Belmont Forum – Towards the Ocean We Want: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability for Nature and Human Well-Being (Ocean 2 CRA)

Funding call for transdisciplinary research to foster innovative solutions to address global environmental challenges related to the ocean and its biodiversity.

Established in 2009, the Belmont Forum is a partnership of funding organisations, international science councils and regional consortia. It is committed to the advancement of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research providing knowledge for understanding, mitigating and adapting to global environmental change.

Forum members and partner organisations work collaboratively to meet this challenge by issuing international calls for proposals through Collaborative Research Actions (CRAs). All proposals to Belmont Forum CRAs must include natural scientists, social scientists and stakeholders, and must include collaborators from at least three different countries.

The Belmont Forum Ocean CRA Towards the Ocean We Want: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability for Nature and Human Well-Being Call supports transdisciplinary research addressing global ocean challenges and contributes to the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. 

Through a transdisciplinary approach, this call seeks to foster co-creation, co-design and co-implementation of innovative solutions to address global environmental challenges related to the ocean and its biodiversity. It will prioritise three main thematic areas, and proposals must incorporate elements from at least one of the three areas:

• Biodiversity conservation and nature-based solutions. Under this theme, project development within the following priorities could be considered:
  • Identification and protection of priority areas for marine biodiversity.
  • Recovery and sustainable management of overexploited marine resources.
  • Prevention and control of non-indigenous species.
  • Digital sequence information (DSI) on marine genetic resources.
  • Pollution prevention, mitigation and restoration.
  • Building sustainable blue economy and production chains.
  • ‘One Health’.
  • Restoration of marine biodiversity and ecosystem services.
  • Blue carbon and ocean acidification.
• The ocean-biodiversity-climate interactions. Under this theme, project development within the following priorities could be addressed:
  • Impacts of climate change on biodiversity, ecosystems and human wellbeing.
  • Food security and environmental changes.
  • Coastal cities’ vulnerability and adaptation strategies.
  • Scenario development, modelling, fair data and synthesis for decision-making.
  • Ocean-climate-biodiversity data management.
  • Uses, changes and suppression of marine-coastal seascapes.
  • Prevention and adaptation to emerging environmental changes.
• Nature futures, ocean governance and ethics for sustainability. Under this theme, project development within the following priorities could be considered:
  • Research and development towards the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) and its integration with international conventions.
  • Nature futures and sustainable scenarios for marine biodiversity and climate.
  • Evidence-informed policies for sustainable ocean management.
  • Regional cooperation and multi-sectoral governance for marine conservation.
  • Incorporating traditional ecological knowledge along with scientific knowledge in ocean governance.
  • Capacity building for innovation and ocean policies.
  • Evidence-informed decision-making.

These key areas will promote transformative change and integrated responses. They acknowledge differences among ocean basins, cultural diversity, regional and local specificities, and distinct financial models. The aim is to integrate multilateral and collaborative approaches while strengthening the interlinkage between science, technology and innovation with societal needs.

Proposals should include a strong and deliberate linkage between the societal and environmental aspects within global environmental challenges to ensure that they meet the Belmont Challenge for international transdisciplinary research: to provide knowledge for understanding, mitigating and/or adapting to global environmental change.

Proposals can address issues related to any ocean or sea around the globe including the Arctic and Antarctic oceans and from coastal to deep-sea ecosystems.