Highlight topics
We have selected five highlight topics of equal priority for this funding opportunity.
Your application must address issues within a single highlight topic. We will not accept applications addressing more than one highlight topic.
If there are multiple successful applications within a highlight topic, then they must be independent applications that deliver stand-alone projects.
The highlight topics in this funding opportunity are:
- A: evaluation of oxidation in the tropics to improve projections of atmospheric composition
- B: marine-based ice sheet contributions to past, present and future sea-level rise
- C: signal to noise errors and implications for climate predictions and projections
- D: understanding the threat of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the environment
- E: pollutant deposition enhancement to upland ecosystems
Use of novel, critical technologies in your application (applicable to all highlight topics)
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is seeking to support researchers and innovators to develop and make use of novel, critical technologies including artificial intelligence, engineering biology, future telecoms, semiconductors and quantum technologies throughout its investment portfolio. NERC has set out its aspirations for the future of data and technology in environmental science in its Digital Strategy 2021–2030. In developing your application to any of the highlight topics you should consider how the innovative use of critical technologies, and approaches addressing the ambitions of NERC’s digital strategy, might offer opportunities to address your research questions in new and novel ways. This might include the development of new collaborations across domains and disciplines.
Read more about the five highlight topics.
Topic A: evaluation of oxidation in the tropics to improve projections of atmospheric composition
Objective
To improve quantitative understanding of atmospheric oxidation in the tropics to better predict trends in future atmospheric composition in response to climate change and development in tropical countries.
Strategic context
The oxidative capacity of the atmosphere determines the rate of removal, and hence controls the abundance, of most trace gas species, including important climate forcers and air pollutants. For gases such as methane, carbon monoxide and non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), oxidation is initiated overwhelmingly by reaction with the hydroxyl radical (OH) in the troposphere. The tropical troposphere dominates this global oxidising capacity, but is also the most sparsely measured region historically, and is the region where models significantly differ in their simulations. Recent work assessing the range of model simulated OH (which varies by 40%) concluded that the uncertainty in global OH distributions, variability and trends is a key limitation in understanding the global methane budget, with implications for climate prediction and the identification of the best methane mitigation targets and policies. Explaining the unprecedented atmospheric growth of methane in 2020 and 2021 has reignited the fierce debate about the importance of changes in OH versus increasing emissions.
Recent work has highlighted that the tropics are changing fast, driven by a broad range of economic and climate processes. The current deficiencies in knowledge of OH has been highlighted by the NASA Atmospheric Tomography Mission in 2016 to 2018 that provided snapshots across the tropics. Analyses of airborne and satellite observations inferred large variations in OH, demonstrating how these data can aid process-level understanding. The past five years has seen major developments in airborne and satellite measurement capabilities and analysis, giving the potential to deliver unique scientific contributions that will fundamentally change our fine-scale understanding of current tropical atmospheric oxidation capacity and composition, which is key to improving future predictions.
Scope
To quantify the atmospheric oxidising capacity of the troposphere in the tropics and explore changes in oxidative chemistry across the tropics. Use these data to deliver process-level improvements and measurement-informed validation to models that can be used to assess and track oxidising capacity in the troposphere of the tropics and hence enable us to better predict trends in future atmospheric composition in response to climate change and development in tropical countries.
Research questions to address
What is the current oxidising capacity of the tropics and how is it changing?
What is the current lifetime of key pollutants, including methane, against oxidation in the tropical troposphere?
What are the drivers of change in OH across the tropics, and how will they likely change in the future?
What does new understanding of atmospheric oxidation mean for future concentrations of climate-relevant pollutants, and how does this impact future climate prediction?
How can new observations facilitate the assessment of oxidative capacity and what future tools would allow dynamic assessments?
Delivery
There can be up to two projects looking at this topic. Each project should:
- tackle all research questions
- be up to the value of £2.35 million (100% full economic cost)
If you require the use of the NERC FAAM Airborne Laboratory or the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) Airborne Earth Observatory, see the details in the ‘Services and facilities’ section.
Topic B: marine-based ice sheet contributions to past, present and future sea-level rise
Objective
To improve forecasts of the future rate and extent of ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to reduce uncertainties in future sea level rise prediction.
Strategic context
The largest uncertainty in 21st century sea-level rise predictions is future ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), the world’s only remaining marine-based ice sheet. Significant progress has been made in understanding the processes involved in current rapid ice loss and its past context in the Amundsen Sea sector of the WAIS through the NERC and NSF-funded International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC).
