CORE Organic is the acronym for "Coordination of European Transnational Research in Organic Food and Farming Systems". As an ERA-NET action, it intends to increase cooperation between national research activities. CORE Organic Plus is the continuation of the ERA-Nets CORE Organic I and CORE Organic II. Compared to the previous CORE Organic ERA-Nets the Plus ERA-Net will benefit from an additional top-up funding by the European Commission.

Call for pre-proposals - deadline 25 February:

Call announcement

Guideline for applicants

National rules

Call submission web site

Questions and answers for applicants

Partner search

CORE Organic has 1 December 2013 started its 3rd contract with the European Commission, and is now launching a transnational call on organic food and farming systems with 9.4 million Euros for research from 22 funding bodies, and 3 million Euros from the EC (2 million for research). CO Plus will run for 5 years until the research projects initiated have been evaluated.

The call text and indicative budget per country are published in the call announcement together with the call schedule and the list of national contact points. The guideline for applicants with description of the call process, the eligibility criteria, criteria for for evaluation, national rules and priorities, the new CORE Organic website and the call submission site are now ready to be launched.

A brokerage event is arranged in Brussels 18 December to give potential applicants a chance to meet and discuss ideas. TP Organics is organising the event for CORE Organic. The deadline for registration was 5 December, but the CORE Organic secretariat is offering to bring information from interested researchers to be shared with relevant participants during the meeting. Please send ONE page, telling which thematic research area you are interested in, your expertise, your idea and contact details to coreorganic@icrofs.org latest 16 December.

The four thematic research areas of the call are:
1. Crop: Plant/Soil interaction in organic crop production
2. Functional biodiversity to improve management of diseases, weeds and pests
3. Livestock health management system including breeding
4. Ensuring quality and safety of organic food along the processing chain

The CORE Organic consortium hopes to receive applications from a wide representation within the science and innovation environments, including from environments which have not previously received funds from CORE Organic.

The funding from the EC will be divided into three and used for 1) distribution according to national funds in the call (approximately 11% extra for each country), 2) top-up funding to ensure that the highest ranked projects are funded by filling in short-comings, and 3) funding of the administration of the CORE Organic Plus project. The top-up funding of the EU aims at further contributing to a more ample selection of projects by filling in national financial short comings during project selection. The ranking of the full proposals will be performed by a scientific expert panel, and will be respected by the funding bodies.

Within these research projects the participation of partners from private companies is welcome, and might be funded if the national rules allows for it.