Demand management
Demand management is being applied to this funding opportunity. Further details are provided in the ’who can apply’ section.
Scope
This doctoral focal award funding opportunity will equip the next generation of researchers with a robust foundation in advanced evidence synthesis methodologies, providing them with the skills to critically appraise, synthesise and communicate diverse sources of information to inform effective evidence based environmental policy and practice.
Through their research projects, students will apply these approaches to address real-world environmental challenges. Working closely with policy and practice stakeholders, they will co-design research that advances understanding and delivers practical, policy-relevant insights to inform effective environmental decision-making.
You are invited to propose an innovative training model that will give students in-depth knowledge and practical experience in evidence synthesis – ensuring their research is academically rigorous and directly relevant to real-world decision-making.
The award will strengthen and grow the community of evidence synthesis specialists within the environmental and social sciences. This cohort of researchers will carry their expertise into future careers across academia, policy and practice, acting as informed advocates for robust, transparent, and systematic synthesis approaches, and strengthening the culture of evidence informed decision making across the sector.
The UK has rich and wide-ranging sources of environmental information with enormous potential to support policy and practice. However, the use of environmental information for policy making across the breadth of government in the UK remains relatively nascent. A key challenge is that much of the evidence is fragmented, difficult to access or combine with other sources of information or not presented in formats that are practical for decision-makers.
Policy makers and practitioners tackling complex environmental issues need timely, reliable evidence presented in ways that support effective decisions. Evidence synthesis, the process of systematically bringing together the best available evidence to answer specific questions, is essential to clarifying both what is known and where further research is needed. By strengthening the foundations of evidence informed decision making, evidence synthesis helps us to design better policy interventions, maximise the effectiveness of implementation, avoid costly mistakes and improve public services.
To maximise the potential of environmental and social science to inform policy and practice, it is essential that the next generation of talented individuals in this sector is equipped with the skills to produce evidence syntheses that are timely, usable and impactful for decision makers.
Through this doctoral focal award in environmental evidence synthesis students will:
- undertake comprehensive, in-depth training in evidence synthesis (and related skills) at the forefront of methodological innovation
- apply this learning directly to their individual research projects, working with evidence synthesis experts, information owners and UK policy and practice stakeholders to ensure their research is robust and that outputs are tailored to decision-makers’ needs
This training will equip students with transferable evidence synthesis skills, preparing them for a breadth of future careers across academia, policy and practice.
Research training remit
All PhDs funded through this award must be underpinned by robust training in evidence synthesis, ensuring that students develop the skills to apply these rigorous approaches effectively within their field of expertise. Evidence synthesis will form the central, unifying training component across the cohort, providing a shared methodological foundation that applies regardless of disciplinary focus.
The environmental science area(s) addressed by the doctoral focal award should be:
- primarily within the remit of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)*
- aligned to one or more priority areas in the NERC Forward Look for environmental science*
- relevant to UK government priorities so that research outcomes support the evidence needs of decision makers
Beyond these requirements, you have flexibility to determine whether your training model has a broad, cross cutting environmental science remit, or focuses on a specific thematic or disciplinary area(s), provided that the chosen scope meaningfully embeds evidence synthesis at the heart of the cohort training.
*You are strongly encouraged to review our remit and the Forward Look to ensure your application aligns with these strategic priorities.
As part of the doctoral focal award, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) will fund six PhD studentships (two per cohort) for social scientists working at the intersection of environmental and social sciences. Each studentship must be based on an interdisciplinary evidence synthesis project that integrates concepts, methods or information assets from both environmental science and social science, demonstrating how this approach will generate novel insights, improve policy relevance or enhance real world impact. Projects must be at least 50% social science, rooted in the social science remit, while making a clear and substantive contribution to environmental science priorities. Projects can be from across the full breadth of social science disciplines, including interdisciplinary approaches, where the primary intellectual contribution is to social science and the proposed work meaningfully engages with NERC aligned environmental science area(s) addressed by the overarching award, meeting the requirements outlined above.
Methodological training in evidence synthesis
The cohort training delivered through this doctoral focal award must provide students with a comprehensive and contemporary foundation in the principles and practices of evidence synthesis.
