NWO call Big Software open for applications

The division of Physical Sciences of NWO invites researchers to participate in its programme Big Software by submitting project proposals for long term research on behalf of public-private consortia. The aim of the Big Software programme is to support public-private partnerships in their quest for new theories, methods, tools, and techniques to handle the challenges arising out of big software. Deadline for submitting applications is September 15, 2015. The total budget is circa € 1,5 million.

The challenges big software poses to software creating organisations include:
• Individual systems have grown to millions of lines of code built from many different technologies. Such systems have come to be known as 'legacy systems' - systems that resist change;
• Systems have become more and more inter-dependent, relying strongly on third party components and services, giving rise to systems-of-systems;
• The operational context and actual use of software systems has become increasingly complex and unpredictable.
In combination, these challenges make it increasingly hard for software engineering organizations to contribute software that is reliable, efficient, secure, and evolvable in a timely and cost-effective manner. The Big Software programme welcomes ground-breaking research aimed at addressing these challenges.
A contribution is required from industrial and/or public parties to the project. A consortium is free to decide the degree of contribution by each participating partner. The budget for project-related equipment and other project activities should be up to 10% of the total project costs. Only 50% of this budget is eligible for NWO-funding and the other 50% should be matched by the consortium.