WOTRO Science for Global Development F&B Global Challenges Programme & F&B Applied Research Fund 13 May 2013 Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research
Structure presentation The role of NWO-WOTRO The two instruments for research funding The two first calls for proposals Differences and similarities between the two calls for proposals Questions and Answers
The role of NWO-WOTRO NWO is the Dutch research council DGIS research policy: knowledge platforms NWO as intermediary organisation for research knowledge platforms WOTRO focus on development-oriented research Bridging development policy and top sector policy
Two research instruments The Food & Business Knowledge Agenda Three modalities 1. The Food & Business Knowledge Management Facility 2. The Food & Business Applied Research Fund 3. The Food & Business Global Challenges Programme Joint DGIS and WOTRO funding of the Food & Business Global Challenges Programme
Two research instruments of the Food & Business Knowledge Agenda < Enhanced understanding --------------- Concrete innovations > Global Challenges Programme -- Applied Research Fund
F&B Global Challenges Programme Objective: To promote research based advanced understanding of emerging key issues in global and regional food security and their impact on local food security and the role of private sector development Geographical focus: global Total budget: 15M Duration of projects: fast track 2 years; regular 4-5 years Project budget: 500,000 1M
F&B Applied Research Fund Objective: To promote research supported innovations that contribute to food security and private sector development in DGIS partner countries Demand driven questions: from DGIS partner countries Geographical focus: 15 partner countries of Dutch Development Cooperation Total budget: 15M Duration of projects: 0,5 3 years Project budget: 50,000-300,000
Global Challenges Programme Applied Research Fund Enhanced understanding Concrete innovations Global focus Focus on the 15 partner countries of Dutch Development Cooperation Duration of projects: fast track 2 years; regular 4-5 years Duration of projects: 0.5 3 years Project budget: 500,000 1M Project budget: 50,000-300,000
First call Global Challenges Programme (1) Aim: encouraging scientific research and innovation projects (covering technological, organisational, policy, and social innovations) that contribute to long-term access to affordable, safe and nutritious food for vulnerable and resource-poor populations in developing countries. Total budget for the first call: 3.6M Duration of projects: 4 5 years Budget: 600,000 + 20% co-funding Consortia consist of at least four different partners that include: 1. a Dutch research institute, acting as main applicant 2. a LMIC based research institute 3. at least one other Dutch partner 4. at least one other LMIC based partner
First call Global Challenges Programme (2) Assessment procedure: Duration of assessment procedure: 9 months Procedure in two steps: preliminary applications and final applications Assessment by the International Advisory Committee Decision by the Programme Commitee Criteria: Scientific quality Development relevance Quality of collaboration
First call Applied Research Fund (1) Aim: to promote research supported innovations that contribute to the food security and related business needs in partner countries within the framework of the Multi-Annual Strategic Plans of the Dutch embassies. Total budget of the first call: 4M Duration and budget of projects: minimum 50,000 for a six months period with a maximum of 300,000 for a three year period Consortia consist of at least two partners: A private or public practitioner organisation from one of the 15 partner countries of Dutch development cooperation, acting as the main applicant A research organisation from a partner country or from the Netherlands, acting as a co-applicant
First call Applied Research Fund (2) Alignment of the project with MASP(s) is required Assessment procedure: Duration of the procedure: 2 months Continuous submission. Starting dates of assessment procedures: 18 September 2013, 15 January 2014, 15 April 2014 Assessment by Pool of International Experts Decision by Programme Committee Criteria: Contributing to development Contributing to innovation Overall project consistency
First Call Global Challenges Programme Global focus Total budget available 3,6M Duration projects 4 5 years Project budget maximum 600K First Call Applied Research Fund Focus on partner countries Total budget available 4M Duration projects 0.5 3 years Project budget 50 K- 300K 20% co-funding 20% co-funding Consortia consisting of at least 2 research institutes (NL + LMIC) and 2 practitioner organisations (NL + LMIC) Main applicant Dutch research institute Consortia consisting of at least 1 practitioner organisation (based in partner country) and 1 research institute (NL or partner country) Main applicant practitioner organisation based in partner country
Knowledge sharing and feedback Sharing of interim and end results Sharing with immediate external stakeholders Sharing between projects Sharing with the wider Knowledge Forum
Thank you for your attention Questions? Specific questions on both instruments can be answered at the information tables in the lounge during the match making event
