Exploring the frontiers of environmental research 2026

Full Job Description

Opportunity status: Upcoming

Funders:

Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

Funding type: Grant

Total fund: £8,000,000

Award range: £100,000 - £200,000

Publication date: 27 August 2026

Opening date:

10 September 2026 9:00am UK time

Closing date:

12 November 2026 4:00pm UK time

Apply for funding to pursue truly novel curiosity-driven environmental research that is at an early stage of development and has the potential to be transformative.

You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funding.

Projects should focus on preliminary investigation that may inform future activities and applicants should articulate the potential for impact of the project outcomes.

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be between £100,000 and £200,000. NERC will fund 80% of the FEC.

The duration of the award is a maximum of two years.

Eligibility

This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible

Who Is Eligible To Apply

To be eligible as a project lead, you must be:

• a resident in the UK

• employed by an eligible UK research organisation

We recognise that expertise is built through many routes, including industry experience, applied or practitioner roles, technical careers, non linear pathways and time spent outside academia. Therefore, in line with Individual eligibility we focus on individuals’ talent, skills and capability to lead and deliver the proposed work, rather than formal qualifications and length in post.

We encourage:

• multidisciplinary research and collaborations with other organisations

• applications from individuals at all career stages

Who Is Not Eligible To Apply

An applicant may appear on a maximum of two applications submitted to this opportunity. Of those two, they may be listed as project lead on only one.

We strongly recommend institutions use an internal quality assurance process to:

• help ensure proposals are appropriately aligned with the scope of this opportunity

• contribute to efficiency within the peer review process and avoid very low success rates

Resubmissions

We will not accept uninvited application resubmissions that have previously been assessed by UKRI.

International Researchers

Under the UKRI and Research Council of Norway Money Follows Cooperation agreement a project co-lead (international) (previously co-investigator) can be based in a Norwegian institution. Read more about this in the NERC eligibility guidance for applicants.

All other international collaborators (or UK partners not based at approved organisations) should be included as project partners. This includes organisations from the business or financial sectors.

Equality, Diversity And Inclusion

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.

We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

• career breaks

• support for people with caring responsibilities

• flexible working

• alternative working patterns

UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

Demand Management

Demand management is not currently being applied to this funding opportunity. However, should the level of interest exceed what can be managed within the assessment process, UKRI may introduce limits on the number of applications that can be submitted. Further details will be clearly communicated where this is the case. UKRI encourages organisations to support applicants in preparing well-planned, high-quality applications that are competitive for funding relative to the funding opportunity

Aim

This funding opportunity aims to enable researchers to test new ideas and approaches. As well as concepts at a stage when they are not yet sufficiently developed for standard funding routes and the outcomes are inherently uncertain. By supporting innovative new lines of research and reducing the expectation for preliminary data, this opportunity intends to encourage a high-risk, high-reward culture in the application and assessment process.

Scope

This funding opportunity supports early-stage, curiosity-driven environmental research with the potential to be transformative. We are seeking to invest in our best researchers to pursue world-leading, truly novel, exploratory research projects, the outcomes of which could lead to a clear and significant advancement in knowledge, capability or application.

Projects should focus on exploratory or preliminary investigation that may inform future activities, such as longer-term research activity, a commercialisation opportunity or influencing policy. The proposed work should have the capacity to significantly reshape current and future thinking and introduce a new avenue of enquiry.

The proposed research must sit predominantly within NERC’s research areas.

We will work with other research councils to ensure that applications close to remit boundaries are assessed by the most appropriate lead council. We encourage you to contact us first to discuss your application if you believe your research may cross research council boundaries.

Applications must demonstrate how the funding opportunity’s environmental research scope is being met and projects must address clearly defined environmental science questions.

Your research project:

• should be original and visionary, challenging current thinking and paradigms, representing a clear departure from existing research directions or establishing a completely new line of enquiry

• may include the development of new techniques to tackle existing problems

• must be early stage and untested, lacking preliminary data and perhaps involving creative or unconventional approaches to the research challenge

• may involve a high level of uncertainty or require a range of exploratory investigations, such that while there are clear aims to explore, the outcomes are neither predictable nor guaranteed

• can involve any combination of pure, applied, technology-led or policy-driven research, potentially crossing disciplinary boundaries

Potential outcomes could include:

• generating a new discovery or insight that challenges current understanding

• testing an unconventional idea at a disciplinary interface

• opening novel research paradigms for further exploration in the longer-term

• demonstrating proof of principle

• establishing feasibility of a new or innovative approach

Additional benefits may arise from funded projects, regardless of whether the original objectives are achieved, such as:

