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Guidelines for Proponents from the State of São Paulo, Brazil

RESEARCHERS MUST FOLLOW THE MAIN BELMONT FORUM CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR DETAILS REGARDING APPLICATION, FUNDING, SELECTION CRITERIA, PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION at: https://www.belmontforum.org/transformations-sustainability-t2s

1 Introduction

This international collaboration opportunity aims to develop understanding of and promote research on transformations to sustainability, which are of significant social, economic and policy concern throughout the world and of great relevance to both academics and stakeholders. Another objective it to build capacity, overcome fragmentation and have a lasting impact on both society and the research landscape by cultivating durable research collaboration across multiple borders, disciplinary boundaries, and with practitioners and societal partners.

The aim of this Call for Proposals is to fund top-level basic and applied research by scientists in the State of São Paulo, that will provide sound scientific basis for actions and policies to be undertaken by Brazilian governments, private sector and the society at large, to promote actions that lead to a sustainable society and personal lifestyles.

FAPESP would like to contribute to the necessary transitions of Brazil to a low-carbon and sustainable economy. While Brazil has achieved a major reduction on emissions from land use change and deforestation, emissions from the Energy, Agriculture, Transport and Industry sectors have grown substantially in the last 20 years. Brazil also faces multiple challenges related to the rapid urbanization, demographic transitions, and socioeconomic. However, without major changes in its use of natural resources and its social structure, Brazil will not transition to a sustainable economy. Furthermore, many of the adaptation actions required to transform Brazil to a sustainable economy are not directly related to public policies. They will also require changes in our personal lifestyles and on the investment profile of the private sector.

In the last 20 years, FAPESP and other funding agencies have contributed to support strong groups of researchers that investigate the physical basis of climate change, mostly in the Earth Sciences. By contrast, the amount of researchers that are involved in the questions of transformations to sustainability is still limited, relative to the size of the physical basis and scientific questions. By issuing a call for Research Proposals on the themes of transformations to sustainability, FAPESP expects that researchers for Social Sciences, Humanities, Architecture and Urbanism, and related domains will contribute to the collective increase in knowledge that could letter to more balanced societies.

This call is supported by Belmont Forum selected funding agencies from different countries and also by agencies related to the NORFACE (New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Co-operation in Europe), an ERA-NET network. The complete list of participants can be found at: https://www.belmontforum.org/transformations-sustainability-t2s

2 Scientific Research Topics

a. The three main topics that characterize this call are:

a.1. Governance and institutional dimensions of transformations to sustainability;  

a.2. Economy and finance of transformations to sustainability; 

a.3. Well-being, quality of life, identity, and social and cultural values in relation to transformations to sustainability.  

b. Proposals addressing one or more of the specific research themes mentioned above expected, which may also include one or both of the following cross-cutting issues:

b.1. Conceptual aspects of processes of transformation. 

b.2. Methodological innovation.

For detailed descriptions, please consult the call main page at: https://www.belmontforum.org/transformations-sustainability-t2s

3 Grant Modality

Proposals should follow the overall conditions of Regular Research Awards (www.fapesp.br/apr), including the exceptionalities described at item 4.4 below.

4 Guidelines to Proponents

4.1 Eligibility check

a. Proponents from the State of São Paulo must be established researchers with Social Sciences or Humanities background and have a proven track record of working in interdisciplinary projects such as the Thematic Projects grants at FAPESP in the topic areas of the proposal.

b. It is highly recommended that interested researchers from the state of São Paulo consult FAPESP regarding their eligibility prior to consortium Outline Proposal preparation. This procedure should avoid unnecessary efforts of researchers that ultimately would not be able to participate at the collaborative project.

c. Eligibility consultations should be sent only to the email address chamada_bf_t2s@fapesp.br containing the information below (please identify the message with the subject: ”BF-T2S Eligibility Check”):

c.1. Summary CV of the applicant from the state of São Paulo (in English, according to the template available at www.fapesp.br/en/6351);

c.2. Title and summary of the proposal;

c.3. The name of the Main Applicant of the project consortium and of all co-Applicants from other countries, and respective institutions;

c.4. Estimated budget request to FAPESP, including overheads and fellowships costs;

c.5. Duration of the project and an estimation of the weekly hours to be devoted to the project by the applicant from São Paulo.