An outstanding opportunity to now gain insight into the future of Thwaites Glacier and the WAIS, building on the progress made through ITGC, is presented by the neighbouring, relatively poorly-studied, Bellingshausen Sea sector. Most ice that occupied a marine-based drainage basin here during the Last Glacial Maximum, and flowed out through an ice stream of comparable size to Thwaites Glacier, has since been lost, presenting the opportunity to examine an actual example of marine-based retreat through geological and geophysical methods.
Incursion of warm water onto the continental shelf, thought to have driven ice retreat, continues today, and indeed is driving even more rapidly accelerating retreat of the remaining ice than in the Amundsen Sea as evidenced by satellite remote-sensing data over the past decade.
The accessible Bellingshausen Sea continental margin, containing a greater than 100 km-wide, deep trough mouth, provides an excellent opportunity to examine how interactions between oceanographic processes and bathymetry, and long-term decline in sea-ice extent, control warm water incursion. Benthic organisms on the Bellingshausen Sea shelf could provide the key to confirming WAIS collapse during past interglacial periods through genetic comparisons to those in the Ross and Weddell Sea shelves.
Numerical models used to predict marine ice sheet retreat are validated mostly against changes observed over the past 30 years. Some ice-sheet responses to drivers operate over longer periods and there are no observations of extensive retreat of a marine-based ice sheet to validate models against, hence the need for this research topic, which will require marine geoscience, physical oceanographic and benthic biological research.
Scope
To improve forecasts of the future rate and extent of ice loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) by examining the Bellinghausen Sea sector of the WAIS. This will involve examination of how interactions between oceanographic processes and bathymetry, and long-term decline in sea-ice extent of the WAIS, control warm water incursion across the continental shelf, as well as determining if benthic organisms on the Bellingshausen Sea shelf of the WAIS could provide the key to confirming WAIS collapse during past interglacial periods, through genetic comparisons to those in the Ross and Weddell Sea shelves.
Research questions to address
How sensitive is a marine-based ice sheet to drivers and how fast can it retreat?
How do mesoscale processes transport warm water onto and across the continental shelf?
How do sea-ice decline feedbacks impact ice-sheet retreat, water column structure and ecology?
Did seaways develop across West Antarctica during previous interglacial periods, implying WAIS collapse?
Delivery
There should be one project looking at this topic. The project should:
- tackle all research questions
- be up to the value of £4.7 million (100% full economic cost)
If you require the use of NERC’s marine facilities or Antarctic logistic support, see the details in the ‘Services and facilities’ section.
We encourage researchers to consider applications that require only modest associated ship time by taking advantage of:
Topic C: signal to noise errors and implications for climate predictions and projections
Objective
To explain the signal to noise error in climate predictions and to quantify its effect on long term climate projections.
Strategic context
A large and growing body of evidence shows that climate predictions spanning seasonal, interannual and multiyear timescales systematically underpredict the strength of observed climate variations. This problem exists across multiple long-range forecast systems and multiple regions of the globe, with poor performance appearing to stem from underprediction of atmospheric circulation patterns including the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).
The resulting low signal-to-noise ratios limit the use of long-range climate forecasts for climate services and point to untapped potential at critical planning timescales between weather and climate. This problem forces prediction centres to generate substantially larger ensemble sizes and create post processing recalibration methods to try to compensate. It also affects the validity of attribution statements produced by the same climate models and undermines climate projections.
If models underestimate the predictable signal of the NAO as has been suggested, then current regional climate projections would greatly underestimate future extreme events. The so-called “signal-to-noise paradox” in climate prediction is therefore a fundamental knowledge gap with wide ranging and societally relevant consequences. A physical explanation for this error and its implications for multidecadal climate change is still unknown.
Scope
To deliver a physical explanation for the signal to noise error in climate predictions and to quantify its effect on long term climate projections. Develop improved methods to correct for the signal to noise error in current ensemble predictions and experiment with the latest climate models to determine sensitivity to model formulation and resolution. This topic aims to find a pathway to eradicate the signal to noise problem and deliver more reliable and accurate climate predictions and projections for the Atlantic/European sector and wider regions affected on longer timescales.
Research questions to address
There is currently no explanation for the spurious weak signals in ensemble climate predictions. Key questions under this topic could include:
What physical mechanisms could lead to the signal to noise errors in climate predictions, for example, lack of ocean-atmosphere interaction, a lack of atmospheric eddy feedback, the representation of remote teleconnections?
