I Background
A systematic understanding of the synergies and conflicts among Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is of great significance for balancing the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainable development and for the ultimate realization of the SDGs. With the theme of “human-environment system dynamics and UN’s SDGs”, NSFC and international partners launch the program on Sustainable Development International Cooperation (SDIC) to contribute to the global effort for a sustainable future.
For the year 2022, the SDIC program calls for proposals on the topic: the dynamics of surface earth system and their relationship with sustainable development.
NSFC and international partners aim to fund a group of international cooperation projects under the call to significantly improve our understanding of the dynamic mechanisms of the coupled environmental-social system (i.e., the Surface-Earth System), as the scientific basis for coordinated actions to achieve the SDGs.
II Scientific Objectives
Achieving SDGs is not only the core mission of the Global Governance but also the core mission of building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind. However, it faces severe challenges due to global changes. China and many other developing countries are located in regions with fragile terrestrial ecosystems, which face various challenges of environmental degradation and unsustainable development under global changes. Those are the key areas for achieving the SDGs, coping with global change and managing the eco-environment.
Based on the concept of Earth System Science, and through scientific and humanistic cooperation, this program aims to study the structure, composition, material cycle processes and ecosystem function of typical environmental-social systems, including desert systems in arid/semi-arid areas, grasslands and agriculture and pastoral areas, mountainous systems, karst systems and coastal-urban systems, and to predict and/or evaluate the evolution, capacity and sustainability of water resources, soil resources, biological resources and ecosystem services, and the tipping points of typical Surface-Earth systems to provide scientific evidence to guide the sustainable development of relevant countries/regions.
III Key Scientific Issues
Through interdisciplinary and comprehensive research on the dynamic characteristics of typical environmental and social-economic systems (such as the desert systems, karst systems, plateau mountain systems, and coastal-urban systems), projects are expected to reveal the dynamic mechanism of typical environmental and social-economic systems, and to predict the evolution of the structure, composition, and ecological function of the environmental and social-economic system under global changes and evaluate its impacts on social development. In addition, this program aims to develop an ecology-resources-social-economic coordination path to achieve SDGs and sustainable development strategies.
1. The structure, composition, and ecological functional evolution and service maintenance mechanism of earth’s critical zone in the surface earth system.
The structure and composition of the critical zone (geological-ecosystem) of the surface earth system are the result of long-term geological, climate, and biological processes, and determine the ecological services and maintenance mechanism of an ecosystem. Therefore, it is necessary to answer how geology, climate, ecology, and human activities drive the changes of critical zone's structure and composition, to understand the physical, chemical, and biological processes and mechanisms governing those changes, their relations with water, soil, biology and biodiversity, and to understand the key processes controlling carbon fluxes of critical zone and the carbon sequestration potential of ecosystems.
2. The vulnerability and resilience of the surface earth system and SDGs
Each specific surface earth system has its unique vulnerability and resilience due to the coupling effect of environment and social economy, which is determined by two aspects of the system: the dynamic evolution characteristics of the environmental system under human disturbance and its impact on the capacity of the social system. Therefore, to determine the environmental and social coordination mechanism and the critical thresholds of the procedure required to achieve multiple SDGs, it is necessary to answer how to determine the fragility and resilience of the regional surface earth system based on the SDGs relevance.
3. The realization pathway and sustainable development model of relevant SDGs supporting the coordination of regional environment and social economy
Proposals should focus on SDGs related to water, food, energy, and ecosystem services in specific regional environmental systems, propose methods to realize SDGs and sustainable development models, taking into account the relations between the structure and extent of agriculture and the sustainable use of water, soil, and biological resources. Proposals should also address how the management, governance, and education levels under different socioeconomic development stages and cultural backgrounds affect the realization of SDGs and sustainable development models related to water, food, and ecosystem services.
IV Priority Research Areas
Proposals are expected to identify the key challenges and prominent problems threatening sustainable socioeconomic development of China and the world, and carry out interdisciplinary and comprehensive research on the dynamics of typical environmental and socioeconomic systems, in particular the desert systems, karst systems, plateau mountain systems, and coastal-urban systems. A vast region of developing countries, e.g., the western part of China and most part of the “silk road”, suffer from problems of land desertification in dry-semidry regions, ecological degradation and rocky desertification in karst areas, biodiversity deterioration and geological disasters and livelihood poverty in plateau mountain systems. Meanwhile, the continuous degradation of ecosystems and urbanization in the coastal zones have increased the contradiction between land resources shortage and human needs in coastal regions, which constrains further sustainable socio-economic development of these regions. Proposals are expected to reveal the dynamic mechanism of the above-mentioned typical environmental and social-economic systems, predict the evolution of the structure, process and ecological function of the environmental and social-economic system under global changes, evaluate its impacts on socioeconomic development, and develop paths to achieve SDGs and sustainable development strategies that keep the right balance between ecological protection, natural resource utilization, and social-economic development.
