Apply for a joint BECC and MERGE Short Projects

What is a joint BECC and MERGE Short Project?

The complementary expertise and methodologies used by MERGE and BECC scientists has the potential to make significant contributions to our understanding of climate change and its links to biodiversity and ecosystem services, and to inform national and international policy and assessments based on the best available science.

The joint BECC and MERGE Short Projects sprung out of a series of stimulating discussions among our members at our 2020 joint BECC-MERGE Spring Meeting. Members identified a number of knowledge gaps at the intersection of our Strategic Research Areas (SRAs). In addition, new method development to address these gaps are encouraged, such as machine learning methods. The filling of these gaps will require joint activities and a commitment. To stimulate the creation of such joint activities a new funding instrument was developed. From 2021, BECC and MERGE will announce short project calls on a bi-annual basis.

Application and funding

The main applicant must be permanently employed at LU or GU (including BUL:s), hold a PhD degree (obtained before the application deadline) and have been active* within the BECC or MERGE research environments. 

*Active referring to participating in one or more of BECC or MERGE events, projects or engaging with the BECC and MERGE administration within the last 4 years. 

OPEN CALL

Call OPEN for 2025 see full calltext below.

Deadline 18 June 2025.
 

Identified gaps the application should address

Wetlands and their management: How will climate change (CC) and air quality (AQ) affect and be affected by CO2, CH4 & N2O emissions from wetlands? How will rewetting or restoration of agricultural land and/or forested land affect biodiversity (BD), CC, AQ and ecosystem services (ES)?  What impacts will climate change have on wetlands, including their BD and ES?

Scenario building: How can we jointly develop integrated modelling/assessment approaches that account for the full range of climate/biodiversity/land use interactions relevant to a Swedish context? What impact do local land-use scenarios developed using social-ecological modelling have on BD, CC, AQ and ES? Can indicators for analysis of scenarios be developed? Can benefits and trade-offs be assessed in a combined framework? Can such a framework be applied to study the interactions in different ecosystems, including agricultural land, forests, arctic-alpine ecosystems and wetlands? How do we scale this up to the national level? What is the best way to engage our scientific reference groups (SRGs) in this effort?
  
Humans and society in the climate system: Social Climate Models (SCMs) could eventually replace IAMs. It's important to have a coupling to society and some kind of human boundary. It is claimed that SCMs, by superseding the SSP framework, could eventually reduce the uncertainties in future climate projections – but do we believe this? Based on existing studies - what are the parameters that lead to the greatest uncertainty in SCMs? What real-world processes do they represent?  

Agriculture: How will climate change affect agricultural production in Sweden? How can we maintain BD in traditional agricultural landscapes, maintain or increase quantity/quality of yields, and simultaneously decrease the net climate forcing resulting from CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions and biophysical impacts? Can we reduce NH3 emissions and leaching, both for AQ (PM2.5) and eutrophication, respectively? How can we systematically use observations made near agricultural land to constrain and calibrate our models? (Related to “Kväveklivet” identified by our joint BECC-MERGE Reference Group. See link: Pressmeddelande regeringen)  

Forestry practices: What alternative afforestation and forest management measures and strategies (e.g. mixing deciduous with evergreen species, reforestation of abandoned agricultural land, intensification, optimized thinning practices) are best for BD and ES provision, and still useful for climate mitigation, considering both biogeochemical and biogeophysical effects? How will AQ be affected by such choices? How might consideration of future disturbances influence decisions in this area? How do we integrate ICOS/ACTRIS observations to constrain and calibrate our models? How can BECC and MERGE devise a modelling and assessment framework across scales that can be used to inform policy and decision making based on this science?  

Extreme events: How will the projected occurrence of extreme events (type, intensity, frequency and duration) impact the BD and ES provided by Sweden’s ecosystems, including arctic-alpine environments? How do we integrate ICOS/ACTRIS observations associated with such events to constrain and calibrate our models? How should we account for the risk of extreme events in conservation strategies or efforts to benefit ecosystem services (which are often supported by models)?  

Integrated Sustainability Assessment: Can an integrated sustainability assessment of Sweden’s climate and biodiversity policies identify with confidence synergies and trade-offs between biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation/adaption?    

Biofuels: What consequences will the increased cultivation and use of biofuels (crops and forests) have for CC, AQ, BD and ES? Can we identify how and where best to cultivate these crops in order to maximize any benefits and to minimize negative effects, considering multiple time horizons?