Biodiversity and plant breeding, two new National Research Programs (SNF)
On June 2, 2023, the Federal Council launched four new National Research Programs (NRP). Two of these are in the areas of biodiversity and plant breeding.
The NRP "Promoting Biodiversity and Sustainable Ecosystem Services for Switzerland" aims to identify ways to value, govern, and manage biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. The program will explore value systems and approaches to valuation, management and governance in resource use. The budget is 15.5 million Swiss francs.
In the NRP "Innovative Plant Breeding", innovations in plant breeding are linked to socio-economic and political changes. The aim is to create scientific foundations for the further development of socially and economically viable solutions with regard to new breeding methods. A budget of 10 million Swiss francs is available for this purpose.
These four research programs were selected from a total of 78 topic proposals submitted to the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) during the 2022/2023 review round. The funds requested for the implementation of the four NRPs, totaling 47.1 million Swiss francs, are covered by the ERI Dispatch 2021-2024. The Swiss National Science Foundation is responsible for implementing the programs. On behalf of the WBF (SERI), the SNSF will issue calls for proposals for the new NRPs by December 2023.
With the National Research Programs, the Confederation promotes research projects that can contribute to solving current questions and challenges of national importance. The research is completed after about five years and the results are communicated to the public.
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Le Conseil fédéral lance quatre nouveaux programmes nationaux de recherche