1. Evolution of structure, composition and functions of critical zones for typical Surface-Earth systems (subject reference code 1: D01, D03, D05, D06, D07, E09)
To study the climate change in typical regions of China and the World since the Tertiary; the relationship between the topography and rising Qinghai-Tibet plateau; the overall characteristics of climate, topography, and ecosystem, and the interrelationship of geological evolution; the rocky desertification of karst regions, desertification, geological disasters in mountainous and high-plateau areas and coastal area evolutions in China and the World in the past century; the temporal and spatial distributions of water, soil, and ecological resources and their impacts on population, land use, economic, and industrial changes.
2. Interconnections between water, food, and ecosystem security (subject reference code 1: B06, D01, D05, D06, D07, E09, E1008, G0311)
To monitor and simulate the dynamic changes of the water-food-ecosystem in typical regions of China and the World; Study the relationship between SDGs (2, 6, 13, 15) and SDGs (7, 1, 3) that are related to water, food, and ecosystem security; Analyze the trade-offs and correspondence relationships among indicators, and further analyze the dynamic processes and main factors of key indicators; Put forward the threshold of healthy water, soil, and ecosystems, and support science-based policies, laws, and regulations that eliminate poverty, protect ecosystems, and realize sustainable agriculture.
3. Ecological approaches to achieve carbon neutrality (subject reference code 1: C0306, D01, D05, D06, D07, E09)
To study the structure, process and carbon sink function of typical ecosystem, to estimate the change of carbon sink function under the influence of global climate change, to understand the mechanism regulating the biospheric carbon sink for carbon sequestration to explore ecological ways of increasing carbon sink function, and to construct an integrated model for management of ecosystem carbon sinks.
4. Global changes and environmental disaster risks in “silk road” economic zones (subject reference code 1: D01, D02, D05, D07, E09, E1009)
To study the evolution of typical regions in China and the World under extreme climatic events; assess the risks of flood, debris flow, landslide, extreme drought, and risks of water, food and ecosystem; identify the potential factors causing disasters, vulnerability and risks in the ecosystem, environment and social-economic changes.
5. “Environment-society” big data platform and development pathway optimization strategy in typical regions of China and the World (subject reference code 1: A04, A06, D01, D07, E09, F02, G0314, H30)
To build an “environment-society” big data platform and decision-making support system, combining the “space-sky-earth” monitoring system with field observations and laboratory experiments, and integrating environmental factors such as climate, geology, ecosystem as well as basic information on population, economy, land use and policy; compare the historic processes of sustainable urbanization, land use, agriculture development, climate change, environmental and public health, regeneration and utilization of biological resources, social behaviors and economy, and ecological protection; optimize paths and development models to achieve the SDGs related to water-food-ecosystem coordination.
Priority research areas may differ for different partner organizations, and can be found in the agency-specific annexes below.
V Project Selection: Criteria and Principles
1. Proposals should address the multiple dimensions of sustainability in an integrated way (meet two or more SDGs).
2. The research should focus on the scientific questions in their respective fields and also deal with the scientific challenges of sustainable development, and specifically focus on the dynamics of environmental-social-economic systems and the interplay between the environmental system and social system for achieving SDGs in developing countries.
3. Proposals should pursue research excellence, especially innovative ideas, methodologies, and approaches.
4. Proposals should give specific focus to young researcher training and international partnership building (especially multilateral cooperation).
5. Project teams must be international in composition and provide added value by working across disciplinary boundaries.
VI Funding Available and Project Duration
Two types of projects are to be supported in 2022:
Capacity-building project which provides seed money to enable further research and collaboration including collaborative research, researcher mobility, networking, workshops, training, fieldwork, etc. NSFC budget is up to 100k USD per project for 3 years, and about 30 projects are to be funded.
Key project which addresses key aspects of challenges to the SDGs through joint research. NSFC budget is up to 300k USD per project for 3 years, and about 10 projects are to be funded.
All the projects are expected to start on January 1, 2023 and close on December 31, 2025.
