Formas announces 30 million SEK to researchers belonging to Swedish universities, colleges and institutes for participation and/or coordination of an application to the European partnership Biodiversa+ Transnational Research Proposals on ”Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) for biodiversity, human well-being and transformative change” (BiodivNBS Call External link.).
A total of 41 international research financiers are included in the call, which together contribute over 40 million Euro to research and innovation projects that are expected to gain a better understanding of the tipping points and trade-offs and underlying mechanisms affecting Nature-Based solutions, and their successful implementation with respect to the benefits for nature, human well-being, and societal transformation.
The call will have two stages and open on 11 September 2023.
Stage 1
Deadline for submission of ”Pre-proposal” in the transnational application platform: 10 November, 2023.
Evaluation of ”Pre-proposal” takes place during November-January. An invitation to submit a ”Full-proposal” will be notified by email tentatively in mid-February 2024 from the international call secretariat.
Formas will send out instructions regarding the submission of the application to Prisma, to the Swedish applicants who have qualified for Stage 2 after notification has been given from the international call secretariat.
Stage 2
Deadline for submitting ”Full-proposal” in the transnational application platform: April 9, 2024 at 15:00 CET.
Deadline to submit the Formas application in Prisma: 23 April 2024. Information about the content of this application will be communicated via email from Formas.
Decision
Applications recommended for funding will be notified via the international call secretariat provisionally mid-September, 2024.
Formas decision on financing will be announced via Formas' web and Prisma tentatively by September 30, 2024.
Project start
Between 1 December 2024 and 1 April 2025.
This call aims to support transnational research and innovation projects (36 months) that address one of the three themes below:
A. Synergies and trade-offs of NBS in the context of human well-being
B. NBS mitigating anthropogenic drivers of biodiversity loss
C. The contribution of NBS for just transformative change
Note that these call themes are overlapping and non-exclusive, and each project can address one or several themes. The role of biodiversity shall underpin the research in all themes (Fig. 3 in the call text External link.), adopting 'do no harm' approaches and enhancing biodiversity benefits in accordance with the concept of NBS (as defined by UNEA-5, Box 1 in the call text External link.). Similarly, the pluralistic valuation approach (IPBES 2022) is central across all themes.
Before you apply
See below for a summary of what the application must contain when you apply for funds from Formas for your participation in a consortium. You should start from the international call text for complete information regarding requirements for the consortium, the thematic descriptions and other requirements that apply to all applicants in the call, see the call text here: BiodivNBS_Call_Documents_final.pdf (biodiversa.eu) External link..
With regards to this call for research projects, grants can only be administered by a Swedish university, institution of higher education, research institute, government agency with a research mandate, or other primarily research focused organisations.
Who can become an administrating organisation.
To apply for a grant in this call, the following criteria must be met:
- The principal applicant has obtained a PhD by the call's closing date.
- Participating researchers have obtained a PhD by the call's closing date. Other staff involved in the project do not need to have a PhD degree.
- The proposed grant recipient is identified as project manager on the application for the Swedish applicants.
- There is no upper age limit for the principal applicant and participating researchers. However, full-time retired researchers are not eligible to receive funding for salaries.
When applying for project funding, you can seek to have both direct and indirect expenses covered. Direct expenses include salaries, equipment and travel. Indirect expenses are those shared with others in your organization, such as administration, IT and renting of premises. Indirect costs are sometimes referred to as overhead.
The projects must run over 36 months. Maximum funding from Formas is 300,000 EUR per proposal, or a maximum of 500,000 EUR per proposal if the Swedish applicant is also the project coordinator (regardless of how many Swedish partners participate in the project). The budget for the consortium depends on the available funding from other participating Funding Agencies.
The application is written in English as the preparation of the application is done by an international group of experts. Read more about the preparation of the applications in the transnational call text External link..
Evaluation of the application is based on the requirements and instructions set by the call secretariat for the transnational call ”Nature-Based Solutions for biodiversity, human well-being and transformative change” (BiodivNBS).
Instructions for drafting the application to Formas are sent to applicants via email after applicants have been invited by the international secretariat to submit a ”Full proposal”.
Your application (including attachments) submitted via Prisma is considered a public document under Swedish law when it has been received by us. According to Swedish law, your application and its appendices are considered public upon receipt. This means that anyone can request and read your application. Information can only be concealed if it is confidential as defined in the Public Access to Information and Confidentiality Act (2009:400).
Formas has limited capacity to keep personal data confidential. Therefore, your application should not contain the personal data of anyone who is not a participating applicant.
If the project is granted funding, the popular science description and project abstracts, written in both Swedish and English, will be published in open-access project databases without a confidentiality review. Therefore, the contents of these sections should not contain sensitive information.
This is a recommendation: It is of great importance to Formas that the projects we finance are carried out in a way that maximises positive impacts and minimises negative impacts on the environment and climate. Therefore, we encourage grant applicants to design their projects to prioritise collaboration that takes place primarily through online meetings and ensure any necessary travel is as climate-smart as possible. We also suggest that measures for minimising energy use and other resource consumption, emissions and waste are included in your project planning. However, this will not be a part of the application assessment at this time.
How to apply
The coordinator of the consortium submits the application to the transnational call’s submission platform. The applicant applying funding from Formas must be a part of a consortium with at least three partners from three countries applying funding from Funding Agencies participating in the call. You find the information regarding the transnational call’s submission platform in the call text.
You, both as a Swedish coordinator or a Swedish partner, will be invited to submit your application to Prisma when you have been invited to step 2. You will receive an invitation from Formas and Prisma after the decision from the Call Secretariat that you have progressed to step 2. To do this, you need to create an account.
You will receive an e-mail from Formas with information of the content of the application to that you will submit in Prisma after the submission of the pre-proposal.
After submitting your application
First, Formas verifies that the application meets the procedural requirements set out in the call for the Swedish applicants. If it does not meet these requirements, it is rejected.
The following requirements will be verified in this call by Formas:
- The requirements for project managers, project participants and organisations under ”Applicant and organisation requirements” are met.
- The principal applicant who is responsible for other projects or activities funded by Formas has submitted any requested reports by the stated deadline.
The following requirements will be verified by the call secretariat:
- The focus of the application falls within the calls area of responsibility.
- The focus of the application falls within the call’s topics.
- The application is complete and contains all mandatory information.
- That the requirements of the consortium are fulfilled.
Read more about the application verification in the call text. External link.
All applications are assessed by an external review panel based on the contents of the application. It is therefore important to write the application as clearly as possible and include all important and relevant information.
The applications are assessed based on the evaluation criteria described in the call text External link..
A decision on which projects are granted funding is expected to be taken 30 September 2024. The decisions will be published on the Formas website the following day, at the latest, and you will get later an email saying that the decision is available in Prisma. Grant decisions cannot be appealed.
All approved projects must report financial and project findings to Formas within three months of the end of the disposition period. An annual financial statement must be submitted to Formas for projects that are longer than 18 months. All reports are submitted in Prisma.
How to report expenses and results
Formas may impose requirements on how projects must be reported in terms of content and findings to enable distribution and utilisation. In such cases, more information will be presented with the approval decision. Formas may also require you to participate in conferences and similar events in order to create synergies and platforms for learning and knowledge sharing.
Results of research funded by Formas must be published using open access.
You must also have a management plan for the data produced in the project. If you receive funding from us, you must develop such a plan. This plan does not need to be submitted to Formas but should be presented on request. By signing our grant terms and conditions, you certify that a data management plan will be available before the research begins and that it will be maintained.
Formas shares information about awarded grants to SweCRIS External link., a national database of grant-funded research that was instituted by request of the government.