Save the bees!!! CALL FOR RESEARCH PROJECTS 2018 DEVELOPING SAFE BY DESIGN TOOLS TO PROTECT BEES AND POLLINATING INSECTS AGAINST XENOBIOTIC COMPOUNDS Submission procedure will be in two steps: STEP 1: PREPROPOSALS The completed template must be signed and sent by email in PDF format, before midnight April 27 th 2018 (Paris time) to e.egea@fcsrovaltain.org STEP 2: DETAILED PROPOSALS The second step deadline will be in September 2018 and the final answer for the selected project published in December 2018. The exact date & time will be indicated to candidates when invited to submit the detailed proposal. THE ROVALTAIN SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATION Created in 2013 by the French ministry of higher education and research, the Rovaltain Scientific Foundation results from the partnership of 11 founding members: Lyon Claude Bernard University, Grenoble Alpes University, the Mines de Saint-Etienne engineering school, the National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture, the Grenoble INP institute of engineering, the Drôme department, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the Valence-Romans conurbation, the Rhône River national company, the Drôme Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the French national institute for industrial environments and risks. The Foundation aims to produce and disseminate innovative scientific knowledge on toxic impacts on human health and ecosystems. To do so, the Foundation launches calls for research projects on issues of specific interest regarding its domain of expertise, validated by its Scientific Council. In this context, the protection of bees and other pollinating insects is a major issue for the Foundation, which proposes science-based solutions and disseminates scientific knowledge to raise public and stakeholder awareness on issues related to the disappearance of pollinating insects. 1 6
SAVE THE BEES!!!: A PROGRAM TO UNDERSTAND & PROTECT A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR BEES & OTHER POLLINATORS Pollination is at the basis of global food system. In Europe, 84% of cultivated species depend of this ecosystem service, essentially performed by more than 1800 social or solitary bee species. For several years, pollinating insects have been suffering mortality episodes, sometimes significant, that may jeopardize beekeeping activity but also biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Several causes have been invoked to explain the erosion of pollinator insect populations, including parasitism, habitat loss, malnutrition, or chemical or climatic causes. If the multifactorial aspect of the phenomenon is now well recognized, uncertainties remain regarding the relative importance of certain factors and the appropriate approaches to efficiently fight this phenomenon. In October 2017, the Rovaltain scientific Foundation organized an international prospective workshop where 19 scientific experts working in complementary disciplines on pollinators and pollination services brainstormed in order to identify relevant action proposals and research axes to preserve pollinator health. The present call is the result of this prospective workshop. Aim of the call In the light of accumulated knowledge about the importance of the different stress factors impacting bee and pollinating insect health, the impact of xenobiotics can no longer be doubted and a serious reorganization of farming practices in a safe-by-design way is necessary. The Save the bees!!! call for projects aims to foster significant progress in this direction. To date, biocides on the market are non-specific, protecting crops from pests, but also affecting nontarget species, including pollinators. Many scientific works show the dangers of these chemical molecules, whether natural or synthetic. Protecting pollinators requires that the risks associated with these molecules and with their exposure be well understood in order to be controlled. In this context, it is crucial to develop safe-by-design tools applicable to chemicals used in agriculture. Robust sampling and analysis methods for biocides used are needed to provide environmental managers with accurate knowledge about the actual exposure of organisms to pollutants in their environment. This reasoning must be extended to all classes of plant protection molecules, such as pesticides or fungicides, in order to have a more complete view of the environmental contamination constituting the exposome of pollinating insects. For existing molecules, control of the environmental risks necessarily involves control of the exposure to these molecules and their residues, but for new molecules, it is possible to act directly on their dangerousness, and to do so from their conception. This is the principle of so-called "Safety-by-design" approaches, associating synthetic chemistry with ecotoxicology in order to take into account criteria of non-dangerousness of molecules toward nontarget species, such as bees, as early as possible in the synthesis process. 2 6
Expected projects The Save the Bees!!! call for projects aims at financing a single international and interdisciplinary collaborative project with 300,000 funding for a maximal duration of 4 years. By collaborative project, the Rovaltain scientific foundation means: an objective-driven research project aiming at developing new knowledge, new technology or products, and that may include scientific coordination, demonstration activities or sharing of common resources for research in order to address major societal needs. Application Eligibility The call for research projects is open to research teams from higher education and research institutions, research organizations and public institutions with a research mission, as well as end users, stakeholders or other non-academic partners. Partners of another nature are allowed to the extent that their added value in the project is clearly established. Only international projects are eligible. Each consortium submitting a proposal must involve a minimum of one non-french partner. The consortium coordinator should be chosen among the French partners and must hold a position in a research team from a French higher education and research institution, a research organization or a public institution with a French research mission. At least one partner must have a solid experience with the safe-by-design approach. Submission & Deadline In order to facilitate the evaluation of projects, it is mandatory to complete the project submission document in English. The submission document (PDF format), completed and signed by the Unit Director, must be sent by email to e.egea@fcsrovaltain.org, before midnight April 27 th 2018 (Paris time). A confirmation message will be sent within 48 hours. Proposal Evaluation In this call a two-stage submission process will be used. The planned work will be first presented as a 5-page pre-proposal which will be evaluated by independent experts against a limited range of criteria. Proposers who achieve satisfactory scores at that stage will be invited to submit a detailed proposal based on this initial concept by a date specified in the letter inviting the proposers to submit a full proposal. The Rovaltain scientific foundation may ask two consortia to merge to improve the relevance and impact of the project. The objectives of the full proposal must be consistent and in accordance with the successful short proposal, extending it by providing full details about the approach, the specific work-plan, etc. The stage 2 evaluation of the full proposal is an independent evaluation with respect to each of the 3 6
