Does your research contribute towards the healthy, resilient and productive forests we need for our planet’s future? Do you want to contribute at the science-practice interface to advance this important topic? Then our call for proposals on innovative, integrative and sustainable forest management may be right for you!
Incorporating practice into research and using research to inform practice
This call for proposals in forestry research is focused on developing or integrating solutions for adapting to or mitigating climate change, promoting biodiversity, providing resilient ecosystems services while supplying sustainable forest products. We’re also seeking proposals that incentivize action and behavioural change, transforming the theoretical and abstract values of forest products and services. We aim to support sound science that aims to be used in practice, as well as efforts to improve understanding and collaboration at the science-practice interface.
The call for proposals 2024 seeks:
- Research projects with a high potential for change in forestry practice which include stakeholder engagement, targeted knowledge transfer and with a scalable approach.
- Science-practice projects which improve accessibility and comprehensibility in communication, promote mutual understanding through dialogue and knowledge exchange or enables researchers and practitioners to jointly develop research questions.
Applications should contribute towards the overall objective of the program: Sustainable Forest management practice that can address the pressing problems of climate change and biodiversity loss as well as society’s need for forest products such as timber and resilient ecosystem services.
Projects may last from 1 to 4 years, and funding of up to max. CHF 100,000 per year is available. At least two project partners are necessary to be eligible.
The deadline for proposals is 23 September 2024, with a final decision expected in March 2025. For further information and the detailed requirments of the call – see links below.
PS: In March, the foundation board decided to fund six out of the 52 applications that were submitted last year: Two projects investigate how forest management can promote biodiversity and one project studies the potential of native fire-resistant plants for green firebreaks in New Caledonia. Another project looks at stakeholder perception and understanding of human-assisted movement of tree species and provenances in Europe, a fifth project takes the EUDR as a starting point to promote sustainable intra-African timber trade and the last supported project is a tri-national science-practice network which promotes communication and knowledge exchange among stakeholders. Two of these projects capitalize on ongoing larger studies and aim to generate added value by engaging with stakeholders and addressing the barriers for implementation.
