Overview of Belmont Forum CRA (Collaborative Research Action) “Transformations to Sustainability” and its Evaluation

1. Aims of the Program

Climate change, environmental degradation and resource pressures have created unprecedented situations for societies worldwide. In particular, Low- and Middle- Income Countries (LMIC) are likely to be disproportionally affected by this. The slow progress on many pressing challenges of global environmental change and global development has led to increasing emphasis, both in research and policy, on the need to go beyond the study and encouragement of incremental change. Conventional knowledge and capacity building to tackle the challenges associated with sustainability have had some positive impacts but are ultimately not fully adequate. Consequently, there is growing attention to the need for more fundamental transformations in the way societies interact with each other and with the natural environment as the basis of sustainability. Societal transformations refer to profound and enduring systemic changes that typically involve social, cultural, technological, political, economic and environmental processes. A comprehensive and concerted research initiative is needed that can boost research on transformations to sustainability, and catalyse new kinds of solutions to environmental and social challenges.

2. Target research field

This programme has two major objectives:

• To develop understanding of and promote research on transformations to sustainability which are of significant social, economic and policy concern throughout the world and of great relevance to both academics and stakeholders.
• To build capacity, overcome fragmentation and have a lasting impact on both society and the research landscape by cultivating durable research collaboration across multiple borders, disciplinary boundaries and across practitioners and societal partners.

The programme is structured around three themes. Every research project should focus on at least one of these themes.

Thematic areas:

• 1) Governance and institutional dimensions of transformations to sustainability
• 2) Economy and finance of transformations to sustainability
• 3) Well-being, quality of life, identity and social and cultural values in relation to transformations to sustainability

Proposals on the above described specific research themes may also include one or both of the following cross-cutting issues:

Cross-cutting issues:

• A) Conceptual aspects of processes of transformation
• B) Methodological innovation

3. Participating countries

Belgium, Brazil, Chinese Taipei, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the 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)

Up to JPY 8 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 criteria were applied in evaluation of each proposal:

Scientific excellence - Quality of the transnational project

• - Sound concept and quality of objectives
• - Transformative research agenda
• - Progress beyond the state-of-the-art
• - Quality and effectiveness of the scientific and technological methodology, data collection and associated work plan

Quality and efficiency of the implementation and the management

• - Appropriateness of the management structure and procedures
• - Expertise and relevant experience of the individual applicants and cooperation partners
• - Quality of the consortium as a whole (including whether the consortium is social sciences/humanities led and the degree of complementarity and multi- and/or interdisciplinarity)
• - Appropriate allocation and justification of the resources to be committed (budget, staff, equipment)

Potential impact

• - The scientific and societal impact
• - The fit to objectives and research themes of the programme
• - The extent to which research is likely to be of value to stakeholder communities
• - Appropriateness of measures for the dissemination and/or exploitation of transnational project results and management of intellectual property