Students should be equipped with the skills to evaluate the quality and reliability of existing research, explore and map current knowledge, identify gaps, and synthesise information from multiple sources in a transparent and rigorous way.
This grounding will enable students to select and apply the most suitable evidence synthesis approaches for their own research, while developing capabilities that they can carry forward into their future careers.
Crucially, the training must reflect developments at the forefront of methodological innovation and expose students to current advances in evidence synthesis practice.
Provision should therefore span a wide spectrum of approaches, from established methods for understanding and synthesising the evidence base through to advanced techniques that draw on data science, automation, and AI enabled tools. This should include approaches that enhance the scale, efficiency, adaptability and reproducibility of evidence synthesis.
Overall, the training should ensure students gain both breadth and depth of skills, and that they learn and apply evidence synthesis methods in ways that align with best practice and meet the needs of decision makers.
You are responsible for determining a suitable training model that will deliver the required breadth of evidence synthesis skills. Applications should set out how the chosen structure and delivery method will ensure comprehensive coverage of evidence synthesis approaches while offering a coherent and effective learning experience that enables students to work at the forefront of methodological innovation and policy relevance.
Broader skills development
You should incorporate within your cohort training model a package of complementary skills development that will enable students to maximise the impact of their evidence synthesis training. This broader skills training should support students’ ability to work effectively across disciplines, navigate complex policy landscapes and engage with a diverse range of stakeholders.
These wider professional competencies are essential for translating evidence synthesis outputs into actionable insights that are relevant, accessible, and aligned with real-world decision-making processes. By building these skills, students will be better equipped to produce robust, policy relevant research and to develop productive, meaningful partnerships with the policy and practice community who rely on such evidence.
You should articulate within your application the suite of complementary skills that will be included in your delivery model. Key areas of training could include, but are not limited to:
- data and information management
- interdisciplinary working
- systems thinking approaches
- understanding government policy-making processes
- participatory and co production approaches to stakeholder engagement
- communication, visualisation and knowledge exchange methods
For the ESRC funded studentships, the Postgraduate Training and Development Guidelines set out expectations around the training that students should receive by the end of their studentship.
Training model
Training delivered through this doctoral focal award will help build a strong, interdisciplinary community of practitioners with the skills, knowledge and networks needed to critically appraise, synthesise and communicate evidence into actionable insights for policy and practice.
You are invited to propose an innovative training model that will equip students with in-depth knowledge and practical experience in environmental evidence synthesis, ensuring their research is academically rigorous and directly relevant to real-world decision-making.
The model should encompass the following core parameters:
- students must conduct their research within the environmental science area(s) defined by the doctoral focal award holder, or in the case of ESRC funded studentships, apply social science to environmental science area(s)
- students should:undertake cohort-level training in evidence synthesis methodologies and related skills, and apply these approaches within their projects at appropriate stages to strengthen research outcomes
Your application should demonstrate how the training model will:
- provide students with both technical and transferable skills
- support students to embed learning within their research projects, through mechanisms such as mentoring, peer support and tailored supervision models (including discipline-specific provision)
- ensure that research topic supervisors possess sufficient understanding of evidence synthesis methodologies to support students effectively
- build on existing communities of expertise to strengthen capability and capacity within the environmental and social sciences to produce policy-relevant evidence syntheses
Applications must outline a coherent training programme through which students will undertake individual research projects alongside cohort-level training in cross-cutting skills relevant to the areas above. You should design and justify an appropriate programme for your doctoral focal award where we welcome innovative approaches.
Additional requirements
Alignment with UKRI Core Offer
The UKRI Core Offer sets out the Statement of expectations for doctoral training for all UKRI studentships, including support and student experience, research skills and methods and professional and career development.
All applications must clearly state how the requirements outlined within the UKRI core offer will be delivered as part of their application.