Presentation Food & Business Knowledge Agenda VNO/NCW, The Hague, 13 May 2013 Henk Molenaar Introduction My presentation consists of four components. (1) I ll say something about the nature of my organization NWO-WOTRO and our role vis-à-vis the Knowledge Platforms, including the Food & Business Knowledge Forum. This role, in a nutshell, is about tendering and granting of research. (2) Secondly, I ll present you with some general information about the two instruments we have developed to play this role. These are two instruments meant for different types on research. For each of these instruments we have recently published a first call for proposals. Calls in which we invite researchers, or rather consortia of researchers to submit research proposals. (3) Thirdly, I ll go into these two calls for proposals one by one, to explain in more detail about the conditions, the criteria and the procedures. (4) And finally I ll present you with an overview of the main differences and similarities of these two calls. After that, there may be some limited time for questions and answers. But after we wind-up the formal part of today s program, there will be an opportunity to ask more detailed questions at the information tables in the lounge. There will be a separate information booth for each of the two instruments, each of the two calls. And finally there will be room for match-making and I hope that you will grasp this chance to try and find potential partners who may want to join you in a consortium to develop and submit a research proposal. I NWO-WOTRO So let me start with giving you some information about my organization: NWO. NWO is the Dutch acronym that stands for Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. NWO is the Dutch research council, or rather the umbrella of all Dutch research councils. It has been established by law to channel a substantial part of the Dutch public funding for research through a transparent process of tendering and granting. We annually commit roughly M 600 for scientific research. NWO is an autonomous public authority (zelfstandig bestuursorgaan) established by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Our core funding springs from that Ministry. Of course, it is not only the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science that has a policy on knowledge and research. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2011 developed a policy on knowledge and research for development. In the letter to Parliament about this policy, the then deputy minister for development cooperation, Ben Knapen, announced the formation of five so-called Knowledge Platforms, to collect and share knowledge and to develop research agendas. The new Minister Lillianne Ploumen continued this policy and over the last year or so five Knowledge Platforms have been installed, one of which is the Food and Business Knowledge Forum. That same letter to Parliament also announced that the ministry would make use of the services of an independent intermediary organization for the tendering and granting of research. The idea is that the various Knowledge Platforms will draw-up the research agendas, and that the intermediary organization will organize an impartial assessment process and guarantee the scientific quality of the research to be funded. Last month NWO signed an agreement with the Minister in which it was agreed that NWO will play that role of intermediary organization and will be responsible for the tendering of research for all five Knowledge Platforms. Within NWO there is a division that is called WOTRO Science for Global Development. WOTRO is the NWO division that focuses specifically on development-oriented research. WOTRO has a lot of experience with multi-stakeholder research programming, and with interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary research collaboration in an international setting. We work not only with scientists, but also with policy makers, 1
the corporate sector, and NGOs. For that reason, WOTRO is the division within NWO that will be responsible for the tendering of research for the five Knowledge Platforms. As it happens, there is a third important player (next to two ministries mentioned so far) when it comes to research policies, and that is the Ministry of Economic Affairs. As most of you surely know, since a couple of year there is a new industrial policy. It focuses on nine so-called top sectors of the Dutch economy. The policy aims to further strengthen these top sectors, and thus to boost the Dutch economy, by bringing together public and private research funding. This policy equally holds for DGIS and NWO. The challenge is to bring these various policies together in research programs that serve both the development and knowledge needs as identified by DGIS and the Knowledge Platforms and the needs of the Dutch corporate sector. This is another role that NWO-WOTRO will play. II Two instruments for Food & Business research This brings me to the second part of my presentation about the two instruments for research. Previous to the formation of the Food & Business Knowledge Forum, the DGIS Department involved, the Department for Sustainable Economic Development, already did a lot of work towards drafting a Food & Business Knowledge Agenda, especially concerning the modalities that would be appropriate for such an agenda. It drew-up a working document on the Food & Business Knowledge Agenda in which it distinguishes three objectives related to three modalities or instruments. These modalities are: - The Food and Business Knowledge Management facility. - The Food and Business Applied Research Fund. - The Food and Business Global Challenges Program. Two of these modalities or instruments focus on research per se. And it is for these two instruments, the Applied Research Fund and the Global Challenges Program, that WOTRO will play the role of intermediary organization for the tendering and granting of the research. Already at an early stage, WOTRO and the Department for Sustainable Economic Development teamed up to further develop these two modalities and to design programs