FORESTERRA
Newsletter 5, 2014/10/31

FORESTERRA Transnational Call on “Mediterranean‐scale approach to study global change drivers, impacts & indicators on forest ecosystems and to foster forest system resilience through managing biodiversity"

Call launching and proposal submission

The FORESTERRA call was launched on the 4th of November, 2013. Project consortia were invited to apply to one of the two Thematic Research Areas:

The Thematic Research Area 1 was opened to Networking Actions and they involved a one-step procedure with submission of full proposals. The deadline took place the 15th January of 2014. Three Networking Action proposals were submitted to the FORESTERRA Call:

  1. RESILIST, whichwas coordinated by Michel Venetier, from the National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture (Irstea/CEMAGREF Aix-En-Provance, France).
  2. NETMEDFOR, which was coordinated by Domingos Manuel Mendes Lopes from the Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological sciences (CITAB), University of Trás-os Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal.
  3. MedWildFireLab, which was coordinated by Francisco Manuel Cardoso Castro Rego, from the Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), UniversidadeTecnia de Lisboa (UTL), Portugal.
Ordesa

Forest in Autumn. Ordesa National Park, Spain / Photo:IAMZ


The call of Thematic Research Area 2 was opened for Collaborative Projects, which involves a two-step procedure with submission of pre-proposals and selection of shortlisted project consortia to submit full proposals. The closing date of the first stage for pre-poposal submissions took place on 15th of January, 2014.

Concerning the Collaborative Projects, four proposals have responded to the FORESTERRA Call.

  1. MEDITREEVAR, which was coordinated by Pr. Jesus V. Jorrín Novo, group leader of Agricultural and Plant Biochemistry and Proteomics Research Group, from University of Córdoba, Spain.
  2. INFORMED, which was coordinated by François Lefèvre, a researcher at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA, Avignon, France) and Director of the Unit of Mediterranean forest ecology.
  3. FORENANCES, under the coordination of Martin de Luis, an Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Regional Planning, University of Zaragoza.
  4. FORESTMED, which was coordinated by Domingo Alcaraz-Segura, from the Department of Botany, University of Granada.

 

Evaluation and funding

The first step of the evaluation process has been performed by 17 different experts nominated by the 13 different funding agencies participating in the Call. After the evaluation of the different excellent proposals by the Scientific Advisory Board, the Call Steering Committee of FORESTERRA announced:

- The funding of the MedWildFireLab networking action. More information on MedWildFireLab

- The invitation to the second stage of the submission process to FORENANCES and the INFORMED proposals.

In the first week of July the Collaborative projects invited to the second stage of the Foresterra call were submitted for final evaluation. As previously announced, two full proposals were invited to enter this stage:

- INFORMED, “INtegrated research on FOrest Resilience and Management in the mEDiterranean”, coordinated by François Lefèvre, from the French National Institute for Agricultural Research in Avignon (France);

- FORENANCES, “Mediterranean forests response to climate variability and extreme events. an integrative approach combining dendrosciences and forest genetics”, coordinated by Dr. Martin de Luis Arrillaga, from the University of Zaragoza (Spain).

At this final stage of the evaluation, the following criteria were assessed by the FORESTERRA Scientific Advisory Board (SAB):

  1. Scientific quality and relevance, interdisciplinarity and international competitiveness of the proposal.
  2. Capacity to lead the project by the Coordinator and scientific expertise of the consortium and added value of the transnational collaboration.
  3. Scientific expertise and interdisciplinarity of the consortium and feasibility of the proposal.
  4. Impact of the research theme and policy/stakeholder relevance. 5. Efficiency of implementation, transnational coordination, governance of the Consortium and adequacy of the budget.
Considering the result of the evaluation and the ranking recommended by SAB, the Call Steering Committee (CSC) agreed to fund the INFORMED proposal.

More information on INFORMED

 

 

 

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