The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has launched a call for grants to promote the bioeconomy as a driver of development and conservation. This project, framed in the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), has received a total of 132 projects.
The objective of these grants is to identify transformative initiatives that promote the bioeconomy, understood as an opportunity to show that the conservation of natural resources can go hand in hand with activities that generate economic and social development.
This line of aid has an endowment of 20 million euros (between €250,000 and €2M per project) while the total requested amounts to 147 million. Therefore, only 15% of the proposals submitted can be supported, depending on the amount requested for each selected project.
Given the success of the call, work is currently underway to mobilise more funds to maintain these subsidy lines in the future.
THE BIOECONOMY, A DRIVER OF THE ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION
This call is of great importance to promote development in the rural world through new productive activities or other more traditional ones that are sustainable, such as organic farming, extensive livestock, beekeeping or sustainable forest management, among others.
In this regard, projects have been submitted aimed at promoting sustainable agricultural, livestock and forestry systems (55), projects aimed at ecological restoration (17), platforms or improvement of knowledge on the bioeconomy (22), the development of bioproducts, biofuels or the use of biomass (12) or pilot projects of bioeconomy in territories (17), among others.
MORE THAN 530 MILLION EUROS
The five calls launched by the Biodiversity Foundation within the framework of Component 4 of the RTRP, published on 4 October and whose deadline for submitting projects ended on 3 January, have obtained an extraordinary demand for funds.
A total of 382 projects have been submitted to these five calls, which have a budget of 88.7 million euros, requesting a global grant of €532 million. For grants for research programmes and projects in the field of biodiversity management, 107 proposals have been received, for a total of €31.6 million, compared to the €2.5 million available in this call.
For the reinforcement of stranding and rescue networks of marine species, 25 projects have been presented, with a total amount of €7.5 million, compared to the €4.25 million available. The grants aimed at supporting the rescue centres of the CITES Convention have received 19 proposals, requesting a total of €3.4 million. Finally, for the promotion of actions aimed at the renaturalisation and resilience of Spanish cities, 99 projects have been presented with a total amount of €346 million, compared to the €58 million available.
SUPPORT FOR PROJECTS ALIGNED WITH THE OBJECTIVES
As established in all calls and with the availability of the existing budget, the selection criteria will be based on the quality of the proposals received. Projects that are correctly designed and technically and economically dimensioned, that are integrated and respond to public policies, plans or strategies and with a high impact, innovative, that promote a true transformation, with a demonstrative effect, scalable and with lasting results over time will be selected. In addition, they must be initiatives that demonstrate their contribution to solving some of the great environmental and social challenges for the conservation of our natural heritage and biodiversity and the creation of employment.
In the case of the call for the renaturation of cities, in addition, they must be initiatives that promote nature-based solutions, aimed at increasing the presence of natural elements in cities, from an ecosystem approach. At the same time, they must integrate biodiversity as the backbone of interventions, favouring and improving the diversity of habitats in cities and contemplate social cohesion in a transversal way through the participation of citizens and social agents.
A call for grants aimed at restoring river environments and reducing flood risk is currently open. With an endowment of €75M, the deadline for submitting projects ends on March 16, 2022. All the information on this call can be consulted at the following link: https://convocatoriaentornosfluviales.fundacion-biodiversidad.es/
