uniroma1.it.