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Belmont Forum: Africa Regional call for proposals

© gettyimages | Orbon Alija

The SNSF is taking part in the Belmont Forum’s Africa Regional call for proposals.

Since 2009, the Belmont Forum, whose members include funding organisations, scientific councils and regional consortia, has been funding calls for proposals, also known as Collaborative Research Actions (CRA), to promote international transdisciplinary research in the context of global environmental change. As a full member of the Belmont Forum, the SNSF will be participating in the Africa Regional CRA.

Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents when it comes to climate change, and a large number of areas have already been adversely affected, ranging from loss of biodiversity, water shortages and decreased agricultural yields to the increased impact of heat stress-related diseases, the exacerbation of national security issues and conflicts, to name just a few. The aim of this call for proposals is to bring together international and transdisciplinary research teams led by African scientists and stakeholders to meet the priorities and requirements that they have identified and grouped under three different topics:

  1. Water, energy, food and health nexus
  2. Pollution
  3. Disaster preparedness, responsiveness and recovery

Given the complexity and scale of the challenges, research consortia must be transdisciplinary and therefore include researchers in the fields of:

  • social sciences / humanities / economics and
  • natural sciences / physical sciences / technology, as well as
  • social partners (i.e. citizens, industrial partners, community organisations and other stakeholders), using a participatory, joint design, joint development and joint implementation approach.

Each project must address at least one of the specified themes and include at least three eligible senior researchers from three funding organisations from at least three different countries taking part in the programme. At least two of the countries represented in the consortium must be African. For consortia with a large number of participating countries, at least half of the countries must be African. You will find a list of the participating countries on the Belmont Forum’s official website.

At least one non-academic partner (e.g. a community or industrial organisation) must be included in the consortium. Familiarise yourself with the national directives and get in touch with the contact person for further information and to check beforehand whether you meet the eligibility conditions.

Please note that a letter of intent must be submitted by 02 September 2024 before a full proposal can be submitted on 5 February 2025. Full proposals are to be submitted on the platform indicated by the Belmont Forum and in parallel on mySNF for applicants based in Switzerland.