About
What is the Belmont Forum?
The Belmont Forum is a partnership of funding agencies, international scientific councils, and regional consortia dedicated to promoting transdisciplinary, transnational research to help understand, mitigate, and adapt to global environmental change.
What is its main goal?
The Belmont Forum’s primary goal is to build a transdisciplinary community that advances research on global environmental change.
Its projects encourage co-design and co-implementation by multinational teams from diverse disciplines and local actors, aiming to remove barriers to sustainability through global collaboration.
Since its founding, the Forum has launched 22 calls, supported 181 projects, and collaborated with more than 1,000 scientists and stakeholders from over 90 countries.
How does the Belmont Forum work?
The Belmont Forum mobilizes funding, promotes open data access, fosters capacity development, and facilitates stakeholder engagement.
Support for scientists and stakeholders is channeled through funding opportunities the Belmont Forum calls Collaborative Research Actions (CRAs).
Each proposal must involve a project co-developed by natural scientists, social scientists, and societal partners from at least three countries.
Inclusiveness is important for the Belmont Forum. Societal partners can include community organizations, policymakers, businesses, industries, unions, tribal organizations, NGOs, and other relevant actors.
Social sciences can include disciplines from economics to the humanities. A transdisciplinary approach is key to all supported projects, which are expected to work with research strategies that cross disciplinary boundaries.
How are research projects funded?
The Belmont Forum’s members and partners bring all their efforts to the common pool of resources for the design and implementation of the CRAs.
These contributions are provided either directly or in-kind, supporting the various tasks and activities assigned to the Secretariat and for the implementation of each CRA.
How are funds allocated?
Funds are awarded through coordinated financing from participating organizations. For example, in a team with members from the U.S., South Africa, and Japan, each participant would receive funding from their respective country’s institutions.
How are projects selected?
Projects are evaluated based on their merit. The selection criteria and available support details are different for each call and are outlined in “organizational annexes” applicants can consult.
What topics have been addressed?
Key areas include:
Freshwater security
Coastal vulnerability
Food security
Land use
Climate prediction
Biodiversity
Ecosystem services
Arctic observation
Sustainability
You can read more about the teams, projects and outcomes we have supported here [LINK ADDED AT THE END].