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Sources, Distribution & Impact of Microplastics in the Marine Environment 
 

Guidelines for researchers from the State of São Paulo

 

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Closing date for submission of Proposals:	February 28th, 2019
FAPESP scheme:	Regular Research Awards with budget exceptionalities (item 3.1)
Maximum duration of the project:	Up to 36 months
Eligibility:	Researchers affiliated with Higher Education or Research Institutions in the State of São Paulo including, exceptionally, Young Investigator Awards grantees (according to Item 4.1) – a preliminary eligibility consultation is obligatory.
Submission of proposals:	Researchers from São Paulo must submit their proposal through the SAGe System The Coordinator Researcher from the project consortium must submit the proposal to JPI Oceans platform
Contact FAPESP:	Alexandre Roccatto, e-mail: chamada-JPIoceans-2018@fapesp.br
Contact CONFAP:	Elisa Natola: elisa.confap@gmail.com
International Call Secretariat:	Uwe Selig u.selig@fz-juelich.de

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1. Summary

In 2015 FAPESP and European Union – Horizon 2020 signed a Cooperation Agreement, aiming to promote and strengthen collaboration between researchers from the State of São Paulo and Europe.

Under the scope of this Agreement, FAPESP, in partnership with the Brazilian National Council of State Funding Agencies (CONFAP) and the European Union through the JPI Oceans Initiative launch the present Call for Proposals, open to researchers affiliated to Higher Education and Research Institutions in the State of São Paulo.

This international funding opportunity aims to promote European and transatlantic research cooperation on the issue, and contribute to the UN Regional Seas Conventions, to the implementation of the Belém Statement as well as other initiatives for reducing (micro-) plastic pollution in the ocean.

The researchers from the State of São Paulo who are interested in applying to this present Call must follow the instructions described in these guidelines.

Foreigner partner researchers or partner researchers affiliated to Higher Education or Research Institutions from other Brazilian States must follow the additional instructions from their own institution regarding the submission of the project and the clarification of doubts. Proposals need to involve eligible research partners from at least three participating countries. Projects will be funded for up to 36 months and the maximum requested funding per proposal is € 2,000,000. Funding institutions from Belgium, Brazil, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden have allocated a total amount of up to € 9.2 million funding. In addition, researchers based in other countries are able to participate with their own resources.

FAPESP might contribute with a maximum of 600 thousand Euros to support the total number of projects approved under the scope of this call and submitted by Principal investigators from the State of São Paulo.

Researchers interested in this Call must also consult the conditions set forth in the International Call for Proposals launched by the JPI Oceans initiative at Joint Call.

2. Research Themes

This joint transnational call intends to increase the knowledge about the relevant sources of microplastics, analytical methods for identifying smaller micro- and nano-plastics, monitoring their distribution and abundance in marine systems and their effects thereon as well as concepts to reduce inputs of plastic into the marine environment. Proposals should address at least one of the four themes:

Theme 1 - Identification, characterisation and quantification of the major microplastic sources, especially mechanisms and time scales of macroplastic fragmentation.

Theme 2 - New sampling and analytical methodologies - focusing on the smaller (nano-)particles and in situ measurement methods for all matrices (water, sediment, biota).

Theme 3 - Monitoring and mapping of microplastics in the marine environment including its effects on the marine environment.

Theme 4 - Concepts to reduce inputs of plastics into the marine environment including through new recycling methods, raising public awareness, promoting behavioural change, socio-economic analyses. 

3. Funding Modality at FAPESP 

The proposals will be processed at FAPESP according to the rules and instructions for the Regular Research Awards standards (www.fapesp.br/apr, Portuguese only). Please note that there are modifications and exceptionalities applied to this Call as set forth below:

3.1 Exceptions to the standards applied by FAPESP for the Regular Research Awards

a. In addition to the standards applied by FAPESP for the Regular Research Awards, exceptionally for this Call for Proposals, the length of the projects may vary from 24 up to 36 months, with a maximum budget of R$ 100 thousand Reals per year.

