A joint Belmont Forum & JPI Urban Europe call for proposals on Food-Water-Energy Nexus in a sustainable urbanization context

Within the framework of the JPI Urban Europe and the Belmont Forum, ANR is launching, in collaboration with 30 funding agencies from 23 countries, an ERA-NET Cofund call for proposals to finance research projects adopting transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approaches (Nexus) between food, water and energy (FWE).

By 2050, the world's population is expected to reach 9 billion, half of which living in urban areas. This demographic and geographic trend, coupled with land-use change, global changes such as climate change and the need to reduce the use of fossil fuels, will lead to increased tensions in food, energy and water resources, in order to meet the needs of the inhabitants. Understanding and anticipating the consequences of increasing urbanization on the metabolism of cities, especially in terms of food, water management and energy supply is therefore a fundamental issue.

The objective of this call for proposals is to study in a transdisciplinary and joint, systemic approaches, sectors that are generally considered separately: food, water and energy. Indeed, the standard “silo” approach ignores the interrelations that exist between these domains (or the impacts of one sector on another) and can lead to sub-optimal management of the whole, or even to malfunctions.

It will be a matter of advancing the knowledge we have of the links between these different sectors, of working on the modes of governance and integrated management of these sectors, and of studying innovative strategies and solutions to reduce the possible tensions in these sectors. And between these sectors and better overall management of resources - in terms of quantity, quality, reliability, security and accessibility - with a view to sustainable development.

Understanding the regional/global FWE resource-flow connections and impacts on regional and global economies, natural and social systems necessitates transnational projects that connect not only multiple disciplines but also a variety of practitioners such as producers, farmers, other actors in supply chains and services, consumers, planners, and decision makers (e.g. city authorities).
It aims to associate projects from remote disciplines (environmental sciences, engineering sciences, humanities and social sciences) in order to better address the research questions raised by this problem of urban metabolism.

The association of stakeholders (companies, municipalities, non-governmental organizations ...) in projects is strongly encouraged.

Projects should focus on one or more of the following themes:

Twenty-three countries planned to participate in this call:

Only transnational projects will be financed: each consortium will have to include at least three teams from three different countries participating in the call. Participation in each project is encouraged by at least two teams from ERA-NET Cofund countries, as well as from a team from a Belmont Forum country, without any obligation. Teams from countries not participating in the call will also be able to take part in the projects but will have to provide their own funding. Within each selected consortium, funding for participating researchers will be provided by their respective national funding agencies in accordance with their terms and conditions of funding. Thus, the ANR will fund only the French teams.