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Agriculture plays a major role in Israel's landscape. It is a key element in the country's cultural background, preserves open spaces, enables a unique rural life style, provides food, and is of course an important economic field that allows many people to make a respectable living. Well-managed agriculture also contributes to conserving the environment - water reservoirs, fertile soil, biodiversity and clean air.
One of the challenges facing national planning activity in the 21st century is advancing Israel's economic development, while keeping in mind and comprehending the many functions of agriculture in the country.
Nekudat Hen's main objective is to establish an inter-disciplinary professional knowledge base focusing on multi-functional landscape agriculture, thus helping attain the above-mentioned goal. The programme invites proposals for projects with the potential to advance the development of profitable, multi-functional, and sustainable landscape agriculture. The programme encourages proposals from different academic disciplines - agriculture, biology, ecology, environmental sciences, economics, planning & architecture, law, and social sciences - from both the public and research communities and the private sector (e.g. planners, environmental consultants).
The programme supports original topics that do not receive financing from other existing agencies or foundations and focuses on the following topics:
| a. |
Developing multi-functional agriculture: examining methods and means to integrate landscape, social, and environmental values to advance the total profitability (in the broad sense) of existing and future fields of agriculture, both intensive and extensive, and the development of alternative landscape agriculture solutions for abandoned agricultural areas that have no defined agricultural use.
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| b. |
Survey and Planning: tools to improve and develop multi-functional agriculture, formulate economic, planning, management, applied or multi-disciplinary solutions to advance agriculture as a cultural, environmental and economic resource. Formulation of guidelines and regulations to integrate the topic of multi-functional agriculture in planning processes.
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| c. |
Identification and quantification of "ecological services" in various branches of agriculture: determination of criteria to evaluate the function of various agriculture branches in improving the quality of soil resources, landscape, environment and ecological services.
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| d. |
Legislation to encourage multi-functional agriculture: understanding the sum-total of connections and the relations between central planning agents, legislation and economics and agricultural activity, as well as their effect on agricultural function in different areas and sectors |
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In the year 2010 priority will be given to projects which will be dedicated to the relations between agriculture and biodiversity
Guidelines for Proposal Submission:
| 1. |
Proposals should be submitted electronically on the form provided for this purpose on the Nekudat Hen website.
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| 2. |
The initial proposal (limited to 800 words) should define subject, methods, work plan (general), and expected results and products. It should also include the budget framework. Submission deadline: Wednesday, December 9, 2009. Proposals submitted after this date, or in a different format will not be considered.
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| 3. |
At the second stage Nekudat Hen will choose the projects most suited to its goals and will request a full proposal for them.
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| 4. |
Grants will be given to specific projects with clear, applicable products, with preference for short-term studies or surveys.
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| 5. |
This year preference will be given to collaborative projects presented jointly by applicants from different disciplines, which integrate research from a number of fields as mentioned above.
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| 6. |
Preference will be given to long-term or constructively critical projects, and to projects that involve the relevant public or public policy agents.
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| 7. |
The grants are one-time grants for one year only. No follow-up grants or repeat grants will be given. In exceptional cases, extension of the project in several months may be possible.
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| 8. |
Nekudat Hen gives grants in overall sum of $90,000. One can apply for project grants in various amounts, according to the project's needs.
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| 9. |
Nekudat Hen reserves the right to request elaboration or modifications resulting from the proposal evaluation process.
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| 10. |
New proposals from applicants with an active grant in Nekudat Hen, who have not yet submitted a final report, will not be considered
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| 11. |
Nekudat Hen reserves the option to initiate and promote projects within the professional community.
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