4.2 How to submit outline (pre) and full proposals

a. No submissions are to be sent directly to FAPESP at closing dates for both Outline Proposals and Full Proposals. Only the Main Applicant of each consortium will submit the joint proposal according to the guidelines at: https://www.belmontforum.org/transformations-sustainability-t2s

b. After the submission phase of the Full Proposals, the Principal Investigator from the state of São Paulo of a project consortium will be individually contacted by FAPESP for further instructions on how to submit the due complete documentation. 

4.3 Overall conditions of the multinational call for proposals

a. The budget earmarked by FAPESP for this call will be equivalent of up to € 600.000 (six hundred thousand euros).

b. This call will support collaborative research projects of multinational research teams for 36 months, beginning in mid-2018, to be selected with a two-stage procedure (Outline Proposal stage followed by a Full Proposal stage for the projects that successfully go through the previous stage).

c. The maximum total funding request must not exceed € 1,5 million across all participating partners.

d. Funding should support proposals that combine significant contributions by scientists from at least three of the participating countries.

e. It is expected that applications to this call will be through trans-national research consortia as defined in the Belmont Forum call and FAPESP will fund the partner from the State of São Paulo, Brazil, of any successful collaborative proposal.

f. FAPESP has the ultimate responsibility for decisions regarding funding recommendations for the selected proposals, which will confirm any budgetary constraints on submitted projects prior to a final decision on an award being made by the review process as described by the main Call for Proposals text at https://www.belmontforum.org/transformations-sustainability-t2s 

4.4 Exceptionalities to the norms and regulations of the Regular Research Award

a. Exceptionally for this call, a Regular Research Award may have a duration of up to 36 months.

b. The maximum allowable budget, except for Post-doctoral fellowships, is up to R$ 60.000,00 (sixty thousand reais) per year, including all applicable overheads.

c. Exceptionally for this call, up to two Post-doctoral fellowships can be requested as budget items, according to regulations at www.fapesp.br/dc/in14.

c.1. Technical Trainning fellowships are not eligible for FAPESP funding exceptionally for this call.

d. Other allowable expenses to be requested to FAPESP are limited to the following items, and must related to support for personnel costs, basic infrastructure and mobility expenses:

d.1. Consumables as appropriate for the project activities;

d.2. Field trips and data collection;

d.3. Participation on consortium meetings and exchange of researchers with consortium member;

d.4. Short to medium term visits (3-6 months) of the FAPESP funded post-docs to consortium institutions abroad;

d.5. Personal computers and laptops limited to the PI and the post-docs involved;

d.5.i. Exceptionally for this call, other equipment Items such as laboratory equipment, computer servers, etc. are not eligible for FAPESP funding.

d.6. Payment of expenses for participation on reputable scientific conferences for presentation of project results;

d.7. Third-party services, according to the usual rules from FAPESP.

d.7.i. Exceptionally for this call, software licenses are not eligible for FAPESP funding.

5 Intelectual Property

In the cases of successful collaborative proposals, a consortium agreement shall be developed amongst all partner researchers´ host institutions, including the Institution from the state São Paulo. This document establishes how Intellectual Property rights, confidentiality and publications will be jointly treated, in observance of the policies of each involved funding agencies and host institutions. This “Letter of Agreement” is mandatory and a signed copy should be sent to FAPESP before the grant contract is signed by the awardee.

6 Timeline

Closing Date for Submission of Outline Proposals	5 April 2017
Opening Date for Full Proposal Submission	late June 2017
Closing Date for Submission of Full Proposals	26 September 2017
Announcement of Results	from April 2018

7 Further information

a. FAPESP's National Contact Point: 

Alexandre Roccatto
Science Manager
FAPESP - São Paulo Research Foundation
Rua Pio XI, 1500 - Alto da Lapa
CEP 05468-901 São Paulo/SP - Brazil
Tel.: +55 (11) 3838-4000
chamada_bf_t2s@fapesp.br

b. Belmont Forum T2S Coordination Office

NSF (United States)
HHAPKE@nsf.gov

NWO (the Netherlands)
t2s@nwo.nl

 

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