for tendering research. One of the reasons for doing so was that previously WOTRO itself had worked on formulating a program for research into global food systems, a topic very close to the focus of the Global Challenges Program. So it was decided to join forces and to merge the funds that DGIS and WOTRO had earmarked for these programs in a common fund. This cooperation resulted in a more detailed design of the two modalities or instruments. The main difference between the two instruments is that they relate to two different types of knowledge questions. When it comes to research for society, or research for development, one can in general differentiate between knowledge questions of a more theoretical and of a more applied nature. On the one hand there is research that focuses on enhancing understanding of underlying processes or mechanisms. Such research may underpin policy theory or long term investment strategies. On the other hand there is research that focuses on concrete innovations to address market constraints or other immediate concerns. This difference between enhanced understanding and concrete innovations is reflected in the difference between the Global Challenges Program en the Applied Research Fund. Let me quickly sketch the main characteristics of both instruments. I ll start with the Global Challenges Program. The objective of this program is to promote research-based advanced understanding of emerging key issues in global and regional food security and their impact on local food security and the role of private sector development. The geographical focus of the program is global. The total budget available for the program amounts to M 15. The duration of specific research projects to be funded 2
under this program may vary from two to five years. While the project budget can range from K 500 to M 1. Let me now shift to the Applied Research Fund. The objective of the Applied Research Fund is to promote research supported innovations that contribute to food security and private sector development in the DGIS partner countries. It is strongly demand-driven to meet knowledge questions and innovation needs that spring from development challenges in these countries. Consequently, the geographical focus is the fifteen partner countries of Dutch development cooperation. The total budget available for the Applied Research Fund amounts to M 15. The duration of the individual research projects can vary from 0,5 to 3 years. And the corresponding project budget will be a maximum of K 50 per half year and hence vary between K 50 and K 300. This is the framework agreed upon between DGIS and WOTRO. For both instruments WOTRO will publish several calls for proposals in the next few years. As you can imagine, within this general framework there is still a lot of room for differentiation between the various calls for proposals. Differentiation in terms of a specific focus on themes or topics, differentiation in the required composition of research consortia, differentiation in who may act as main applicant and research coordinator. This is where the role of the Knowledge Forum comes to the fore. It is the role of the Knowledge Forum to further specify the research agenda. And WOTRO and the Knowledge Forum together will formulate the calls for proposals and design the conditions, criteria and procedures that go with it. III First Calls for Proposals This leads up to the third part of my presentation about the first two calls. So we now move from the level of the instruments at large to the more detailed level of the first calls for proposals under these two instruments. Over the last few months the Knowledge Forum and WOTRO have worked on formulating, adjusting and sharpening the texts of the first call for proposals for both the Global Challenges Program and the Applied Research Fund. As mentioned, we have now published both calls. For those who are interested, we ll have the full printed text of both calls available at the information tables in the lounge. Let me start with the call for proposals under the Global Challenges program. The aim of this particular call has been formulated as follows: encouraging scientific research and innovation projects (covering technological, organizational, policy, and social innovations) that contribute to long-term access to affordable, safe and nutritious food for vulnerable and resource-poor populations in developing countries. The total budget available for this first call amounts to M 3.6. The duration of projects to be funded under this call is 4 5 years. The maximum amount to be funded is K 600, but on top of this there should be 20% co-funding (in cash or in kind) from the consortium partners themselves. This is where the top sector policy comes in. We hope to encourage the corporate sector to co-fund research projects to be jointly undertaken with research institutes. Consortia that may submit a proposal should consist of at least four different partners that include: (1) a Dutch research institute, (2) a LMIC based research institute, (3) at least one other Dutch partner, and (4) at least one other LMIC based partner. Please note that this call is not limited to the partner countries of Dutch development cooperation. The call has a global focus and can include any LMIC. Under this call, the main applicant of a research consortium has to be a Dutch research institute. Please also note that with other partner we mean a practitioner organization. And we use a wide definition of practitioner organization: Practitioner organizations include any type of organization other than research or higher education institutes that is actively engaged in food security, both public (governmental departments of line ministries or local governments, extension services) and private (and 3
