The Global Soil Partnership, in collaboration with the Eurasian Soil Partnership (EASP) Secretariat, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the Eurasian Center for Food Security, is pleased to announce a call for short term small research projects (SRPs).

 

The call is open to scientists and soil management specialists collaborating with civil society organizations and smallholder farmers (especially women) in the agricultural and water sectors. The aim of this initiative is to facilitate targeted research and partnerships between scientists and local/national beneficiaries that would form a stable basis for long-term collaborative engagement to scale up the implementation sustainable soil management (SSM) practices. The call focuses on short term, small, targeted research projects focusing on soil salinity. Applications will be accepted from 28th April to 31st May 2016.

Thematic areas

• Applications should be focused on the following thematic areas:
• Assessment of soil salinity;
• Innovations for soil salinity management;
• Practices and methods for the restoration of saline soils;
• Guidelines and training modules for soil salinity management;
• Economic assessment of ecosystem services provided by soils in saline ecosystems; and
• Environmental impact assessment of SSM practices on soil ecosystem services in salt-affected landscapes.

Assessment criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Scientific excellence and technical merit;
• Innovation potential;
• Capacity and competencies of the project team;
• Project design, objectives and measurement of research impacts;
• Application perspectives and sustainability of impact;
• Targeted research (addressing practical issues from users); and
• Potential use of the research outputs.

 

Who can apply?

GSP partners with long-standing experience in soil salinity in the region;

Other institutions (universities, research centres) with experience in soil salinity (they would have to become a GSP partner prior to applying).

Each research team should have at least one student/postdoctoral researcher and at least one female principal scientist/investigator who will make substantive contributions to the SRP outputs.

 

How to submit your proposal?

To receive full consideration, proposals shall be submitted in English and in accordance with the above guidelines using the template provided.

• Individual proposals must be submitted under 1 thematic area only. More than one proposal by the same team or group may be submitted under different thematic areas.
• The geographical scope of the SRP is limited to the partner countries of the Eurasian Soil Partnership, namely: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Russian Federation. .
• Proposals shall be submitted in MS Word or Adobe Acrobat format and shall be sent to the [email protected] by 31st May 2016 COB.

 

Budget

The call will support research projects ranging from 8000 to 15000 USD in total for a maximum duration of 12 months. The proposals will be assessed according to the assessment criteria listed above. Following the assessment process, only successful applicants will be contacted by the Global Soil Partnership Secretariat.

For further information, please contact us via email at:[email protected].