Biodiversa+ call 2024: 'BiodivTransform' - pre-announcement

Research

Funding organisation:

Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen

What?

Biodiversity and Transformative Change (referred to as BiodivTransform).

A new joint transnational cofunded call for research projects will be launched within the framework of the Horizon Europe Biodiversity+ partnership. This new transnational call is aimed at supporting 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.

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.

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.

More elaborate information in view of the call can be consulted on the BiodivERsA-website.

The call will open around 10 September 2024.

A two-step application procedure will be used.
Step 1 with a closing date for pre-proposals’ submission early November 2024 (3 pm CET).
Results step 1: Mid February 2025
Deadline Step 2 to submit full proposals: early April 2025 (3 pm CET).
Recommendations for funding: Autumn 2025
Start projects: 1 December 2025 - 1 April 2026

FWO plans, as is usual in this partnership, to participate with an amount of EUR 750,000, allowing them to award 3 projects at EUR 250,000.

FWO participation will take place by engaging two 'national' FWO channels, being the FWO Research Projects ('FO') and the Strategic Basic Research (SBO), both with some different participation modalities compared to their regular framework (e.g. more limited budget, shorter duration of 36 months, valorisation aspect for SBO, etc.).

Who?

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. Note that not all EU Member States or Associated Countries will financially participate in this call.
   

Application?

Proposals (in English only) will have to be submitted electronically. Instructions regarding submission, eligibility and evaluation criteria can be found on the BiodivERsA-website.

The FWO requires pre-registration on a national/regional level as well by filling in an application form on the FWO e-portal before the deadline for submission of the pre-proposals. When you're logged on to the e-portal, you can find it under "Researcher". 
It is strongly recommended to contact the FWO administration about your pre-registration at the latest one week before submission in order to verify admissibility.

Given the pre-proposal already has to be OK in terms of budget, OBI has an internal deadline to check your proposal.
Internal deadline: 31 October 2024

In case the consortium includes more than one partner requesting funding from FWO, a single online form should be submitted containing all relevant information from the different Flemish partners.

Regulations?

All relevant call information can be consulted in on the BiodivERsA-website, also when it comes to the general rules for participation. In addition the ‘national/regional’ FWO eligibility criteria have to be respected, which are of importance when it comes to the eligibility of the Flemish (FWO) subproject.

You can find more information about the FWO regulations on page 13, 14, 15 and 16 in the Funding Organisation Rules document that you can find here. 
And also on the FWO website.

More information?

An information webinar for potential applicants will be organised on 24 September 2024, from 1:00PM to 3:00PM CEST. Registration is mandatory to participate in this workshop.

Researchers are strongly encouraged to contact the FWO before submission in view of the eligibility criteria, in order to avoid the ineligibility of a researcher, and the project consortium as a whole.

Information about FWO participation can also be obtained by contacting the following FWO colleagues:

• Toon Monbaliu (FO): 
  • europe@fwo.be, 
  • +32 (0)2 550 15 70
• Kristien Peeters (SBO)
  • europe@fwo.be
  • +32 (0)2 550 15 95

Deadline intern

31.10.2024, 08.11.2024

Contact Hasselt University?

E-mail sarah.szyr@uhasselt.be

Tel. +3211269052