Opportunities

Calls for proposals

Announcements

News Item • 2 November 2026

2026 Call for Proposals under the CRRP and CAPaBLE Programmes

News Item • 15 July 2026

Conditionally** Approved New Projects for Fiscal Year 2026 (July 2026 – June 2027)

News Item • 3 November 2025

[CLOSED] 2025 Call for Proposals under the CRRP and CAPaBLE Programmes

News Item • 14 July 2025

Conditionally** Approved New Projects for Fiscal Year 2025 (July 2025 – June 2026)

Rationale

The Asia-Pacific region, home to over half of the global population, faces growing development challenges that place increasing pressure on natural resources and cultural heritage, further exacerbated by the impacts of global environmental change. The Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) addresses these challenges through collaborative regional research, scientific capacity development, including support for early career professionals, and science policy linkages.

CODESIGN has become a compulsory element of APN activities, requiring researchers, policymakers, decision makers, local communities and other relevant stakeholders to be involved from the outset. Their participation in identifying priorities, developing research approaches and implementing activities helps ensure that projects respond to regional and national needs, strengthen science policy interactions and deliver practical, lasting outcomes.

Full proposals must demonstrate that all key project partners, including researchers, policymakers, decision makers, and, where appropriate, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, have been actively engaged in developing the proposal from the outset. Evidence of this engagement will be required at the full proposal stage through letters of commitment from collaborating organisations describing their role in the codesign, coimplementation and coevaluation of the project.

Strategy

To fulfil its mission, APN promotes understanding of global environmental change through collaborative regional research, scientific capacity building and science policy interactions. This is achieved by supporting activities across the interconnected themes of air, land, coasts and oceans; biodiversity and ecosystems; climate; food, water and energy; social, economic and governance; and risk reduction and resilience. These themes recognise that addressing global environmental change requires integrated approaches that draw on the natural, social, behavioural, economic and political sciences.

Central to APN’s approach is compulsory codesign. APN recognises that effective solutions to complex environmental challenges can only be achieved through genuine partnerships among researchers, policymakers, decision makers, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, civil society, the private sector and other relevant stakeholders. Accordingly, all APN projects are expected to be codesigned from the outset, ensuring that research objectives, methodologies, implementation pathways and expected outcomes are developed collaboratively and respond to identified regional and national needs.

The APN’s strategic goals, as outlined in its Sixth Strategic Phase Plan (2026–2030), provide the framework for implementing this collaborative approach through research, scientific capacity building, science policy engagement and institutional strengthening.

Goal 1: Generating actionable and policy-relevant scientific knowledge through codesigned research aligned with regional priorities and global agenda.
Goal 2: Strengthening scientific capacities for research personnel, science policy engagement and early career professional development.
Goal 3: Improving policy relevance, uptake and impact of APN research.
Goal 4: Enhancing collaboration and engagement with key stakeholders to support research and its application.
Goal 5: Ensuring institutional effectiveness, sustainability, impact and improved coordination across APN organs.

Annual Call for Proposals

Annually, APN invites proposals under two separate programmes that support APN’s core activities: the Collaborative Regional Research Programme (CRRP) and the Scientific Capacity Development Programme (CAPaBLE). A limited amount of funding is available to support CRRP and CAPaBLE activities relevant to APN’s thematic areas that specifically target one (or more) themes under “priority topics”, which are determined at the subregional level by APN’s subregional committees in the Pacific, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Temperate East Asia. Annually selected priority topics can be found in each Call for Proposals announcement and in the documents provided on APNIS. The Call for Proposals is typically launched in November and successful proponents begin their project activities in October of the following year.

Activities of interest under the CRRP Programme

APN promotes regional collaborative research that improves understanding of the physical, biological, and social, economic and governance aspects of change in the Earth system and advances actionable science that informs decision making. APN accepts proposals that engage at least three (3) member/approved countries in the region and prioritise collaboratively codesigned, actionable research with non-academic stakeholders.

Codesigned proposals must address one or more of the following activities:

Codesigned collaborative research on global change and sustainability that addresses GAPS, ANALYSIS, SYNTHESIS and ASSESSMENT work.
Codesigned collaborative research that contributes to the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the UN Decade of Ocean Science (2021-2030), and the accumulation of scientific knowledge at IPCC, IPBES, etc. and ongoing and new global change and sustainability research programmes.
Codesigned collaborative research that develops PATHWAYS and MECHANISMS to achieve sustainable development, and develop adaptation strategies.
Codesigned collaborative PLACE-BASED INTEGRATIVE RESEARCH, particularly from developing countries.

Activities of interest under the CAPaBLE Programme

APN supports CAPaBLE activities that enhance the existing capacities of developing countries at three levels: individual-based scientific capacity development; group-, organisation-, and network-based scientific capacity development; and society-, governance-, and system-level scientific capacity development. APN accepts CAPaBLE proposals that engage one (1) or more member/approved countries.

Codesigned proposals must address one or more of the following activities:

Codesigned SCIENTIFIC CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES that promote the following approaches related to one or more of the thematic areas of APN: (a) Utilising and strengthening existing capacity, (b) Creating opportunities to use/instil capacity, and (c) Developing new capacity through innovative approaches.
Codesigned SCIENCE POLICY interfacing in the context of the priority topics.
Codesigned SCIENTIFIC CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP ACTIVITIES that contribute to the capacity development components of the evolving global change arena, including the Paris Agreement, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the UN Decade of Ocean Science (2021-2030), and the accumulation of scientific knowledge at IPCC, IPBES, etc. and ongoing and new global change and sustainability research programmes.
Codesigned AWARENESS-RAISING AND DISSEMINATION activities through policy- and decision making communities, civil society, and/or the general public.
Codesigned activities centred towards using SCIENCE COMMUNICATION to disseminate knowledge generated from projects, particularly to non-science audiences.

Eligibility information

Researchers, academics and practitioners working in institutions based in APN member countries and approved countries are eligible to apply for APN grants. Details of eligibility criteria are outlined in the CRRP and CAPaBLE Guide for Proponents, available on the APNIS system.

Special consideration: APN emphasises support for early career professionals (ECPs) and strongly encourages applications from this cohort. Eligible proposals from ECPs or ECP-majority project teams will be given special consideration.

Proposal submission, review process, and announcement of results

Instructions for the CRRP and CAPaBLE calls are set out in separate guidelines (available in the APNIS system), which provide detailed information on the two independent calls and the criteria used in the review. Proponents should also read APN’s Sixth Strategic Plan (2026-2030), particularly Goal 1: regional research, Goal 2: scientific capacity development and Goal 3: science policy interactions.

The submission and review process consists of four (4) main stages:

Stage 1: Registration on the APNIS system and submission of a Summary Proposal for CRRP or CAPaBLE (not both). The Stage 1 proposal will be evaluated through an internal review process.
Timeframe: November to February
Stage 2: Submission (by invitation only) of a Full Proposal and compulsory appendices, including a response to review feedback at Stage 1. The Stage 2 proposal and appendices will be evaluated through internal and external review processes.
Timeframe: March to June
Stage 3: Final decision making and announcement of results.
Timeframe: June to July
Stage 4: Projects begin for successful proponents.
Timeframe: October