The first contest to finance research projects specifically regarding tropical and subtropical biodiversity in the outermost regions and territories of Europe is being prepared. The contest is part of the NET-BIONE project (www.netbiome.org) and it is expected to be launched in September or October 2010.
The Government of the Azores, through the Regional Secretariat for Environment and Sea, as a NET-BIOME partner, is included among the 10 institutions that contribute with funds for this initiative. This group of financing entities is composed of other seven regions and territories, partners of the project, and even national research financing agencies from Portugal (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) and France (Agence National de Recherche). The temporary contest budget is of about 2,5 million Euros.

The contest, entitled “Towards Biodiversity Management in Support of Sustainable Development in Tropical and Subtropical EU”, is the first coherent sign of the commitment of the NET-BIOME partners and follows a global strategy that aims at establishing a long-lasting partnership regarding biodiversity research finance policy within the consortium. The objective of this policy is to extend the collaboration among regions and territories, in order to increase the quality, capacity and visibility of the biodiversity research undertaken in the outermost regions. The intention is to guarantee the quality of the mentioned regions and territories’ natural environment (by implementing management practices based on quality information) while taking a clear chance on innovative lines of usage and of the sustainable exploration of the natural resources abounding in the outermost regions.

Setting the bounds of the NET-BIOME in the priority activities of the Outermost and Maritime Regions Conference – of which the Azores are a part – one verifies that the strategy and especially this first action now divulged may highly contribute to the increase of competitiveness in these regions through their research policy actions. Therefore, the objective is to reinforce, in the future, the participation of these regions and territories in the establishment and application of communitarian policies, namely in what regards environment and research. NET-BIOME offers then a unique opportunity to the outermost regions to consolidate their position in the European politics framework.

By investing 200 thousand Euros in this competition, the Azores are ensuring their already known bet on the quality of their research, as well as on their biological richness through knowledge, sustainable management, education and society movement.