Joint Call for Research Proposals on “Improved Transnational Monitoring of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Change for Science and Society”

Joint Call for Research Proposals on “Improved Transnational Monitoring of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Change for Science and Society”

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) as a partner of BiodivERsA+ is pleased to announce the launch of the 2022–2023 joint call for research proposals on the topic “Improved Transnational Monitoring of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Change for Science and Society”.

This call will cover the following three non-exclusive themes:

• Innovation and harmonisation of methods and tools for collection and management of biodiversity monitoring data
• Addressing knowledge gaps on biodiversity status, dynamics and trends to reverse biodiversity loss
• Making use of available biodiversity monitoring data

The call covers all environments (i.e. terrestrial, inland freshwater including wetlands and marine).

A two-step process will apply, with a mandatory submission of pre-proposals at the first step and submission of full proposals at the second step. The call is planned to be officially launched on 8 September 2022 with a closing date for pre-proposals early November 2022. A first evaluation of pre-proposals will be organised and the deadline to submit full proposals will be early April 2023.

Pre-proposals shall be submitted via an Electronic Proposal Submission System (EPSS) only. For applicants applying for funds from Germany, full proposals shall be submitted via EPSS AND via elan.

Proposals have to be exclusively written in English. Instructions regarding submission, eligibility and evaluation criteria as well as other relevant information will be published with the official call announcement in early September 2022.

For the DFG, the eligibility requirements comply with the standard rules for DFG research grants and include members of universities of applied sciences (HAW).

To be eligible, research consortia will have to include teams from a minimum of three different countries participating in the call, including at least two from EU Member States or EU Associated Countries.

The research proposals will be evaluated against the following criteria:

• Step 1 (pre-proposal stage): fit to the scope of the call, novelty of the research and impact
• Step 2 (full proposal stage): (scientific) excellence, quality and efficiency of the implementation and impact including expected policy and/or societal impact and approach to stakeholder engagement

For both steps, it is also expected that the international added value of the projects is clearly demonstrated. The detailed list of evaluation criteria to be used for this call will be published at the official launch of the call early September 2022.

A global budget of over 40 Million Euro has been provisionally reserved at this stage, the following 34 countries have expressed a preliminary interest in participating in the call:
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Tunisia and Turkey.
The updated list of potential participating countries will be published on the BiodivERsA+ website.

Save the date: An information webinar for potential applicants will be organised on 20 September 2022 from 3 pm to 4.30 pm CEST (see registration link below).

Further Information

To participate in the information webinar on 20 September 2022, please register here:

• https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PLvkR4IwStmNmKXEjl4rHQ

BiodivERsA+ website (regularly updated):

• www.biodiversa.org

Looking for a partner or a project to join? Use BiodivERsA+´s Partner Search Tool:

• https://proposals.etag.ee/biodiversa/2022/partner-search

BiodivERsA+ Stakeholder Engagement Handbook (for more information on stakeholder engagement in funded projects):

• www.biodiversa.org/702

BiodivERsA+ Policy Guide (for more information on policy relevance of research proposals and for engagement of policy-stakeholders):

• www.biodiversa.org/1543

Applicants applying for funds from German Funding Organisations (DFG, BMBF)
Please note the DFG´s data protection notice on research funding, which can be viewed and downloaded at:

• www.dfg.de/privacy_policy

If necessary, please also forward this information to those persons whose data might be affected in the DFG processes because they are involved in your project.

Pre-proposals shall be submitted via the BiodivERsA EPSS system only and NOT via elan. Full proposals shall be submitted via EPSS AND via elan.

The elan system (for submission of full proposals only) can be accessed at:

• www.elan.dfg.de

Contact

DFG Head Office:

• Gaby Rerig
  Life Sciences II
  phone +49 228 885-2406
  gaby.rerig@dfg.de
• Tanja Zdebel
  Life Sciences II
  phone +49 228 885-3105
  tanja.zdebel@dfg.de
• Stephanie Saal
  Life Sciences II
  phone +49 288 885-3088
  stephanie.saal@dfg.de

VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH, Projektträger Lebenswissenschaften:

• Rainer Schliep
  phone +49 30 310078-5896
  rainer.schliep@vdivde-it.de
• Dr. Anne Endmann
  phone +49 30 310078-5459
  anne.endmann@vdivde-it.de
• (VDI/VDE-IT manages this call on behalf of BMBF, the second German funding agency that is involved in this call.)

Call Secretariat:

• biodiversa.cs@agencerecherche.fr