Call for Proposals 2026 – Challenges in forest management: Adapting to climate change and fostering biodiversity for multifunctional forests of the future
Event details
| Date | 21.09.2026 |
| Hour | › 23:59 |
| Category | Call for proposal |
Important for Interested Principal Investigators (PIs):
If you plan to submit a proposal for this call, you must submit the Expression of interest form to the Research Office by July 20 2026
Our institution coordinates submissions because the funder limits the number of applications per institution.
Goals
– Foster a change of perspective in how forests are managed, used and valued.
– Support solution-oriented collaboration between scientists and practitioners to accelerate the uptake of evidence-based approaches in forestry practice.
– Catalyse financial innovation and improved framework conditions that unlock investment in sustainable forest management, enabling forests that can conserve biodiversity, act as a carbon sink and supply forest products.
Thematic Focus of the Call
Project Types
Who Can Apply
The exclusion criteria and fundamental criteria for funding by Velux Stiftung apply. Please read carefully the criteria.
Additional criteria:
Duration
Evaluation
Please refer to the funding criteria
Funding
Timeline
More Information
If you plan to submit a proposal for this call, you must submit the Expression of interest form to the Research Office by July 20 2026
Our institution coordinates submissions because the funder limits the number of applications per institution.
Goals
– Foster a change of perspective in how forests are managed, used and valued.
– Support solution-oriented collaboration between scientists and practitioners to accelerate the uptake of evidence-based approaches in forestry practice.
– Catalyse financial innovation and improved framework conditions that unlock investment in sustainable forest management, enabling forests that can conserve biodiversity, act as a carbon sink and supply forest products.
Thematic Focus of the Call
- Innovative solutions for climate change adaptation and biodiversity recovery that advance integrative sustainable forest management, while ensuring resilient ecosystem services and the supply of sustainable forest products.
- Incentives or tools that translate the often intangible values of forest products and ecosystem services into concrete drivers of behavioural change towards sustainable forest management.
- Exclusions:
- Projects with a focus on implementation or community development and without a clear science component. Small case studies with limited general relevance..
- Urban forestry.
- Research Projects
- Novel, outside-of-the-box research which demonstrates high potential to shift forestry practice At least two partners from different organisations (e.g. universities) needed; the second partner can be a stakeholder organisation Project would not be possible without involving stakeholders from the outset At least 10% of the budget to be spent on knowledge transfer Focus on approaches of general interest that can be scaled
- Science-Practice Projects
- Project enables the transfer of evidence-based forest management findings to practitioners (without being an implementation project).At least two partners from different organisations, with one partner being a stakeholder organisation.
- Projects to produce specific deliverables such as tools or resources.
- Needs upfront commitment of collaborating partners.
The exclusion criteria and fundamental criteria for funding by Velux Stiftung apply. Please read carefully the criteria.
Additional criteria:
- The PI institution needs to be from an EU member state, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, or the UK; an application requires at least two project partners (PI and co-PI) from different institutions.
- The PI needs to be from an academic research institution; other partners or collaborators can be non-academic stakeholders such as forest owners, practitioner associations, NGOs, governmental organizations, or consulting agencies.
- Projects dealing with all forest types, including boreal, temperate, tropical and subtropical forests, are welcome, with a focus on forests producing different goods and services.
- At least the PI or one co-PI has to be an established (R3) or leading (R4) researcher in a field relevant to the project goals.
- Each organisation or institution can submit a maximum of two applications per call (in the role of institution of the PI or co-PI). If this limit is exceeded, all applications from that institution will be excluded.
- Therefore, PIs and co-PIs should contact their institution’s Grants Office well in advance so that submissions from the same institution can be coordinated.
- From 1 to 4 years.
Please refer to the funding criteria
- Maximum CHF 100,000 per year.
- Budget can include:
- Salaries, travel, equipment, consumables.
- Knowledge transfer & stakeholder engagement costs.
- Overhead is not Eligible
- EPFL Internal deadline to express interest: July 20 2026
- Application deadline: 21 September 2026, 23:59 CEST.
- Final decision: March 2027.
- Submission portal: Velux Stiftung Portal
- Review full details and criteria on the foundation’s site:
Practical information
- General public
- Free