Agropolis Fondation - Fondazione Cariplo 2013 Joint Call for Proposals (CfP) CERES [Ref. CfP ]

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1 Agropolis Fondation - Fondazione Cariplo 2013 Joint Call for Proposals (CfP) CERES [Ref. CfP ] TERMS OF REFERENCE I. Rationale Cereals play a significant role in the economy and nutrition in both the developed and the developing world given its central role in human diet. Roughly half of the world s cropland is devoted to growing cereals. Wheat, rice, maize, rye, oats and barley are the world s six major cereals, with the first three alone accounting for nearly 90% of all grain production worldwide in 2010 (FAO, 2010). Grain in the form of rice, wheat, millet, or maize constitutes a majority of daily sustenance in some developing nations whereas in developed nations, cereal consumption is varied but still substantial. Other cereals such as durum wheat, sorghum, millet, triticale, buckwheat, fonio, quinoa, teff, etc, are also playing an important socio-economic role in food systems. A number of these cereals are important in maintaining a balanced diet, particularly for women and children in poor areas (e.g., calcium and iron-rich teff). Some minor cereals and pseudo-cereals (e.g., fonio) are adapted to drought while some grow on poor soils, unfit for other crops. However, the productivity of cereal production systems needs to be improved and the quality as well as the safety of the final product has to be ensured in order to meet the growing demand of a growing world population. One of the main challenges is therefore to ensure its supply by boosting its production with less land, water, labor and other inputs, in more efficient, climate-smart and environmentally-friendly production systems. Fondazione Cariplo and Agropolis Fondation are joining forces to support scientific research projects on cereals in an effort to contribute to sustainable cereal production and consumption systems. This collaboration promotes common actions between France, Italy and other international stakeholders in order to contribute to knowledge sharing, scientific capacity building, and facilitate research uptake. II. Scope of the Call for Proposals (CfP) 1) This joint Call for Proposals (CfP) is being made within the framework of the Partnership Agreement between Agropolis Fondation and Fondazione Cariplo. Given that the initial collaboration between the two foundations focused on rice (see the FIRST CfP launched in 2012), the current CfP shall cover all cereals other than rice except in cases where rice is included for comparative and multi-crop studies. This Call may also consider the use of model plants for comparative approaches provided that the project is dedicated to crops of socioeconomic interest. 2) Proposed projects should be anchored on original scientific approaches privileging integration (from genes to systems, up to the final use of products) and interdisciplinary approach 1

2 (biological sciences, engineering, social and economic sciences). The following structuring, integrating, interdisciplinary axes are of particular interest in the context of this joint CfP: a) Development of plant phenotypes. This aims to increase the fundamental knowledge of the way cereals function in their environment through an approach integrating the various levels of organization, from gene to plant population, in order to better optimize the utilization of genetic diversity and adopt production systems. This may include, among others, the creation of varieties that are resistant to stresses and diseases (brown rust, mycotoxin contamination) while retaining the characteristics expected by the markets (grain quality, protein content and quality); exploring diversity of cereals and their management by farmers in order to better conserve and exploit their genetic resources; identifying new traits of agronomic interest that will serve as new targets for selection b) Diversity of interrelations between plants and bio-aggressors. This extends the study of plants to their interrelations with their bio-aggressors which have a major repercussion on the quantity and quality of the crops in the context of changing climate conditions, reduction in the quantity of accredited pesticides, emergence of new risks and ecological intensification. It may also cover, among others, analysis and modeling of damages due to pathogens viz. production conditions and climatic changes. c) Agro-ecosystems, territories, services and innovation. This refers to the analysis of the transformations, disruptions, and transitions of agro-ecosystems and the social systems that manage them in the face of ecological intensification. It thus covers various topics including nutrient use efficiency, design of production and cropping patterns tailored to different cereal production systems; sustainable water management in cereal production systems; post-harvest improvement; technological innovations in the whole value chain; development of systems for large scale adoption of cereal technologies; and quantitative assessment of domestic and trade policies at the national, regional and global level. d) Integrated approaches for assessing, controlling and improving the quality of plant products. This includes, among others, biology of microorganisms required to improve the reliability of bio-process and product quality and to better control food-borne pathogens and reduce food spoilage; improving existing processing tools and developing new techniques to obtain more eco-friendly transformation systems; looking at new desired properties (e.g., sensory, nutritional, environmental, etc.) of final products, new engineering and processing; improving knowledge on the structures supporting quality traits and of the factors which impact them throughout the plant growing and transformation chain for all aspects of quality (nutritional, sensorial and physico-chemical characteristics, aptitude to undergo specific transformation processes), etc. 3) Projects to be funded under this joint CfP are expected to: a) Have a high potential in creating positive development impact; b) Result into a real scientific breakthrough and/or promote research uptake; c) Allow research teams involved to position themselves and gain visibility at the international level; d) Facilitate and reinforce collaboration involving scientists and stakeholders from France, Italy as well as developing and emerging countries; e) Foster linkages with international research centers working on cereals and/or major international initiatives on the subject. 4) For this Joint CfP, an over-all budget of 2M is available for a small number of collaborative research projects. Funding request for each project should be for a minimum of 300K over three years. III. Eligibility 1) Within the spirit of collaboration between the two foundations, this Call will fund collaborative research projects jointly performed by researchers from France, Italy, as well as from emerging or developing countries. Eligible projects shall involve: a. at least one partner from France; b. at least one partner from Italy; and 2

