Call for proposals for transnational research
in organic food and farming

The eleven partners in CORE Organic have issued a pilot call for transnational research programme in organic food and farming. The call will be open from 4 September to 1 December 2006.

Thematic areas

The research areas described for the pilot call are the result of an investigation of potential topics for future research cooperation. The thematic areas chosen in the pilot call are:

• Animal disease and parasite management, mainly focusing on preventive health and improving therapies to reduce reliance on antibiotics
• Quality of organic food - health and safety
• Innovative marketing strategies - identification of successful marketing methods, local markets

Who can apply?

Only project consortia consisting of at least three partners (one main applicant and two or more co-applicants) from three or more different participating countries can apply for funding.

As the aim of the CORE Organic project is to enhance European excellence through the support of transnational collaborations among European partners, there should be a clear demonstration of added value in the proposed partnerships. The project proposals should deal with specifically targeted questions that better could be answered if research takes place in more than one EU country.

Funding

Research teams who are interested in participating can apply for funding within the budget set aside (>table) by the respective national CORE Organic partner (national funding rules will apply).

Further information and inquiries

Inquiries will be answered by the respective national funding body (> table), or by the call coordinator Senior Research Officer Sara Österman, phone: +46-8-775 40 21, email: Sara.Osterman@formas.se

Representatives for the funding bodies will meet in the middle of September in order to discuss possibilities for supporting the preparation of joint applications to the programme. Among others, it is planned to set up a contact point for research groups interested in participating in specific topics. Futher information will appear at www.coreorganic.org shortly after the meeting.

Call text and guidelines

The call, guidelines and application forms can be found via the following links:

CORE Organic pilot call
An overall introduction to the call, including description of topics, funding, application and evaluation procedures, together with a list of national contact persons. > Link to PDF

Guidelines for application
Detailed information on the application procedure. > Link to PDF

Application forms
The Swedish Research Council Formas is administrating applications for the call. Application forms are available in Formas' electronic registration system "Formas Direct". > Link to Formas direct

Potential ressources

Under the auspice of the CORE Organic project a comprehensive mapping of the research systems in partner countries has been carried out. The mapped information provides a foundation for further collaboration between research communities, and it is available via the ressources below.

Organic Eprints
The international open access archive for papers related to research in organic agriculture has been extended to include information on research projects in partner countries. > Link to Organic Eprints projects

CORE Portal
A newly established web portal provides overviews of the structure and the content of research in the individual CORE Organic partner countries. > Link to www.coreportal.org

Country reports
The content of the web portal is drawn from country reports prepared by the individual countries. The reports are available via Organic Eprints. An extensive summary of the country reports has been published by BLE. > Link to country reports