The ECOPRONAT research programme aims to develop knowledge and methodologies to mainstream biodiversity in the policies and various sectors of AFD Group's interventions, to mobilise financial resources, and build capacities. This Request for Expressions of Interest targets research on two related themes (one with the other in a "mainstreaming" perspective): transformative changes in development models (development of knowledge in order to integrate biodiversity into agriculture, land use and cities sectors and policies), and the mobilization of financial resources to finance these changes.
The objectives of the research should be to:
- document the research results and experiments on biodiversity mainstreaming in the three sectors concerned by the program (agriculture and natural resources; land use planning and management of the consumption of space including agriculture, cities and water areas; and green cities)
- provide tools and insights based on the best available science that are useful for the design and implementation of official development assistance projects in these three sectors, whether by donors, recipients (administrations of the Global South in particular) or implementing partners (NGOs, consultancy firms, etc.).
The Request for Expressions of Interest will shortlist particularly promising research intentions, the promoters of which will then be invited to develop a complete proposal for final selection in the second phase.
Eligibility of research proponents:
Universities and research centers, NGOs, private foundations, international research centers and companies (including consultancy firms and individual consultants), which will make all their research public (no research involving a confidentiality agreement on the results and/or giving rise to patenting will be eligible).
Particular attention will be paid to ensuring that funding reaches not only actors from developed countries but also those from the Global South. Proposals that involve and build the capacities of researchers from the Global South in the design, implementation and especially production of research results will be selected in priority.
A given organisation may be part of several consortia at the stage of this Request for Expressions of Interest but may only be in a maximum of one consortium at the time of submission of the full proposals.
Geographical areas:
All AFD countries of intervention are eligible, but a non-exclusive geographical priority to partner countries of the Biodev 2030 Facility will be sought: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Ethiopia, Fiji, Gabon, Guinea, Guyana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Senegal, Tunisia, Uganda, Vietnam.
Sectors of activity concerned:
Given the diversity of economic sectors concerned by the need to mainstream biodiversity, the ECOPRONAT program focuses its research efforts on three of these sectors. This is to avoid spreading itself too thinly and to aim for significant impacts on models, methods and techniques:
- of agriculture, including forestry;
- of land use planning in relation to the issues of infrastructure development, the consumption of areas and artificialisation of land;
- of urban development.
The links between these three sectors - focusing on issues related to mainstreaming biodiversity, are also among the programme's priorities (e.g. land-use planning integrating biodiversity from cities to the countryside and vice versa, or cities’ biodiversity footprint on their food supply basin integration method). Multidisciplinary research projects that reach across sectors, as well as those that integrate the issue of financing the transformative changes induced, are therefore sought as a priority.
Available budget:
The total budget allocated to one or two research projects selected is EUR 445,000 inclusive of all taxes.
Duration of the projects:
The selected projects may run for a period of one to three years maximum.