3 c. at least one partner from an emerging or developing country (e.g., national research centers or international agricultural research organizations devoted to the agri-food research); d. Other organizations 1 if appropriate. 2) The research projects shall be co-led by an Italian and a French organization, with each of the co-lead institutions coordinating the participation and involvement of their respective partner organizations 3) The lead French scientist should be from a research unit that is part of Agropolis Fondation s scientific network. 2 French scientists outside of the Foundation s scientific network may be associated in a project as a partner. As regards the lead Italian scientist, he/she should be from a research organization within Fondazione Cariplo s reference area, i.e., the provinces in Lombardy and provinces of Novara and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola (VCO) in the Piedmont region 3. Italian scientists outside of the Fondazione Cariplo s reference area may be associated in a project as a partner. Other parties interested to submit a proposal or be involved in a project are highly encouraged to contact directly the concerned research unit(s) in writing. IV. Categories of funding and eligible expenditures 1) Under the present Call, collaborative research projects to be funded are expected to create a strong leverage effect on the promotion or strengthening of strategic scientific themes and international visibility. 2) Research projects proposed may include request for any or a combination of the following (See: Annex Table of Funding Categories): Fellowship (Senior, Junior, Post-doc, Doctoral, visiting scientist for a short-period of stay) Support to hosting pre-doctoral students Support for education- and training-oriented initiatives (e.g., international thematic schools, etc.) Support for the organization of high-level scientific events (conferences, seminars, workshops, etc.) Overseas travel grants for Doctoral students, Post-docs and scientists of the network Support for publication and dissemination of research results Support for small exploratory, risky and innovative projects (proof-of-concept studies, new frontier research) including training by research projects 3) Eligible costs are restricted to expenditures directly related to the project, such as: Personnel 4 recruitment costs (temporary scientific personnel to be specifically involved in the project) Consultancies and services subcontracted specifically for the project Consumables and laboratory equipment costs Publication and dissemination costs Travel expenses Patents costs Overhead (max 4% of the overall requested amount) 4) Non-eligible items include items such as: Expenditures linked to internal services Salaries of staff that are not specifically recruited for the project Expenditures linked to infrastructure 1 For-profit organizations are not eligible to receive funding under this Call. They are, however, encouraged to provide counterpart funding towards the implementation of the project. 2 For the list of the Foundation s research units, please visit 3 Not for profit research organizations with legal headquarter or the research infrastructures based in the FC reference area are eligible. 4 Contracts duration should be within the duration of the project 3

4 5) The project s full cost should be presented including counterparts from the applicants and their partners. 6) To the extent possible, proponents shall ensure a balanced funding repartition between the French and Italian teams involved as well as their partners. It should also be commensurate to the respective roles of the parties involved. V. Evaluation process 1) Eligible proposals shall be evaluated by international experts on the basis of the following criteria: a) Scientific quality: originality, innovativeness, feasibility b) Extent of interactions and partnership strengthening Integration (from genes to systems, up to the final use of products) Inter-disciplinary approach (biological sciences, engineering, social and economic sciences) Interactions between temperate, tropical and Mediterranean/emerging/developing country issues to be tackled by the proposed project Partnership quality, in particular between France and Italy as well as with partners from emerging and developing countries, international players/initiatives and/or other organizations c) Contribution to international attractiveness and visibility d) Relevance to socio-economic and sustainable development issues Potential to result into a real scientific breakthrough useful to address major sustainable development issues linked to plants Potential uptake of research results/outputs Link to broader issues related to sustainable development e) Value addition of the financial support from Agropolis Fondation and Fondazione Cariplo as compared to other sources of funding 2) In addition to the above, proposals submitted under the present Call shall also consider the following: a) Strong scientific leadership and proven capacity to mobilize partners b) Robustness of the capacity building component, including the involvement and training of young researchers c) Involvement of local stakeholders (e.g., local breeders, community-based organizations) in order to facilitate research uptake and development impact d) Clarity of project management and coordination e) Adequacy of project budget VI. Submitting proposals and provisional Calendar 1) All proposals must be written in English and must follow the prescribed format for the present Call. It should include all the following documents, in Word and Excel format as well as in PDF format: Application Form (Recommended: 10 pages; Maximum: 20 pages; Font: Verdana; size : 8) Annexes (limited to the following) o Logical Framework (Annex 1) o Gantt Chart (Annex 2) o Financial Table (Annex 3) o Letters of commitment from the partner in case of co-funding, if applicable (Annex 4) o Required CVs (3-page per CV maximum, Annex 5 ) o For the Italian team, a grant request letter (Annex 6) 4

5 2) All proposals must be sent electronically to both and by the deadline indicated below. 3) Neither Agropolis Fondation nor Fondazione Cariplo shall be held responsible for submissions not received due to technical problems preventing the transfer of proposals electronically. 4) By submitting a proposal, the proponents assure that they have obtained the approval of all the participants involved in the project. The application form should bear the signature of the head of the research unit/institution of both the French and Italian co-leaders. 5) Incomplete, late and submissions exceeding the maximum number of pages allowed (application form and annexes) and which does not respect the required font will be automatically disqualified. VII. Provisional Calendar Launch of the 2013 Call for Proposals 03 June 2013 Deadline for the submission of Proposals Late and incomplete submissions will not be accepted. 13 September 2013 Publication of results December 2013 VIII. Documents attached Table of Funding Categories Application Form Project LOGFRAME Gantt Chart Financial Table Grant request letter (For the Italian team only) IX. Documents available online All documents related to the present Call for Proposals are available online at 5