MAB Call 2025

Preamble

The UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), which was established in 1971, was ratified in Austria as early as in 1972. It was the first intergovernmental environmental programme for conducting research into the relationship between people and their environment.

Currently, the programme comprises a global network of 759 biosphere reserves in 136 countries, which serve as "living laboratories" for testing a sustainable transformation while maintaining a healthy balance between protection of nature and use of the same.

A MAB National Committee has been established at the Austrian Academy of Sciences for controlling and coordinating the programme at a national level and as an interface between the four biosphere parks currently existing in Austria and the UNESCO MAB Secretariat in Paris. The National Committee has been endowed with a budget for scientific support of the parks. For the purposes of transdisciplinarity in the Earth System Sciences research programme the managements of the parks were involved in defining the topic of this call.

Objectives

Due to its federal structure Austria has produced manifold models for governance, financing and management of biosphere parks, which offer good opportunities for comparative research approaches. Current social developments and discourses (climate change, nature restoration and biodiversity, digitalisation, scepticism about science, etc.) present new challenges for the model regions. In this context science can and should contribute to analysing and developing available structures and processes.       
The projects must produce new scientific findings for socially relevant issues in the biosphere parks; the findings are intended to be published in international journals. The findings should be of use to management of the parks and facilitate both their continued establishment and the creation of new MAB protected areas.

In this call we invite submission of projects that deal with issues of governance of social-ecological systems. Specifically, the project should address one of the two topics that are of particular relevance to biosphere parks:

1. analyses of governance and funding, as well as of the structural framework of current and future biosphere parks;

2. analyses of governance and funding, in the context of adaptions to climate change and flood protection in the case of extreme weather events in the biosphere parks.

An international comparison and an assessment at all relevant administrative levels (municipalities, states, countries and internationally) is explicitly desired. The objective of this call is to fill a gap in the international research landscape.  

Target group

The call addresses scientists in Austria with a research focus on natural sciences, social sciences and/or the humanities. Transdisciplinary involvement of at least one biosphere park management is a funding requirement.

Funding term

• 24 months

Amount of grant

The budget may be between a minimum of EUR 120,000 and a maximum of EUR 270,000. In the case of proved cooperation with a biosphere reserve in Switzerland an additional budget of CHF 10,000 may be applied for, which will be provided by the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT). The total amount available is EUR 540,000. The following types of direct costs are eligible for funding:

• staff costs (if applied for, including those for the project management)
  The Collective Bargaining Agreement applicable to the research institution must be used for calculating the staff cost rates. If no such Collective Bargaining Agreement is in place, the cost rates of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) must be used.

• costs for consumables

• travel expenses

• other costs (e.g. fees for use of infrastructures; workshops; services)

• Equipment is not eligible for funding, and no overheads will be paid.

Application requirements

• The project must be carried out at an Austrian research institution.

• Statements of support of at least one Austrian Biospherepark and of all other MAB protected areas involved in the project must be enclosed with the application.

• One research institution or biosphere park may support multiple applications.

• Each applicant may submit only one application.

• Several (not more than 3) applicants may submit a joint application. One of the applicants will be the principal investigator, the others will be co-principal investigators. The principal investigator and the co-principal investigators must hold an academic degree and belong to a research institution in Austria.

• Applicants are prepared to pro-actively contribute to the public presentation of the programme and take part in associated events.

• In well-founded exceptional cases partners from outside Austria may take part in the project; their share must not exceed 25% of the project budget.

Application process

Please submit your application to the following email address: ess-calls(at)oeaw.ac.atby 31 August 2025.

Applications must be submitted in English and include the following documents:

• application form, completed in full (name: projectacronym_ Applicationform),

• budget sheet, completed in full (name: projectacronym_Costs),

• the project application consisting of not more than 12 pages including a Gantt chart and short CVs of the principal investigators (name: projectacronym_proposal)

• ANNEX: long CVs, a list of the cited publications and the letters of support from involved Biosphere parks

Downloads

• Application form (Application)

• Budget overview (Costs)

Procedure

Call opens: 17 March 2025

• All submissions which meet the necessary formal application requirements (see application requirements) will be presented to an independent international jury.

• The jury will make an award recommendation on the basis of their expertise and other expert opinions obtained, if any.

• The award decision of the Presiding Committee of the Austrian Academy of Sciences is expected to be made in October/November 2025. Applicants will be notified promptly.

Data protection and rules of good scientific practice:

By taking part in this call applicants acknowledge that the related data and documents will be forwarded to experts. The purpose of forwarding them is to evaluate the application and make a decision about the award of grants (see also the Data Protection Information of ÖAW).

ÖAW abides by the Guidelines of Good Scientific Practice of the Austrian Agency for Research Integrity (ÖAWI). All applications will be checked for plagiarism using Similarity (Turnitin). Violations of the rules of good scientific practice will result in immediate exclusion of the application.

Funding modalities (excerpt)

• The selected projects must start not later than 6 months after transmission of the grant letter and will have a maximum project term of 24 months. A funding agreement will be concluded with the principal investigators. Provided that no extra costs arise, the project term may be extended for up to 6 months in well-founded cases.

• Changes to the project plan and the project management will require approval.

• Statements of accounts and reports must be presented once a year. After conclusion of the project a comprehensive final project report plus a final statement of accounts for the funding used must be presented.

Contact

Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW)
Department of Research Funding - National and International Programmes
Jörg Böckelmann
ess-calls(at)oeaw.ac.at
T +43 1 515 81-2772