ESPA

Announcement of Opportunity

Applicants should note that we have had a very high level of interest in the current ESPA research funding calls. We have received over 250 'Notification of Intent' documents to submit a Programme Framework grant. As we are planning to fund 16 grants for this scheme, this will make the scheme extremely competitive, with a potential success rate of only 6%. We strongly advise therefore that all applicants ensure that they thoroughly read the call documentation and make every effort to ensure that their research proposal fits what we are seeking in this call.

Applicants should also refer to the updated FAQ document (Annex 6) for more information on this and with regard to sourcing collaborative partners, and the question of funding project partners.

The Ecosystems Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme is a partnership that brings together the Department for International Development (DFID), the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) to deliver a planned seven year interdisciplinary research programme, with a total budget of £40·5m.

ESPA is launched under the umbrella of the Living With Environmental Change (LWEC) partnership.

ESPA seeks to generate the evidence on ecosystem services, their full value and links to sustainable poverty reduction, so as to equip end users and decision makers with the knowledge on how to manage ecosystems better.

This announcement of opportunity invites proposals for the first substantive ESPA call. This first call is split into two funding streams with three submission opportunities.

Funding Stream 1 is a one-off opportunity for shorter-term, innovative, conceptual development type projects submitted as a Programme Framework grant.

Funding Stream 2 has two submission opportunities:

one to win catalyst funding through a Partnership & Project Development grant, in preparation for a
second submission opportunity for a larger Research Consortium grant (AO call to be issued September 2010).

Closing date for the Programme Framework grants and Partnership & Project Development grants is 16:00 on 3 March 2010.

Announcement of Opportunity (320KB)

Annex 1 - Step-by-step guide to creating a Je-S account (992KB) [updated 5 Feb 2010]

Annex 2 - Step-by-step guide to completing the Je-S application (2·13MB) [updated 5 Feb 2010]

Annex 3 - DAC list of developing countries (97KB) (from the OECD )