NERC Urgency Grants Related to Coronavirus Outbreak
Thursday, 26 March, 2020
NERC Urgency Grants allow researchers to respond quickly to unexpected and transient events affecting the environment such as volcanic eruptions, drought or earthquakes.
NERC welcome Urgency proposals related to the current Coronavirus outbreak. Research must fall predominantly within the NERC remit. Proposals will need to be sensitive to social distancing and other restrictions being brought in as a result of the current situation.
Submission of an urgency grant proposal is only permitted if relying on published funding opportunities would clearly result in a missed opportunity to undertake environmental research of high scientific importance.
The following situations will not be accepted as grounds for an urgency proposal:
- Time-limited logistical events, such as an unforeseen opportunity to participate in a particular experimental or observational programme or the unexpected availability of staff or facilities.
- Opportunities created by deliberate direct human actions or decisions.
- Events where planning could have allowed support for study via published funding opportunities, such as seasonal, relatively frequent, or periodic natural events.
- Events that are expected to be imminent but have not yet occurred, such as forecast extreme weather conditions or volcanic eruptions. Urgency grant funding cannot be used to undertake operational monitoring for the purpose of forecasting the occurrence of hazardous natural events.
- Responding to unexpected research findings.
- Continuation of monitoring or other existing projects for any reason.
- Collection of data to inform urgent policy or national/international decision-making.
NERC reserves the right to limit the number of urgency proposals considered or supported relating to the same event or location. NERC will not accept more than one urgency proposal from an individual investigator in a two-year period.
The maximum funding that may be sought for an Urgency proposal is £65,000; this limit applies to the total (100%) full economic cost of the project, of which NERC will fund 80%.
Urgency proposals can last up to a year and are expected to focus on the urgent data collection and essential initial analysis only. A clear strategy is required for taking the research forward once the urgent phase is completed. Note that no studentships or equipment can be funded via this scheme.
For the current exceptional Covid-19 situation, the urgency process will be slightly different to the normal process to help process requests as quickly as possible.
Prospective applicants must first contact the appropriate science programme officer for approval before submitting a proposal for consideration under the urgency scheme.
Up to two sides of A4 outlining the proposed work should be emailed to NERC and applicants will be informed no later than five working days whether they can submit a proposal.
Following approval, urgency proposals must be submitted to NERC via the Je-S system (No later than ten working days).
NERC reserves the right to limit the number of urgency proposals considered or supported relating to this event, and will update the website once this specific opportunity is closed to further proposals. As an exceptional case, applicants can submit up to one proposal to this call, but the two year rule does not apply.
More information about this research funding opportunity and the application process is available on the RESEARCHconnect funding information platform. RESEARCHconnect provides up-to-the minute content, insight and analysis on research funding news and policy. To find out more about how RESEARCHconnect can keep you in the know, and subscription fees, contact us today.