Joint Call for Research Proposals on “Biodiversity and Transformative Change” (BiodivTransform)

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) as a partner of Biodiversa+ is pleased to announce the launch of the 2024–2025 joint call for research proposals on the topic “Biodiversity and Transformative Change” (referred to as BiodivTransform).

Scope of the call

Recognising that the worldwide crises of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution are highly interlinked, with an urgent need to understand trade-offs and cross-linkages both in terms of drivers and effects, this joint research call will aim for interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and/or cross-sectoral research and innovation projects to identify, analyse, and comprehend transformation processes that may halt and reverse biodiversity decline. It should generate knowledge to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as the benefits these may provide to people, through transformative change to mitigate and reverse biodiversity threats. Transformative change can be defined as “Fundamental system-wide reorganisation across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values needed for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity” (IPBES 2019).

The call is not restricted in terms of specific environments nor geographic areas, encompassing all realms (terrestrial, marine, coastal and freshwater) and ecosystems experiencing various levels and sources of disturbances, including transition zones and interfaces (coastal, wetlands, urban–rural, forest–agriculture, etc.) and in integrated land/seascapes.

Projects will be expected to demonstrate academic excellence with potential for societal and policy impact regarding biodiversity, aiming to connect science, society, policy, and practices for transformative change.

Main steps of the call

The call is planned to be officially launched on 10 September 2024. A two-step application procedure will be used with a closing date for pre-proposals’ submission early November 2024. A first evaluation of pre-proposals will be organised and the deadline to submit full proposals will be early April 2025.

Proposals (in English only) will have to be submitted electronically. 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. 

More instructions regarding submission, eligibility and evaluation criteria and other relevant information will be published with the official call announcement early September 2024.

Eligibility

To be eligible, research consortia will have to include teams from a minimum of 3 countries financially participating in the Call, including at least 2 from EU Member States or EU Associated Countries.

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

Assessment criteria

The research proposals will be evaluated by independent experts 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 (of the project plan) and impact (including expected societal impact (incl. policy impact), and approach to stakeholder engagement)

Research projects will be expected to have a holistic approach and to be transnational, inter- and transdisciplinary and mobilise as needed natural sciences, technical sciences, social sciences and humanities. 

For both steps, the international added value of a submitted project must be clearly presented. 

The detailed list of evaluation criteria to be used for this call will be published at the official launch of the call in September.

Transnational research consortia

At this stage, a global budget of over 40 million euros has been provisionally reserved by 34 countries together with the European Commission. The countries which have expressed a preliminary interest in participating in the Call are: 

Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy (pending), Italy (province of Bolzano), Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Morocco, Norway, Poland, Portugal (Azores), Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Tunisia, and Turkey.

Please note that this list is not final. Countries may be added and / or removed between now and the official launch of the call early September. It will regularly be updated and published on the Biodiversa+ website.

Biodiversa+ mailing list and information webinar

You can register to the Biodiversa+ mailing list to be kept updated on latest information regarding this major upcoming research funding opportunity.

Save the date: An information webinar for potential applicants will be organised on 24 September 2024 from 1 pm to 2.30 pm CEST (see registration link below). 

Further Information

Biodiversa+ mailing list:

• https://biodiversa.us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=fbdec6faee1cff3b6ba035c7c&id=9481975b89

To participate in the information webinar on 24 September 2024, please register here:

• https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kcZ1WXRrSY-h9ealxtIqFQ#/registration

Biodiversa+ website: 

• www.biodiversa.eu

 Biodiversa+ information on the BiodivTransform call (regularly updated):

• www.biodiversa.eu/2024/06/11/2024-2025-joint-call

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

• https://proposals.etag.ee/biodiversa/2024/partner-search

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

• www.biodiversa.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/stakeholder-engagement-handbook.pdf

Biodiversa+ Guide on Policy Relevance (of research and on effective science-policy interfacing in research proposals, including engagement of policy-stakeholders (note that this guide is currently being updated):

• www.biodiversa.org/1563/download

Biodiversa+ Citizen Science Toolkit (for more information on how to engage citizens in your research projects:

• www.biodiversa.org/1810/download

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 pro-cesses 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 DFG’s electronic proposal processing system (for submission of full proposals only) can be accessed at: 

• https://elan.dfg.de/en

DFG participation in Biodiversa+ and its calls (will be updated with news on BiodivTransform if necessary)

• www.dfg.de/biodiversa

Contact

VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH, Projektträger Lebenswissenschaften:

• Rainer Schliep, phone +49 30 310078-5896, rainer.schliep@vdivde-it.de
• Dr. Sandra Rajmis, phone +49 30 310078-3628, sandra.rajmis@vdivde-it.de

(VDI/VDE-IT manages this call on behalf of BMBF, the second German funding agency that is involved in this call.)