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:

• AMAP
• CEFE
• Forests & Societies
• IHPE
• MARBEC
• MIVEGEC
• CBGP
• DGIMI
• ISEM
• ASTRE
• ECOTRON
• PHIM
• SENS
• ABSYS
• AGAP
• ANALYSES
• ChimEco
• DIADE
• Eco&Soils
• GECO
• GM
• HSM
• LBE
• LISAH
• MEEB
• OREME
• SelMET
• SPO
• TETIS

Secondary:

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

CALL FOR PROPOSALS 2025: EXPLORATORY PROJECT

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

1. PURPOSE OF THE CALL AND SCOPE OF PROPOSALS

This call aims to fund an exploratory project in the fields of Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution led by PTL-3 (Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution Facing the Challenges of Global Change) of the AEB cluster.
This is an open call intended to support innovative, interdisciplinary, or high-risk projects that enable:

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

CALL FOR PROPOSALS 2025: POST-DOC (young researcher)

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

1. PURPOSE OF THE CALL AND SCOPE OF PROPOSALS

This call targets funding for the salary of a postdoctoral researcher (M/F) working in the fields of Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution led by PTL-3 (Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution Facing the Challenges of Global Change). This is an open call covering a wide range of fundamental and applied questions. The proposed project will focus, for example, on: understanding the ecological or evolutionary determinants of the different dimensions of biodiversity; how it controls the functioning and stability of ecosystems; the perception of biodiversity by indigenous populations; 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 original training model within the AEB research units 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, ERJ) working on a topic related to their thesis subject.

The ERJ will include a doctoral student (M/F, project leader) and a student in M1 or M2 (M/F), under the supervision of the thesis supervisory team. The aim is to promote learning about organizing scientific work in a team and to open up the doctoral student's project to work related to their thesis topic that cannot be carried out by the doctoral student themselves. This broadening may include interdisciplinary approaches (biodiversity, ecology, and/or evolution with, for example, agrosciences, hydro- and geosciences, bioinformatics, mathematics, human sciences, etc.). Funding of up to €7,000 per project will finance the M1/M2 internship stipend and also aims to support fieldwork, participation in conferences, workshops, communication activities, transfer activities, or stays in laboratories for ERJ members.

This program was designed 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 PTL-3 of the AEB Cluster and is open to all AEB Cluster doctoral students working in the fields of Biodiversity, Ecology, and Evolution. 

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

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

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

This call for projects aims to meet the expectations of both PTLs in terms of knowledge about agrobiodiversity. PTL3 is primarily interested in characterizing agrobiodiversity and the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms that underpin it. This knowledge aims to optimize, at the plot level or beyond, the functions performed by agroecosystems in a context of agroecological transition.

The PTL2, meanwhile, 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, consumption) and on the nutritional quality of products derived from these diversified systems.

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