Specific Theme
Food and energy sovereignty have become critical issues for a country because these two matters are crucial factors that mark the independence of a country. In Southeast Asia, food security is being fundamentally altered – as patterns of food consumption and production change. Recently, a larger Asian population demands more quantity and quality of food (Asian Development Bank Institute 2013), although Southeast Asian countries have abundant natural resources. Asian population growth and changing consumption habits also affect regional food security. In addition to food sovereignty, Southeast Asian countries face energy problems driven by high consumption and export rates. For instance, based on data released by the World Energy Council, Indonesia ranked 69th out of 129 countries in 2014 in terms of energy availability. Thus, to prevent and overcome this problem, the policies on energy security of a country must consider three aspects: the availability of energy sources, the affordability of energy supplies, and the continued development of new renewable energy.

Apart from food and energy sovereignty issues, climate change and massive land conversion (e.g., deforestation) are also essential to be resolved. According to the World Bank and Regional and Coastal Development Center of ITB (2007), climate change will have a severe impact on Indonesia. It is estimated that in the next 30 years, around 2,000 small islands in Indonesia will sink when the increase in seawater reaches 0.80 m. Climate change occurs because of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG) and carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, which have implications for rising sea levels due to the melting of ice at the North and South Poles. It has been reported by CNN (2019), Antarctic sea ice is now decreasing faster than that in the Arctic after decades of gradual increases, according to new research based on 40 years' worth of satellite data. In a world with rapid climate change and land degradation due to anthropogenic causes, restoration is one of the two methods that could be used to slow the rate of species extinction, to restore the biodiversity loss, and to improve the ecosystem services of the degraded ecosystems.

In this regard, the theme for research proposals implementation in 2020 is ‘Food Sovereignty, Energy Resilience, Ecosystem Restoration, Climate Change and Disaster Mitigation, and Sustainable Use and Protection of Local Biodiversity in Southeast Asia’.

Research Duration
The project must be implemented within a 9-month period, most likely to start from March 1st to November 30th, 2020.

General Framework of Implementation

1. The request for proposals is open to Indonesian nationals (Researcher from Institution, PhD Students, and School Garden Teachers). However, researchers from other Southeast Asian countries are welcome to collaborate with Indonesian researchers to be able to apply for the grant. In this case, the Indonesian researchers will be the principle investigator (PI) of the proposal, while the foreign researchers are co-PI.
2. The research proposal for Researchers from Institution should have a budget not exceeding Rp 100,000,000, for PhD Students should have a budget not exceeding Rp 50,000,000, and for School Garden Teachers should have a budget not exceeding Rp 10,000,000.
3. The research proposals shall be subjected to external review by a committee that SEAMEO BIOTROP shall form following a set of criteria that the Centre currently uses as follows:
1. Relevance of the Proposal (15%)
2. Scientific Rigor of the Proposal Components (60%)
3. Research Capability of the Proponent/s (10%)
4. Feasibility of the Period of Implementation (5%)
5. Budget Feasibility (10%)
4. The proposal must have the following components:

1. Title (The title of the project must be clear, concise, and attractive to generate interest/participation from all actors that are expected to be involved in the implementation of the project)
2. Background/Rationale (This section should clearly specify the issues and concerns that the project would like to address. Why is it important to undertake the project? Who will benefit and how?)
3. Objectives (The objectives must be concrete enough against which the project’s success or failure can be assessed)
4. Review of Related Literature (This must situate the proposal on the current body of knowledge on the subject of the research. Related literature to be cited in the proposal must not be older than 5 years)
5. Components and Methodologies (This section must answer how the project objectives can be achieved with the components and methodologies that the project would adopt. It should also specify the partners that would be involved in the implementation of the project)
6. Timetable of Activity Implementation (This would specify the overall duration of the project broken down into specific time allocation to undertake the various components and activities)
7. Monitoring and Evaluation (This section should specify the way the progress of the project would be assessed according to its objective and timeframe by component, and including the people who will be involved)
8. Expected Outputs and Outcomes (This section should enumerate the concrete/tangible outputs and outcomes that the project is expected to produce in relation to its objectives)
9. Estimated Budgetary Requirements (The budget must include among others personnel services, travel, materials, equipment and facilities rentals)
1. Together with the project proposal, the following documents must also be submitted to BIOTROP:
   1. Application Letter addressed to BIOTROP Director (Note: The applicant should indicate in the letter the research problem that his/her proposal would be addressing and which BIOTROP program thrust his/her research project proposal falls into)
   2. Curriculum Vitae of all research project team members
   3. Letter of Endorsement from the immediate supervisor of the lead research project proponent and also of the research partner from another country
2. The research team shall be under contract with SEAMEO BIOTROP within 9 months period broken down as follows: 1 month for pre-implementation, 7 months for during implementation and 1 month for post-implementation phases of the research project. The contract specifies the proponent’s duties and responsibilities, including those that have been mentioned above and other legal and administrative procedures towards ensuring the completion of the research project.
3. Disbursement and use of research fund shall follow Daftar Isian Pelaksanaan Anggaran (DIPA) regulations from the Government of Indonesia.
4. Other than a completion report, the lead research proponent is expected to submit a draft of an article on the research project results two months after its completion for publication in International journal (e.g., BIOTROPIA, the journal has been indexed by Scopus since 2012).
5. SEAMEO BIOTROP will not consider applications that have incomplete documents as required.

Application Deadline: 27 September 2019

Applicants are advised to send the complete set of application documents to:
Dr. Aslan
Acting Deputy Director for Programme
SEAMEO BIOTROP
Email: aslan@biotrop.org and red@biotrop.org
Jln. Tajur Raya Km 6, Bogor 16134, Indonesia
Telp: 0251-8323848

References:
Feeding Asia: The problem wih Asia’s populatin growth for food security : https://www.newfoodmagazine.com/article/29028/feeding-asia-problem-asias-population-food-security-urbanisation/ (Accessed 14 July 2019)
Food Security in Asia and the Pasific : https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/30349/food-security-asia-pacific.pdf (Accessed 14 July 2019)
https://kemenperin.go.id/artikel/11320/Ketahanan-Energi-Indonesia-Merosot (Accessed 14 July 2019)
https://www.mongabay.co.id/2014/05/24/restorasi-ekosistem-dan-perubahan-iklim/ (Accessed 14 July 2019)
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/01/world/antarctica-sea-ice-melting-climate-intl/index.html (Accessed 14 July 2019)