CLEANFOREST launches VMG for researchers being members and actively participating in the Action to conduct a project beneficial to the action (see proposed topics below). We particularly encourage participation from young researchers (under the age of 40) including PhD Students or postdoctoral fellows. MSc students will not be considered in the present call.
The call opens on September 1st, 2025 and the VMG are expected to start as soon as possible after acceptance.
How to apply
- First contact the leader of each VMG topic and send your CV. Once the leader has accepted your application, please ask for an acceptance letter.
- Then apply at https://e-services.cost.eu/activity/grants by including the VM application template, a CV, a motivation letter and the acceptance letter from the VMG leader.
Reporting
Reports on the outcomes of the VMG must be submitted on the eCOST until October 13, 2025. Failure to submit the required report on time will effectively cancel the grant. The grant payment will be executed after the approval of the report by the Grant Awarding Coordinators and the Leader(s) of the VMG.
Project: Children’s Book on Forests
This VMG seeks to support the development of a children’s book aimed at raising awareness of forest conservation and monitoring. The grant will support creative contributions in two areas: (1) story development – designing engaging, age-appropriate narratives that introduce children to the importance of healthy forests, biodiversity, and climate resilience; and (2) illustration – producing original artwork that visually brings these stories to life in an appealing and educational way. The book will be co-created within the Action’s network to ensure scientific accuracy while fostering creativity and accessibility. This initiative seeks to combine science communication with storytelling and art to inspire younger generations and promote the values of the CLEANFOREST Action.
Leader: Silvana Munzi (ssmunzi@ciencias.ulisboa.pt)
Duration: 2-4 weeks
Location: Virtual
Total grant: max 1500 EUR
To support targeted activities of the Action’s Working Groups, the following VMG are available:
WG1 | Project: Mapping of climate hotspots impacting European forests
One of the focuses of WG1 is to identify where the hotspots in the European forests are showing the largest increase in the frequency of hot extremes and droughts in the last decades. A hotspot is not only a region where climate elements and parameters assume particularly high or low values, but rather a region where the effects of global warming are significantly amplified, with pronounced changes in temperature, precipitation, and other climate or climate-related variables. Therefore, the region exhibits greater climate susceptibility and is more exposed to frequent and intense extreme events. European forests are particularly at risk of negative impacts in these climatic hotspots. Moreover, in forested regions where air pollution hotspots overlap with climatic hotspots, the ecological impacts are expected to be even more pronounced. However, a mapping of such hotspots over European forests is currently absent. A subgroup within WG1 is developing a nitrogen and suplhur deposition hotspot map over European forests. This activity aims at producing a complementing climatic hotspots map that will enable identification of coinciding forest hotspots which are at a maximum ecological threat from the combined pressures.
Tasks include:
- Compute the SPI and/or SPEI drought indices
- Assess the drought regime with SPI and/or SPEI
- Perform trend analysis (trends and statistical significance) of climate elements (e.g., precipitation, air temperature and humidity, etc.) and parameters (e.g., drought indices and descriptors, etc) in the (new and extended) pan-European spatial domain and study period.
Leader: Mário Gonzalez Pereira (gpereira@utad.pt)
Duration: 3 weeks (min) – 4 weeks (max)
Location: Virtual
Total grant: max 1500 EUR
WG2 | Project: Preparation of systematic literature review
Effects of climate change and atmospheric deposition on European forest ecosystems over the last 30 years through the lens of tree growth, water-use efficiency (WUE) and mortality’ databases for publication. During the VMG, the candidate will support WG2 in the finalisation of the systematic review database of trends in forest growth, WUE and mortality since 1990. This review is designed to provide an up-to-date perspective on the state of European forests over the last 30 years, as well as compare common methodologies used to make these assessments across a range of scales (from individual trees to the landscape level) and identify critical gaps in knowledge.
Tasks include:
- Additional data extraction to complete database
- Quality control of database ensuring consistency between review topics and data extraction processes. This will require careful documentation of decisions made.
- Preparation of database for publication
- Further data analysis and contribution to systematic review publication
Leaders: Danielle Creek (creek.danielle@gmail.com) and Caitlin Lewis (caitlin.lewis@forestresearch.gov.uk)
Duration: 2 weeks (min)-3 weeks (max)
Location: Virtual
Total grant: max 1500 EUR
WG3 | Project A: Technical work in relation to elaboration of the Tree species Guide (White paper providing guidelines for future forest management)
Assisting with the work on elaborating a handbook (a tree species guide) to guide reforestation and afforestation projects in the context of the Nature Restoration Law. The Handbook is going to be developed as a joint effort under the CLEANFOREST COST action. A simple overview of the main tree species’ key attributes will be provided, including their physical characteristics and how tolerant they are to environmental conditions in a changing climate. It aims to assist forest owners and policymakers in planning and designing afforestation activities, taking into account the elasticity and tolerance of tree species to current and future climate impacts and air pollution in diverse soil contexts.
