PACE-Net Plus seed-funding scheme: 21 grants awarded

The PACE-Net Plus consortium is pleased to publish the outcomes of its seed-funding scheme, which closed for applications on the 15^th of April 2015.

Of 65 expressions of interest received, 47 were eligible to apply for this funding, and a total of 21 proposals have been successfully evaluated by external evaluators and consortium members in the following broad areas:

• Health, Demographic Change and Wellbeing
• Food security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine and Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bio-economy
• Climate Action, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

The overwhelming response to the seed-funding call demonstrates significant interest by researchers worldwide in the South Pacific. Different political stakeholders, prestigious European scientific institutions as well as the remarkable civil society and scientific actors of the South Pacific, New Zealand and Australia submitted outstanding project ideas to this call.

The topics that were submitted addressed the wide range of challenges that the South Pacific faces. For example: solar energy, deep sea mining, observation systems, sustainable transport, science policy development processes, indigenous approaches to agriculture, pollution and human health, algae blooms, and fish poisoning.

Prior to the call for proposals, the PACE-Net Plus consortium organized a series of Think Tank events for scientists, policy makers and civil society. These experts brought together their knowledge and perspectives to identify a range of scientific and innovation gaps in the South Pacific. Each event produced a large number of new collaborative project ideas, and we are pleased to note that a significant proportion of the seed-funding applications are a direct result of the Think Tank outcomes.

The seed-funding submissions proposed a wide variety of modalities for future-oriented collaborations, including workshops, consultations, risk assessments, community-based projects, collaboration projects between different stakeholders, capacity development in the area of leadership, and more.

Representatives from the funded projects will showcase their outcomes during the final PACE-Net Plus platform event in Fiji in June 2016, and a summary of these outcomes will be posted on the PACE-Net Plus website in due course.

Congratulations to all successful recipients.

List of selected proposals

1. Nano-biosurfacing & Diagnosis of infectious diseases
2. Physical activity for today’s Oceanian youth
3. The Pacific MANA (Monitoring Alliance for NCD Action) Hub
4. Monitoring non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality in Pacific Island States
5. The Role of Geospatial Information for Assessing Environmental Livelihood Security in the South Pacific
6. Evaluating the sustainability of deepwater snapper fisheries in the Pacific region
7. Pacific Food Matters: converging traditional knowledge solutions with ecological science for climate resilient local and global food security
8. Pilot iventory of traditional knowledge of ciguatera fish poisoning and its treatment in the Pacific Island region; Fiji and PNG
9. Improving the knowledge base for ciguatera monitoring and protection of public health and local economies in OCTs, Pacific Island Countries and Territories, Australia and New Zealand
10. Research and Development of Indigenous Food crops to address community well-being, food security and climate change
11. Consultations for a Pacific Network for Social Responsibility and Natural (Mineral and other) Resources
12. Kuchua Community Project: Indigenous Youth Responses to Water and Waste Management
13. Pre-feasibility study for methane recovery at Naboro landfill, Suva, Fiji
14. Identifying risk assessment tools and approaches for deep sea mining activities to support communities, government and developing industries
15. Communication, communities and climate change: Designing a leadership program for community-based climate change practitioners in the Pacific region
16. TPOS2020: Tropical Pacific Observing system for 2020: first workshop for the backbone task team
17. IDEA Consortium Workshop: Social-Ecological Modeling of Innovative Genetic Control Approaches to Mosquito-borne Diseases
18. Food-security and bio-security in Melanesia: land snails as pest agents of decline of self-sufficiency in healthy food production and potential for utilizing edible native snails
19. Joint Pacific-Europe Development of an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for Environmental Monitoring and Surveillance in the Pacific Island Countries (PICs)
20. Initiating a Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Development Process in the Kingdom of Tonga
21. Climate and its Impacts on Marine Ecosystems (CIME)