ANR PEPR GFM: Deep Sea – Knowledge, Uses, Commons

Funding available to research organisations in France for interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary projects bridging the life sciences and the humanities and social sciences on questions surrounding the deep sea, including the ocean floor, the water column and the substrate. 

Within the framework of Programme et Équipements Prioritaires de Recherche (PEPR – Priority Research Programme and Equipment), funded through the France 2030 investment plan, the French Government is funding a research programme dedicated to the deep sea, titled Grands Fonds Marins (GFM). The programme is aligned with the France 2030 research area of the same name. With a total budget of €50 million over nine years, PEPR GFM aims to bring together the earth and life sciences with the humanities and social sciences to tackle major challenges concerning the deep sea, such as understanding abyssal biodiversity and deep sea dynamics, studying energy and matter flows at its interface, exploring perceptions of the deep sea, analysing the political and environmental economy and identifying the effects of human activity on deep sea ecosystems. The programme is led by CNRS, Ifremer and IRD. 

The Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR – French National Research Agency) has launched a call for proposals within the framework of PEPR GFM. The objective of the call is to encourage the creation of new transdisciplinary (involving non-academic stakeholders) and/or broadly interdisciplinary research consortia, bringing together disciplines focused on natural phenomena and disciplines focused on human societies. The integrated approach is aligned with the United Nations Decade of Oceans and will help improve understanding of deep sea environments and to produce knowledge that can inform public policy on the deep sea and ocean species, particularly concerning conservation, blue economy, geopolitics and governance of the commons. The call is also intended to train a new generation of interdisciplinary research to address the challenges posed by scientific, environmental, economic, social, cultural and political issues of the twenty-first century concerning the deep sea. 

Projects must address one or more of the following five challenges:

• Biodiversity of the deep sea and ecosystem services in relation to natural and anthropic drivers.
• Matter and energy transfer between the solid Earth, the biosphere and the water column: the role of the deep ocean for the planet’s habitability.
• Representations, knowledge and uses of the deep sea: between local/indigenous knowledge and the construction and application of scientific knowledge.
• Political end environmental economy of the deep sea: between exploitation and protection, the commons and appropriation, blue economy and sustainability. 
• Multi-level governance of the deep sea: legal frameworks, arenas, institutions and actors at international, regional, national and local levels, multiple timeframes, environmental ethics and the role of science.

Projects must focus on the deep sea (depths greater than 200m), including the water column, the ocean floor and the substrate.