Do the same signal to noise errors affect long term climate projections?
How does the signal-to-noise error manifest in different regions?
Is multidecadal variability and the forced climate change response affected?
What are the implications for UK and wider European climate projections?
What aspects of global circulation models are these errors sensitive to (for example, parametrisations, resolution)?
What ensemble sizes are needed for optimal climate predictions in light of these errors?
How to best recalibrate predictions for these errors using simple or machine learning methods?
How do we develop climate models without these errors?
Delivery
There can be up to two projects looking at this topic. Each project should:
- tackle appropriate research questions that would enable the objective to be met and address the full scope of this topic
- be up to the value of £2.35 million (100% full economic cost)
Topic D: understanding the threat of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the environment
Objective
To understand the key environmental fate processes and biological effects of the per‐ and poly‐fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
Strategic context
Per‐ and poly‐fluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) compounds encompass a large, heterogeneous group of thousands of chemicals. For the few PFAS compounds that have been investigated to date, there is convincing evidence that they are ubiquitous in the environment, are increasing in their prevalence and can bioaccumulate in organisms. They can impact on important biochemical pathways and can reach concentrations known to cause biological effects in exposed wildlife.
The sheer structural diversity of PFAS compounds makes understanding the key environmental fate processes and biological effects of this substance group especially complex. This means there remain substantial gaps in our knowledge on fate and effects of the sources and precursors, transport, transformation products and degradation of PFAS chemicals within the environment. With PFASs still in widespread use, we need to increase our fundamental understanding of how compounds in this class behave in, move through and impact on, the terrestrial, freshwater and marine environment if we are to address the risks they pose and how they can be identified, mitigated and managed in future.
Scope
To determine how different PFAS compounds behave in the environment and affect species with different exposure profiles and physiological and ecological traits. This will include research into the fate and effects of the sources and precursors, transport, transformation products and degradation of PFAS chemicals to determine how compounds in this class behave in, move through and impact on, the terrestrial, freshwater and marine environment. An interdisciplinary research approach that unifies chemistry, ecotoxicology, biochemistry/molecular biology, ecology, and aspects of geography, hydrology and atmospheric science, is encouraged to determine the environmental fate and toxicity assessment of PFAS compounds.
Research questions to address
How can analytical methods (for example, total organic fluorine, targeted and untargeted mass spectrometry) be optimised and combined to detect released PFAS sources and precursors and their intermediate and terminal degradation products in the environment?
Are there relationships between PFAS compound structure (for example, carbon chain length, branch structure, presence of “functional groups” and so on), their behaviours and reactivities (for example, persistence, bioaccumulation, mobility, toxicity that govern the fate and transport of PFASs in the environment (including wastes)) and their potential to be taken up and cause adverse effects in organisms?
How can information on emissions, release pathways and the physiochemical properties and environmental behaviours of PFAS be used to better model the multimedia distributions and subsequent bioavailability of PFAS, especially given that models for predicting bioaccumulation based on partitioning theory have been shown to be insufficient for PFAS?
Can our knowledge of the uptake and toxic modes of action of different PFAS compounds be improved using a systems biology framework, so that more reliable and ecologically relevant thresholds for sensitive species and wider ecological effects can be identified?
Delivery
There can be up to two projects looking at this topic. Each project should:
- tackle all research questions
- be up to the value of £2.35 million (100% full economic cost)
Topic E: pollutant deposition enhancement to upland ecosystems
Objective
To achieve a better quantification, understanding and model representation of the processes driving atmospheric deposition of pollutants to UK uplands.
Strategic context
UK uplands and heaths are key natural capital assets with an estimated benefit value of £20 billion and make a widely recognised important contribution to ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration and clean water delivery.
Atmospheric deposition of pollutants to these landscapes constitutes a major loss in terms of atmospheric components at regional scales. It also dominates inputs to these environments, with impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem health and services. It is estimated that more than 80% of the UK’s sensitive ecosystems remain unprotected against the impacts of reactive nitrogen deposition on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
In complex upland topography, deposition of pollutants is significantly increased compared with flat surfaces, due to increased turbulence, additional precipitation and washout processes, and deposition via hill fog. Yet, most upland models apply deposition rates determined over flat terrain where existing experimental methods can be readily used.
Defra’s Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) has identified a significant knowledge gap in the underlying research that needs a scientific advance, suggesting that upland deposition is significantly underestimated, and recognising the need to improve our understanding of key processes controlling deposition to such complex environments. NCEA work suggests an underestimation of the deposition of reactive nitrogen alone causes additional economic impacts in the order of £160 million to £600 million per year.
