PTL3 – Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution

• Cyrille VIOLLE (CNRS, CEFE)
• Rutger DE WIT (CNRS, MARBEC)
• Fabien ANTHELME (IRD, AMAP)
• Christine CHEVILLON (CNRS, MIVEGEC)
• Audrey DARNAUDE (CNRS, MARBEC)
• Diana FERNANDEZ (IRD, PHIM)
• Fabrice LIHOREAU (UM, ISEM)

Main:

• CSFA
• CEFE
• Forests & Society
• IHPE
• MARBEC
• MIVEGEC
• CBGP
• DGIMI
• ISEM
• ASTRE
• ECOTRON
• PHIM
• MEANING
• ABSYS
• AGAP
• ANALYSES
• ChimEco
• DIADE
• Eco&Sols
• GECO
• GM
• HSM
• LBE
• LISAH
• MEEB
• OREME
• SelMET
• SPO
• TETIS

Secondary:

• CEE-M
• IEM
• INTERTRYP
• MISTEA
• MSH SOUTH

CALL FOR PROPOSALS 2025: EXPLORATORY PROJECT

Submission deadline: Tuesday, March 3, 2026 (4:00 p.m. CET)

1. PURPOSE OF THE CALL FOR PROPOSALS AND SCOPE OF SUBMISSIONS

This call for proposals aims to fund an exploratory project in the fields of Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution under the PTL-3 program (Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution in the Face of Global Change) of the AEB cluster.
This is an open call designed to support innovative, interdisciplinary, or high-risk projects that:

• to explore a new scientific question;
• to test an idea or a pilot protocol;
• to initiate collaboration among units within the AEB division;
• or to generate preliminary data for a future, larger-scale project (ANR, Horizon Europe, etc.).
  Project topics may cover the full range of biodiversity sciences, in both their theoretical and applied dimensions, and may employ ecological, evolutionary, and/or social science approaches.
  Each selected project will receive funding of up to €25,000.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS 2025: POSTDOC (Early-Career Researchers)

Deadline for project submissions (see submission procedure):
Friday, January 16, 2026 (4:00 p.m. CET)

1. PURPOSE OF THE CALL FOR PROPOSALS AND SCOPE OF SUBMISSIONS

This call for proposals seeks to fund the salary of a postdoctoral researcher (M/F) working in the fields of Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution under the PTL-3 program (Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution in the Face of Global Change). This is an open call covering a wide range of both fundamental and applied research questions. The proposed project will, for example, focus on: understanding the ecological or evolutionary determinants of the various dimensions of biodiversity; how biodiversity controls the functioning and stability of ecosystems; indigenous peoples’ perceptions of biodiversity; and the conservation, restoration, and management of biodiversity and the ecosystem services it supports.

Call for Proposals 2025: Junior Research Team

Submission deadline: Tuesday, August 26 (midnight)

This call targets an innovative training model within the research units of the AEB Cluster working in the fields of Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution, led by PTL-3. It enables doctoral students (M/F) conducting research on biodiversity, ecology, and/or evolution to obtain financial support to create and manage a small team (Junior Research Team, JRT) focused on a research area related to their thesis topic.

The ERJ will include a doctoral student (male or female, project leader) and a first- or second-year master’s student (male or female), under the supervision of the thesis advisory committee. The objective is to promote learning about the organization of scientific work in a team setting and to broaden the scope of the doctoral student’s project to include work related to their thesis topic that cannot be carried out by the doctoral student alone. This expansion may include interdisciplinary approaches (biodiversity, ecology, and/or evolution combined with, for example, agricultural sciences, hydro- and geosciences, bioinformatics, mathematics, humanities, etc.). Funding of up to €7,000 per project will cover the stipend for the M1/M2 internship and is also intended to support fieldwork, participation in conferences, workshops, outreach activities, knowledge transfer initiatives, or laboratory visits for ERJ members.

This program was developed as part of the CeMEB Labex, was implemented from 2021 to 2024, and supported 36 ERJ projects. The program has now been taken over by the AEB Cluster’s PTL-3 and is open to all AEB Cluster doctoral students working in the fields of biodiversity, ecology, and evolution. 

Funding for a doctoral thesis on agrobiodiversity, co-funded by PTL2 (Agroecology and Food Systems) and PTL3 (Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution)

Submission deadline: Tuesday, May 20 (5:00 p.m.)

The PTL2 (Agroecology and Food Systems) and PTL3 (Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution in the Face of Global Change) research groups within the AEB cluster at the I-Site in Montpellier share a strong interest in all aspects of agrobiodiversity, defined here as biodiversity within agricultural landscapes. This first call for projects focuses on the plant component of agrobiodiversity and, more specifically, on all plant species sown or planted (annuals or perennials that constitute the targeted crops, but also service plants in the broadest sense). In 2026, a second call for projects will be launched, this time incorporating all other components of agrobiodiversity (weeds and other pests, pollinators, beneficial organisms, soil organisms, etc.).

This call for proposals aims to address the needs of both PTLs regarding knowledge of agrobiodiversity. PTL3 is primarily interested in the characterization of agrobiodiversity and the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms underlying it. This knowledge aims to optimize, at the plot scale or beyond, the functions provided by agroecosystems in the context of agroecological transition.

The PTL2, for its part, focuses on the practical implementation of agrobiodiversity within agricultural production systems (integration into agricultural practices and systems, diversification of production systems) as well as its impact on downstream value chains (processing, distribution, and consumption) and on the nutritional quality of products derived from these diversified systems.

Although complementary, these areas of research remain too often siloed, which limits the full potential of agrobiodiversity as a lever to support the necessary and urgent agroecological transition. Bridging the gap between these disciplines represents a genuine scientific challenge—a frontier of science—that we believe is now ripe for enhanced interdisciplinary dialogue.