Call for education and public awareness projects 2024-2025

The Protocol of Cooperation between the Belgian Development Cooperation (DGD) and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) aims to contribute, through its CEBioS programme, to a better understanding of biodiversity in connection with sustainable development and to improved implementation of international environmental agreements in developing countries.

As part of its Public Awareness component, CEBioS supports the activities of CHM National Focal Points in their efforts to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). National CHMs play a key role in informing and educating the public and decision-makers about the value of biodiversity and the opportunities offered by the Convention.

In 2024–2025, CEBioS will fund approximately 5 to 7 projects through this call, depending on the number, size, and quality of the applications received.

The call is open to organisations and CHM National Focal Points from Belgium’s partner countries:
Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, D.R. Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Palestine State, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda. Submissions must be endorsed by the CHM National Focal Points to ensure that the results will be posted on the national CHM website.

Themes for 2024-2025

Projects should align with one of the following three priority themes:

1. Public Awareness on Targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)

Projects should contribute to awareness-raising and education related to one or more of the following GBF targets:

• TARGET 4: Halt Species Extinction, Protect Genetic Diversity, and Manage Human-Wildlife Conflicts
• TARGET 5: Ensure Sustainable, Safe and Legal Harvesting and Trade of Wild Species
• TARGET 6: Reduce the Introduction of Invasive Alien Species by 50% and Minimize Their Impact
• TARGET 7: Reduce Pollution to Levels That Are Not Harmful to Biodiversity
• TARGET 8: Minimize the Impacts of Climate Change on Biodiversity and Build Resilience

Projects should demonstrate alignment with relevant objectives in their national biodiversity strategies and Action Plans and how they contribute to the selected GBF target(s).

2. Citizen participation for Ecosystem and Habitat Restoration

Projects under this theme should promote citizen initiatives that engage local communities in the restoration of degraded habitats or ecosystems. Activities can include training, participatory monitoring, ecological restoration, or community-based management.

3. Citizen science

Projects that involve citizens in the monitoring of species by organizing specific activities for them to record the presence of species in their natural environment. Examples can be:

• To develop training material to involve schools to record bird or plant species in their school yard and organise a national day on which all participating schools do the recording.
• Organise campaigns to record bird or plant species in public gardens and add the information to observation.org or INaturalist using their apps

Cross-cutting Priority

All projects are strongly encouraged to involve marginalized or vulnerable groups (e.g. women, indigenous peoples, or local minorities) and/or young people. Inclusivity will be considered a major asset in project evaluation.

Projects financed in previous years can be visited on the national CHM websites or through the following link “Selected projects of the Public awareness calls from 2005 – 2022”

Type of support

CEBioS will finance the selected projects up to 80% of their estimated costs. The remaining 20% will have to be provided by the local partner.

Payment of instalments

The last payment will only be made after reception of original justification of expenses and the final report (receipts and supporting documents).

Project promoter and partners

The official project promoter must contact the CHM National Focal Point of the submitting country to ensure that the results of the project will be posted on the national CHM. An approval letter of the supervisory authority or director must be joined to the application file.
Collaboration or subcontracting with a local partner is possible. In this case, such collaboration or subcontracting must clearly be indicated in the application. The involvement of education and/or communication specialists is an asset.

Preparation of a proposal and submission instructions

Projects must be submitted to RBINS by 28 May 2025 at the latest, at the electronic address cbd-chm<at>naturalsciences.be.
Alternatively, and only if there are e-mail problems, the application can be sent by regular mail at the address mentioned at the end of this document.

Projects must be submitted using the following template.

To prepare the budget you have to use the model for budget (budget template) and read carefully the vademecum. The budget should be included in the proposal but also be sent as a separate Excel file.

Reporting

A report of activities and a financial report must be submitted to CEBioS at the end of the project. A sample of the available educational material will be joined to the report of activities (e.g. posters, brochures, T-shirts, etc.).

Information on and generated by the project should be made available on the national CHM website, so that a large audience is made aware of the achievements.

The deliverables are:

• A project implemented according to the terms of the contract
• Implemented project and narrative report, including indicators as requested by CEBioS
• Financial report following the template provided by CEBioS (Excel)
• Financial reports not using the template will not be taken into consideration.

A financial report that doesn't respect these instructions will not be accepted. If a project passes the agreed up on budget there will be no additional funds available! 

Indicative dates for the examination of proposals and for the execution of the projects

Contacts

The following persons will oversee the evaluation and follow-up of projects, with the support of experts of the RBINS Education Department and of DGD:

• Luc JANSSENS de BISTHOVEN, programme coordinator for the DGD – RBINS programme CEBioS
• Han DE KOEIJER, National focal point for the CHM
• Pierre HUYBRECHTS, science programme officer CEBioS and national focal point for the GTI

In order for each of these persons to be informed at all times of the status of the application, projects and all related correspondence can only be submitted through the generic e-mail cbd-chm <at> naturalsciences.be.

Physical address:
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Rue Vautier 29
1000 Brussels
Belgium
E-mail: cbd-chm<at>naturalsciences.be

Template for public awareness project