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Guidelines for Proponents from the State of São Paulo, Brazil and from Germany

This Call for Proposals represents the collaboration between the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany (BMBF) and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) under the scope of the Scientific Cooperation Agreement signed between both institutions (FAPESP-BMBF Agreement).

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Summary

Deadline for submission: 25th November 2024
Support Opportunity (FAPESP): Regular Research Grant (APR)
Duration of projects: Up to 36 months
Eligibility (FAPESP): Regular Research Grant regulations (www.fapesp.br/apr) with additional criteria for concurrent grants
Submission of proposals: To FAPESP via SAGe and to BMBF via Bioeconomy International
Contact at FAPESP: chamada-bmbf@fapesp.br
Contact at BMBF: v.jablonowski@ptj.de

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1. Introduction

FAPESP and BMBF hereby invite researchers from higher education institutions and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil and Germany who conduct joint research projects within the area of bioeconomy.

The Call conditions are made available by FAPESP and BMBF at:

FAPESP: For researchers from the State of São Paulo, additional obligatory information is available at www.fapesp.br/9035 (in Portuguese only).

BMBF: Proposals should also follow the general conditions set out in the German Call Announcement “Bekanntmachung”. The English version is available in the download area “Call Documents” of the submission system “Bioeconomy International 2025”.

2. Purpose

Bioeconomy, as part of a sustainable, bio-based economic system, should greatly benefit from joint international initiatives. Thus, the aim of this Call is to fund high quality research and development collaborative projects on core bioeconomy issues, by strengthening existing collaborations and establishing São Paulo-Germany bilateral partnerships under the topics described below.

3. Research topics

This Call invites joint research proposals within the following research topics:

a. Industrial use of sustainably produced biomass for products with an added-value (also with support of e.g. biotechnological approaches, metabolic engineering, IoT, synthetic biology and systems biology).

b. Sustainable agriculture for tomorrow’s nutrition: Increasing productivity (also with support of e.g. precision, smart and digital agriculture) with consideration for the careful use of the environment and resources.

c. Innovations to support sustainable and resilient food systems (e.g. innovations that enable resource efficiency and valorization of side streams, circular systems, waste reduction, resilience against shocks (like pandemics, climate shocks, political shocks etc.))

d. Enhancement of predictive breeding technologies and development of new genotypes leading to new phenotypes and crop varieties for improvement of plant health, protection, production and resilience (with support of e.g. AI).

4. Call characteristics

4.1. Support Opportunity

Proposals must be prepared jointly by São Paulo and German researchers.

a. In the State of São Paulo, Brazil, according to the Regular Research Grants ( “Auxílio à Pesquisa Regular” - APR - fapesp.br/apr) norms, including budgetary conditions.

b. In Germany, the Call is open for any German proposers who comply with those criteria listed in the German “Bekanntmachung Bioökonomie International 2025” of BMBF.

4.2. Eligibility to FAPESP

a. Interested researchers from the State of São Paulo must comply with all usual conditions and restrictions, including employment situation, of the Regular Research Grant (www.fapesp.br/apr);

b. Researchers with the following grant schemes either ongoing or under evaluation at FAPESP, but not through another international collaboration, may apply to this Call:

b.1. PIs (Pesquisadores Responsáveis - PR) of Regular Research Grants (APR), Initial Project (Pi), Young Investigator Grant (JP) (excepcionaly for this Call for Proposals, only if formaly employed in a research institution in São Paulo), Young Investigator Grant 2, Research in Public Policies Program (PPPP), Thematic Projects Grants, CCD, CEPID, CPE/CPA or PITE;

b.2. Co-PIs (Pesquisadores Principais - PP) of Thematic Projects Grants, CCD, CEPID, CPE/CPA or PITE;

NOTE: Researchers with an ongoing Generation Project Grant are not eligible to apply.

