Agroecology 3rd Call : "Fostering plant and animal genetic diversity and empowering farmers to accelerate the agroecological transition"
Fond National de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S.-FNRS)
Call objectives and scope
With this third call, the AGROECOLOGY Partnership continues to implement the priorities outlined in its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), adopted by the AGROECOLOGY partnership
Governing Board in March 2024.10 As stated in the preamble of this Call text, Agroecology11 has been identified as a promising approach to support the transition towards more sustainable
agriculture in line with the European Green Deal and its underlying strategies. Research and innovation efforts are essential to improve the performance of agroecological farming systems in terms of environmental and climate-related benefits, the sustainability of agricultural production systems, the economic viability of farms, and food security. Building on the SRIA and on the previous calls, two specific topics have been identified that require further attention and are the targets of this call. Both relate to Core Theme 1 (Redesigning Agroecosystems) and are also connected to Core Theme 2 (Redesigning Agroecological Value Chains).
The first topic, corresponding to Item 4.1.1 of the SRIA, focuses on genetic diversity and variability, with the aim of laying the foundations for increasing the availability of crop and animal species, varieties and breeds that will support the development of agroecological farming systems. The second one addresses the social challenges associated with the agroecological transition—particularly at the farm level, but also beyond. Both topics are outlined in detail below.
Research and innovation proposals are expected to address one of the two following topics in a multi-actor approach that should be interactive, transdisciplinary, and to apply co-creation and co-implementation processes, using Living-Lab or Living-Lab-like approaches.
Topic 1: Enhancing the genetic diversity and variability of crops and livestock for the agroecological transition
SUBTOPIC 1.1. ENHANCING THE USE OF GENOTYPES ADAPTED TO SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS TO IMPROVE RESILIENCE AND PERFORMANCE
SUBTOPIC 1.2 PLANT BREEDING FOR AGROECOLOGICAL TRANSITIONS
SUBTOPIC 1.3 ANIMAL BREEDING FOR AGROECOLOGICAL TRANSITIONS
SUBTOPIC 1.4 CO-BREEDING FOR ANIMAL-PLANT INTEGRATION IN AGROECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS
SUBTOPIC 1.5 BREEDING FOR THE AGROECOLOGICAL TRANSITION AND THE TRANSITION OF THE ENTIRE
FOOD SYSTEM
Topic 2. Strengthening farmers’ involvement and empowerment in the transition towards agroecology
SUBTOPIC 2.1 FARMERS COMMUNITIES AND MOTIVATIONS FOR ENGAGEMENT
SUBTOPIC 2.2 COLLECTIVE ACTION, PEER LEARNING, AND SOCIAL INNOVATION
SUBTOPIC 2.3 FARM WORK ORGANISATION AND WORKING CONDITIONS
SUBTOPIC 2.4 ROLE OF POLICIES, ADVISORY SERVICES, AND AKIS
Financement
Each partner is funded separately by the national/regional funding organisation they are applying to. They must fulfil the conditions of their funding organisation.
The maximum amount of requested funding per project is 300.000 EUR for a total period of thee years. If the project involves the recruitment of a PhD student, the project duration of the F.R.S.-FNRS sub-project could be up to four years.
Eligible costs items
Personnel costs: 80,000€ EUR per year on average for the duration of the project. The usual duration of ERA-NET research programmes is three years. However, when the project involves a PhD student, the principal investigator can apply for an additional one year funding in order to complete the four years PhD programme. Since this programme is co-funded by the European Commission, this final year should not be included in the budget submitted to this call.
Equipment: can be eligible up to 20% of the total budget of the project
Running costs: travel expenses; organisation of small scientific events in Belgium; consumables and the following support costs: consumables Publication Designing (conception d’ouvrage) Dictionary Production (réalisation de dictionnaire) Purchase of Books Encoding Software Access Rights Congress Registration Fees Purchase of Computer Scanning Travel costs Visa costs Open Access publication of an article up until 500 euros (see F.R.S-FNRS Open Access policy).
“Overhead”
For “overhead” costs:
Operating expenses: up to 1% within the granted budget. This percentage should be included in the requested operating budget.
Personnel: up to 2% outside of the granted budget. This percentage will be paid upon reimbursement of expenses to institutions by the F.R.S.-FNRS.
Pour postuler
Transnational level
The Co-funded call is conducted as a two-step-procedure. As a first step, a pre proposal has to be submitted. If this pre proposal is successfully evaluated and selected to submit a full proposal, the Coordinator receives a respective invitation to submit a full proposal. A full proposal may be submitted only following such an invitation.
The objective of a pre proposal is to present the project idea and the consortium without providing much detail on the work plan. The detailed template for the pre proposal with explanations is provided in Annex II and an example is also available within the document section of the submission platform: https://agroecology.ptj.de.
National/regional level
Applicants must provide basic administrative data by submitting an administrative application on e-space within 5 working days after the general deadline of the call to be eligible. Please select the “PINT-MULTI” funding instrument when creating the administrative application.
Deadlines
Deadline for short proposal submission is 18 February 2026, 14h CET.
Deadline for submission to FNRS is 25 February 2026, 14h CET.
Deadline for full proposal submission is 8 July 2026, 14h CET.
Requis d'admission
Eligibility of the consortia
The proposed research project must be consistent with the scope of this call. In addition, if applicable, specific Funder thematic priorities have to be respected as well in order to fulfil also the Funder specific regulations in terms of the scope and Topic (see Annex IX). The proposed project must address one of the two Topics (see section 3) and at least one sub-Topic under the selected Topic.
Consortia must include at least three eligible Partners requesting funding from at least three different Members States or Horizon Europe Associated Countries and from Funders who provide funds to the Co-funded call. Associated Partners do not count towards this limit. There is no upper limit to the number of Partners and Associated Partners. However, the number should be appropriate to meet the project goals and should remain reasonable.
See call document for more details.
Eligibility for belgian partners (F.R.S. - FNRS):
Applicants requesting funding from F.R.S. FNRS must comply with the following rules.
The applicant must be affiliated to a university from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB).
At the closure of the call, the applicant should also:
- Be a permanent researcher of F.R.S-FNRS (Chercheur qualifié, maître de recherches ou Directeur de recherche) or;
- Hold a tenure track position (or an assimilated position including pending tenure track) with a research institution from the FWB
After the submission of applications, the F.R.S.-FNRS and the research institutions are required to verify the eligibility of the candidates. The F.R.S.-FNRS reserves the right to refuse those whose eligibility criteria would not comply with the Regulation. In order the check the compliance with these eligibility criteria, please contact your contact person at ULB-TTO (see details below). The complete F.R.S-FNRS rules for international research projects is available at the following link: https://www.frs-fnrs.be/docs/Reglement-et-documents/International/FRS-FNRS_PINT-Multi.pdf
Zones géographiques
Les zones géographiques n'ont pas encore été spécifiées.