We would hereby like to inform you that a Joint Call for European Research Projects will be published on September 1, 2009 as part of the SEE-ERA.NET PLUS project. The participating countries are: Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia), EU Member States (Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Romania and Slovenia) and Turkey as an FP7 Associated Country.

The following themes/thematic areas will be supported through the call:

ICT –

I) Software systems for learning process management and support
II) ICT for energy efficiency

AgroFood –

III) Preservation of indigenous species and traditional food products (in SEE/WBC)
IV) Interdisciplinary field: Land use impact in agriculture on biodiversity

This call is aimed at projects with a duration of one to two years.
The total budget for the call is €3.5 million. The funds will be provided by the participating countries and the European Commission. Each approved project will receive up to €150,000.

Minimum conditions for participation: the consortium has to consist of at least two partners from the Western Balkan countries and one from other participating countries (2+1 principle).

A two-stage online application procedure will be used. In stage one, the applicants will be asked to submit an Expression of Interest, not a full project proposal. After the evaluation procedure, the research teams whose EoI are ranked highly will be asked to submit full project proposals.

More detailed information will be published on the SEE-ERA.NET PLUS website (www.see-era.net) in early July 2009. The complete list of the National Contact Points (NCP) for the participating countries will be issued at the same time.