4.3. Funding principles and project duration

a. The proposal must be written jointly by Brazilian and German researchers and must reflect unison and close cooperation. Research activities of importance to the expected outcome must be conducted on both sides and the project workload and the intellectual contribution should be evenly balanced between São Paulo and German researchers.

b. On the German side, industry participation is possible under collaboration with the proponent researcher.

c. FAPESP and BMBF will jointly support as many scientifically sound research projects as possible under this Call.

d. This Call will support collaborative research projects of multinational research teams for up to 36 months.

e. Requested funding may cover research and travel expenses (for example, consumables, equipment, travel costs, living allowances and insurance costs) according to each institution’s guidelines.

f. FAPESP and BMBF expect that the costs in each proposal will reflect the research effort carried on by each side. It should also be considered that differences on allocated values might reflect differences in costs covered and local prices. This condition is still applicable where the BMBF side of a proposal consists of a consortium of individual grants.

g. The requested budget to each funder must follow the norms of BMBF and FAPESP and their respective grant programs. Please note that in Brazil, investigator and staff salaries are covered by host institutions.

5. Submission of Proposals

a. The applicant from Germany will submit the joint outline proposal according to the guidelines available from BMBF (www.bioeconomy-international.de/BI2025).

b. Principal Investigators from the State of São Paulo should submit their corresponding proposal through the online SAGe platform through the following path:

Nova Proposta Inicial > +Outras Linhas de Fomento > +Acordos de Cooperação > +BMBF –Federal Ministry... > +BMBF - Projeto de Pesquisa – Regular > Chamada de Propostas (2024 )

b.1. The “Research Project’ must have the same scientific core on both sides, written in English;

b.2. The Project Team should be composed of local participants from São Paulo, including all those engaging in research missions; from the German side, only the applicant must be listed (option equivalent to “principal investigator from the partner institution”);

b.3. The PI from Germany must be registered in the SAGe system. This can be done by accessing SAGe in the English version and choosing the option “Not registered?” The researcher must fill in all mandatory fields, indicated with an asterisk (*). After receiving an email from SAGe, the PI must click on the link provided and complete the registration process. After successfully registering, the PI from Germany may be nominated as a member of the research project and should then access the proposal through SAGe to accept participation (menu option “My Proposals”).

6. Assessment criteria, evaluation and selection

a. FAPESP and BMBF will select the proposals according to their respective institutional procedures and assessment criteria. As additional bilateral assessment criteria, emphasis will be put on the following:

Relevance and potential impact related to the funding objectives of FAPESP and the BMBF (for Germany, as set out in the "National Bioeconomy Strategy");

• Relevance of the research approach, quality and originality of the proposed solution;

• Added value for each country and synergies achieved through the joint cooperative research project;

• Excellence and expertise of the applicants and the partners involved (German and São Paulo);

• Prospects of success and applicability of the project results (in scientific and economic terms);

• Adequate size and structure of the project, quality and stringency of budget as well as time and work schedule, balance of workload and networking of partners.

b. Applicants are encouraged to provide a thorough description of the bilateral aspects of the project, including complementarity efforts.

c. Only proposals selected and prioritized by both sides will be funded jointly.

d. The final selection is to be decided by a joint committee with representatives from both FAPESP and BMBF.

7. Intellectual Property and Data Management

In the cases of successful collaborative proposals, a consortium agreement must be developed among partner researchers´ host institutions from the State of São Paulo and from Germany. This document establishes how Intellectual Property rights, confidentiality, data management and publications will be jointly treated, in observance of the policies of each involved funding agencies and host institutions. For BMBF it is necessary to confirm the signing of this consortium agreement after the start of the project. It is not necessary to send the document to BMBF or to FAPESP.

8. Timeline

Deadline for submission of proposals to BMBF and to FAPESP	25th November 2024
Results announcement	June 2025
German Applications phase (for BMBF only)	From June 2025
Start of Projects (both regions)	From October 2025

9. Contact

All questions related to this call should be directed to:

FAPESP
Alexandre Roccatto
Program Manager - Research Collaborations
Scientific Directorate
FAPESP - São Paulo Research Foundation, Brazil www.fapesp.br/en
E-Mail: chamada-bmbf@fapesp.br (response hours from 9am to 4pm on workdays only)

BMBF
Dr. Veronika Jablonowski / Dr. Christian Breuer
Project Management Jülich Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH
Biological Innovation & Economy - EU and International Affairs (PtJ-BIO7)
Tel.: +49 2461/61 - 5083 / -96929
E-Mail: v.jablonowski@ptj.de / c.breuer@ptj.de

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