BiodivERsA is a network composed of national organisations funding or managing research programmes on biodiversity across Europe. The objectives of this ERA-Net are to promote the cooperation between funding agencies in the field of biodiversity research and to coordinate research programmes at strategic and management levels to eventually develop and implement joint activities.

This year, the BiodivERsA partners have decided to launch a joint call for research proposals on biodiversity and ecosystem services, planned to be launched in October 2010, with a closing date in the end of January 2011.

The call will address the following themes, across all ecosystems and organisms:

a) Relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services;

b) Valuation of biodiversity and ecosystem services (monetary and non monetary), and better incorporation of biodiversity and ecosystem services into society and policy.

Countries that confirmed their commitment: France, Sweden, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Spain

Countries that should confirm their commitment soon: the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia and Norway

Countries still in discussion: Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary and Switzerland

Budget of the call: already 6,5M€ (confirmed) - should be around 10M€ for the launch of the call in October 2010

Scientific teams from the participating countries will be invited to form a transnational research consortia with teams from minimum 3 different countries (from the countries participating to the call).

The research proposals will be evaluated across criteria of scientific excellence and policy relevance. It is also expected that the European scope of the projects will provided added-value to the research carried out.

For more information see

Source: BiodivERsA

(17/08/10)