European Tropical Forest Research Network

Information meeting on EC funding sources

Minutes

The agenda covered presentations of representatives of DG Research and EuropeAid who both have funding possibilities for forest research. A summary of these possibilities is provided below. All presentations are available on this site.

Summary of funding possibilities within DG Research
Elaborated overview of these funding possibilities Word (45 kb) and PDF (95 kb).

The most important areas for forest research in the present call are (all under Program I: Focussing and Integrating European Research Area, ERA):

1. Priority 6.3. Global Change and Ecosystems. http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/sustdev.htm
2. Priority 3 (iii) New Production Processes and Devices. http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/nmp.htm
3. Special Programme 8.1. Policy-oriented Research. http:///www.cordis.lu/fp6/support.htm
4. Special Programme 10.1. International Cooperation - Developing Countries. http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/inco.htm

Please note that the topics subject to this present call will probably NOT be repeated in future calls! So if your research topic is subject of the present call, make sure you apply to this call for funding.

Other specific funding sources are:

1. Special Programme 9. Horizontal research activities involving Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) under Program I: Focussing and Integrating ERA
   • Co-operative research (CRAFT, 330 million Euro)
   • Collective Research (100 million Euro)
   • http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/sme.htm
2. Co-ordination activities (ERA-NET) under Program III: Strengthening the ERA (24 million Euro).
   The objective is to enhance the cooperation and coordination of research activities carried out at national or regional level in the Member States and Associated States through the networking of research activities conducted at national or regional level, and the mutual opening of national and regional research programmes. http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/coordination.htm
3. Theme Human resources and mobility under Program II: Structuring the ERA (1580 million Euro).
   Marie Curie actions will be opened to third country researchers, e.g. through Marie Curie Research training networks, Marie Curie Early stage host fellowship, Marie Curie Conferences and training courses and the excellence promotion schemes. http://www.cordis.lu/fp6/mobility.htm

DG Research presentations (DG Research: http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/index_en.html)
Prof. Nicole Riveill also welcomed the participants and gave a general overview of the 6th Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities (FP6). A main difference between FP6 and previous programmes are the new funding instruments: Networks of Excellence (NoE) and Integrated Projects (IP). Other changes include increased emphasis on participation by SMEs and international cooperation: all parts of the programme are open to participants from non-EU countries.

Mr. Per Backe-Hansen gave an introduction on forests research opportunities in FP6, focussing on priority 6.3. Global Change and Ecosystems. He stated that there are much less funds available for forest research in FP6 (maximum some 20-30 million Euro) in comparison to FP5 (300 million Euro). Forest research opportunities are more scattered in the present programme than before. The focus is an integrated approach on forestry/wood chain in Europe and in other parts of the world, including (sub)tropical forestry issues.

Dr. Hans-Jörg Lutzeyer gave an introduction on Special Programme 8.1. Policy-oriented Research. This is the third possibility for forest research funding, after Global Change and Ecosystems and International Cooperation. The focus is on scientific research to support EC policies.

Prof. Nicole Riveill gave a general introduction on Special Programme 10.1. Specific measures in support of International Cooperation. In fact, international co-operation will be implemented through three major routes:

• The opening of "Focusing and Integrating Community Research" to third country organisations with substantial funding (285 million Euro);
• Specific measures in support of international co-operation (315 million Euro);
• International activities under the heading of Human Resources.

The focus of the 'Specific measures in support of INCO' (closure 11 September 2003) is rational use of natural resources in (semi-)humid and coastal ecosystems. (Semi-)arid ecosystems will be included in future calls. For Mediterranean countries (INCO-MPC) the environmental focus of the present call is on water resource management; so less possibilities for forest research here.

Main results from panel DG Research staff

• All 7 priorities, including Priority 3 (iii) New Production Processes and Devices and 6.3. Global Change and Ecosystems are drafted in the interest of Europe. However, 'In the interest of Europe' could also result in projects in the South since many European partners have interests in the South. The focus of the NoE is in Europe but participation from people from the South is welcomed (e.g. in trade issues).
• It is possible to start with core partners and to bring in new participants later in the process but this should already be mentioned and budgeted in the proposal.
• Under INCO, one country from a specific region can take part in a project in another region if the project has at least 3 participants from this latter region (e.g. Brazil can take part in an African regional project if at least 3 African partners participate). Cross-regional projects could be possible (for same objectives shared by different regions).
• During the first two calls (the second call will be open in July and closed in October) there will be a maximum of one NoE or IP funded under priority 6.3.V. Sustainable land management (2.2. Forestry/wood chain for sustainable development) of 6.3. Global Change and Ecosystems. However, there are also some forest research funding possibilities under other sub-priorities of the programme (see overview), for the funding instruments NoE, IP as well as STREP, CA and SSA. The second call may have some funding possibilities for forest related issues in the broad sense.
• Priorities in the INCO work programme are based on formal consultations with groups of developing countries (for example ACP countries) or regions (ASEM, ALCUE, Mercosur etc.) concerned. The second step in the evaluation procedure of INCO concerns regional relevance; this means that the proposals are reviewed by evaluators from developing countries who will specifically look at this point.
• It was suggested to explore the possibilities to combine the EC DG Research evaluators database with the expert database of EuropeAid.
• Based on previous experience around 15-20% of project proposals will possibly be accepted.
• A synthesis of forest research funded under FP5 and lessons learnt could be done. ETFRN could play a role in this type of future outlook.

Lobbying for inclusion of forest research opportunities

• The themes and contents of FP6 were developed through discussions with member state ministers and the European Parliament who may set their own priorities on top of those of the Commission. As soon as FP7 discussions start, lobbying with national representatives and the European Parliament is very relevant, to ensure that forest research issues will be included.
• It is not certain yet whether there will be a call for EoI for the 3rd Call for Proposals. But again, you may communicate your priorities through your national representative and the European Parliament.
• Lobbying in partner countries is always relevant, especially in EuropeAid (see later) where proposals are sent to EC delegates in partner countries to comment.