Scope
To better understand and quantify the processes that enhance atmospheric deposition of pollutants to UK upland areas, associated with complex terrain, high wind speeds and fog. Measurement technologies to provide robust deposition measurements at remote and windy upland sites will need to be developed and applied. It is suggested that environmental science areas that need to be addressed include, but are not limited to, high-resolution numerical modelling of rainfall or washout processes, large-scale community measurement campaigns of detailed atmospheric composition and processes, technical development of robust measurement methods, the use of catchment flows and hydrological models to constrain catchment deposition as well as the imaginative use and development of proxies for deposition. Technologies and approaches identified here can be used to address the following questions.
Research questions to address
How can the meteorological controls of upland deposition processes, such as orographic rainfall, orographic cloud formation and localised transport and turbulence, be modelled accurately?
What are the washout processes governing wet deposition at upland sites and how can they be better represented in models?
How large is the dry deposition enhancement in complex terrain over flat-earth conditions currently assumed in dry deposition models, and how can a correction be implemented into atmospheric chemistry and transport models?
What factors control the deposition of pollutants via fog droplets in complex terrain and how can it be represented in atmospheric chemistry and transport models?
How can proxies (for example radioisotope budgets, concentrations in bio-accumulators such as mosses, foliar nitrogen composition and so on) reliably constrain pollutant deposition in complex terrain?
What measurement methods and technologies can be adapted or developed to provide reliable measurements of wet or bulk and dry deposition as well as air concentration in the uplands, often characterised by high wind speeds and high humidity and lack of mains power, to constrain model estimates and to provide robust validation data for improved modelling approaches?
Delivery
There can be up to two projects looking at this topic. Each project should:
- tackle all research questions
- be up to the value of £2.35 million (100% full economic cost)
If you require the use of the NERC FAAM Airborne Laboratory, see the details in the ‘Services and facilities’ section.
Duration
The maximum duration of this award is four years for all highlight topics.
Projects must start on 1 October 2025.
Funding available
See each highlight topic for details of available funding. Note that indexation rates will be applied to individual awards, as is the case for all UKRI awards, and the funding limits outlined allow for these to be applied. The 100% full economic cost of individual awards will therefore be either £2.5 million or £5 million when indexation has been applied.
What we will fund
We will fund 80% of the full economic cost for UK organisations for:
- directly incurred costs such as staff payroll, travel and subsistence, and consumables
- directly allocated costs such as project leads’ and co-leads’ salaries, estates costs and shared resources
- indirect costs such as research organisation administration
We will fund:
- UK equipment (items over £10,000) at 50% full economic cost
- facilities costs
- cruise costs
What we will not fund
We will not fund:
- PhD studentship costs (You cannot request associated studentships under this funding opportunity)
Eligible international project co-lead costs (under the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis or Norway agreement) are funded at 100% for eligible direct costs and can be a maximum of 30% of the full economic cost value for all international costs.
For eligible international project co-lead, we will fund:
- project co-lead salaries
- directly incurred costs (for example, travel and subsistence, consumables)
- research and innovation associate
We will not fund:
- estates and other indirect costs
- capital costs
- equipment over £10,000 (anything under £10,000 can be requested under directly incurred costs)
Costs associated with any international project co-lead should be entered as an exception and using a specific format:
- the University of XXX
- country: travel and subsistence
- four flights to partners
An example of how we would fund international partnership
| Cost type |
Requested costs |
Funding if successful |
| UK projects (funded at 80%) |
£4,000 (100% full economic cost) |
£3,200 |
| UK equipment (funded at 50%) |
£300 (100% full economic cost) |
£150 |
| IIASA or Norway (co-investigator costs funded at 100% full economic cost) |
£700 (100% direct costs) |
£700 |
| Total |
£5,000 |
£4,050 |
Services and facilities
You can apply to use a NERC facility or service in your funding application.
You should discuss your application with the facility or service at the earliest opportunity and at least two months before the funding opportunity’s closing date, so, by 9 August 2024, to:
- discuss the proposed work in detail
- receive confirmation that they can provide the services required within the timeframe of the funding
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 that 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), FAAM Airborne Laboratory, NCEO Airborne Earth Observatory, Antarctic Logistic support and the large research facilities at Harwell have their own policies for access and costing. Please note that the NCEO Airborne Earth Observatory is not a NERC facility. You must still include the cost of its use within the limits of funding and confirm in your application that you have received agreement from the facility for its use.
