2nd Joint Call for Proposals - ERA-NET Cofund SusCrop on Sustainable Crop Production

Following the Co-funded Call in 2018 (first call), the aim of this second call is to support scientifically excellent transnational research, development and innovation projects that contribute to the improvement of sustainability (environmental, economic and societal) and resilience of crop production.

Applicants will have to explain how the expected project results will be relevant to improved crop production under the changing climate and/or to climate change mitigation. In addition, the second transnational call of SusCrop puts greater emphasis on how projects might contribute to food and nutritional security in the light of climate change.

Crops can be in the range from staple crops to niche and marginal crops.

The submitted proposals must be multidisciplinary and should address at least one of the following topics:

1. Enhancement of new and/or predictive breeding technologies and the development of new genotypes leading to new phenotypes towards the release of improved crop varieties that are capable to adapt to future changes in environmental and climatic conditions. Projects could also target improvement of variety selection processes to support agroecological practices.
2. Development and exploitation of integrated pest and crop management methods and practices. This includes, for example, basic and translational research leading to practical on-farm applications and/or the development of novel detection systems for integrated pest and crop management.
3. Improvement of resource-use efficiency of cropping systems by agroecological approaches to increase the efficiency of nutrient, water and energy utilisation. This could include the use of improved crops.
4. Investigations on agricultural crops as part of an ecosystem. Studies must have a clear focus on interactions between plants and other organisms leading to practices that support more sustainable agriculture.

The Call is open for both basic and applied research.

This includes research on basic biological processes relevant for crop improvement and/or industrial research and development actions.

Regarding all call topics, applying research consortia should clearly state how their project aims will be relevant and/or contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals including the sustainability and resilience of crops or cropping systems. The statement must also express in how far the project might contribute to food and nutritional security in the light of climate change. There will be a dedicated section in the pre-proposal and full proposal template

Additional information:

400 keuros coming from the Ecophyto II program and included in the 1.4  M€ should be specifically dedicated to selected projects under the thematic priorities 2 or 4, with a particular attention paid to the capacity of the solutions to drastically reduce the use of pesticides (since Ecophyto II+ targets to reduce in France by 25% the use of pesticides by 2020, and by 50% by 2025) against a wide range of pests (pathogens, animal pests and weeds). Projects should aim to develop methods, practices and tools favoring the redesign of sustainable cropping systems towards more diversification (based on intercropping and multiple-cropping or nature based solutions). Projects might focus on the balance between prophylactic and curative practices, while considering the variety of the relevant temporal and spatial scales, in order to reduce the pest pressure and impacts on cropping systems, health and environment. Particular attention might be paid to the enhancement management levers for pest control at landscape scales with multiple actors involvement (from agri-supply industries, farmers to consumers).

Please carefully check the national/regional funding regulations (under Call Documents on https://www.suscrop.eu) because some of the topics described and types of research may not be suitable/eligible for all funding organisations.