Deadline: 26-Nov-20
The Dutch Research Council (NWO), through the Merian Fund, and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has launched a call for proposals on “Cleaning Ganga and Agri Water”.
This joint DST-NWO research call aims to contribute to Cleaning the Ganga, which is defined as high priority field for the Indian and Dutch governments and water sector. The call will focus in particular on the impact of agriculture on the Ganga water system and the related scopes for interventions. The Hindon sub-basin is selected as case area. The call addresses several SDG’s, in particular 2 (Zero Hunger), 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and 13 (Climate Action). In The Netherlands this topic links to the topsectors Water & Maritime, Horticulture & Starting Materials and Agro&Food and one of the 4 societal missions defined in the new Mission-Oriented Research and Innovation Policy, ‘Agriculture, water and food’. This call in Indian context will be in line with the significant National Missions such as “Namami Ganga” and “Swatch Bharat”.
Many societal challenges are complex and interrelated. To address them requires collaboration, flexibility and creativity to achieve results for effective and impactful solutions. DST and NWO aim to stimulate strong, sustainable research collaboration between their two countries, in projects that work on scientific knowledge and sustainable, innovative solutions with high scientific and societal impact.
- Cleaning the Ganga
- The river Ganga stretches from the hills of Uttarakhand to its delta in West Bengal, where it covers the area between Gangotri and the Bay of Bengal. Along that route, the Ganga provides a life line for about 450 million people in high population density zonesin India, including more than 50 major citieslocated in its basin. Its waters contain around 25% of all water resources of India. The river basin significantly contributes to food production with 50% of the area irrigated for agriculture and a high potential for fisheries. It is also the home of several unique and highly endangered species, like the Ganges river dolphin, Ganges shark, the gharial and several turtle species. For ages, the river Ganga has been an integral part of Indian spirituality, a symbol of faith, hope, culture and sanity and the centre of social and religious tradition in the Indian sub-continent.
- Impact of agriculture on the Ganga water system
- Pollution from domestic/urban sources, industries, agriculture and alterations in surface water hydrology and groundwater are considered key water management issues for the Ganga river basin. Existing research and public-private initiatives on cleaning the Ganga mainly focus on urban/domestic and industrial pressures. The impact of agriculture, however, on the water quality and quantity of the Ganga river system is significant yet inadequately understood. The effects of agri-chemicals, like pesticides and fertilizers, and over-extraction of groundwater, which prevents effective dilution of pollutants, need to be determined before effective interventions for improvement can be proposed.
- Case area: Hindon sub-basin
- The Hindon basin in the State of Uttar Pradesh is one of the most negatively affected sub-basins of the Ganga river basin, and therefore selected as case area in this call. Water quality does not meet standards, is unsafe for drinking and bathing, and degrades further downstream as 34 drains along the river path of Hindon discharge mostly untreated sewage effluents into the river. Upstream districts are relatively more rural, downstream districts more urbanised. Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Baghpat are the main agricultural districts. A total of 48% of the Hindon basin area is under agricultural cultivation and 4% of the land use is forest/green covered area. Sugarcane and wheat are the most widely grown crops in the region, followed by rice.
- Research areas
- This joint DST-NWO research call aims to contribute to Cleaning the Ganga, in particular related to the impact of agriculture on the Ganga water system in the Hindon sub-basin. This requires a better understanding of the impact of agriculture on the water quality and availability in the catchment area of the Hindon, taking into account the above-mentioned issues. Furthermore, the call aims for knowledge to develop effective interventions in the agricultural water management to reduce negative effects, including technical and non-technical application-oriented solutions as well as the governance and policy recommendations required for sustainable implementation.
Funding Information
- The total budget for this call is M € 1.4 on the Dutch, and Rs. 11 crores on the Indian side. With the available total budget, NWO and DST aim to fund up to two projects with a duration of five years each.
- Projects can apply for a maximum of €700.000 at NWO and a maximum of Rs. 5.5 crores from DST.
- The NWO Grant Rules 2017 are applicable to the part of the project’s budget covered by NWO. The part of the budget covered by DST must follow the DST grant conditions. Please see section 3 for further details.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications can be submitted by consortia that include at least:
- Two different research organisations that are based in the Netherlands,
- Two different recognised academic institutions and/or public funded research & development organisations that are based in India, and
- A partner from a public, semi-public or private practitioner organisation (for-profit or notfor-profit).
- Eligible consortia are composed of researchers based in the Kingdom of the Netherlands and in India, with active involvement in the project of a senior Principal Investigator (PI) on both the Dutch and the Indian side. Principal investigators should fulfil the requirements. Coapplicants should be eligible according to the criteria. The consortium must also include at least one partner from a public, semi-public or private practitioner organisation (for-profit or notfor-profit).
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