BBSRC has announced a call for collaborative proposals to address research challenges relating to the sustainable intensification of agricultural systems in developing countries.
The aim of this call is to enhance livelihoods through interdisciplinary research to improve agricultural systems by understanding, at multiple scales, interactions between the biology of crops and farmed animals (including aquaculture), their environments and management.
The call is funded from the UK government’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). As well as being scientifically excellent, research supported under it must meet the criteria for classification of expenditure as Official Development Assistance (ODA). Up to £8 million is available, subject to the quality of proposals received.
Proposals must be led by an eligible Principal Investigator (PI) in the UK, but are expected to be co-designed and delivered in equitable partnerships with “in-country” researchers – who should be included as Co-Investigators (Co-Is) – to deliver tangible benefits to Development Assistance Committee (DAC)-listed countries. They must be based on an existing UK-DAC-list country partnership, evidence of which should be provided. This should include details of earlier collaborative research and outputs that can be built on.
As well as demonstrating how it builds on earlier work by existing collaborators, the proposal must describe how it relates to relevant ongoing and past research by others, in order to demonstrate that the proposed new work would be innovative and complementary, and not duplicative.
The proposal should also demonstrate clear links to relevant stakeholders in the target country/countries. Due to the requirement for projects to begin on 1 April 2019, and be completed within two years, we expect all consortium building and project scoping to have taken place before submitting a proposal.
Funds can be requested for up to two years. The call will close on 19 September 2018, and projects must start no later than 1 April 2019.