criteria for that submission. It is not a complementary evaluation. Scores achieved by the stage 1 proposal are not taken into account at the stage 2 evaluation. Evaluation steps are described below. Eligibility check of pre-proposals and first step peer review - Eligibility check: The Foundation will check all pre-proposals to ensure that they meet the call s formal criteria (date of submission; number and country distribution of participating research partners; inclusion of all necessary information in English; page length of each section). Pre-proposals passing the eligibility check will be forwarded to the appointed reviewers for a first evaluation (see evaluation criteria below). - Each proposal will be analyzed by two external reviewers and by the Foundation Scientific Council. Reviewers will perform the assessment of the pre-proposal and fill the evaluation forms with scores and comments for each criterion. The Foundation Scientific Council will meet to establish a ranking of the pre-proposals and decide which pre-proposals will be accepted for the full proposal submission based on the reviewers recommendations. The summary review report and eventual recommendations of the Scientific Council will be forwarded to all applicants. Evaluation of full proposals - The Foundation will check the full proposals to ensure that they meet the call s formal criteria. - Each proposal will be assigned to at least two external reviewers who fit the profile of the application. - The Foundation Scientific Council will discuss each proposal and, after consideration of the evaluation criteria & external reviews, rank the proposals recommended for funding. - The ranking list and funded project will be validated by the Board of Directors of the Foundation. - Funded projects will be published in the second half of December 2018 and the final summary review report prepared by the Foundation Scientific Council members will be sent to all applicants. Evaluation criteria First step criteria: Relevance to the call Scientific quality of the proposed research Potential impact and expected results Quality of applicants and suitability of the consortium Second step criteria: Scientific quality of the proposed research Quality of applicants and suitability of the consortium. The articulation and complementarity with other projects funded within the consortium from other sources will also be examined. Quality of project management Feasibility and risk (adequate work-plan & methodology, budget, resources and time schedule, cost effectiveness, evaluation of risks and back-up solutions envisaged) 4 6
Potential impact and expected results Dissemination activities Grant Agreement For a given proposal, the coordinator acts as the single contact point between the consortium partners and the Foundation. The coordinator is generally responsible for the overall planning of the proposal and for assembling the consortium that will do the work. The grant agreement will only be contracted with the consortium coordinator, who will be responsible for budget distribution among the consortium partners, including non-french partners. Changes to the composition of research consortium cannot occur unless there is a good justification. Any minor changes have to be well justified. In case of major changes, an independent expert can be consulted. The coordinator shall inform the Foundation of any event that might affect the implementation of the project as soon as possible. Research consortium agreement and ownership of intellectual property rights The project consortium partners have to sign a consortium agreement (CA) for cooperation. It is recommended that the research consortium sign this CA before the official project start date, and in any case the CA should be signed no later than six months after the official project start date. Results and new Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) resulting from projects funded through the Save the bees!!! call will be owned by the researchers organizations. If several participants have jointly carried out work generating new IPR, they shall agree among themselves (Consortium Agreement) as to the allocation of ownership of IPR, taking into account their contributions to the creation of those IPR as well as the relevant guidelines on IPR issues. The results of the research project and IPR created should be actively exploited and made available for use, whether for commercial gain or not, in order for public benefit to be obtained from the knowledge created. The funding partners shall have the right to use documents, information and results submitted by the research partners and/or to use the information and results for their own purposes, provided that the owners retain their rights and that the funding partners clearly indicate the origin of the information. Financing The financial support granted to the project will not exceed 300,000 Euros. Even if the eligible costs of the project happen to be higher than planned, no additional funding will be possible. The Foundation s contribution includes interim payments following each reporting period (each 12 months) and the final payment at the end of the project for the last reporting period plus any adjustment needed. At least 50% of the budget must be dedicated to French partners. 5 6
As the budget breakdown table included in the detailed proposal is an estimate, the transfer of funds between activities and beneficiaries is allowed without the need for an amendment of the grant agreement, provided that the work is carried out as foreseen. The coordinator should nevertheless inform the Foundation by email of any substantial modification in the budget breakdown. An amendment to the grant agreement will be necessary if the budget transfer leads with a substantial impact on the "Description of Work. If you are an academic partner, eligible expenses are those strictly necessary for the implementation of the project. They include: temporary staff expenses. For doctoral students, the Rovaltain Foundation strongly encourages researchers to seek co-financing of thesis grants. operating expenses including laboratory costs (purchase of products or consumables), office supplies, purchases of patents or licences. open access publication costs. travel and living expenses of permanent or temporary staff assigned to the project for field experiments, meetings or conferences (in particular, participation in promotion events organized by the Foundation). maintenance of equipment acquired for the project as well as the purchase of small equipment, the unit cost of which is less than 5000 Euros, excluding tax. Any request for equipment greater than 5000, excluding tax, must be justified on the basis of the methodology employed for the project, with a clear plan & quantification of the anticipated use of the equipment provided. For equipment costing more than 5000, the Foundation may consider partial support for the amount exceeding 5000 if sufficient justification is provided by the proponents. services provided to non-project organizations (subcontracting), the cost of which must remain, unless specifically justified, less than 30% of the total amount of the grant. management fees, limited to 4%. If you are a non-academic partner, 45% of the total costs related to the project will be covered. Ethics - animal experimentation Projects requiring the use of animal testing within the meaning of European Directive 2010/63 / EU must respect the regulations in force at the national level, and obtain experiment authorizations. The organization responsible for implementing these experiments and its approval number should be clearly indicated in the detailed project submission document. Where the experimental project has already received a favourable opinion from the competent authorities, the authorization number must also be indicated in the submitted project. 6 6