Biodiversa+, the new European Biodiversity Partnership, will launch its new transnational call for proposals on Improved transnational monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change for science and society later this summer.

The call covers the following three non-exclusive research 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.

All environments (i.e. terrestrial, inland freshwater including wetlands, and marine) will be eligible. 

The call is planned to be officially launched on 8 September 2022.  A two-step application procedure will be used 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.
Proposals (in English only) will have to be submitted electronically. Instructions regarding submission, eligibility and evaluation criteria and other relevant information will be published with the official call announcement early September 2022.

To be eligible, research consortia will have to include teams from a minimum of 3 countries participating in the call (including a minimum of two from EU Member States or EU Associated Countries).

Looking for a partner or a project to join?
Use the Biodiversa+ Partner Search Tool available here!

A global budget of over 40 million euros has been provisionally reserved for the call.  The following 33 countries have expressed a preliminary interest in participating in the call: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, South Africa, Côte d'Ivoire, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Netherlands, Ireland Poland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Morocco, Moldova, Germany, Norway, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Slovakia, Slovenia, Taiwan, Turkey and Tunisia.

An updated list of potential participating countries will be available on the Biodiversa+ website .

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 expected for the international added value of a submitted project to 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 early September.

Get ready now by consulting the Biodiversa Stakeholder Engagement Handbook (for more information on stakeholder engagement in funded projects); the Biodiversa Policy Guide (for more information on policy relevance of research proposals, and for engagement of policy-stakeholders); and the Biodiversa Citizen Science Toolkit (for more information on how to engage citizens in your research projects)

SAVE THE DATE: an information webinar for potential applicants will be organized on 20 September 2022, from 3PM to 4:30PM CEST. To participate in this workshop, you can register at the following link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PLvkR4IwStmNmKXEjl4rHQ

We invite you to regularly consult the Biodiversa+ website and register to the Biodiversa+ mailing list to be kept updated on latest information on this future major research funding opportunity.