• establishing a new cross-disciplinary collaboration

• deriving key lessons learned from negative results or the disproving of a theory

This opportunity is not intended to support:

• activities that would be supported through any other more appropriate funding opportunity (as determined by us)

• incremental developments along existing lines of enquiry (for example, extending previous work in a predictable way)

• established research programmes seeking further validation

• activities that are primarily non-research focused, or those focussed on the career development of an individual as a researcher (for example: networking, studentships, fellowships, infrastructure, equipment purchase, or training)

• applications that focus on methodological or technology development purely to address a specific end user’s need

Support For Risk

This funding opportunity aims to support early-stage innovative research projects that wouldn’t be supported elsewhere. NERC has a high tolerance for risk where applicants have clearly thought about where risks may exist.

Therefore we:

• do not require preliminary data

• expect projects to involve significant uncertainty

• accept that outcomes may not be predictable or guaranteed

Assessment will focus on the potential reward, rather than the likelihood of success.

However, applicants must demonstrate that they have:

• thought critically about key risks

• identified plausible mitigation or alternative approaches

• considered what can still be learned if the core idea is disproved or objectives are not fully realised

Consideration Of Novelty

Applicants must include within their application a distinct, evidenced statement outlining the novelty of the proposed research, which can be interpreted by UKRI staff and generalist assessors. Failure to do so may lead to an office rejection.

Duration

The duration of the award is a maximum of two years.

Projects must start by 1 May 2027. Requests for delayed starts or extensions to the award to accommodate staff recruitment at the beginning of the project will not be allowed.

Funding Available

The FEC of your project must be between £100,000 and £200,000.

We will fund 80% of the FEC. However, eligible costs for project co-lead (international) based in a Norwegian institution would be funded at 100%

The project lead (PL) is required to cost their time for a minimum of 0.2 FTE, ensuring that this individual has a substantive relationship to the proposed project, whilst enabling part-time and flexible working patterns. The PL may commit more time than this if required.

The total grant cost must include any service and facility costs.

What We Will Not Fund

We will not fund:

• PhD studentship costs

• individual items of equipment over £25,000

• costs for data archival and curation services. All costs for data archival and curation services will be paid directly to the NERC Environmental Data Service (EDS) on behalf of the programme and should not be included. You should ensure that you request sufficient resource to cover preparation of data for archiving by the research team

• any specialist services, such as database development or project data management support, must be discussed with the relevant data centre before submission; costs for additional services will need to be funded from your grant

For assistance on research data management planning please contact data@nerc.ukri.org

Services And Facilities

You can apply to use a facility or resource in your funding application.

If you need to use a UKRI facility, follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. See Using NERC facilities and resources for more information. You should discuss your application with the facility or service in advance of submitting to the funding opportunity to:

• discuss the proposed work in detail

• receive confirmation that they can provide the services required within the timeframe of the funding

You should ensure you have prior agreement from the facility before submitting to the funding opportunity and indicate this within your application.

The facility will provide a technical assessment that includes the calculated cost of providing the service. NERC services and facilities must be costed within the limits of the funding.

You should not submit the technical assessment with the application, but you must confirm you have received it.

For more information, see the NERC research grants and fellowships handbook.

Read the full list of NERC facilities that require a technical assessment.

High Performance Computing (HPC), Ship-time or Marine Equipment (SME) and the large research facilities at Harwell have their own policies for access and costing.

High Performance Computing (Hpc)

The UK Compute Roadmap was published in July 2025 detailing plans to evolve the UK Compute landscape. Given the evolving nature of UKRI’s HPC portfolio, if you require HPC services, please refer to Applying to use high performance computing services for the latest information on how to apply.

Ship Time And Marine Facilities

Requests for ship-time and marine equipment from NERC’s marine facilities will be considered. However, any requests should be of an appropriate scale that reflects the size and duration of the award. All costs must be included within the maximum grant limit for this opportunity.

If you wish to use NERC’s marine facilities, then you should, see further information about facility availability and contact marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org to discuss your requirements as soon as possible. We reserve the right to reject an application requesting marine facilities if we do not have assurance that delivery is feasible within the timeframes proposed.

SMEs or ADFs must be submitted to, and approved by, NERC Marine Planning by the time your funding application is submitted. Applications submitted without an approved SME or ADF will be ‘office rejected’.

