Deadline: 15-Dec-22
The French National Research Agency (ANR) is calling for expressions of interest to objectify the potential of research projects and identify the consortia, or even the laboratories likely to respond to future calls for projects, whether they are formed around public or private laboratories already known to work on FCMs or food packaging or containers, or that they are new entrants in the field.
These different elements will make it possible to specify, and if necessary to prioritize the axes of the call for projects which will follow, intended to select research projects with a view to their financing.
The objective of the national program is therefore to support basic and applied research areas that will make it possible to identify and remove the obstacles in the design and development of packaging, including food safety (toxicological, eco-toxicological and microbiological harmlessness ) will be guaranteed, even in the event of reduction, recycling, reuse and sale in bulk, while guaranteeing their specific functionalities.
Goals
- A call for expressions of interest (AMI) is set up first, with the following goals:
- To objectify the potential of research projects, to identify consortia likely to respond to future calls for projects, whether they are formed around public or private laboratories already known to work on FCMs or packaging or food containers, or that they constitute new entrants in the field, with the possibility of positioning oneself on one-off projects, mobilizing their current research orientations.
- To identify and specify the themes on which the consortia, including individual laboratories for one-off projects, are able to make short-term research proposals, and to establish an initial state of the art of the domain.
Themes
- Projects must take into account items in the areas proposed:
- Axis 1: new packaging or containers (substitution of materials, recycling).
- Axis 2: reuse/industrial reuse, reuse/reuse in collective catering, reuse/reuse in home delivery service, bulk and domestic reuse.
- Axis 3: optimize the functionalities of new materials, recycled materials and reused or reused packaging while taking into consideration their food safety and sustainability.
Eligible Projects
- Projects should focus on:
- Food safety of packaging, relative to new public health issues (endocrine disruptors, additives, etc.) or new health risks arising from either the substitution of materials, the incorporation of recycled raw materials, recourse to reuse or bulk, in particular caused by the evolution of the regulation and the introduction of proactive performance requirements;
- Optimization of the packaging-product relationship, with a view to jointly ensuring advances in nutrition and the impacts of foods on health, on the one hand, and the food-grade packaging, on the other hand.
- They will be able to take into account the different contexts of use: industrial, collective catering, home delivery, domestic.
- The knowledge generated by the projects should allow:
- To control the food quality of the packaging or containers in an adequate manner at each stage with verifiable requirements;
- A systematic analysis of hazards and extending predictive approaches to food safety to
- Different compositions of packaging or containers, packaged foods and treatment processes;
- Control systems and intervention strategies to reduce risks.
- Research projects on the sustainability of food packaging without considering their food quality may be redirected towards the acceleration strategy “recyclability, recycling, reincorporation of recycled materials” subject to meeting its priorities.
Evaluation Criteria
For the final evaluation of the projects submitted to the forthcoming call for projects, the evaluation criteria are given as an indication to guide holders when drafting their response file to the CEI.
- Excellence and scientific ambition:
- Clarity of research objectives and hypotheses;
- Innovative character, ambition, originality, methodological or conceptual break of the project in relation to the state of the art;
- Relevance of the methodology.
- Quality of the consortium, resources mobilized and governance:
- Competence, expertise and involvement of the project manager: ability to coordinate multidisciplinary and ambitious consortia, academic background, international recognition;
- Quality and complementarity of the scientific consortium with regard to the objectives of the Project;
- Adequacy between the human and financial resources mobilized (including those requested within the framework of the project) in relation to the targeted objectives;
- Relevance of the schedule (especially in the context of long projects), management of scientific risks and alternative solutions, credibility of proposed milestones;
- Relevance and effectiveness of project governance (steering, organization, animation, establishment of advisory committees, etc.).
- Impact and benefits of the project:
- Ability of the project to respond to the research challenges of the chosen scientific axis;
- Economic and societal impacts, contribution to the development of solutions in response to the challenges of the priority areas of the National Strategy;
- Dissemination strategy (in itinere and ex post) and promotion of results, membership to the principles of FAIR, Open Science and the promotion of scientific culture.
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