The call for OT-Med collaborative scientific projects and scientific events was launched on 10 January 2014. This year to avoid dispersion between numerous small projects and to stimulate ambitious and coordinated actions, the calls for collaborative projects, postdoctoral and PhD fellowships were grouped together. The deadline was 10th March 2014. At the end of May 2014 the OT-Med management board selected the funded project. In case of scientific projects this decision was based on two external reviews for each project.
SCIENTIFIC PROJECTS FUNDED BY OT-MED
WP1: Understanding and evaluating Mediterranean climatic changes and natural hazards
Atmospheric Input Of terrestriaL Organic matter to the Surface Mediterranean Sea: origin, fluxes and fate in the water column (AIOLOS), PANAGIOTOPOULOS Christos, PULIDO-VILLENA Elvira, MIO, +CEREGE, LCP (ECCOREV) (1 PhD student, 10 k€ running costs)
Understanding the Long-Term variability of Lake Chad environments: a paleoclimate modelling approach for a better assessment of future change (CHAD-UNITE) ; SYLVESTRE Florence, CEREGE, + IMBE (1 postdoc, 6,3 k€ running costs)
Corsican Palaeoclimate, Palaeoenvironments & Anthropization (COPPA) ; GUITER Frédéric, IMBE, + CEREGE, ECCOREV (10 K€ running costs for one year)
An Econometric approach to build a new calibration model for Continental TEMPerature proxy? (ECCOTEMP) ; MENOT Guillemette, CEREGE, + GREQAM (3 k€: Master internship)
Frequency of large past earthquakes in the Aegean and associated risk susceptibility. Combining cosmogenic dating, historical data, and spatial analysis (FEARS); BENEDETTI Lucilla, CEREGE, + ESPACE (25 K€ running costs for two years)
Geo-Economic Saharan Aquifer System (GESAS); DESCHAMPS Pierre, CEREGE, + GREQAM (1 PhD, 10 k€ running costs)
Hydrological variability (modern and past) in Morocco since the Holocene in relation with this project one Labex OT-Med thesis started in January 2014 (PHYMOR); VIDAL Laurence, CEREGE, + IMBE (10 k€ running costs)
Remineralization of Organic particles in Presence of Ballast MInerals (ROBIN); TAMBURINI Christian, MIO, +CEREGE (1 postdoc, 10 k€ running costs)
Carbon cycle and biodiversity in Mediterranean oak forest: impact of climate change (CYCABIOCLIM); BALDY Virginie, IMBE, +ECCOREV, GSE (0,5 PhD)
Understanding ecological functioning of coralligenous habitats, and building New Indicators based on genetic tools to assess their GES (good environmental status) (NIGESCor); CHENUIL Anne, IMBE, +MIO (1 PhD)
Contribution of phenology to study the impact of climate change in coastal marine environment: the octocorals as models species; ERESKOVSKY Alexander, IMBE, + MIO (6 k€), project funded partly in 2013 and resubmitted in 2014
WP3: Human-environmental interaction: perception, adaptation and mitigation
Adaptation of Mediterranean EcoNOmies of Past to Hydroclimatic changeS (AMENOPHYS); KIRMAN Alan, GREQAM, +CEREGE, IMBE (1 postdoc, 10 k€ running costs)
Measuring Climate Change Perception in India and France (M2C); SCHLEYER-LINDENMANN Alexandra, ESPACE, +GREQAM (3 k€ running costs)
Designing alternative regional Scenarios for land-use and agricultural Innovative Management and BIOdiverSity consErvation (SIMBIOSE); ALBERT Cécile, IMBE, +LPED, ECODEV, GREQAM, IRSTEA (1 PhD, 10 k€ running costs)
TWP1: The observation systems and databases
Dynamics of heterotrophic microorganisms determined by in situ automated flow cytometry (DHEMISA); DENIS Michel, MIO + IRSTEA (1 postdoc, 10 k€ running costs)
SCIENTIFIC EVENTS FUNDED BY OT-MED
Practical course in chemical ecology in marine and terrestrial environments (ETEC2014), 16-20 June 2014, BALDY Virginie, IMBE (6 k€)
Living on the coast. Ecological and human contemporary issues (SEH26), 16-18 October 2014, BLEY Daniel, UMR 7300 (1 k€)
Second workshop on non-market valuation (WONV2014), 25-26 June 2014, CHANEL Olivier, GREQAM, AMSE (2 k€)
3rd International Conference on Biodiversity and the UN Millennium Development Goals: Biodiversity and Food Security – From Trade-offs to Synergies (WGL-InEE conf2014), 29-31 October 2014, CRAMER Wolfgang , IMBE (6 k€)
OTMed support for Mediterranean Network of master's degree : 2014/15 & 2015/16 international field school editions (OTMedNet-2014/2016), TORRE Franck, IMBE; MENOT Guillemette, CEREGE (funded from the OT-Med training resources)
GENERAL INFORMATION
26 projects have been submitted, 50% have been accepted. Figure 1 (here below) shows the distribution of the rejected and accepted projects versus the lab. The lab of the PI is scored by 1 and the other participating labs are scored to 0.5. Two labs have a score of accepted projects >5 (CEREGE and IMBE). They correspond also to the highest score of submitted projects (>10). MIO and GREQAM have a score of accepted about 3 (against a score of submitted projects of 5). The other labs have a score of accepted between 0 (CERIC) and 1. These labs have also a small score of submitted projects (<2), except IRSTEA, which has a score of submitted projects of 5. The distribution of projects with a large interdisciplinarity (SHS with natural sciences) is also of high interest: 7 accepted projects (out of 13) and 3 rejected (out of 13) were largely interdisciplinary, which proves that this criterion was far to be the only criterion of acceptance. The contribution to MISTRALS was significant with 9 projects out of 13. In conclusion, this call was competitive with a high selectivity. We have avoided dividing too much the amount of available money (“saupoudrage”). All the accepted project were truly inter-lab, the majority had a large interdisciplinary approach and was a contribution to MISTRALS.
