Research Support: I-SITE 2026 Excellence Program
As part of the I-SITE Excellence Program, the University is implementing its research support program for the year 2026.
This program is open to all research organizations under the supervision of the institutions participating in the strategic partnership (BRGM – CEA – CIHEAM-IAM – Montpellier University Hospital – Nîmes University Hospital – CIRAD – CNRS – ENSCM – ICM – IFREMER – INRAE – INRIA – INSERM – Institut Agro Montpellier – IRD – University of Montpellier) affiliated with the University of Montpellier’s research clusters.
It aims to support two types of initiatives:
- Acquisition of research equipment with an emphasis on shared use
- Recruitment of a Postdoc (Early-Career Researcher)
Calendar
| STEPS | |
| Launch of the Call for Proposals | July 15, 2025 |
| Application Deadline | September 24, 2025 |
| Submission to internal and external evaluators | October 13, 2025 |
| Deadline for Submitting Evaluations | November 3, 2025 |
| Review of Applications by the Selection Committee | November 14, 2025 |
| Analysis and Validation of Applications in COMIS | November 18, 2025 |
| Earnings Announcement | December 8, 2025 |
| Allocation of Funds | January 2026 |
Submission Guidelines
Projects originating from each research unit are submitted exclusively by their directors.
Applications must be submitted in PDF format using the attached template:
Available Amount
| Type of action | Potential total amount | Maximum amount of funding per project |
| Equipment | 1,300,000 € | 100 k€ |
| Postdoc (early-career researcher) | €1,150,000 (equivalent to 14 fixed-term contracts) | 1 postdoc per application |
| Total | 2,450,000 € |
Number of projects per research institution
Facility directors are asked to limit the number of applications submitted according to the following guidelines:
- For the Equipment category: A maximum of two proposals may be submitted per research institution, and they must be ranked.
- For the “postdoc (early-career researcher)” category: the total number of applications submitted by a research institution depends on its size:
| Number of EC and C Tenure-Track Faculty | < 30 | 30≤N <60 | 60≤N <100 | N>100 |
| Total number of files (excluding equipment) | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Target Audience
Professors, tenured researchers.
This program is open to all research organizations under the supervision of institutions participating in the strategic partnership affiliated with the University of Montpellier’s research clusters.