A PDF of the SME or ADF must be attached as a facility form to your application. If you do not do this, your request will not be considered for inclusion in the NERC Marine Facilities Programme.

British Antarctic Survey (Bas) Antarctic Logistics Support

Requests for NERC BAS Antarctic logistics support will be considered. However, any requested fieldwork should be of an appropriate scale that reflects the size and duration of the award. All costs must be included within the maximum grant limit for this opportunity.

If you require NERC BAS Antarctic logistics support (ALS), then you must complete a Pre-Award Operational Support Planning Questionnaire (OSPQ) online.

OSPQs must be submitted as early as possible and approved by the Antarctic Access Office prior to submission to this funding opportunity. Applications submitted without an approved OSPQ will be ’office rejected’.

All funding applications wishing to use Antarctic logistics support must add this to the facilities question in the application. See further information on which ALS costs should be included in your application budgets. These costs should be clearly identified in your funding application and included in the ‘Resources and cost justification’ as £xxx for ALS.

Supporting Skills And Talent

We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.

Trusted Research And Innovation (Tr&I)

UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.

See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.

How to apply

The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.

Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.

To Apply

Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.

• Confirm you are the project lead.

• Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password.

• Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.

• Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.

• Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.

• Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.

Please be aware that research office and finance teams undertake checks on hosting arrangements and financial eligibility. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with all opportunity requirements lies with the applicant.

Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

When including images, you must:

• provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it in the text box (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit)

• insert each new image on a new line

• use files smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format

Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words. The following are not permitted, and your application will be rejected if you include:

• sentences or paragraphs of text

• tables

• excessive quantities of images

A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column.

For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:

• how applicants use the Funding Service

• how research offices use the Funding Service

• how reviewers use the Funding Service

References

References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.

Hyperlinks can be used in reference information. When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that:

• references are easily identifiable by the assessors

• references are formatted as appropriate to your research

• persistent identifiers are used where possible

General Use Of Hyperlinks

Applications should be self-contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information. You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Ai)

Use of generative AI tools to prepare funding applications is permitted, however, caution should be applied.

For more information see our policy on the use of generative AI in application and assessment.

Deadline

NERC must receive your application by 12 November 2026 at 4:00pm UK time.

You will not be able to apply after this time.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.

Following the submission of your application to this funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and submitted applications will not be amended. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.

Processing Personal Data

NERC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.

We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.

As part of NERC’s commitment to evidence-based improvement, personal data submitted in connection with this call (successful and unsuccessful submissions) may be used for monitoring, evaluation, analysis and learning activities. Such processing will be undertaken in accordance with applicable UK data protection legislation.

Analysis outputs will be aggregated and, where relevant, anonymised before reporting so that no individual can be identified. The purpose of this analysis is to support NERC’s internal learning and continuous improvement activities. However, high-level findings, trends and lessons learned may be shared with external audiences in a form that does not identify any individual.

Sensitive Information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email exploringfrontiers@nerc.ukri.org

Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].

Typical examples of confidential information include:

• individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)

• declaration of interest

• additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section

• conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection

• the application is an invited resubmission

For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice.

Institutional Matched Funding

There is no requirement for matched funding from the institutions hosting the project lead, project co-leads or other staff employed on the application, beyond the standard 20% FEC. Expert reviewers and panels assessing UKRI funding applications must not consider levels of institutional matched funding as a factor on which to base recommendations. Direct and in-kind contributions from third party project partners are encouraged.

This policy does not remove the need for support from host organisations who must provide the necessary research environment and infrastructure for award-specific activities funded by UKRI. For example, research facilities, training and development of staff.

This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible

To be eligible as a project lead, you must be:

• a resident in the UK

• employed by an eligible UK research organisation

We recognise that expertise is built through many routes, including industry experience, applied or practitioner roles, technical careers, non linear pathways and time spent outside academia. Therefore, in line with Individual eligibility we focus on individuals’ talent, skills and capability to lead and deliver the proposed work, rather than formal qualifications and length in post.

We encourage:

• multidisciplinary research and collaborations with other organisations

• applications from individuals at all career stages

An applicant may appear on a maximum of two applications submitted to this opportunity. Of those two, they may be listed as project lead on only one.

We strongly recommend institutions use an internal quality assurance process to:

• help ensure proposals are appropriately aligned with the scope of this opportunity

• contribute to efficiency within the peer review process and avoid very low success rates

Extracted from a public opportunity page using specific title, application/deadline, eligibility and benefit signals. Aggregator/news pages remain review-controlled unless an official provider page is successfully verified.