In February 2020, The ERA-Net Cofund on Sustainable Crop Production (SusCrop) launched a 2nd transnational call for proposals.
Following the Co-funded Call in 2018 (1st call), the aim of this 2nd call is to support scientifically excellent transnational research, development and innovation projects that contribute to the improvement of sustainability (environmental, economic and societal) and resilience of crop production within the European Research Area (ERA). In addition, this 2nd transnational call puts greater emphasis on how projects might contribute to food and nutritional security in the light of climate change.
Sixteen funding agencies from 12 different countries (Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey and UK) supported this Call. At the 1st stage, 46 eligible pre-proposals underwent a scientific peer review process by a panel of international experts (IEP). Based on the evaluation results, the Steering Committee invited 15 consortia to submit a full proposal by September 10 at the latest. The experts and funders meetings of the full proposals were held in October-November and resulted in the selection of eight consortia for funding with a total amount of about 7,5 Mio €. Additionally, all four proposed call topics were addressed by the selected projects.
The eight projects were recommended for funding by the 2nd Call Steering Committee. The national contract negotiations for funding are currently ongoing and projects are expected to officially start early 2021.