DG Environment (http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/index_en.htm) and DG Development (http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/index_en.htm)
Unfortunately the representatives of DG Environment and DG Development had to cancel their participation in this meeting at short notice. However, the policy framework for forests and development was covered by the EuropeAid presentation (also see http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/sector/forestry_en.htm).

DG EuropeAid presentation (http://europa.eu.int/comm/europeaid/index_en.htm)
Dr. Joachim Kreysa of DG EuropeAid gave an introduction to the tropical forest policy framework and the tropical forest & environment budget lines which are managed by the department he is working with. The overall development policy framework has 6 priorities:

1. Trade and development
2. Regional integration (pool resources)
3. Macro-economic policy and equitable access to social services
4. Transport
5. Sustainable rural development
6. Institutional capacity building ('helping people to help themselves')

Cross-cutting themes are Human rights, Environment, Gender, and Good governance. Especially the 2nd and 4th are relevant in forests activities. As DG Research has done, Dr. Kreysa agreed on the need to take forests out of its isolation and make its role in poverty alleviation and sustainable development better known and appreciated in general development co-operation. See for more details the forthcoming Strategy Paper.

The strategic guidelines and priorities for 2002-2003 are (also see http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/sector/forestry_en.htm):

1. Good governance: illegal logging, forest ownership, sustainable management of forests (emphasis on enhancing local capacity for sustainable forest management)
2. Climate change: CDM, capitalise climate change importance, financial flow and evaluation of forest goods and services
3. National Forest Programs: help forest dependent people to participate in the NFP process
4. Forest biological diversity: implementation of CDB

Following the last call under the tropical forest budget line, around 600 proposals were received. In 2001 only 20-30 projects could be funded, so the remaining proposals were used for 2002 when another 30 projects were funded. This results in a success rate of only 10%.

The Call for Proposals for 2003 is still preliminary (will be published in May/June 2003), but will probably focus on those issues not covered well in previous portfolios: illegal logging and climate change. It is not yet clear whether other topics will be excluded or given lower priority. Research funded under EuropeAid will always be in the context of development, by focussing on capacity building and drawing lessons from knowledge gathering.

Research topics / EoI presentations
Prof. Jeffrey Sayer presented the MULTIFORNET EoI on multifunctional forests and landscapes. Since he did not have a powerpoint presentation we will summarise his presentation here. He explained that this EoI originated from the idea that research is dispersed between different disciplines. The multifunctionality concept is taken as a tool to balance poverty alleviation and international obligations on biodiversity conservation (CDB etc.). The strategy is to have a number of sites which form the organising framework under this network of excellence. The proposal is in fact the process to create the research platform in which the steps to be taken will be:

• set the priorities
• set the conditions for scientists to take part in the consortium
• use modelling tools
• define indicators for success
• knowledge management systems at each sites.

There will be 3 components for research to enable cross-site comparison. Possible topics may be forest governance, illegal logging, tenure, environmental payment. At each site there will be a governing structure, with an additional governing structure at the overall network level.
He gave 2 comments in the end:

• He questioned the strategy of FP6 for large NoE, since apart from the too high transaction costs, it has already been proven that much more is achieved by smaller groups. No network of more than 6 people produced anything of interest so far. It would be much better to instead start small and grow during the process.
• The development of forestry in the last 20 years has been towards multi-disciplinarity, conservation of biodiversity, ecosystem or even landscape approaches, and the integration of forests in poverty alleviation strategies. A solely focus on the production of wood is passé. The international community as well as international commitments are advocating a long-term multi-disciplinary approach in large-scale forest systems and landscapes.

Prof. Maria Teresa Sebastià presented the CARBODIVERS EoI on ecosystem dynamics under climate change. Dr. Hans Vellema presented the IMPulSED EoI on forests and poverty alleviation. Mrs. Chantal Marijnissen of FERN presented the main findings of the report on Controlling imports of illegal timber: options for Europe.

Working groups

Multifunctional forests & poverty alleviation (merged)
Some issues raised were:

• Communities could also provide a platform for research, in which way their needs can be voiced. Some examples were given on projects where the voice of developing countries in general was heard, like Uganda (John Palmer) and Australia (Jeff Sayer).
• Integrating forests in poverty alleviation strategies is rather new, and certainly not the quickest way of poverty alleviation. Still forests are important for livelihoods of many people, see also upcoming international conference on Rural Livelihoods, Forests and Biodiversity of CIFOR (http:///www.cifor.cgiar.org/shared/template/livelihoodconference.asp). One of the main challenges could be the improvement of the tax system.
• Focussing on human resource capacity building (i.e. training) is not sufficient. We need a stronger foundation through institutional capacity building.

Because there were still many issues unclear about the FP6, other issues addressed were questions about the FP6 itself. These are covered above.

Ecosystem dynamics under climate change
This group talked about species distribution and dispersal, and carbon sinks and sequestration, and the importance of these issues for developing countries. Also here, the majority of the time was then spent on still remaining questions on how to proceed from here.

Illegal logging
This group provided their working group minutes, see 'Follow-up by participants'. They discussed definitions and regulations, and summarised 2 main issues which nee attention: law enforcement, and detecting & monitoring / GIS. They also addressed the possible role of ETFRN as a coordinating body. The Worldbank has written a document on the conference on log tracking, which was recalled to be an excellent document on pros and cons of tracking.

Closing
Chairman Dr. Malmer closed the meeting and indicated that ETFRN could act as notice board and facilitator to link up people, for the purpose of proposal development.