Call for Concept Notes: Economics of Natural Resource Use and Environmental Change

Themes

• They seek concept notes related to themes set within two of the three new strategic groups:
  • Reducing climate and environmental risks – e.g. understanding the socioeconomic implications of
    • a changing cryosphere,
    • multi-hazard disaster risk reduction,
    • sustainable river basin management, and
    • impacts of air pollution, while also examining the potential solutions and policies from multiple angles.
  • Resilient mountain economies and landscapes – e.g. understanding the economics of
    • sustainable and resilient mountain livelihoods,
    • institutions and their responses to enhance livelihoods in the face of climate and environmental changes,
    • valuation and incentive-based mechanisms that help restore mountain ecosystems and biodiversity, and
    • springshed and wetlands management.
  • They also encourage research on issues of interest to national, provincial, and local policymakers in South Asia and the HKH region, including environmental issues faced by communities. This could be in the context of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP), Sendai Framework, air quality and urban challenges, such as, energy access/transition, green value chains, landscape management, agroecosystems and forest restoration, circular economy, and climate change adaptation/mitigation and loss and damage estimation – ideally looking at how nature-based solutions (NbS) can deliver wider co-benefits and associated economic implications.

Funding Information and Duration

• Grants are likely to be in the range of USD 20,000–30,000 over a two-year period. The upper limit grants are aimed for the multidisciplinary teams involving two or more countries in the region or focus on a transboundary issue that requires interdisciplinary team.

Eligibility Criteria

• Researchers from and working in South Asia and the HKH region are eligible to submit concept notes.
• To avoid conflict of interest, researchers whose relatives are working at ICIMOD, and current consultants are not eligible for receiving the research grant.
• Principal investigators (PIs) must be junior to mid-career professionals employed by a university, research institute, or other similar institutions in the region, including government agencies and nonprofit organisations. Senior researchers (professors, directors, and other similar level/positions) are not eligible for the research support/grant.
• Institutional affiliation of the PI is mandatory for receiving research support. While submitting a full proposal (not needed for concept notes), a support letter from the institution where the PI is affiliated is required for further consideration.
• Women researchers and researchers affiliated with member universities of the Himalayan University Consortium (HUC) are encouraged to apply.

Selection Criteria

• SANDEE will prioritise the selection of concept notes that have a strong economics component and the dual potential to produce high-impact scientific publications and information that are useful to national-, provincial-, or local-level policy makers in the region.
• Concept notes for action research that aims to produce consulting-type reports will not be considered. SANDEE welcomes concept notes that involve interdisciplinary projects, crossborder collaborations, and transboundary topics with a mountain and gender focus, but a clear identification of the roles and responsibility of each team member is needed.

For more information, visit ICIMOD.