Research Support: I-SITE 2026 Excellence Program
As part of the I-SITE Excellence Program, the University is launching its research support program for the 2026 academic year.
This program is open to all research organizations affiliated with the institutions of 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 postdoctoral researcher (early-career researcher)
Calendar
| STEPS | |
| Launch of the RFP | July 15, 2025 |
| Application deadline | September 24, 2025 |
| Sent 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 |
| Review and approval of COMIS files | November 18, 2025 |
| Announcement of Results | December 8, 2025 |
| Allocation of funds | January 2026 |
Submission Guidelines
Projects from each research unit must be 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 grant amount per project |
| Equipment | €1,300,000 | €100,000 |
| Postdoctoral researcher (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 unit
Facility directors are asked to limit the number of applications submitted according to the following guidelines:
- For the Equipment category: A maximum of two applications 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 tenured EC and C faculty members | < 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 units affiliated with the institutions of the strategic partnership linked to the University of Montpellier’s research clusters.