Full proposals must be submitted using the research councils’ Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
When applying, select:
- council: NERC
- document type: standard proposal
- scheme: NC&C
- call/type/mode: NERC Strategic Capital Call 2022
This funding opportunity will close on Je-S at 16:00 on 5 April 2022.
It will not be possible to submit to the funding opportunity after the closing date and time.
You should leave enough time for your proposal to pass through your organisation’s Je-S submission route before the closing date.
Proposals will be office rejected and not considered for funding if they:
Most attachments submitted through the Je-S system must be completed in single-spaced typescript of minimum font size 11 (Arial or other sans serif typeface), with margins of at least 2cm.
This excludes project partner letters of support and equipment quotes. An organisation can only be named as a project partner if it is providing specific contributions (either cash or in-kind) to the project.
Arial Narrow, Calibri and Times New Roman are not allowable font types and any proposal which has used any of these font types within the submission will be rejected.
On submission, we convert all documents to PDF. The use of non-standard fonts may result in errors of font conversion, which could affect the overall length of the document.
Additionally, where non-standard fonts are present (and even if the converted PDF document may look unaffected in the Je-S system), some information may be removed when it is imported into the research councils’ grants system.
We therefore recommend that where a document contains any non-standard fonts (for example, scientific notation or diagrams), the document should be converted to PDF before it is attached to the proposal.
This is a non-standard funding opportunity. Therefore you must adhere to the guidance provided in this document, including the strict character and line limits.
Proposal documents
Proposals must comprise a completed Je-S proforma (the completed proposal form), a completed case for support proforma and three equipment quotes for equipment costing over £138,000.
Proposals with named project partners must include project partner letters of support for each partner. As previously noted, an organisation should only be named as a project partner if it is providing specific contributions (either cash or in-kind) to the project.
Proposals that have additional funding from the principal investigator’s institution must include a letter of support from the institution’s finance director (or equivalent) to demonstrate that the project is affordable. This letter of support will be reviewed by NERC Head Office and will not form part of the assessment process.
No other documentation will be allowed. Letters of support will not be allowed, except in the sole case noted above, and will be removed from applications.
Completing the Je-S proforma
For each proposal submitted, all relevant sections of the Je-S proforma should be completed and character restrictions adhered to.
For particular sections, some requirements may differ from the standard Je-S application requirements and these are therefore detailed below.
The panel is not obligated to check websites or hyperlinks provided in proposals.
Non-standard Je-S application requirements
For investigators, you must include applicant names, the research organisation and department. When completing the mandatory field ‘How many hours a week will the investigator work on the project?’, state ‘1’ (one hour). No investigator costs can be claimed for this non-standard funding opportunity.
Resource summary
This section will self-populate with the total cost figure added to the equipment section of the Je-S proforma.
All costs must be under the equipment header. There must be no costs associated with resource (if resource is requested for procurement purposes, please categorise this within equipment). Applications requesting resource will be rejected.
Equipment
Costs can include justified labour costs required for building the asset or installation costs associated with the creation of the asset.
Evidence is required that details why these labour costs cannot be met elsewhere, for example, by the host research organisation or a project partner. These labour or installation costs should be included in the total equipment cost figure requested and also detailed in the case for support document under ‘costs’.
For all items of equipment requested over £138,000, three quotations must be provided. Where you believe that there are fewer than three potential suppliers for an item, you should upload documents as equipment quotes that provide a brief explanation as to why fewer than three quotations were obtained.
This non-standard funding opportunity does not require a separate equipment business case to be submitted as part of the Je-S application process. Therefore, if prompted to include a business case, please upload a blank document.
Research council facilities
As stated, if equipment is being purchased for NERC S&F, this must be stated in the objectives section of the Je-S proforma.
Where the application is not from the principal investigator of the facility but from, for example, a node of the facility or external to the facility, the S&F must be listed as a project partner. A project partner letter of support must be included from the NERC S&F, signed and dated within six months of the proposal submission.
Completing the case for support proforma
For each proposal submitted, all relevant sections of the case for support proforma (see ‘supporting documents’) should be completed. You may complete the proforma in either Word or PDF format, though we recommend that you save it as a PDF.
Guidance on completing the proforma is included below. Please save the completed proforma with the title ‘CfS – [title of the equipment]’. Upload the file to Je-S as the ‘case for support’ attachment.
The character limits and line lengths, font, font size (Arial, size 11) and formatting must be strictly adhered to. Proposals which exceed any stated limits or adjust formatting will be office rejected.
The case for support proforma will ask for the following details on the proposal:
- asset description and location
- science background and need
- importance and timeliness
- user demand and usage
- sustainability
- impact
- costs
- breakdown of asset components.
The case for support proforma includes an optional two pages for additional information. If using figures, pictures or diagrams, please include them in the additional two pages.
