Climate and Cultural Heritage

Complete call text with appendices is now posted on the Belmont Forum pages Collaborative Research Actions (CRAs)/Opportunities (belmontforum.org). At this page you will also get an overview of the Funding Organisations and with appendices to their national criteria. This page will continuously update information about the call, the Funders, FAQs, etc.

Webinar and matchmaking platform

On Tuesday 16 May at 10:00 – 11:00 UTC, the international secretariat for the call will hold a webinar that provides information about the call and where it is possible to ask questions. From this date, a matchmaking platform will also be open, which aims to support consortium building and fostering networking. If you would like to attend the webinar and/or would like to join the matchmaking platform, please sign up using this form (Climate and Cultural Heritage (google.com)). 

Participation and financial framework

Norway is participating in this call together with 15-20 other countries. The available funding in this call is currently about €15 million.  The list of participants and financial frameworks is under development, see "Funding Annexes" on the Belmont Forum page. These annexes will also state the amount of contribution from each Funder. The topic of this call is important for Norway and the total available budget is up to NOK 18 million. or equivalent to approx. €1.6 million.   The Research Council will provide up to €350,000 in funding per grant application.  In addition, up to €50,000 extra can be sought per application if the Norwegian partner is the project manager (LPI). 

The call is a collaboration between JPI Cultural Heritage, JPI Climate and the Belmont Forum. It is based on the White Paper developed in a collaboration between the JPIs, and on the joint work between the JPI's and the Belmont Forum to include research priorities from Africa, the Americas and Asia. 

Scientific framework and requirements (see the call text for a complete overview)

The call text describes three scientific thematic areas and provides a more detailed description of the scientific content, organisational requirements, and guidelines for the call. It is a one-step process and complete application should be submitted on the Belmont Forums portal. This call aims to support interdisciplinary research challenges at the interface between cultural heritage and climate change, which promote collaboration between research groups across several regions, that contribute to knowledge development and that provide a basis for knowledge-based policy changes. Applicants are invited to submit grant applications addressing at least one of the three themes in the call for proposal and with cross-cutting linkages across all three themes encouraged:

1. The Impact of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage.
2. Cultural Heritage as a Resource for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation.
3. Sustainable Solutions for Heritage.

• The application must consist of a consortium comprising at least three Principal Investigators (PIs), one of whom is the Lead Principal Investigator (LPI), from three different countries and involves at least one stakeholder (Societal Partner - SP). Consortia must be transnational and interdisciplinary. See the partners in chapter 4 of the call for proposals.
•  Please note that a researcher may be involved in a maximum of two proposals as PI and cannot be involved in more than one proposal as LPI.
• The projects must last up to 3 years (36 months) and start no later than 30 June 2024.

National criteria: Norway has important information in national requirements (Funding Annex)(RCN-Annex-CCH-2023.docx (live.com)). All Norwegian applicants must read the requirements carefully. Feel free to contact the national contact persons if you have any questions. We would especially like to mention the thematic limitations Norway has in this call: 

Important: Norway will support applications from all three themes in the "Cultural Heritage and Climate Change" call, with the following limitations: 

Norway will not support:

1. Projects where the main topic is research and development of restoration/conservation technologies and/or techniques
2. Projects where the main focus is on archives or museums and/or where the sources are mainly based on archives or museum collections

Links:

Belmont Forum: Collaborative Research Actions (CRAs) / Opportunities (belmontforum.org)
JPI Cultural Heritage: Climate & Cultural Heritage (CCH): Collaborative Research to Address Urgent Challenges | Heritage Research Hub (heritageresearch-hub.eu)
JPI Climate: News items Archive – JPI Climate (jpi-climate.eu)

National contacts:

1. Eli Ragna Tærum, The Research Council of Norway, et@rcn.no
2. Terje Birkrem Hovland, Ministry of Climate and Environment, terje-birkrem.hovland@kld.dep.no