Biodiversa+ European Partnership 2023 Call

FCT is member of the new European co-funded Biodiversity Partnership, Biodiversa+ “Rescuing Biodiversity to Safeguard Life on Earth”, jointly developed by BiodivERsA and the European Commission (DG Environment and DG Research & Innovation).

Being a part of the European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 to build the bridge between science, policy and practice, Biodiversa+ gathers 80 research programmers and funders, and environmental policy actors from 44 Member States, to work on 5 main objectives:

1. Plan and support research and innovation on biodiversity through a shared strategy, annual joint calls for research projects and capacity building activities.
2. Set up a network of harmonised schemes to improve monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services across Europe.
3. Contribute to high-end knowledge for deploying Nature-based Solutions and valuation of biodiversity in the private sector.
4. Ensure efficient science-based support for policy-making and implementation in Europe.
5. Strengthen the relevance and impact of pan-European research on biodiversity in a global context.

In 2023, the European Partnership Biodiversa+ launched the Call BiodivNBS – “Nature-based solutions for biodiversity, human well-being, and transformative change”, covering the following themes:

• Synergies and trade-offs of Nature-based solutions in the context of human well-being;
• Nature-based solutions mitigating anthropogenic drivers of biodiversity loss;
• The contribution of Nature-based solutions for just transformative change.

The focus of the call covers the full range of domains (terrestrial, marine, aquatic) and ecosystems (undisturbed to highly disturbed), with special interest in transition zones and interfaces (coastal, wetlands, urban-rural, forest-agriculture, etc.), and terrestrial/seascapes.

The following are individual or co-promotion beneficiaries:

a) Non-entrepreneurial entities of the R&I system, namely:

1. Higher education institutions, their institutes and R&D units;
2. State or international laboratories with head office in Portugal;
3. Non-profit private institutions whose main object is R&D activity;
4. Other non-profit public and private institutions developing or participating in scientific research activities.

b) Companies of any type and under any legal form.

The information contained in this section does not exempt you from consulting Article 3 of the "Regulation of projects financed exclusively by national funds". See call documents.

1 – Consult the documents in the area “Call Documents”.

2 – Read the national/regional rules of all the participating countries involved in your consortium (including your own), available in the "National Annexes". Non-eligible partners may lead to the rejection of the whole consortium.

3 – In the “Important links”, aced to the Call page, to the BiodivERsA guides (Stakeholder Engagement Handbook, Guide on Policy Relevance, Citizen Science Toolkit) and to the partner search website.

4 – Complete and submit, within 10 working days after the deadline for submitting the pre-proposal, a Statement of Commitment duly signed by the Researcher in Charge (partner and/or coordinators) and by the legal representant of the Portuguese Proposing Institution. The Statement of Commitment must be sent to the FCT National Contact Point.

Notes:

• Only Portuguese Proposing Institutions that are part of a transnational consortium and applying for FCT funding should complete and submit a Statement of Commitment (in pre-proposal stage only).
• The stamp or seal of the Portuguese Proposing Institution and, if applicable, of the R&D unit, will not be required in a digitally signed Statement of Commitment, if it is signed, in the Autenticação.gov application, with professional attributes that identify the functions performed by the signatory.
• Portuguese Proposing Institutions that do not have a R&D unit should leave page 5 of the Statement of Commitment blank.

The information contained on this page constitutes only a summary of the joint call information and does not exempt the candidates from carefully reading all the joint call documents available on this page and on the call website (see “Important links”). Likewise, the information contained in this page refers only to the participation of FCT in this call.

Eligibility

The eligibility check of proposals is carried out at both stages of the call (pre-proposal submission stage and full proposal submission stage):

• National/Regional Funding Agencies check national eligibility of pre-proposals and full proposals, ensuring compliance with the formal requirements in the applicable national/regional regulations (see “FCT's Regulation” in the “Call Documents” area);
• Transnational eligibility check of pre-proposals and full proposals will be performed by the Call Secretariat, according to the transnational eligibility criteria presented in the “Call Text” in the “Call Documents” area;
• For a proposal to be declared eligible it must fulfil both the national and transnational eligibility criteria.

Evaluation

The call includes two evaluation phases: a pre-proposal evaluation stage and a full proposal evaluation stage.

Proposals will be evaluated according to the evaluation criteria described in the "Call Text" in the "Call Documents" area.

The Call Steering Committee (CSC) will decide which:

1) pre-proposals to invite to submit a full proposal;

2) full proposals to recommend for funding.

For this purpose, the CSC will strictly follow the order of the ranking list established by the Expert Panel according to the available budget. The final formal funding decision will be taken by each Funding Agency afterward, following its national/regional procedure.

• FCT financial commitment for the call: 1.000.000,00 €
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese coordination: 200.000,00 €
• Maximum requested funding for a consortium with Portuguese participation: 125.000,00 €

Please mind:

• Portuguese institutions funding must follow FCT's “Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds” (see “FCT's Regulations” in the "Call Documents" area), as well as the Financial Execution Rules (also available in the Call Documents" area).
• If more than one Portuguese institution participates in a single consortium, the budget must be shared between Portuguese institutions.
• The dedication (FTE) in transnational projects is not considered for the 100% (FTE) dedication to national projects.
• Under the terms of nº 2 of Article 7º of the “Regulation on projects funded solely by national funds”, payments made directly or indirectly to companies through the Proposing Institution cannot exceed 50% of the total cost of the company’s participation.

Call page

BiodivERsA Stakeholder Engagement Handbook

BiodivERsA Guide on Policy Relevance

BiodivERsA Citizen Science Toolkit

Partner search website

European Biodiversity Strategy for 2030

BiodivERsA Data Management Guide

FAQ

Joana Pinheiro

joana.pinheiro@fct.pt

Tel: (+351) 213 911 567

Pedro Ferreira

Pedromiguel.ferreira@fct.pt

Tel: (+351) 213 924 445