Deadline: 23rd September 2023 | Merging Climate Change & Biodiversity into the Forest Authority of the Future
Does the work you do support strong, resilient, and fruitful forests? You could find what you’re looking for in the Velux Stiftung’s request for proposals on innovative, sustainable, and integrated forest management.
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The development or integration of strategies for coping with or reducing climate change, fostering biodiversity, offering services for resilient ecosystems, and producing sustainable forest products are the main objectives of this call for proposals in forestry. Additionally, they are looking for suggestions that convert the theoretical and abstract values of forest goods and services through motivating action and behavioural change.
Your proposal may be for a stakeholder-engaged implementation-focused research study that has a strong chance of promoting change in practise. A science practise network that jointly develops or employs strategies that advance the program’s objectives can be your idea instead. Projects inside already-established science-practice networks or those starting new ones can also receive support.
The forestry program’s mission and objectives
Vision
- Innovative sustainable forest management techniques are widely used and help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt forests to climate change, and promote biodiversity without ignoring the fact that there is a demand for forest products, including timber and non-timber forest products (NTFPs), on a global scale.
- In order to create resilient forest ecosystems that take into account the local context, stakeholders including scientists, forest managers, forest owners, indigenous peoples and smallholders, policy makers, and conservationists collaborate and cooperate together.
Goals
- In order to address the urgent problems of climate change and biodiversity loss as well as society’s need for forest products, particularly wood and non-timber forest products (NTFPs), the programme will contribute to a shift in viewpoint about the use and value of forests and sustainable forest management.
- The envisioned shift in thinking will be problem-focused and built on collaboration between scientists and practitioners.
- The implementation of sustainable forest management will provide forests that can retain biodiversity, act as a carbon sink, and supply forest products. Financial innovation and improved framework conditions will offer leverage in this regard.
- According to the Velux Stiftung statutes, the programme aids in “maintaining and fostering the stability of ecosystems” on a global scale.
Thematic Focus
- Innovative, sustainable, and integrative forest management to create and deliver solutions for climate change adaptation or mitigation, fostering biodiversity, providing resilient ecosystem services, and supplying sustainable forest products, such as:
- To provide stakeholders more options, quantify how new integrative management techniques affect ecosystem services at the landscape level.
- Identify and create management scenarios for climate change and extreme events with the goal of providing forest owners with decision support.
- In a high-dimensional uncertainty space, develop methodological ways for producing projections for reliable solutions in long-lived ecosystems, etc.
- Motivating factors for action and altering behaviour through shifting theoretical and abstract values of forest goods and services, such as:
- determining the economic worth of non-consumable items such environmental services, biodiversity, cultural legacy, and the potential value of damage prevention
- Give specifics about how timber certification affects communities locally and/or globally.
- Enhance the processes or mechanisms used to pay for ecosystem services (PES), such as credits for forest carbon or biodiversity, etc.
- Research addressing understudied issues with a high potential to influence change is given priority.
Financial Details
Projects may be funded for up to CHF 100,000 per year for a period of one to four years, with at least 10% going towards knowledge transfer. Projects with several partners are feasible.
Geographical focus: Boreal, temperate, tropical, and subtropical forest-related projects are all invited.
eligibility
- They accept collaborative ventures. A university or other research institution must be represented by at least one of the partners. Other partners may include consultancy or (non-) governmental organisations, associations of forest owners or professionals. The PI must be an individual with a status of ongoing employment. Tax exemption must be granted to the PI’s organisation.
- They encourage international research, but they also accept proposals from Swiss institutions or cross-border collaborations. They demand that a collaboration be well defined and abide by the rules of an equitable and joint venture.
- Potential application categories research initiatives funding for research initiatives that are unconventional, interdisciplinary, implementation- or transfer-focused and have a strong potential to influence practise. Interdisciplinary fundamental research initiatives may receive sponsorship if the lack of alternative funding sources is convincingly justified.
- Science and practise networks: funding for developing or putting into action the research themes through the establishment of new or supporting existing multidisciplinary networks.
Visit the Velux Foundation website for additional details.