In addition to the expectations set out within the UKRI Core Offer, the training programme must:
- enable access for all students to placements, internships or other relevant work experience opportunities (this includes UKRI policy internships). This does not mean that all students must complete a placement, however placement opportunities must be made available to all students, and training programmes should be designed with flexibility to enable students to undertake these opportunities if they wish
Capability to deliver
You must provide evidence within your application that you offer sufficient high quality research capacity to deliver training in the areas specified in the remit of the priority area. You should also justify your choice of partnership which can include international collaborative partners as appropriate to deliver the objectives of the training programme.
Collaboration with end-users and non-HEI partners
You should adopt a collaborative approach to the training offer, creating opportunities for students to engage with a diverse range of experts and stakeholders. These partnerships will provide students with real-world insights, practical experience and professional networks that enhance both the quality and impact of their research and skills development.
Students should have the opportunity to:
- learn from leading experts in evidence synthesis: Gaining exposure to cutting-edge methodologies and best practices, building confidence and competence in applying advanced techniques
- co-design their research questions with policy and practice stakeholders: Ensuring their projects address priority evidence needs and produce outputs that are relevant and aligned with decision-making contexts
- access and utilise high-quality evidence: Work with information asset owners to identify, interpret and integrate diverse sources of evidence, strengthening the robustness and applicability of their findings
You must evidence a track record of collaborative working and describe a coherent strategy for engaging with multiple stakeholders.
In addition, you should:
- ensure that a number of studentships offered by the doctoral focal award are CASE or ‘collaborative’ studentships (see the ‘CASE studentships’ section)
- embed collaboration with end-users through mechanisms in addition to CASE (for example, placements, training courses or site visits) for all doctoral students within their wider training programme
You must demonstrate clearly within your application how this will be achieved.
CASE studentships and collaborative studentships
CASE studentships are delivered in collaboration with eligible non-academic partners and include specific requirements relating to co-supervision and a placement; a financial contribution from the partner is encouraged.
Further information about CASE studentships is available: NERC CASE studentships. Over the lifetime of the award, a minimum of 25% of the total notional studentships within the focal award must be CASE studentships. You must demonstrate within your application the mechanisms you will use to ensure the CASE conversion requirement is met. We will review the successful applicants’ CASE compliance throughout the lifetime of the grant via reporting processes and reserve the right to use the outcomes to adjust future studentship cohort allocations.
In addition to CASE studentships, any number of studentships may be collaborative.
These are partnerships which may not meet all the requirements for CASE or where the partner organisation is not eligible to be a CASE partner. These collaborative studentships will be monitored through a reporting process and formally recognised as a success metric as part of the ongoing monitoring of the awards.
Engagement with the policy and practice community
Applications should demonstrate how you will work with UK governmental organisations (including devolved administrations) to shape and deliver cohort training.
Alignment with relevant UKRI investments
Outline how you will build on, and where appropriate work with, existing relevant UKRI investments to maximise opportunities for learning, collaboration and knowledge exchange.
Use of UK environmental, social science (and other) information sources
Explain how students will access and utilise existing information assets, including those available via the NERC Environmental Data Service and ESRC’s data infrastructure.
Connection to the wider evidence synthesis community of practice
Funded focal awards should facilitate student engagement with the wider evidence synthesis community of practice by providing opportunities to learn from and engage with leading initiatives such as the global Evidence Synthesis Infrastructure Collaborative (ESIC).
Management and governance
The doctoral focal award must have strong leadership and management. It should have both a lead operational manager and steering committee or management board. The steering committee or management board should be comprised of all hosting doctoral focal award partners and must also have representation from relevant end-user organisations.
This body will have overall responsibility for the effective governance of the doctoral focal award and its relationship with us and provide a strategic needs framework to aid the prioritisation and development of PhD projects.
You must demonstrate that your leadership team includes:
- expertise in evidence synthesis, with clear capability to provide cutting edge methodological training across a broad spectrum of synthesis approaches
- at least one social scientist, to ensure appropriate support for the full student cohort
The doctoral focal award must demonstrate that robust and transparent governance arrangements will be in place from the outset of the focal award, which may include the development of formal partnership agreements, communication plans and systems for monitoring the focal award’s overall progress and success.
You are strongly encouraged to incorporate doctoral focal award students into the management and running of activities within the focal award. Where appropriate, formal partnership agreements must be in place ahead of the start of the first student cohort.
