Deadline: 13-Feb-23

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) launch their second call for proposals for the Solution-oriented Research for Development (SOR4D) programme.

The SOR4D programme invites researchers and development actors from policy and practice to collaborate in transnational and transdisciplinary consortia and provide new insights and innovative approaches to reduce poverty and to implement the 2030 Agenda in developing countries.

The SOR4D programme is open to all disciplines from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, engineering, health and life sciences. Proposals must explicitly aim at systemic solutions that simultaneously address several of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda.

Objectives

• The overarching goal of the SOR4D programme is to produce better knowledge, solutions and innovation through needs-driven, transdisciplinary research that opens up new ways to advance sustainable development and reduce poverty in the least developed, low and lower middle-income countries.
• The SOR4D programme has three objectives:
  • Researchers and development actors1 will jointly generate in their respective geographical contexts needs-based, solution-oriented knowledge that contributes to sustainable development and poverty reduction in the Global South and East. This includes validation in those contexts.
  • Project partnerships and networks will test and disseminate research results with potential for innovation (pilot testing, valorisation). This will include different forms of upscaling.
  • Researchers and development actors will enhance their competences (skills and know-how) in conducting solution-oriented transdisciplinary research in partnership for addressing systemic and complex development challenges. This includes sharing their findings with other academics and practitioners.

Funding Information

• The SOR4D programme has a duration of five years (2022-2026) and a total budget of 19.3 million Swiss Francs. Selected research projects will be funded for a period of three years.
• Transdisciplinary research projects within the framework of the SOR4D programme may not last longer than 36 months.
• The budget of a transdisciplinary 36-month SOR4D project must be between 500’000 and 1’000’000 Swiss Francs.

Eligibility Criteria

• Pre-proposals and invited full proposals must be submitted by a consortium of researchers and development actors. For transdisciplinary research partnerships to be effective, they have to be inclusive and fair. All consortium members have to be actively involved in the formulation of the research questions, in the development of the pre-proposal and full proposal and in the execution of the transdisciplinary research project. The individual members within the consortia form the core of an applying consortium and will be evaluated during the selection of the research projects according to their CVs. The institutions of development actors can be included in the evaluation. The minimum requirements for an eligible consortium are:
  • One responsible applicant holding a position at a Swiss higher education or research institution;
  • At least one co-applicant holding a position at a higher education or research institution located in a least developed, low or lower middle-income country;
  • At least one co-applicant development actor of a practitioner organisation located in the country/countries where the transdisciplinary research is being conducted.
• The responsible applicant is a faculty member or senior teaching and research staff employed for the entire duration of the project at a Swiss higher education or research institution. Development actors and researchers based in least developed, low and lower middle-income countries act as co-applicants. If well-justified, additional researchers based at a Swiss research institution can be part of the applying team as co-applicants. Development actors based in a practitioner organisation in the Global North cannot be part of the consortium but can only act as project partners.

For more information, visit https://www.sor4d.ch/news/solution-oriented-research-for-development-sor4d-programme-copy/