private includes both for-profit enterprises and related support organizations, and non-profit organization, such as NGOs, unions, CSOs, et cetera). Since this call focuses on relatively long-term comprehensive research, the assessment procedure of proposals is quite rigorous. The duration of the assessment is nine months. It is this long because we take it in two steps: preliminary applications and final applications. Both the preliminary and the final applications will be assessed by an International Advisory Committee. Decisions on allocation of funds will be taken by a Program Committee. Finally, the criteria that will be used for assessing the quality of the proposals relate to scientific quality, development relevance, and the quality of collaboration. Let me now move to the first call for proposals under the Applied Research Fund, a call that was published only last week. The aim of the call is to promote research supported innovations that contribute to the food security and related business needs in partner countries within the framework of the Multi-Annual Strategic Plans of the Dutch embassies. The total budget available for this first call amounts to M 4. The duration and budget of projects is a minimum of 50,000 for a six months period and a maximum of 300,000 for a three year period. As with the other call, also for this call we require co-funding by the consortium of 20% in cash or in kind. As with the other call, research consortia should consist of different partners to integrate different kinds of knowledge and to conduct the research as an effort of co-creation. Under this first call of the Applied Research Fund we demand at least two partners: (1) A private or public practitioner organization based in one of the fifteen partner countries of Dutch development cooperation, acting as the main applicant of the consortium. And (2) a research organization from a partner country or from the Netherlands, acting as co-applicant. So you can see that the strong demand-orientation of the Applied Research Fund translates at least in this first call in the condition that the main applicant should be a practitioner organization based in one of the partner countries. But note that this could be a locally registered establishment or office of a Dutch enterprise or NGO. A further condition is that a project proposal should be in line with the Multi-Annual Strategic Plan of the Dutch embassy of the country involved. Since the Applied Research Fund focuses on relatively short-term applied research, the assessment procedure will be lighter and more flexible than is the case for the first call of the Global Challenges Program. The duration of the assessment procedure is two months. There will be the possibility for continuous submission of proposals for as long as the call is open, which is for a period of one year. During that period there will be three moments that we ll start the assessment procedure: 18 September, 15 January, and 15 April. Proposals will be assessed by a pool of international experts. Allocation decisions will be taken by the Program Committee. The criteria that will be used to assess the quality of the proposals will be the level to which the project will contribute to development, the level to which the project will contribute to innovation, and the overall project consistency. IV Main differences and similarities of the two calls Let me now move to the fourth and final part of my presentation, that will be quite brief. And that is an overview of the main differences and similarities of the two calls for proposals. I shall not go through all these characteristics again, but this bird s eye view may help you to form a clear picture of the two calls. Note that given the total budgets available for the two calls and given the project budgets that can be applied for, we expect to be able to fund 6 projects under the call of the Global Challenges Program, while the number of projects under the call for the Applied Research Fund may be anything in between 13 and 80 projects. But you can also see that despite the various differences, there are also a number of underlying similarities. 4
One important similarity that is not shown in this overview relates to knowledge sharing and feedback. We require consortia to be open to sharing research results and willing to feedback results and lessons learned into various circles of stakeholders and constituents. This holds not only for the end results of the research projects but also for interim results. We expect the consortia to share their outputs with immediate external stakeholders that are close to the project. But we also expect the various projects to share between one another. And finally we expect the consortia to share with the wider constituency of the Food and Business Knowledge Forum, both in the partner countries, the Netherlands and the world at large. The idea of course is not only to share results but also to learn from one another. These lessons learned will feed back into policy and practice but will also feed back into ongoing research and into the further evolvement of the research agenda. Thus knowledge sharing will inform the formulation of future calls. We have formulated these requirements expectations in the calls for proposals. But we have left out details on how to go about it. This is because we feel that the Knowledge Forum has a role to play in this and maybe should even own and steer the process. This will be a matter of future discussions between WOTRO and the Knowledge Forum. This brings us full circle back to the Knowledge Forum and brings me to the end of my presentation. 5