First, Check the Eligibility Criteria

The NATO Chief Scientist Grants programme is open to nationals from NATO Allies working for:

  • 1
    Organizations affiliated with or part of a NATO Allied government.
  • 2
    Organizations affiliated with research Institutes, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or private or public companies etc. residing in a NATO country.

In addition, the applicants need to be resident in the NATO country where the institution they are working for is located.

Second, familiarize yourself with the Application Process:

Step 1

APPLICATION

07 October to 15 November 2024

Make sure that you review all the relevant documents:

Step 2

SHORTLISTING

16 November 2024 to mid December 2024

Once you submit your application the OCS team will review it and may contact you if any information is missing.

Step 3

AWARD

December 2024 to January 2025

If selected, you will be contacted to formalize the grant.

Step 4

DELIVERY

January 2025 to December 2025

All proposals will have to deliver by the end of 2025.

Third, review the following useful tips to make your application stronger:

Make sure that your proposal is related to one of the OCS S&T Themes. When building your proposal make sure to address the following points:

Alignment to OCS S&T themes;

  • How does your proposal directly support the OCS S&T themes.

Scientific relevance; and,

  • In what area and to what degree (breakthrough?) does your proposal advance S&T?
  • What is it that you can do now that you could not do before from a scientific and/or technological point of view?
  • What degree of technological maturity (technology readiness level) or scientific maturity (knowledge readiness level) has been reached as a result of the efforts of this activity?
  • Did the work contribute to publications in scientific journals?
  • Do you foresee a follow on activity?

Military impact.

  • Highlight the military relevance of the activity, bearing in mind the DOTMLPFI and S&T contributions toward addressing/overcoming/solving capability gaps to the benefit of the NATO Alliance.

Experience on similar activities;

  • What is your experience in handling this type of projects?
  • How is your background relevant?

Duplication avoidance and synergies; and

  • Think of synergies and complementarities across NATO S&T. For example: Stakeholder X provided a model, Stakeholder Y provided a proving ground, and Stakeholder Z provided hardware to experiment

Potential exploitation and impact of the activity expected results.

  • What are the future military and operational applications; think along DOTMLPFI (pick and choose, not necessary to address all).
  • Why, how, where and to what degree are your findings militarily relevant to NATO, Allied and Partner nations?
  • How and where will they or have they been used in operationally relevant applications and/or tests/experiments in field trials and/or operational/exercise/policy decisions?
  • Think along the lines of DOTMLPFI, factor in future military capability gaps including game changing effects for friendly and adversary forces, significant policy decisions informed by S&T results are especially relevant.

Risk Assessment:

  • Please indicate potential hazards and the risks associated with them regarding factors that could have a negative impact on the initiative. Please take the categories below as a framework:

Risk number:

  • Please list all risks in numerical order.

Event description:

  • What type of risk do you foresee?

Probability:

  • From a scale of 1 (low) to 5 (high), how likely is the risk to occur.

Risk response plan:

  • How do you plan to face the risk?

Finally, APPLY!

Are you ready to contribute your expertise to the forefront of defence and security innovation? The NATO Chief Scientist Grants Programme is your opportunity to impact global security while advancing your research career significantly.