Deadline: 30-Sep-24
The European Forest Institute has launched a call for proposals to establish Climate-Smart Forestry and Forest Restoration Pilots in Europe.
FORWARDS is a project funded by the European Union that will prototype the ForestWard Observatory, a pan-European monitoring and evaluation tool that will help in demonstrating the impact of climate change on forests, guiding decision-making for practical forest management. As part of its activities, FORWARDS will establish a network of CSF and restoration pilots to provide science-based reference knowledge to guide forest management.
The aim of this Call for grants is to set up field trials across Europe for testing forest management and restoration practices, as a basis for developing an evidence-based understanding of effective CSF and restoration management practices in supporting climate change mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity.
Funding Information
- Grants of max. 140,000 € will be awarded for establishing new or continuing existing field trials in forests of relevance to CSF and restoration. The total budget for the project may, however, exceed 140,000 €.
- Projects are expected to start between December 2024 and April 2025 and can last a maximum of 18 months, although with assured continuation of the trial(s) for a minimum of three years after the end of the project.
Supported Projects and Activities
- Supported projects must address all the issues listed below:
- Establish new field trials in Europe for testing forest management and restoration practices of relevance to CSF and forest restoration or test new practices in existing field trials.
- Address at least one of the following topics:
- Strengthening of forests and forest management for climate change mitigation.
- Enhancing the resilience of forests to natural disturbances and/or droughts.
- Restoring forest biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services.
- Conduct field measurements in controls and treatments, considering forest vegetation and soils. This should include at least tree and stand-level measurements, including tree species, diameter at breast height, height, tree locations, crown dimensions, defoliation (according to ICP-Forest), increment, soil carbon and dead wood.
- Quantify impacts of management practices on multiple CSF and restoration indicators including at least carbon stocks and sequestration in forest biomass and soil, forest damage and health, tree species composition, forest productivity, and dead wood.
- Provide open access data to measurement data from the field trials.
Eligibility Criteria
- Grant applications can be submitted by one legal entity or a consortium of legal entities.
- Applicants must, by the deadline for submission of the Application, meet the following criteria to be eligible for the grant:
- Applicant is a legal entity (legal person)
- If the application is submitted by a consortium (grouping of legal persons represented by a coordinator), this criterion applies to all the participants This call is not open for applications from natural persons
- Applicant eligible for funding under the European Union Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program
- If the application is submitted by a consortium, this criterion applies to all the participants
- Applicant is a legal entity (legal person)
Ineligible
- The following legal entities (legal persons) will not be eligible for funding:
- Beneficiary or associated partner of the FORWARDS project under the Grant Agreement No. 101084481
- Entities subject European Union restrictive measures
- Israeli entities due to activities in the territories occupied by Israel (European Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05)
- Public interest trusts established under the Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity maintained by such a public interest trust (Council Implementing Decision 2022/2506)
For more information, visit European Forest Institute.