a.1. The total budget to be requested to FAPESP should include funding resources for the research project according to the rules established for the Regular Research Awards budget, available at https://fapesp.br./137#4776. This amount must include the costs for Research Overheads: "Direct Research Infrastructure Costs", "Research Overheads granted to the PI", Institutional Infrastructure to Support Research (RTI) and "Importation Provision" (www.fapesp.br/9131), if any;

b. Exceptionally for this Call for Proposals, researchers who are currently grantees of a Young Investigator Award (YIA) funding modality are also considered eligible to submit proposals, pending all other conditions set out be this Call;

c. If the proponent is the Principal Investigator or the Co-Principal Investigator of an ongoing FAPESP grant of the following modalities: Thematic Project, Young Investigator Awards (YIA), Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center (RIDC) or Engineering Research Centers (ERC), and as long as fulfilling the conditions established in section 3.1.c.1. below, besides the eligible items described in the norm for the Regular Research Awards, the proposal may include a request for one postdoctoral fellowship of up to 3 years (this term must meet the duration of the proposed project). This fellowship must be requested as an item of the total budget (this type of request is subject to additional restrictions set out in dc/in14):

c.1. Additional requirements for the application in order to include a PD Grant:

(i) Demonstration of thematic coherence with the ongoing Thematic Project, RIDC, ERC or Young Investigator Award;

(ii) The proposal must enclose a section justifying how the submitted project will benefit the objectives of the ongoing project (Thematic, RIDC, ERC, YIA); and

(iii) The proposal must enclose a statement from the Principal Investigator responsible for the ongoing Thematic Project, RIDC, ERC or YIA, supporting the proposal and justifying how and why it will benefit the ongoing Research Grant.

c.2. In this case, only one proposal related to the ongoing project in the modalities informed above, submitted by either its Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator, will be considered adequate to proceed to the merit review.

4. Eligibility of Researchers from the State of São Paulo 

a. Researchers eligible for FAPESP funding under the scope of this Call must be employees of public or private Higher Education or Research Institutions in the State of São Paulo and must meet the FAPESP eligibility requirements for the Regular Research Awards, described at www.fapesp.br/apr (in its item 3.3);

b. Exceptionally for this Call for Proposals, researchers who are currently grantees of a Young Investigator Award (YIA) funding modality are also considered eligible to submit proposals, pending all other conditions set out be this Call;

c. Besides the requirements specified above, please notice that the proponent must indicate the Thematic Project, the RIDC, the ERC or the YIA of which he/she is Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator (item 5.2.c.5 below).

5. Procedures for the submission of proposals 

Each proposal related to FAPESP must have one Principal Investigator from the State of São Paulo and at least two foreign Principal Investigators, each one from a different country among the participant countries of this Call.

Above this minimum eligibility criteria for the composition of consortia, the participation of Principal Investigators from other Brazilian States in encouraged.

5.1 General considerations

a. Each Principal Investigator who is member of the Consortium must follow his/her correspondent funding agency submission procedures;

b. The Proposal Consortium submission to the Oceans JPI must be undertaken exclusively by the Coordinator researcher of the Consortium through the available online platform following the Submission Guidelines of the international Call.

c. The proponent from the State of São Paulo must consider the FAPESP standards for the Regular Research Awards (www.fapesp.br/apr) superimposed, when applicable, by the exceptionalities of the call, noticeably those described in item 3.1 of these guidelines;

d. Proponents affiliated to foreign Institutions or from other Brazilian states must submit a correspondent proposal to the JPI Oceans or CONFAP, considering the deadlines and available means presented at “Joint Call” or consulting the CONFAP Announcement;

e. Proponents affiliated to Institutions from other Brazilian States must follow their respective State Research Foundation procedures;

f. Proposals that are not submitted accordingly to the Joint Call and that do not follow their corresponding funding agencies will not be considered.

5.2 Submission procedures for researchers from the State of São Paulo

a. Proposals at FAPESP will only be processed through the SAGe online platform, available at sage/. The proposal must be submitted to FAPESP in parallel with the Consortium Proposal to be submitted by the Project Coordinator by the same deadline (item 6 below):

a.1. The specific path for this opportunity is: Nova Proposta Inicial > + Outras Linhas de Fomento > + Acordos de Cooperação > + EU/Horizon 2020 > + EU/Horizon 2020 - Projeto de Pesquisa - Regular >> Oceans/JPI - Chamada de Propostas (2018).

a.2. The Coordinator of the Consortium must be registered at the SAGe platform before been able to be chosen as the partner researcher in the proposal. This must be done in the English version of SAGe buy choosing the option “Not Registered?”. Only the data fields marked as “*” are obligatory. After being appointed at the proposals, the Coordinador must confirm participation.

