Second Internal Call (closed)

This call will be open from 01.04.2021 with a closing date for proposals on 31.05.2021

The European Joint Programme “EJP SOIL - Towards climate-smart sustainable management of agricultural soils” comprise 24 countries committed to the overall goal of providing sustainable agricultural soil management solutions that contribute to key societal challenges including climate change and future food supply.

Rationale & Aim of the call

As EJP SOIL works on important societal issues in an integrated manner, any innovation developed within the framework of EJP SOIL will meet a societal need and will therefore be relevant for European and global markets. Through its knowledge framework the EJP SOIL supports knowledge development through a large number of specific research and innovation projects via internal and external EJP SOIL calls.

The overall objective of this 2^nd internal call is to fund research projects open to EJP SOIL beneficiaries and linked third parties to fill research and development gaps identified by the “Roadmap for the European Joint Program SOIL” and the annual work program of the EJP SOIL for year two.

Read more detailed information in the document 'Call text of the EJP SOIL 2nd Internal Call'.

Budget, funding modalities, eligibility criteria and project types

The EJP SOIL is a 5-year program that runs from February 2020 (M01) to January 2025 (M60). The EJP SOIL falls into the concept of a co-fund action.

For the 2^nd internal call of EJP SOIL projects, a budget of maximum 30 M€ has been allocated General information relevant for consortium building (e.g. project size, number of consortium beneficiaries and linked third parties; geographical coverage) is given in Annex 2 for each topic.

Only EJP SOIL beneficiaries and their linked third parties (click here for overview - Annex 1) can apply. After the closing date for submission, all proposals will be checked against the mandatory Call eligibility criteria:

The application must be written in English.
Applications must be complete and in accordance to the submission procedure.
Applications must be submitted in time.
Proposals including beneficiaries and/or third linked parties that are NOT EJP SOIL beneficiaries are not eligible to apply and will be rejected (see Annex 1).

On the 9^th April 2021 a webinar for interested applicants will be organized, which will give an overview about all relevant aspects of the Call (i.e., topics, conditions, requirements, proposal submission, evaluation, etc.) and provide time to answer open questions. The webinar will take place between 1 and 3 pm CET; Webinar invitation/TEAMs –link will be distributed via Slack. More detailed information will be released directly on the submission tool website in due time.

Submission

Please follow the instructions to submit the proposal (font: Arial, font size: 12, line space: 1.5) prepared in accordance to detailed instructions given in Annexes 3 to 5 in the full pdf call document (Click here to download the document in word format):

Annex 3: Proposal template: Project information; Consortium beneficiaries and linked third parties; Project summary budget; Description of the work; Communication strategy; Data management strategy; work packages and work plan

Annex 4: Budget plan (Click to download)
Annex 5: Ethics => Self-assessment (Click to download)
Annex 6: Certificate of co-funding => to be submitted after selection;
Annex 7: Letter of confirmation => signed by the project coordinator and submitted after selection.

Annexes 4 should be submitted in form of a XLS file while the main application (based on annexes 3 and 5) should be submitted in form of a PDF file (i.e.; in max. 5 MB) to the Call Office by the project coordinator on behalf of the project consortium via the EJPSOIL online proposal submission system (Link).

Timeline

The Internal Call will follow a 1-step-procedure. There will be a competitive selection. A time schedule is provided below:

Action	Project calendar	Schedule
Call pre-announcement	M14	1 March 2021
1^st Webinar for interested applicants	M14	12 March 2021
Launch of the call	M15	1 April 2021
2^nd Webinar for interested applicants	M15	9 April 2021
Closing date for proposal submission	M16	31 May 2021
Proposal evaluation and selection	M17-20	June - September 2021
Notification letters sent to project coordinators	M21	October 2021
Grant preparation	M21	October 2021
Start of research projects	M21-22	November 2021
End of research projects	-/-	Depends on project size

Table 1: Targeted EJP SOIL topics of the 2^nd internal call; project size, number of projects that can be granted and available funding are also provided. For detailed description see Annex 2

Interested project consortia should apply to one of the following 9 EJP SOIL topics:

EJP SOIL topic ID^†	Title	Number of projects, their size	Indicative available funding per project
CM1	Plant below-ground inputs to enhance soil carbon sequestration in agricultural soils	1, medium	2M€
CM5	Effects of the soil biome on the persistence SOC storage and its drivers	1, medium	2M€
CA4/SP3	Contribution of soils to climate mitigation and adaptation, sustainable agricultural production and environment in agroecological systems	1, large	5M€
SP1	Alleviating soil compaction in a climate change context.	1, medium	2M€
SP2	The use, processing and application of external sources of organic matter to mitigate climate change and improve soil health	1, medium	2M€
DATA1	Innovative techniques to monitor SOC stocks and soil degradation/restoration changes in the EU, using spectral systems/NIRS/MIRS, and other proximal sensing tools.	1, medium	2M€
SE2/ INDICATORS 1	Modelling soil functions and soil threats for mapping soil quality, soil functioning and ecosystem services.	1, large	5M€
SE4/ INDICATORS 2	European soil biodiversity forecast towards resilient agroecosystems in response to climate change	1, medium	2M€
POL2/ES7	Enabling conditions for climate smart and sustainable soil policy: fair and functional incentives for ecosystem services related to climate mitigation and sustainable production	1, medium	2M€

^†EJP SOIL topic ID: CM Climate change mitigation; CA Climate change adaptation; SP Sustainable production; NET Networking and knowledge sharing; SE Sustainable environment; DATA Harmonizing soil information; AD Adoption of sustainable soil management; POL Science policy interface.

For further details and information about all call topics, click here.

Scope & expected impacts and outputs of this EJP

The EJP SOIL contributes to long-term alignment of research strategies in two main ways: i) by developing a shared vision, and ii) by establishing platforms for networks of soil scientists and other soil stakeholders in Europe. The shared vision will be developed among consortium beneficiaries and will address desirable soil properties and ways to attain them. This process was initiated during the preparation of the proposal and continues with the update of a roadmap for soil research, setting objectives, actions and milestones in the annual programs. Internal calls will foster alignment between the EJP SOIL beneficiaries, linked third parties and important players of European research in the areas of agricultural sciences, ecology, soil and climate sciences. To facilitate relevant knowledge development, the EJP SOIL will perform syntheses and stocktaking activities and research and integrative projects.

Research projects will answer a research question or a set of research questions. A Research Project must include a description of a defined protocol, clearly articulated goal(s), defined methods and outputs, and a defined start and end date.

Evaluated and selected research projects of 2^nd internal EJP SOIL call will get funded after approval by the Board of Project Managers; for more details see section 2 of the full text document.

Partnering tool

For partnering, the EJP SOIL WP3 team launched Slack Channels i.e. topic-specific chat rooms at ejpsoilworkspace.slack.com. Access will be granted after sending an e-mail to the Call Office (EJPCO@maapera.fi). After access has been granted, applicants express their interest to participate and/or coordinate in one or more topic-specific Slack Channels (i.e. a type of chat room). For each topic listed in Table 1 and Annex 2 the partnering tool offers a “chat room” (i.e. “CM1”, “DATA1”) and an embedded XLS file used to summarize the information:.: Who am I? Where do I work? What is my expertise? What is my interest => participation/coordination? Finally, applicants should add their name and interest to participate and/or coordinate into the XLS file.