The doctoral focal award must also commit adequate support for appropriate administrative resource, and applications must be explicit about how administrative structures will be managed and funded.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is a core feature of this funding opportunity. In line with UKRI’s principles on EDI, we want to work with our partners to shape a dynamic, diverse, and inclusive system of research and innovation that is an integral part of society.
You will need to explain how your EDI strategy will embed the core principles of EDI at all levels and across all aspects of the doctoral programme, addressing the points described in this section.
Increasing PhD access
Detail how will you ensure that your programme will attract a wide range of applicants from underrepresented or different social, cultural and educational backgrounds, and how will you make this process open and transparent.
Working practices, including individualised student support
All UKRI funded training grants must offer the option of studying on both a part-time and full-time basis. Discuss how you will support students and staff who require a flexible working pattern.
Supervision and supervisory teams
Detail how you will deliver comprehensive inductions for new supervisors and support development for supervisory teams in line with an inclusive culture of excellent research supervision.
Wellbeing support, including mental health
Propose a strategy for the provision and support of good physical and mental health and wellbeing practices for students and staff. Detail how you will promote a positive culture of listening to staff and student feedback.
Monitoring and evaluation, including a baseline and plans for improvement
Detail what progress indicators you will use to measure improvement in your EDI strategy and why these are the most appropriate. Detail how you will provide evidence for your proposed EDI actions, including a baseline and subsequent updates throughout the lifetime of the grant.
We would expect your EDI strategy to describe how your doctoral programme is accessible to a diverse range of people and needs and how you will be removing barriers to participation across your doctoral programme and associated processes. Your application should demonstrate how you will create and maintain a positive, inclusive, and supportive environment for all students and staff.
You should refer to equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI, with a focus on embedding and implementing UKRI good practice principles in recruitment and training at a doctoral level.
As a mandatory requirement, the EDI strategies, activities and commitments stated by successful applicants will be regularly reviewed. These data will be collected on at least a yearly basis, via annual reports and we will reserve the right to access these data if and when appropriate across the lifetime of the award. See the UKRI data collection policy for more information.
Legacy and impact
Focal awards are supported with the intention of developing a legacy of training excellence. You must demonstrate consideration of the legacy and impacts of the doctoral training programme beyond the lifetime of UKRI investment.
Reporting requirements and monitoring
The monitoring of progress towards the vision and objectives as well as evidencing of impact are important components of these programmes. This information will be used by us to review the success of our training investments. Information provided will also be used to provide assurance that the focal awards are being managed appropriately and are progressing in accordance with the original funding application.
This will be conducted in various ways, including:
- mandatory annual reports
- hosting a regular partnership visit by UKRI staff
Successful applicants will be expected to respond to other reporting requirements when requested.
We will describe the key information required from focal awards in annual reports. This will include diversity statistics for doctoral candidate recruitment, CASE studentships and other collaborative partner engagement, financial leveraging, training, and development activities offered, and examples of doctoral candidate achievements.
Partnerships are expected to describe their approach to monitoring and evaluation, outlining their success measures and baselines and a continuous improvement process built in within their applications.
We will oversee and engage with successful applicants to support the delivery of excellent doctoral training.
Flexible Fund
The doctoral focal training programme will include a Flexible Fund to be split across successful applicants.
The Flexible Fund must be used to benefit those associated with the doctoral focal award, which could refer to students, associated staff or both. It can be used to support a range of activities, including support for skills development, network building, or addressing EDI challenges (see relevant EDI sections).
It can also be used to increase access to potential future students of the programme, for example, widening participation activities. We would expect you to use the flexible support fund to complement and support the proposed training and EDI plan you have provided within your application.
The Flexible Fund can be rolled over to subsequent years, for example if there is a plan for an ongoing activity across multiple years of student intake. All Flexible Fund activities and their subsequent progress will need to be recorded in the mandatory annual report. It will also be the successful applicant’s responsibility to keep and maintain records of Flexible Fund activity expenditure.
