Results of the first ERA-CAPS call for proposals

14 transnational projects involving 72 research teams from 11 different countries will receive funding by the ERA-CAPS call consortium.

Inspired by the call theme: “Expanding the European Research Area in Molecular Plant Sciences”, an overwhelming 500 research teams from 21 European and non-European countries submitted proposals to the First ERA-CAPS call which closed on 15 February 2013.  The 110 proposals were evaluated in two consecutive steps by external evaluators and an international review panel.  Despite the budget constraints in some of the participating countries, the 14 best ranked proposals could be funded.  A total of 21 M EUR will hence be invested in plant science research at the transnational level over the coming three years.   

The funded proposals cover a wide spectrum of molecular plant sciences involving  research questions related to the themes of food security, adaptation to a changing climate, biotic/abiotic stress and, to a lesser extent, non food crops.    In view of the success of this first call, a majority of participating agencies have already decided to launch a second call for proposals (see: http://www.eracaps.org/joint-calls/second-era-caps-joint-call-pre-announced).  The list of funded projects and investigators will soon be available on the page: http://www.eracaps.org/joint-calls/era-caps-funded-projects