NEWS
Stay updated on the latest developments in plant science policy and EPSO activities!
On 17 May 2022, the European Commission launched the 2022 LIFE Call, with a budget of 755.5 million €. The deadline for Standard Action projects (SAPs), the most relevant instrument for plant scientists, is 4 October 2022. Other deadlines are spread from September 2022 to March 2023 depending on the call.
LIFE is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action. LIFE projects support policy implementation. Research is not the main focus but should be part of a LIFE project.
EPSO-CINEA webinar:
To help EPSO members developing competitive proposals, EPSO is organizing with CINEA a webinar on the LIFE programme on 12 September 2022, 10am to 12pm CET. CINEA is the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, established by the European Commission to administer the LIFE programme.
The webinar will cover the following aspects of the LIFE programme for plant scientists:
- General overview
- Relevance to plant scientists
- LIFE projects as examples
- Standard Action Projects (SAPs), most relevant to plant scientists.
- Main differences to previous years.
Register now to the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAkcuuurTIqGtXT-Hcg8Xhtyrvw4FPAphIw
EPSO LIFE briefing on the members only website: the LIFE Work Programme 2022
EPSO Members, except external Personal Members, can contact Sofia Ciravegna [email protected] for access to the EPSO Members’ Only website.
Find more details in the full news item
This call will cover the following three non-exclusive research themes:
- Innovation and harmonisation of methods and tools for collection and management of biodiversity monitoring data
- Addressing knowledge gaps on biodiversity status, dynamics, and trends to reverse biodiversity loss
- Making use of available biodiversity monitoring data
All environments (i.e. terrestrial, inland freshwater including wetlands, and marine) will be eligible.
Biodiversa+, the co-funded biodiversity partnership under Horizon Europe, has announced its second joint call for proposals on “Improved transnational monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem change for science and society”. The call is scheduled to open on 8 September 2022 with a deadline for pre-proposals in early November 2022 and for full proposals in April 2023. 33 countries are participating. The total budget is expected to be around EUR 40 million.
Register to the online information session for potential applicants to the 2nd joint call of Biodiversa+ to be held on 20 September, 15:00-16:30.
Find more details in the full news item and at Biodiversa
Sources: Biodiversa, KoWi
Contact: Karin Metzlaff
The 15th European-wide seminar of the series by the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) and aimed at the Plant Science community and its stakeholders.
TTT: The seminar will be held online each third Thursday of the month at three (CET).
On 15th September 2022 at 15:00 (CET) we will present three talks exploring the “Data Science for Understanding Plants”.
Dr. Franziska Turck, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Germany – “Chromatin 2.0 – a pitch for cracking the cis-regulatory code with the help of Deep Neural Networks”
Dr Alisandra Denton, Heinrich Heine University, Germany – “Annotating Eukaryotic genomes with Deep Learning”
Dr Thomas Hartwig, Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, Germany –“Deciphering the functional plant genome by high-throughput cistrome analysis”
The seminars will be hosted on Zoom and last approximately 1.5 hours. Numbers will be limited to 300 attendees and therefore please register early if you would like to join. There will be ample opportunities to ask questions and join the debate. So please join us to support this new and exciting initiative for European Plant Science by following this link just prior to the start of the seminar.
EPSO members register in advance for this meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYofumtpzMpGNy5RWeg0i0qKXlHNmi5glEx
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
In the coming months we will be on the lookout for talented plant scientists among the EPSO membership to present their findings and perspectives to the EPSO seminar series. If we approach you to talk, we hope you will be happy to support the initiative. This is a fantastic opportunity for both eminent world leaders and talented up-and-coming early career researchers to present their research to an international audience and to network with potential collaborators. If you wish to suggest a theme for one of the aumtumn seminars and / or nominate yourself or one of your colleagues to give a seminar, we most welcome your suggestions. Please contact Tim George ([email protected]) to provide your name and potential talk title.
We look forward to seeing you all for the 15th EPSO seminar on the 15th September 2022
Tim George, Alan Schulman and Marie-Theres Hauser
EPSO Plant Science Seminar Series Organising Committee
Click here to read: Full EPSO news item
Contacts:
- Tim George, Hutton / UK & EPSO Board
- Alan Schulman, LUKE / FI & EPSO President
- Marie-Theres Hauser BOKU / AT & EPSO Board
While the plan contains all the well-known grant schemes: Starting, Consolidator, Advanced and Synergy Grants, there are also new elements:
- The budget for the Proof of Concept grant scheme will increase from €25 million to €30 million
- Two additional grounds for extension of the eligibility windows for the candidates for Starting and Consolidator Grants will be introduced for researchers seeking asylum or being a victim of a natural disaster
- A special grant is foreseen to support ERC Science Journalism Initiative that will entail a support for journalists wishing to spend time at research institutions to better understand frontier research
EPSO encourages its members to already prepare and then submit proposals to the ERC 2023 calls following the calendar below. In addition to the resources listed below, EPSO foresees to publish its Horizon Europe WP 2023-2024 briefing in quarter four of 2022.
