Appendix 2
Overview of Belmont Forum CRA (Collaborative Research Action)
“Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative: Food-Water-Energy Nexus” and its Evaluation
1. Aims of the Program
The interactions between food, water and energy are of paramount interest to policy, science and the society at large, today and even more so in the upcoming decades. Challenges connected with population increase and food shortages, scarce water and insufficient energy resources demand solutions.
The Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative (SUGI)/Food-Water-Energy Nexus is a joint call established in order to bring together actors to find innovative new solutions to the Food-Water-Energy Nexus challenge. The ultimate goal is to increase the access and the quality of life.
The overall challenge today is to move to action through dialogue: from a sector-oriented technocratic approach to one that recognises more diverse viewpoints and rationalities.
Belmont Forum and JPI Urban Europe have partnered to ensure participants across physical, natural, social sciences and arts and humanities as well as policy and decision makers and stakeholders around the world.
The call topics will enable the participants to develop projects that aim to find solutions to the Food-Water-Energy nexus for a sustainable urbanisation. The goal is to rapidly evolve the knowledge base, advance indicators and assessment tools that are needed for a comprehensive understanding of the FWE nexus.
2. Target research field
- Robust Knowledge, Indicators and Assessments
- Multi-level Governance and Management of the Food-Water-Energy Nexus
- Managing Potential Strategies and Solutions to address emerging Risk and Trade-offs at the intersection of Sustainable Urbanisation and the Food-Water-Energy Nexus
3. Participating countries
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chinese Taipei, France, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Qatar, Romania, South Africa, Sweden, Slovenia, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States of America
4. Eligibility
The following were eligible to receive support through this call:
- Persons affiliated with a domestic research organisation where they are able to conduct research
- Persons without a history of accounting irregularities which would restrict their eligibility to apply
5. Research Period
Up to 3 years
6. Amount of Funding (including indirect costs)
JPY 10 million per project per year.
7. Evaluation Process
Evaluation of proposals was conducted by an international Panel of Experts nominated by the Belmont Forum member organizations taking part in this joint call. The participating funding organizations then met to discuss the outcome of that evaluation and jointly decided on the projects to select for funding.
8. Evaluation Criteria
The following Belmont Forum CRA general criteria were applied in evaluation of each proposal:
Excellence – Intellectual Merit
- Originality, innovativeness and contribution to new strategic knowledge and breakthrough implementation Appropriateness of conceptual approach Added value of international co-operation Feasibility of aims and objectives of project Feasibility and suitability of project design and methods Handling of development risks
Impact and User Engagement (societal and broader impacts of project results)
- Fit to objectives, aims and topics of the call text
- Engagement of research users worldwide (e.g. communities, cities, policy makers, regulators, NGOs, or industry) and the extent to which the project is likely to be of value to end users
- Potential of the project, e.g. societal impact or market potential
- Suitability of proposed arrangements for disseminating and communicating outcomes of the project
Quality (Interdisciplinarity and Personnel) and Efficiency of project implementation
- Value for money
- Appropriateness of costing
- Feasibility and appropriateness of timescale
- Suitability of expertise, balance of substantial contributions of members to project consortium
- Composition of consortium compared to the topic’s needs and international relevance
- Interdisciplinary, cross-sectorial collaboration, and co-creation
- Appropriateness of governance/management arrangements for project (incl. risk management)
- Track record and/or other key expertise of consortium members
JST, an integrated organization of science and technology in Japan, establishes an infrastructure for the entire process from the creation of knowledge to the return to the society. For more information, visit http://www.jst.go.jp/EN/