Ship-time and marine facilities
Applications may require ship-time and other marine facilities. If you need to use NERC’s marine facilities, you must complete an online ship-time and marine equipment (SME) or autonomous deployment (ADF) application form available from Marine Facilities Planning. Include the SME or ADF number on the ‘Facilities’ section of your application and attach a PDF of the SME or ADF as a facility form to your application. The costs associated with completed SME and ADF forms must be included within the funding limit of the highlight topic.
You should consider that the start date for funding of successful highlight topic applications will be 1 October 2025 and access to NERC’s marine facilities is unlikely to be possible before the 2027/28 NERC Marine Facilities Programme. You therefore need to engage with NERC Marine Planning (email: marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org) as soon as possible. This will make sure that a realistic assessment of the availability of marine facilities in the year or years required is central to the development of your science plans.
You must submit your SME and ADF applications to NERC Marine Planning at least two months before the funding opportunity closing date, so, by 9 August 2024.
British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Antarctic logistics support
If you require NERC BAS Antarctic logistics support you must complete a pre-award operational support planning questionnaire (OSPQ) online.
You must email the Antarctic Access Office (AAO) (email: afibas@bas.ac.uk) at BAS stating your name, institution and project title.
The AAO will set up a new and numbered pre-award OSPQ and send the link to you along with instructions for completion. Further detail on the OSPQ process can be found on the BAS website.
The questionnaire should be submitted to afibas@bas.ac.uk no later than three months prior to the funding opportunity closing date, so, by 9 July 2024. Any highlight topic application that requests Antarctic logistic support without having received prior logistic approval, will not be awarded.
If your project is completely ship-based there is no need for you to submit a pre-award OSPQ. If your activity is both field and ship-based you will need to complete the pre-award OSPQ (for field) and the NERC Marine Facilities forms.
You should also be aware of the NERC update on polar research planning.
FAAM Airborne Laboratory
If you intend to apply to use the FAAM Airborne Laboratory you will need to start the process by contacting the FAAM Operations Manager (email: maureen.smith@faam.ac.uk) at least six months before the funding opportunity closing date (so, by 9 April 2024) and at least 18 months before the proposed start of flying. Early contact will allow the FAAM team to share information on timetabling, technical details and costs. You will need to take the availability of FAAM into account in your research plans within your application.
You must follow the guidance for applying to use this facility on NERC research grants – FAAM.
NCEO Airborne Earth Observatory
Should you wish to explore the use of the NCEO Airborne Earth Observatory in your proposed research, please see the contact details available here NCEO Airborne Earth Observatory. You must make early contact with NCEO and you will need to take the availability into account in your research plans within your application. Please note that you must follow, and comply with, the application procedure for use of this instrumentation, including the deadline for submission of your request to use it.
Potential projects that envisage an aircraft measurement capability may wish to contact the NCEO Airborne Earth Observatory if remote sensing is envisaged, or FAAM or BAS (contact details given in this section) if only in situ sampling is envisaged. Early enquiries are encouraged to discuss specific project requirements and whether the required capabilities are available.
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.
Data management
You must adhere to UKRI open research policy and NERC data policy and complete the ‘Data management and sharing’ question.
For details of data centres, see the NERC Environmental Data Service.
We will pay the data centre directly on behalf of the programme for archival and curation services, but you should ensure that you request sufficient resource to cover preparation of data for archiving by the research team. Additional services from the data centres, such as database development or a specialist in project data management during your project, will need to be discussed with the relevant data centre prior to submission, costs for additional services will need to be funded from your grant.
Responsible research
Through our funding processes, we seek to make a positive contribution to society and the environment. This is not just through research outputs and outcomes but through the way in which research is conducted and facilities managed.
All NERC grant holders are to adopt responsible research practices as set out in the NERC responsible business statement.
Responsible research is defined as reducing harm or enhancing benefit on the environment and society through effective management of research activities and facilities. Specifically, this covers:
- the natural environment
- the local community
- equality, diversity and inclusion
You should consider the responsible research context of your project, not the host institution as a whole. You should take action to enhance your responsible research approach where practical and reasonable.
Research disruption due to COVID-19
We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:
- breaks and delays
- disruptive working patterns and conditions
- the loss of ongoing work
- role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic
Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant, and their wider team, to deliver the research they are proposing.
Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.
