We are pleased to announce that four projects involving Polish research teams were selected within an international funding programme on biodiversity, launched by the NCN together with BiodivERsA – a network of European research funding organisations. Funding of over EUR 33 million, including co-funding from the European Commission, was granted to 26 international research projects.
Among Polish awardees, the biggest amount of funds was granted to the Polish team involved in the ENABLE project: prof. Jakub Kronenberg from the University of Lodz and dr Kinga Krauze from the European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology, Polish Academy of Sciences. Polish researchers together with their peers from Sweden, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands will strive to answer the question of how to effectively use blue and green infrastructure for the sustainable development of cities.
One of the BiodivERsA grantees was also the REPEAT project. The international research team, including scientists from Belgium, Germany, Norway, Romania and Poland, led by dr hab. Wiktor Kotowski from the University of Warsaw will investigate peatland processes responsible for carbon accumulation in fen peatland. Our research is aimed primarily at developing effective methods of restoration of these ecosystems. Processes in peatlands play an important role in climate regulation, as well as nutrients and the water cycle in nature. However, these functions have been degraded by long-term drainage of peatlands. The acronym of our project, “Re-Peat”, stands for the restoration of peat formation – says dr hab. Kotowski.
The BearConnect project involving the Polish team coordinated by prof. Nuria Selva Fernandez and researchers from France, Germany, Italy, Romania and Norway aims to examine the connectivity between populations of brown bears in Europe. This will help answer the question of how the landscape – its structure and the existence of protected and non-protected areas – affects the exchange of individuals and their genes.
And last but not least, BiodivERsA funding was granted to BIOVEINS, a project coordinated by a Belgian research team, with the participation of partners from Estonia, France, Portugal, Switzerland and Poland. Polish scientists led by prof. Piotr Tryjanowski from Poznan University of Life Sciences, together with their peers, will investigate the impact of urbanisation on the world of plants and animals. Their goal is to find patterns of distribution of various organisms in urban space and then to confront these patterns with the parameters of the environment. The results of their study will help city planners provide citizen-friendly urban spaces.
Polish projects funded within the call:
1. BearConnect
Project title: Functional connectivity and ecological sustainability of European ecological networks: a case study with the brown bear
Polish Principle Investigator: dr hab. Nuria Selva Fernandez, Institute of Nature Conservation of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Partners: dr Wilfried Thuiller, French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), France; prof. Niko Balkenhol, Georg-August-University Goettingen, Germany; dr Ancuta Fedorca, National Institute for Research and Development in Forestry “Marin Dracea”, Romania; prof. Andreas Zedrosser, Telemark University College, Norway; dr Luigi Maiorano, Università di Roma "La Sapienza", Italy.
2. BIOVEINS
Project title: Connectivity of green and blue infrastructures; living veins for biodiverse and healthy cities
Polish Principal Investigator: prof. Piotr Tryjanowski, Poznań University of Life Sciences
Partners: prof. Roeland Samson, University of Antwerp, Belgium (project leader); dr Pedro Pinho, University of Lisbon, Portugal; dr Muriel Tichit, French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), France; prof. Ülo Niinemets, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonia; dr Marco Moretti, Swiss Federal Research Institute (WSL), Switzerland; François Chiron, University of Paris-Sud, France
3. ENABLE
Project title: Enabling green-blue infrastructure in complex social-ecological regions - system solutions to wicked problems
Polish Principal Investigator: dr hab. Jakub Kronenberg, University of Lodz;
Partners: dr Kinga Krauze, European Regional Centre on Ecohydrology, Poland; prof. Erik Andersson, Stockholm University, Sweden (project leader); Chantal van Ham, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Belgium; prof. Dagmar Haase, Humboldt University, Germany; Sandra Naumann, Ecologic Institute, Germany; Ania Rok, ICLEI, Germany, Dr David Barton, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Norway; dr Isabelle Anguelovski, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain; prof. Niki Frantzeskaki, DRIFT, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands; prof. Timon McPhearson, The New School, USA.
4. REPEAT
Project title: Restoration and prognosis of peat formation in fens - linking diversity in plant functional traits to soil biological and geochemical processes
Polish Principal Investigator: dr hab. Wiktor Kotowski, University of Warsaw (project leader)
Partners: dr hab. Hans Joosten, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Germany; dr Bente Foereid, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Norway; dr Jenica Hanganu, Danube Delta National Institute for Research and Development, Romania; prof. Ruurd Van Diggelen, University of Antwerp, Belgium; prof. Jan Frouz, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic; Vera Marisa Policarpo Coelho, Wetlands International, the Netherlands.