Call for Applications for Associated Regions to Support the restoration and protection of biodiversity
ClosedDescription
Expectations from the associated regions: Bidirectional involvement: Engage actively with the BioProtect project to enhance motivation for planning and implementing activities. Community of Practice: Join the BioProtect Community of practice (CoP) to exchange experiences and best practices, ensuring sustainability and extension of the project's objectives beyond its duration. Knowledge sharing: Bidirectional knowledge sharing. Continuously receive and share outcomes and knowledge from demonstrators and the Lighthouse, along with technical assistance to develop and test the ABM-DSF in their regions.
Beneficiary & submission
Submission & evaluation process
Admissibility and Eligibility check
· Submission system. Proposals need to be submitted through the Open Call management tool Call for Applications for Associated Regions to Support the restoration and protection of biodiversity. Proposals submitted by any other means, will not be admitted.
· Deadline. Proposals need to be submitted before January 2nd 2025. Applications must be submitted by the closing time and date of the open call. The time recorded by the Microsoft form, as submission time of the proposal, will be the official one. Late proposals will not be admitted.
· English-language. English is the official language for the open calls. The proposal must be in English in all its mandatory parts in order to be admitted.
Additionally, proposals received will be checked against the Eligibility Check Criteria:
· Type of Activity and Scope
· Type of organisation
· Established in an EU Member State or Associated Country other than consortium partner countries (as described in above)
The eligibility criteria are checked against the self-declarations included in the application form. Later on, during the evaluation process, the above criteria will be verified, and if an applicant is not compliant with any of them, the application will be excluded.
TIMELINE
Evaluation and selection: January 2nd- March 31st 2025
Granting completed: April 30th 2025
Project implementation: From May 1st 2025
Project end: April 30st 2027
Further information
Call for proposals
We are pleased to announce the launch of a call for associated regions[1] to participate in the BioProtect project. We are looking for 5 associated regions (replication sites) that will be actively involved during the demonstration period (2025-2027) and after to showcase the feasibility of the Area-based management solutions and prepare for implementation and scale up of the tested tools and technologies in their area.
The objective of the call is to facilitate the replication of demonstrated technologies and tools for marine restoration and protection of biodiversity in associated regions in new projects during BioProtect (2025-2027). Suitable associated regions are the ones that face similar challenges and needs for restoration and protection of biodiversity measures as the demonstration sites (Read more here: https://bioprotect-project.eu/demonstration-sites/).
WHO CAN APLY
Eligible beneficiaries for this call are local and/or regional organisations from Member States[2] and associated countries[3] (in this reference the countries under the header "Other third countries" are not eligible for FSTP) to the Horizon Europe Programme. Project lead by local and/or regional authorities will be prioritised, and in any case, projects must include a local/regional authority. We will aim to select one associate region as a replication site for each of the five demonstration sites. Please note that applicants from the following countries where a project partner of BioProtect is located are ineligible for this call i.e., Greece, Portugal, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Norway, and are excluded from the list of potential beneficiaries. Applicants should have a good command of English, must be eligible for participation in the EC Horizon Europe Framework Programme and must ensure the following obligations of the Grant Agreement [4], namely Articles 12 (conflict of interest), 13 (confidentiality and security), 14 (ethics), 17.2 (visibility), 18 (specific rules for carrying out action), 19 (information) and 20 (record-keeping).
The selected beneficiaries commit to carry out the following activities in their role as an associated region to the BioProtect project:
· Participate in workshops and meetings for knowledge transfer during BioProtect
· Participate in providing feedback to improve the BioProtect tools
· Collaborate on enhancing solutions for broader application
· Engage relevant local stakeholders to co-evaluate the success of the solutions.
FUNDING & ELIGIBILITY
The grant each associated region can apply for is up to €100.000. Specified costs needed to be used to prepare for replication of given methods and technologies in the region as described above. Eligible direct costs (e.g.): Travel to workshops and meetings, direct costs for hosting local workshops, information material.
[1] Associated regions are understood as "areas with similar ecosystems (e.g., neighbouring regions and/or regions in a different river basin) and/or less-developed regions, to build capacity to implement innovative solutions/Area-based management solutions." The ‘associated regions’ may be represented by (i) individual organisations or (ii) a consortium.
[2] Members States: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/programme-guide_horizon_en.pdf
[3] Associated Countries https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/guidance/list-3rd-country-participation_horizon-euratom_en.pdf (in this reference the countries under the header "Other third countries" are not eligible for FSTP)
[4] https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/agr-contr/unit-mga_he_en.pdf