VII Application
1. Eligibility of Applicants
1) The Chinese principal investigator (PI) must have a senior academic rank (title) and have/had been the PI of at least one on-going or completed NSFC research project with the duration of no less than 3 years.
2) Eligibility requirements of international research partners can be found in the agency-specific annexes below (the leading researcher of the international research partners is hereafter referred to as the overseas-based co-applicant).
3) Besides the Chinese host institution, the Chinese team can include no more than 2 Chinese collaborative institutions.
4) More requirements can be found in the NSFC 2022 Guide to Program.
2. Limits of Parallel Application
Capacity-building projects and key projects under this call belong to the International Research Projects under MoUs of NSFC. The limits on application are as follows:
1) For the applicant who applies as PI, this application shall not be counted in the total number of the programs that the researcher with a senior academic rank (title) applies for (including the applicant and the principal investigator or the person who is responsible for the project).
2) As PI, an applicant shall not apply for more than one International Research Project under MoUs in one year.
3) A researcher who is undertaking an International Research Project under MoUs as PI shall not apply for another International Research Project under MoUs as PI.
4) More requirements can be found in the NSFC 2022 Guide to Programs.
3. Application
1) Online submission process
Chinese applicants must submit a completed online application to the NSFC’s Internet-based Science Information System (ISISN) (http://isisn.nsfc.gov.cn/egrantweb/). The procedure is to log into the ISISN system as the PI, click the “online submission” button, then click the “new application” button, select “international (regional) exchange and cooperation program”, and then the “joint research program under MoUs”, and finally the “SDIC program”. Please be noted that the applicants should fill in the grant number of one of their on-going or completed NSFC research projects, as the system requires.
2) Budget justification
Chinese applicants must read carefully the NSFC 2022 Guide to Program for specific guidance and funding limits and make a budget for the costs directly related to implementing activities contained in the application.
3) Attachment documents
Chinese applicants must prepare an English application jointly written with their international research partners using the attached proposal template, and submit it in the "Attachment" column of the Chinese application. The English application should be signed by the Chinese applicant and the overseas-based Co-applicant. If the overseas-based Co-applicant is not able to sign the English application, the Chinese applicant may provide a confirmation letter with the signature of the overseas-based Co-applicant.
Requirements may differ for different partner organizations, and can be found in the agency-specific annexes below.
4) Collaborative agreement
After the announcement of the funding decisions, the PIs of funded projects must submit a collaborative agreement jointly signed with their overseas-based Co-applicants together with the Research Plan for NSFC Awarded Project.
5) No hard copy of the application is needed. However, after the announcement of the funding decisions, the PIs of funded projects must submit the signature page (stamped by the host institution) together with the Research Plan for NSFC Awarded Project.
6) Other considerations
To promote coherent research activities, networking and sharing of knowledge between funded projects, NSFC and international partner organizations will regularly organize workshops/meetings of the funded projects to facilitate communication and coordination. The Chinese PIs should participate in such workshops/meetings and make a budget for relevant costs, and are also responsible for coordinating their international research partners to participate in such activities.
There may be specific requirements for different partner organizations. Further requirements can be found in the agency-specific annexes below.
4. Responsibility of Host Institutions
The host institutions should verify each item of the electronic application package via NSFC’s ISISN System and submit all proposals and supplementary documents to NSFC before the deadline. Late applications will not be accepted. The host institutions should provide a list of all the applications within 24 hours after the application deadline.
5. Application Deadline
The call will close on NSFC’s ISISN System at 4pm Beijing Time on 23rd June 2022. Applicants should leave enough time for their applications to pass through the host institutions’ submission route before the deadline.
There may be specific deadlines for different partner organizations. Further requirements can be found in the agency-specific annexes below.
VIII Announcement of Funding Decisions
NSFC will publish the list of projects to be funded by the end of 2022 on the website of the NSFC Bureau of International Cooperation.
IX Contact
RONG Nianhe (Mr.)
Email: rongnh@nsfc.gov.cn
Tel: +86-10-6232 6998
ISISN system technical support
Tel: +86-10-6231 7474
X Agency-specific Annexes
1. Annex for NSFC-FAPESP Program
2. Annex for NSFC-BMGF Program
3. Annex for NSFC-IIASA Program
4. Annex for NSFC-MFST Program
5. Annex for NSFC-ASRT Program
6. Annex for NSFC-BRFFR Program
7. Annex for NSFC-TUBITAK program
8. Annex for NSFC-GRC Program
Appendix:
1 Annex for the program.docx
2 APPLICATION FORM.docx
3 Joint Research Agreement.doc