Introduction
The FWF has issued the "Top Citizen Science" funding initiative (TCS) with a budget of €250,000.

Under this call, funding will be made available for the expansion of FWF-funded research which is suitable in terms of content and methods and which is to be expanded to include "citizen science" components.

In the context of this initiative, citizen science is understood as the active involvement of citizens and their knowledge, resources, and commitment in scholarly research and the generation of new scholarly insights.

Target Group
The call is open to all researchers currently serving as the principal investigator of an FWF-funded project. The expansion projects are addressed to all people regardless of age, gender, or social background as well as people with highly specialised knowledge or specialised expertise ("knowledge communities"). Projects that target young people are explicitly encouraged.

Objectives
The initiative is designed to support research activities that enable citizens to contribute to generating substantial additional research results and insights on the basis of their abilities, expertise, curiosity, and willingness to participate – without sacrificing the excellence of the research work.

Requirements
The quality of the research underlying each expansion project is to be ensured by the project on which it is based ("main project"). This project must be an FWF-funded project which will not yet be completed when the funding decision is issued (September 2022), meaning that the end date scheduled for the main project must be November 30, 2022 or later.

Duration
TCS projects are to last no longer than two years. Projects may be extended as long as no additional costs are incurred.

Grant Amounts
The maximum amount of funding is €50,000 per application (incl. 5% general project costs).

Applications
Via the FWF’s electronic application portal (elane)

Applications for expansion projects to FWF-funded projects are to be submitted to the FWF in accordance with the applicable requirements between January 25, 2022 and April 25, 2022; the possibility to submit via elane ends at 2:00 pm local time Vienna/Austria.