Call for Environmental Monitoring of the Future

The aim is to provide the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, as well as other actors in environmental monitoring, with scientifically based research that contributes to furthering the development and/or increasing the efficiency of environmental monitoring, through both existing efforts and innovative application of new technology.

Environmental monitoring, in the context of this call, refers to the collection and analysis of data from nature that provides knowledge about terrestrial and aquatic environments, as well as environmental toxins in humans or the environment. A general focus is on the development of methods and analyses or improvement of existing methodologies for assessing and modelling environmental status, dynamics and trends at relevant spatial and temporal scales.

Results will contribute to the development of environmental monitoring and provide a stronger basis for following up the Swedish environmental quality objectives, and EU or international directives and regulations. Directives and regulations of particular relevance include: the Birds and Habitats Directives, the Water Framework Directive, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the Drinking Water Directive, the Global Biodiversity Framework (Kunming-Montreal GBF), official statistics, environmental and ecosystem accounts, the EU Zero Pollution Strategy, and the LULUCF Regulation. 

Target groups include the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, the county administrative boards, other authorities with responsibility in the environmental objectives system, those performing environmental monitoring, and operators who are subject to self-monitoring that generates or may generate environmental data. 

Results from research projects must be readily applicable and operational for the above aims and target groups.

To meet the increasing demands placed on environmental monitoring in a cost-effective manner, incorporation of new technologies and renewed monitoring schemes are required.

The call's three monitoring areas, terrestrial, aquatic and toxic substances monitoring, and/or combination of monitoring areas, require knowledge that often transcends the boundaries between different perspectives, such as local vs. national scale, theory vs. practice, and human impact vs. natural processes. More specifically, development of technology or analysis of environmental monitoring is needed in the areas of landscapes, biodiversity and ecosystem services, detection of emerging environmental risks and changes, non-destructive methods for estimating populations and stocks, impact assessment of fisheries, and other human activities affecting ecosystems.

Some other areas in need of advancement and renewal include: conceptual design of monitoring programs, opportunities to co-analyse environmental monitoring data with data collected for other purposes, efficient and user-friendly analysis methods and modelling, and methods for producing reference values, impact assessments, as well as index and indicator development. A key area is how to intercalibrate data collected using traditional methods (field methods) with new technology/data. 

Knowledge support is needed for:

• Development and/or application of new methods and techniques for environmental data collection. There is a need for scientifically based support on how new methodologies and technologies can be developed and used to increase the effectivess of environmental monitoring or the quality of collected data.
• Data processing: There is a need for innovative thinking and new knowledge about methods or processes that are useful in the applied work with data flows in relation to automation, flexibility, adaptability, and quality control. This applies to the entire process from data capture via databases to analysis, accessibility, and reporting.
• Data analysis: There is a need for new methodologies for processing and analysing data, including modelling. There is also a need for analysis methodologies that effectively combine innovative techniques with more traditional methods at different scales with varying levels of detail. 

The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management are looking for projects:

- that contribute with applicable and validated methods to improve the efficiency of environmental monitoring, data processing and/or analysis. For example, approaches on the development and/or application of newer technology or how a combination of field measurements, new technology and automated data capture can be co-analysed; 

and/or 

- that add results useful for the assessment of various directives, regulations and environmental quality objectives. For example, approaches producing data that provide a basis for assessments under several directives and regulations or demonstrate synergies among areas contributing to more efficient environmental monitoring, data processing and/or analysis.

The focus should be on terrestrial and/or aquatic environmental monitoring and/or monitoring of toxic substances. We welcome combined approaches that can also include other environmental monitoring areas. We aim to allocate budget resources to at least one project within each area that is terrestrial environmental monitoring, aquatic environmental monitoring, and environmental toxins monitoring. 

The call does not specifically cover evaluation and assessment of environmental measures or interventions. Proposals related to the monitoring of seal species and cormorants are referred to the research call

Towards ecosystem-based aquatic management

It is important that the relevance for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management is clearly stated in the application.  We welcome subject specific as well as interdisciplinary research projects. We encourage new research collaborations and interactions with actors outside of academia.

Eligible applicants are researchers with a PhD at universities, colleges, research institutes or government agencies who conduct research as part of their assignment. The primary applicant must be affiliated with an organisation with a Swedish organisation number. 

Applicants and co-applicants should have fulfilled their obligations in previous research projects funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency before the application deadline for the call. Otherwise, the application will be rejected for formal reasons. Researchers who are granted funding are expected to participate in annual research meetings of relevance for funders and in annual meetings for actors associated with this research call. Researchers are also expected to allocate resources for communication with the agencies and other actors and stakeholders. 

Deadline for applications: 12 September 2024, 14:00 C.E.T.

Funding decision: December 2024

Start date of the projects: December 2024

Kari Stange, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
Phone: +4610 698 1286
E-mail: kari.stange@naturvardsverket.se

Hannah Östergård Roswall, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
Phone: +4610 698 1681
E-mail: hannah.ostergard.roswall@naturvardsverket.se

Ulrika Stensdotter Blomberg, the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management
Phone: +4610 698 6011
E-mail: ulrika.stensdotter@havochvatten.se