Call for proposals for short term and small scale strategic projects 2017

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Introduction

PE&RC has strategic funds available for 2017 for short term and small scale projects to be spent on salary costs of WUR PhD candidates or postdoctoral fellows. Based on the success of similar calls in previous years PE&RC will use these funds to support groups with respect to activities that:

  • have an added value to PE&RC;
  • involve more than one research group; the leading research group has to come from PE&RC, other research groups involved can also belong to another Graduate School in the Netherlands;
  • involve 1-6 months of activities in 2017 by a postdoc / PhD candidate already employed or to be employed by a PE&RC group at Wageningen University.

PE&RC chair groups at Wageningen University are invited to submit a proposal that clearly indicates:

  • focus and aim of the project (max. 250 words);
  • the added value of the proposal to PE&RC (max. 150 words);
  • output of the project (max. 100 words);
  • the groups involved and time to be spent in 2017 by a specific postdoc / PhD candidate;
  • appointment details: name of person(s) employed, employment period, chair group
  • the budget requested (salary costs; please note that besides the salary costs you will receive 34.8% extra for other costs such as housing and small consumables, salary costs involves the gross salary paid to the person employed (including salary-related costs paid by the employer)).

The contribution of PE&RC has to be spent on 2017 salary costs of the postdoc / PhD candidate involved.

Examples of possible activities
  • A contribution to writing of a project proposal led by a PE&RC group in which several PE&RC groups participate.
  • Organisation of specific activities within PE&RC with involvement of more than one PE&RC group.
  • Activities specifically aimed at increasing involvement of non-Wageningen University members (NIOO, Utrecht University, Naturalis, University of Amsterdam, VU Amsterdam) and strategic collaborating partners (University of Copenhagen, University of Florida).

Deadline call: June 19, 2017, 9:00 AM. Proposals should be sent to theo.jetten@wur.nl, and must be supported by the chair holder of the applying group.

A selection committee that will be specifically composed of members from the research committee / PE&RC Board will determine which proposals will be granted. Strategic importance of the activity to PE&RC is the most important criterion for granting proposals. Activities that fit in one of the focal areas of PE&RC will get priority. These focal areas have been identified as a result of a collaborative PE&RC process in 2014. See below.

Focal areas PE&RC
  1. Learning from nature

The central issue is how to foster ecology-based sustainability and management of ecosystems. The objective is to understand the functioning of ecosystems to design and enable the development of multifunctional, high-yield and resource-efficient production and land use systems that optimally provide and utilize natural ecosystem services.

  1. Global change, food and the environment

The various global crises such as those on food security, water, climate, and biodiversity show the urgency of addressing these problems using an integral approach that involves social, economic and environmental sustainability and considers systems as networks in which the various parts are connected to each other. The objective of this theme is to contribute to the development of novel adaptive strategies that increase the resilience of both managed and natural systems to global change.

  1. One health

Humans, crops, livestock, and wild animals and plants are constantly being challenged by pests and (new) diseases. The objective of this theme is to generate more understanding of:

  • The ecological processes behind the epidemiology of diseases and the outbreak of pests and their adjustment to new environmental and biological conditions;
  • The role of biodiversity in regulating disease spread;
  • The genetics of parasites and pathogens, hosts and vectors as related to the risks of disease incidence, development of resistance to control measures, and development of new disease control strategies;
  • Integrative ecological-social-economic approaches to disease control.