Some specific examples are given below, but we encourage each applicant to think creatively about how they may use these funds such as:
- widening participation activities, for example improving recruitment of underrepresented groups to the doctoral programme or developing networks for students with protected characteristics
- supplementary funding for undergraduate research experience placements (REPs). REPs can address demographic and diversity-related challenges as well as helping to address skills gaps in biological and environmental sciences
- cohort training and development of core or vulnerable skills
- EDI training for supervisors of funded students, for example, mental health first aider training or training in neurodiversity needs
- supporting student entrepreneurship
- supplementary funds for student placements
- supporting the integration of data science, AI and machine learning approaches
- cohort training in transferable skills, for example, leadership, project management
- cross-doctoral training programme training and network building, for example theme-specific symposia
We will endeavour to continue to support REPs as a separate scheme.
The Flexible Fund will be issued on an annual basis, the doctoral focal award will receive £27,000 per cohort intake (the first three consecutive years of the award).
Duration
The duration of this award is a minimum of six years.
Projects must start by 1 October 2027.
This award will support three cohorts of students undertaking a three and a half to four year doctorate on a full-time basis, or equivalent part-time. The first cohort will start in the 2027 to 2028 academic year and the final cohort will start in 2029 to 2030.
Funding available
We will fund ten notional studentships a year for three years, to each of the successful doctoral focal awards.
The indicative funding per notional studentship is provided:
- stipend: £87,220
- fees: £20,952
- research training support grant: £11,000
- programme management: £2,000
- total: £121,172
NERC will fund 100% of the FEC.
A notional studentship consists of sufficient funds to meet the annual UKRI minimum stipend and fee levels, plus additional research, placement and management costs for four years of doctoral study. Awards will be supplemented with London allowance where eligible.
Individual studentships can be between three and a half to four years on a full-time basis, or equivalent part-time. If full four-year studentships are planned, a placement of a minimum of three months should be included and accommodated for within this timeframe.
The student stipend and fees are indicative estimates only, based on the 2026 to 2027 research council minima multiplied by four, and excluding London allowance (at the time of award, stipend and fees will be indexed to accommodate rises in the minimum stipend and fees levels over the lifetime of the award).
Additionally, the doctoral focal award will receive a Flexible Fund allocation. There will be £27,000 awarded per cohort.
The programme management header above can be used as a contribution towards placements, conferences, and administrative costs. A contribution towards operational management costs has been included within the above indicative funding calculation in recognition of the need to manage the partnership.
We acknowledge that this does not reflect the full cost of programme administrative structures. In line with the requirements in the management section, adequate funds must therefore be committed by you from either flexibility within the training grant, leveraged support, or a combination of sources.
Given the flexibility in use of funding, it will be possible for successful applicants to use the training grant to support more than the minimum number of students each year. For example, this could be achieved by having students undertake training over a variety of timeframes and by co-funding studentships from other sources.
Successful applicants will have flexibility in how they use the funding awarded and we encourage flexibility and virement between headings, subject to the standard UKRI terms and conditions of training grants. Be aware that the minimum numbers of students will still need to be supported each year (the minimum being the number of notional studentships allocated by us).
Studentships must be at least 50% funded from the training grant. Co-funding from non-UKRI sources can be used to part-fund additional studentships.
Successful applicants may use funding to leverage additional investment (either as cash or in-kind support) from multiple stakeholders, however, there is no formal requirement for match-funded studentships or cash leverage for this funding opportunity.
Facilities and Resources
NERC welcomes applications from PhD students (via their supervisors) to access facilities and resources. Funding for access to NERC resources and facilities should be requested separately to this training grant application. Staff at the relevant facility will be happy to advise and help with the application process.
Access to the facilities can also be obtained through other funding, for example studentship research training support grant funds, although this may only be relevant for very small or pilot studies. Read about NERC resources and facilities.
Data management
It is our policy to increase the visibility and awareness of environment data and to improve their management as a resource. The focal awards funded through this funding opportunity should therefore ensure that relevant NERC environmental data centres are aware of significant datasets generated, or to be compiled, under the award so that their long-term stewardship can be planned. For details of data centres, see the NERC Environmental Data Service.
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.
