Starting Grants and food security calls close on Tuesday

Several Horizon 2020 calls for project proposals will close tomorrow under the Excellent Science and the Societal Challenges pillars.

The European Research Council Starting Grants offer Blue Sky investigators funding of up to €2m over five years at the beginning of their research career. Funded under the Excellent Research pillar, grants are made under three domains, namely ‘physical sciences and engineering’, ‘life sciences’ and ‘social sciences and humanities’. A total budget of €430m is available in this call.

The European Commission will also close the calls ‘Sustainable food security’, ‘Blue growth: unlocking the potential of seas and oceans’ and ‘Innovative, sustainable and inclusive bioeconomy’, as part of the Societal Challenges pillar. Research topics covered under the closing €104m food security call include crops, aquaculture, the food chain and malnutrition.

Under the ‘Blue Growth’ call, which has a budget of €36m in this call, the Commission is looking for project proposals under the topics of sustainable Atlantic marine ecosystems, the effects of climate change on fisheries and aquaculture and responding to problems caused by oil spills and marine pollutions.

Finally, a €15m ‘Bioeconomy’ call will close, covering three topics of research, specifically ‘Unlocking the growth potential of rural areas through enhanced governance and social innovation’, ‘Improved forest management models’ and ‘Converting CO₂ into chemicals’.

All four calls close at 5pm (CET), 3 February 2015.