United Kingdom, Switzerland and Germany join new call for proposals issued by Amazon+10 Initiative

With the new contributions from abroad, the Scientific Expeditions call, issued in partnership with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, now has a fund totaling some BRL 94 million.

Agência FAPESP – Four foreign agencies have joined the call for proposals to organize scientific expeditions issued in November by the Amazon+10 Initiative with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), an arm of the Brazilian Ministry for Science, Technology and Innovation. Proposals can be submitted under the call until April 29.

The four agencies are the British Council, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), and the Bavarian Academic Center for Latin America (BAYLAT, Germany).

They will support researchers in the respective countries who wish to conduct studies relating to the Brazilian Amazon. Further information, with details of fundable items, can be found in Annex IX of the call for proposals, and in Annex X in the case of UKRI. 

CNPq and the 19 state research foundations (FAPs) involved in the call have allocated BRL 59.2 million to fund research aimed at expanding scientific knowledge of socio-biodiversity in little-known areas of the world’s largest tropical forest. With the four foreign agencies’ contributions – EUR 30,000 from BAYAT, GBP 4 million from UKRI, GBP 1 million from the British Council, and CHF 1 million from SNSF – the scientific expedition call now has a fund totaling some BRL 94 million.

In addition, the British Council will also invest in other joint actions with the Amazon+10 Initiative, including funding for early-career researchers from Legal Amazonia to work in the UK under a program that will offer six postdoctoral fellowships worth a total of GBP 360,000 (now about BRL 2.1 million). The term “Legal Amazonia” refers to a nine-state area created by Brazilian federal law in 1953 to promote special environmental protection and development policies for the Amazon biome.

The British Council has also allocated GBP 370,000 to a program entitled Amazon BR/UK Workshop Grants. In 2023, it issued a call for proposals to fund scientific workshops in support of new research projects involving collaboration between Brazilian and British researchers on topics relating to the Amazon. Applicants had until January 7 to submit proposals, which are now being analyzed.

The National Council of State Research Foundations (CONFAP) has signed memoranda of understanding with SNSF, BAYLAT and UKRI for cooperation under the aegis of the Amazon+10 Initiative between the three European agencies and the FAPs.

About the Scientific Expeditions call

Although the Amazon Rainforest is one of the largest and most intact forests in the world, it is also one of the least well-known in biological terms. Its vast size, diversity and limited accessibility make documenting its biodiversity extremely challenging. The Scientific Expeditions call aims to fill two gaps – one geographic and the other taxonomic – while also supporting expeditions designed to expand knowledge of the sociocultural diversity of the Amazon’s traditional inhabitants. Proposals will be welcomed, for example, to research the tangible and intangible heritage of ancestral, indigenous and traditional communities, document the associated languages and knowledge systems, and study the links between their territorial dynamics and sustainable use of forest resources. 

It is important to note that participation by foreigners in research conducted by scientific expeditions requires authorization, which must be requested from the competent body by the collaborator in Brazil (see CNPq’s portal for guidance), as well as a number of licenses (for collection, access to genetic material, export of material, etc.), for which the Brazilian members of the team must apply. One of the stipulations in the call is precisely that the material collected in the expeditions must be cataloged and archived by institutions in the Amazon region in order to ensure that this heritage is conserved there.

The final decision on the winning proposals will be announced in August 2024.

The Amazon+10 Initiative is led by CONFAP and the National Council of State Secretaries of Science, Technology and Innovation (CONSECTI), which are partnering with CNPq. The program has already allocated almost BRL 100 million in funding for scientific projects in the region, helping to assemble research groups in which researchers based in the Amazon are collaborating with colleagues from other Brazilian regions.

The call notice is at: www.amazoniamaisdez.org.br/en/chamadas.