Tasks include:
- Review of the EU legislation regarding the European Restoration Law
- Extract information on policy needs and requirements in relation to the implementation of the Law.
- Study the interaction between the Law and other EU legislation
- Write a short summary -> to be used in Introduction chapter of the Handbook (Tree Species Guide)
- Assist with data extraction by identifying missing or extra details for certain tree species.
- Assist with the data grooming for the Guide (formatting, color coding, etc.)
Lead: Lora Stoeva (loragstoeva@gmail.com)
Duration: 1-30 September
Location: Virtual
Total grant: max 1500 EUR
WG3 | Project B: Synthesis about the role of N deposition to litterfall in European forests
In this synthesis, we aim to combine ICP Forests data with open-access data, to understand the role of N deposition to litterfall in forests across Europe. Our objective is to combine litterfall data with N deposition data and forest disturbance data, to untangle the role of N deposition to litterfall. This is a novel study highly relevant to studies of N deposition to soil C stocks, because the relationship between litter and soil C stocks is well-studied while the role of N deposition to litterfall is under-represented. In this role, you will be assisting in the management of the team-based data synthesis. The synthesis is intended for publication in a peer-reviewed ISI journal. Having an ability to handle large datasets would benefit this role, and it involves collaborating with many researchers, including working alongside peers who are actively conducting data syntheses.
Tasks include:
- Extract control data from MESI and test its alignment to European forest disturbance satellite dataset. Source Ndep data if needed
- Trial analysis of MESI control data + Forest disturbance data + Ndep data
- Based on results, organise meeting that reports results and outlines instructions for paper screening (Rayyan)
- Facilitate paper screening
- Organise data extraction and facilitate
- Apply trial analysis to larger dataset, then arrange meeting with data analysis team to develop further (also, waiting for ICP forests data here)
Leader: Charlotte Angove (charlotte.angove@helsinki.fi)
Duration: 1-30 September
Location: Virtual
Total grant: max 1500 EUR
WG4 | Project A: Enabling a database of climate extremes x manipulation experiments
Forest manipulation experiments are performed while climate events unfold in real time. However, these conditions are not always directly described in published studies, and the duration of many experiments is too short to diagnose effects of extremes within a single study. Previous database synthesis efforts (e.g. MESI) do not fully allow answering this question. As part of efforts to facilitate a network of pan-European manipulative experiments, we are creating a new community database of responses in forest ecosystem experiments with sufficient granularity to be compared to climate extremes occurring across the meta-landscape. This is a large and broad task that requires substantial community effort. This Virtual Mobility Grant will focus on completing one component of this task (a particular biological/environmental response or set of responses) from the partially completed database and conducting a preliminary analysis of how this is affected by climate extremes.
Tasks include:
- Extraction of data for a limited number of papers, building on prior effort and the MESI database
- Initial ‘proof of concept’ analysis of one component of the overall analysis
- Facilitate coordination of later data extraction and analysis based on lessons learned
- Arrange / participate in further meetings and tasks around the database development and analysis
Leader: Richard Nair (richard.nair@tcd.ie)
Duration: Two weeks (min) to three weeks (max) between September 15 and October 10 (can be negotiated flexibly)
Location: Virtual
Total grant: max 1500 EUR
WG4 | Project B. Review on monitoring forest resilience
Understanding how forests respond to and recover from multiple stressors, such as drought, storms, or pest and insect outbreaks, is central to achieve policy targets related to biodiversity and carbon neutrality, as well as to informing climate-adaptive forest management. While numerous forest monitoring networks exist across Europe, their capacity to assess key dimensions of forest resilience remains unclear.
The virtual mobility grant will contribute to the systematic review we are conducting within WG4, which aims to answer the question: can existing forest monitoring networks provide the data and indicators needed to assess forest resilience?
The selected candidate will assist with:
- Extracting and organizing relevant information on indicators and their definitions from the scientific literature;
- Checking the database for consistency and quality
- Conducting a preliminary analysis on a subset of indicators as a pilot study to support the broader systematic review.
Lead: Marco Ferretti (marco.ferretti@wsl.ch)
Duration: 2 weeks (min) – 3 weeks (max), from 22nd September to 10th October 2025
Location: Virtual
Total grant: max 1500 EUR