NWO announces first call for proposals for global research programme on urbanising river deltas

Dutch research grant organisation NWO-WOTRO will launch the first call for proposals for Urbanising Deltas of the World (UDW) in November. This new research programme aims to contribute to global water safety, water and food security, and to sustainable economic development in river deltas worldwide.

Its goal is to come to effective and efficient responses to meet the challenges associated with climate change, population growth and increasing economic activities in these regions.

A total budget of approximately 10 million euro is available.

North-South public-private partnerships
This first call for proposals will be aimed at North-South consortia, working in public-private partnerships. These consortia will be invited to submit a proposal for an Integrated Project that will run for four to five years. A budget of approximately 5 million euro is available for the first call.

In December 2012, a launch event will be organised to give interested parties the opportunity to pitch ideas and to develop public-private partnerships.

Unconventional sensoring, new approaches and stronger governance
The three main foci of Urbanising Deltas of the World are:

• enhancing fundamental knowledge on delta systems by the development of smart observations using new technologies and unconventional sensors in data-scarce environments, and the development of methods, theories and computational techniques to unravel these complex coupled environmental and social system
• developing new approaches and technologies to implement new knowledge in planning and design, and for decision making under uncertainty in a rapidly changing environment
• determining socio-economic conditions for sustainable development of deltas with a special emphasis on countries with weaker governmental systems; improving governance systems and strengthening of institutional development in social, economic and spatial planning sectors.

Collaborating partners
Urbanising Deltas of the World is a joint activity of the NWO themes Water and Climate and Connecting Sustainable Cities (VerDus). The programme is also part of the innovation contract of the Dutch top sector Water.

A variety of partners collaborate in UDW, including the NWO divisions of WOTRO, Earth and Life Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, as well as the Technology Foundation STW, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment.

Research on global issues
NWO-WOTRO Science for Global Development is a research-granting organisation focusing on programming, funding and monitoring research on global issues. WOTRO envisions a world in which science continuously inspires development actors and in which scientists, in their turn, are inspired by development challenges.

This news item was originally published on the website of NWO-WOTRO.

More information
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research/WOTRO
Urbanising Deltas of the World
ir. Han van Dijk e-mail: h.vandijk@nwo.nl
+31 70 344 09 45,
www.wotro.nl
www.udw.verdus.nl