How and when to apply for ERC grants?
The Work Programme published today includes a tentative calendar of grant competitions. The call for Starting Grants is planned to open on 12 July 2022. The Synergy Grant call is set to follow one day later on 13 July 2022.
| Starting Grant | Consolidator Grant | Advanced Grant | Synergy Grant | Proof of Concept Grant | |
| Call opens | 12/07/2022 | 28/09/2022 | 08/12/2022 | 13/07/2022 | 20/10/2022 |
| Call deadline (cut-off deadline) | 25/10/2022 | 02/02/2023 | 23/05/2023 | 08/11/2022 | 24/01/2023
20/04/2023 14/09/2023 |
| Indicative date for signature of grant agreements | 23/12/2023 | 06/04/2024 | 17/08/2024 | 02/04/2024 | 07/09/2023
24/11/2023 19/04/2024 |
Resources:
The last two resources are available on the EPSO Member only website, under Multinational Funding Programme > Horizon Europe > Briefings & Information session
- European Commission’s ERC Work Programme 2023
- EPSO chapter on ERC proposals in the EPSO Briefing for Horizon Europe Work programme 2021-22, 29.09.2021 (ERC p 23-28)
- ERC-EPSO information session recording at the 2021 PBE conference with useful hints for proposals.
EPSO Members, except external Personal Members, can contact Sofia Ciravegna [email protected] for access to the EPSO Members’ Only website.
Wishing you success with your proposals
Karin Metzlaff, Alexandra Barnoux and Alan Schulman
Source: ERC, 12.07.2022
On 17 May 2022, the EC launched the 2022 LIFE Call, with a dedicated budget for LIFE of €755.5 million, the deadlines are going from September 2022 to March 2023 depending on the call.
LIFE is the EU’s funding instrument for the environment and climate action. It is not part of the Horizon Europe programme, but under the same EU multi-annual financial framework. LIFE projects support policy implementation. Research is not the main focus but should be part of a LIFE project. LIFE projects only provide co-financing. Thus, you always need another financial source for the remaining amount.
Note that operating grants, especially the Standard Action Projects, are relevant for plant scientists.
The main deadlines are:
- SAPs (Standard Action projects) – Most relevant for plant scientists: 4 October 2022
- Preparatory Project (PLP): 7 September 2022
- Technical Assistance Projects (TAPs): 8 September 2022
- Strategic Projects (SPs)
- Phase I (concept note): 8 September 2022
- Strategic Projects (SPs) Phase II (full proposal) : 30 March 2023
You can access the EPSO updated briefing on the LIFE Work Programme 2022 at the EPSO Members-Only Website. There is no major change compared to the LIFE Call 2021.
EPSO Members, except external Personal Members, can contact Sofia Ciravegna [email protected] for access to the EPSO Members’ Only website.
We are happy to share with you the success you and plant scientists across the world already made possible with over 785 events in 54 countries which have been uploaded on the Fascination of Plants Day (FoPD) website https://plantday18may.org/ . The peak was on the 18th May, with interactive events spreading into summer an autumn 2022.
A big thank you to you and the 61 National Coordinators!
Actions you can take now:
- You can still organize FoPD events in summer / autumn 2022 at your university, institute, schools, public places …… – Get inspired by the FoPD 2019 success stories
- Contact your national FoPD coordinator (listed on your country page) to upload events you did / will organise to the FoPD website https://plantday18may.org/
- Send your success stories to [email protected] .
Click here to read:
- Facts and Figures FoPD 2022, 23.6.2022
- FoPD Press Release, 16.5.2022
- FoPD slide to include in your presentations to encourage more events, 23.6.2022
Any help needed with uploading events to the website, pls contact [email protected] .
Looking forward to your events and success stories 😊
Alexandra, Przemo, Trine and Karin
FoPD Global Coordinators Przemysław Wojtaszek (AMU / PL), Trine Hvoslef-Eide (NMBU / NO), Alexandra Barnoux and Karin Metzlaff (EPSO)
Contacts:
- Karin Metzlaff, EPSO Executive Director
- Alexandra Barnoux, EPSO Publications Officer