07.08.2024

DFG / Biodiversa+: Call 2024–2025 (pre-announcement)

Deadline: early November 2024 (pre-announcement)

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).

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).

For more information, please visit: https://www.dfg.de/de/aktuelles/neuigkeiten-themen/info-wissenschaft/2024/ifw-24-74