More details available in the FBIP Framework document
- Environmental sustainability:
- Multi-taxa surveys, with the geographic area clearly identified on the basis of a large scale proposed development, or neglected areas for which no spatial plan exists for biodiversity, resulting in potentially poor decisions or management.
- Surveys of the biodiversity of a particular habitat/biome that is neglected and important for ecosystem services, across a broad geographic area.
- Agro-biodiversity and food security:
- Crop Wild Relatives: taxonomy and distribution of crop wild relatives in South Africa.
- Crop and livestock pests, parasites and disease vectors, with a focus on indigenous taxa.
- Human health and biocultural diversity:
- Vectors of disease, parasites, pathogens, allergens. Documenting diversity.
- Cultural significance of biodiversity.
- Taxonomic revisions of priority South African taxa:
- The purpose of this theme is to substantially shift the taxonomic knowledge of taxa that require large scale revision, and that have a large component of their diversity in South Africa/have high proportion of South African endemics and that include economically or ecologically important species.
Concept notes
- Details about the methods/approach/budget not that important in the concept stage.
- Most important is the outputs and outcome/impact…
- the concept note must show that the project has the potential to make a real impact, at a large scale.
- it must be feasible to complete the project in three (3) years, and there must be sufficient capacity to cover all the different aspects proposed.
- ideally the users of the data (to be) generated should be involved in the development of the project.
- Scale – should be big enough to justify a R6.3 million investment (including postgraduate bursaries).
Concept Notes Scorecard | ||
Track record of PI | Publications, students, leadership of large, multi-institutional projects | 20% |
Alignment to focus areas and FBIP | Is there a clear aim and objectives that align to foundational biodiversity knowledge/information generation, co-ordination, dissemination and application? Are the proposed activities in line with the objectives? Is the project concept within one of the focus areas? | 30% |
Feasibility | Is the project achievable within a 3-year period relative to the team and resources (funds, facilities) available? Is there a work plan with reasonable time frames for activities and with responsible team members identified? Does the team/PI/applicant have the required capacity/experience to enable the achievement of the outputs? Are all relevant researchers/institutions included in the work plan? | 20% |
Outputs & impacts | What are the anticipated outputs? Is the need for the data/outputs clearly evident with users of outputs stated? What will the impacts of the outputs be on global change understanding and/or the bio-economy? Are the outputs and impacts realistic? What is the scope and scale of the impacts (international/regional/national/local; narrow field/broad field; multi- or trans-disciplinary; what will the extent of financial benefits be; how many stakeholders will be impacted etc.)? To what extent will the proposed project deliver outputs in line with the FBIP (i.e. taxonomic data, occurrence/population data, species information, DNA barcodes)? | 30% |
If you have specific questions please contact:
- Dr Lita Pauw (L.Pauw@sanbi.org.za) or
- Michelle Hamer (M.Hamer@sanbi.org.za)
- We are working during national lockdown