Funding Awarded to 4 New Marine Research Projects
The Programme Committee for the Marine Research in the North Atlantic Ocean Programme has awarded 14 M DKK to 4 projects. These are the first grants awarded through the strategic programme for which the Danish government has allocated funds in the Danish Finance Act in the period 2020-2023.
The Programme aim is to strengthen the cooperation between Greenland, Faroe Islands and Denmark on marine research in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Programme Committee emphasised stronger cooperation through PhD and Postdoc projects with research stays in other countries.
The awarded projects are 2 PhD projects and 2 Postdoc projects with partners from institutions in Greenland, Faroe Islands and Denmark, in addition to Norway and Scotland
16 applications were submitted prior to the deadline 21st June 2021. The Programme Committee appointed an international expert panel to evaluate the quality of the projects. The panel commended that there were several high-quality projects with the potential to contribute with new knowledge on the ocean and the resources in the North Atlantic Ocean as well as strengthen the cooperation between the countries even more. The amount available allowed for the funding of the four highest ranked projects in this round.
Cecilie Mauritzen Chair of the Programme was very pleased to see so many strong applications:
– It was a pleasure to see that the research community seized this opportunity and created a variety of projects that fit both the strategic and scientific aims of the call. It is our hope that the funded projects truly will enhance the scientific understanding of the processes in this biodiversity-rich, economically important and climatically key area of the world.
The funded projects
BlueOcean - Blue whiting recruitment, distribution and Ocean-climate processes in the north Atlantic Ridge area
Brian MacKenzie, Project leader. Cooperation between DTU-Aqua and Faroe Marine Research Institute
Funding: 3.998.000 kr.
TOPLINK - Marine top predators as ecosystem indicators in the central North Atlantic
Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen, Project leader. Cooperation between Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, Faroe Marine Research Institute and University of Copenhagen
Funding: 3.973.000
COPS - Dynamics of Calanus species linked to Oceanographic processes, Predators and Carbon Sequestration
Eilif Gaard, Project leader. Cooperation between Faroe Marine Research Institute, DTU-Aqua and University of Strathclyde
Funding: 2.366.250
FjordProcess - Key processes governing pelagic productivity in sub-arctic North Atlantic fjord ecosystems
Eydna í Homrum, Project leader. Cooperation between Faroe Marine Research Institute, Aquaculture Research Station of the Faroe Islands, Aarhus University and Institute of Marine Research in Bergen
Funding: 3.699.024
Next Call Deadline in June 2022
The Programme Committee has decided that the remaining funds, approximately 8 M DKK, will be available for the next round of applications with deadline in June 2022. The call text will most likely be similar to this call round with the possibility of slight changes. More information on this will be announced in early March 2022.