b. A copy of the common Scientific Research Project document shall be summited to FAPESP, based upon the collaborative proposal submitted to the Oceans JPI platform;

c. Proposals must include, besides the Research Project as described above, the following documents:

c.1. Summary CV of the Principal Investigator from São Paulo and from each partner researcher from the consortium (in English, following the guidelines at www.fapesp.br/en/6351);

c.2. Summary CVs of Collaborating Researchers from São Paulo (in English, following the guidelines at www.fapesp.br/en/6351); these researchers must be registered at the SAGe platform and confirm their participation after being assigned;

c.3. A two-page document describing which part of the research will be developed in the State of São Paulo and which part will be developed in other partner countries/partner Brazilian States, justifying why this is going to be beneficial to all involved Parties;

c.4. Workplan for each requested fellowship, if applicable;

c.5. In the case of the proponents that meet the conditions described in item 3.1.d of this Call:

(i) A document justifying how the project will benefit the objectives of the ongoing research grant (Thematic Project, RIDC, ERC and YIA), and

(ii) A statement from the respective Principal Investigator, supporting the proposal and justifying how and why it will benefit the ongoing Research Grant, if the proponent himself/herself is not the Principal Investigator of the ongoing research grant (Thematic Project, RIDC, ERC and YIA).

5.3 Eligible Costs

a. Funding and eligible costs must be in accordance with FAPESP norms for the Regular Research Awards (www.fapesp.br/apr), considering, exceptionally for this Call, a maximum budget of R$ 100 thousand Reals per year for up to 3 years which must include all applicable overheads (www.fapesp.br/rt);

b. The costs of the eventual postdoctoral fellowship (item 3.1.c of the Call), including its due overheads, should not be added up to the total amount mentioned in the item above;

c. Partner researchers of funded projects are expected to participate in the kick-off, mid-term meetings and in the final conference to be organized by the Oceans JPIs and should include the relevant travel costs in their proposal budgets. 

6. Timeline 

Events	Dates
Call announcement at FAPESP website	12/12/2018
Deadline for submission of Proposals to Oceans JPI and to FAPESP	02/28/2019
Notification of non-eligible proposals	from March 2019
Notification of the outcomes	TBD
Expected start of funded projects	from January 2020

7. Assessment and Selection 

a. Proposals that do not comply with the established in this Call will not be qualified for merit analysis;

b. All proposals will be subject to international peer reviews followed by an Evaluation Panel based on the following overarching criteria: “Scientific quality, including novelty, originality and innovation of the proposed research”, “Quality of applicants and suitability of the consortium, level of integration and collaboration”, “Networking and dissemination activities, training opportunities” and “Feasibility of the proposed research, suitability of budget request”;

c. Funding recommendation: Based on the ranking of the full proposals, projects will be recommended for national/organisational funding. The outcome of this process will be communicated by the Call Secretariat to the Consortium Coordinator, who will then inform all partner Principal Investigators of the Consortium;

d. Formal funding decisions are made by the participating funding organisations. The funding recommendation is irrevocable and therefore no redress procedure is possible;

e. After a positive funding recommendation, the project partners must directly contact their NCP in order to start the contract negotiation and accomplish the remaining steps until the research project can start. The Consortium Coordinator is responsible for synchronising the project start with his/her partners.

8. Intellectual Property Rights 

a. In case of approval, a Letter of Agreement (or “Consortium Agreement”) has to be formulated between the Partner Host Institutions, including international and form Brazilian States, and the Host Institution to which the PI from São Paulo is affiliated. This document should stablish how Intellectual Property rights, confidentiality, and publications will be treated jointly, in observance of the policies of each Funding Agencies and Host Institutions.

b. The presentation of this “Consortium Agreement” is mandatory before the signature of the grant contract in case of the FAPESP funding.

9. Further Information 

a. Researchers from the State of São Paulo: specific questions to FAPESP about the Call for Proposals should be sent to Alexandre Roccatto at: chamada-JPIoceans-2018@fapesp.br

b. Researchers from other Brazilian States: specific questions should be sent by the Principal Investigator to participating FAPs through the contacts indicated in the “National/Regional Regulations” document (which can be found together with the Joint Call Documentation); for overall queries concerning the Joint Call on behalf of CONFAP, messages should be sent to Elisa Natola at: elisa.confap@gmail.com

c. Foreigner researchers: specific questions should be sent by the Principal Investigator to the corresponding country contact person indicated in the “National/Regional Regulations”; overall questions regarding the Joint Call should be sent to the Oceans JPI Joint Call Secretariat through Uwe Selig (Project Management Juelich - Germany) at: u.selig@fz-juelich.de

 

 

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