Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: Maximising UK adaptation to climate change research projects

Apply for funding for transdisciplinary research projects under the UKRI-Defra co-funded Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change programme. This is the second phase of programme, to fund world leading strategic research projects to help improve the UK’s resilience to climate change impacts.

You must be based at an eligible UK research organisation to apply.

You must work with the adaptation hub to ensure that findings from these research grants are aligned with policy needs.  The full economic cost (FEC) per project is £2 million for up to 30 months.

Who can apply

Before applying for funding, check the following:

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new UKRI Funding Service.

For full details, visit eligibility as an individual.

Who is eligible to apply

It is expected that project teams will incorporate researchers covering a broad range of disciplines across the remits of NERCAHRCEPSRC,  ESRC and MRC and beyond, as well as policymakers, practitioners, industry, public engagement professionals and wider civil society. All applications should include NERC remit researchers and must cover at least two UKRI council remits (NERC and one other) as a minimum, although you are encouraged where appropriate to utilise the breadth of expertise supported through the funding opportunity.

New collaborations and partnerships are encouraged, especially across disciplines and sectors, as the research projects will be required to be transdisciplinary. Full information about the research project team requirements is detailed in the ‘What we are looking for’ section.

You may be involved in no more than two applications submitted to this funding opportunity. Only one of these can be as project lead.

The project lead must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for NERC funding. This includes eligible Public Sector Research Establishments (PSREs) and Independent Research Organisations (IROs).

Project co-leads (previously co-investigator) can be based at a UK research organisation eligible for NERC funding. For this UKRI funding opportunity, project co-leads may also be based at UK businesses, third sector or government organisations. Read including project co-leads from business, third sector or government bodies for details of eligible organisations and costs. Note that costs associated with project co-leads from a UK business, third sector or government organisation’s contribution to a project must not exceed 30% of the overall cost of the grant at 100% FEC. Additionally, eligible costs differ amongst organisation types, for example, for government organisations we will only fund travel and subsistence.

Other ways different organisations can be involved include:

  • project partners: people who will not receive funding directly from the award but will have an integral role in the proposed project. Minor directly incurred costs, such as some travel costs, are acceptable
  • subcontractors: people responsible for providing a service only
  • dual roles: an organisation or individual can act as both a project partner and be paid non-minor costs to be covered by a subcontract, however this must be fully justified. An example of where dual roles might be required is when an organisation or individual is giving to the project in kind but are also funded to deliver other work to the project

Be aware that neither Defra nor the Met Office should be included as project partners on applications as they are co-funders and partners of this programme, respectively.

For those research projects that would like to collaborate with the Met Office, you will be able to discuss potential activities, but the Met Office cannot offer views on the quality of the application (see ‘Partnering with Stakeholders’ for more information). Defra’s Arm’s Length Bodies who are approved UKRI public sector research establishments are eligible to apply to this funding opportunity.

Project partners fund their own involvement. We will only fund minor incidental expenses, such as some travel costs, if needed for project partners.

International applicants

This UKRI funding opportunity is focused on maximising adaptation to climate change in the UK. However, climate adaptation is a shared international challenge with many interlinked risks and pathways including but not limited to international supply chains. There may also be opportunities to learn from adaptation strategies explored in other countries.

We do not fund overseas organisations, except for specific costs for project co-leads from Norway and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). Read more about this in the NERC eligibility guidance for applicants.

You should include all other international collaborators (or UK partners not based at approved organisations) as project partners.

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

Find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI and NERC’s diversity and inclusion action plan.

Partnering with stakeholders

You are expected to collaborate with stakeholders (for example policy, regulatory or industry). This is to ensure that the project has the necessary skills and expertise needed from across relevant sectors to provide evidence around how to increase the resilience of people, ecosystems and infrastructure in the UK to cascading climate impacts.

Where possible, you should make every effort to build partner activity with stakeholders to:

  • add value to existing investments
  • align with ongoing activity
  • make use of partner knowledge and expertise

You should consider where, in cooperation with these stakeholders, project partnership can add value to your application through cash, in-kind contributions, or both. Information on these partnership contributions should be clearly outlined within applications.

For this UKRI funding opportunity, project co-leads may also be based at UK businesses, third sector or government organisations. Note that eligible costs associated with project co-leads from a UK business, third sector or government organisation’s contribution to a project must not exceed 30% of the overall cost of the grant at 100% FEC.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has already indicated in advance a desire to collaborate and provide advice to applicants. DESNZ can offer the following support:

  • provide advice and input on bids to help make sure these reflect current policy challenges and evidence needs particularly to help make sure outputs could be as impactful and useable as possible
  • provide data (on a case-by-case basis) if and where useful or appropriate
  • provide opportunities for dissemination to DESNZ both in terms of delivering presentations but also options for holding workshops with relevant policy teams

Please contact Savio Moniz (Climate Science) savio.moniz@energysecurity.gov.uk or André Neto-Bradley (Energy Research) andrepaul.netobradley@energysecurity.gov.uk for more information.

The Environment Agency (England) has indicated in advance a desire to collaborate and provide advice to applicants. The Environment Agency are interested in the adaptations required to protect people, habitats and biodiversity in the face of climatic change and are able to offer the following support:

  • co-developing projects of mutual interest. As a public sector research establishment, the Environment Agency is eligible for funding in this funding opportunity and would be happy to discuss options
  • hosting embedded researchers within the Environment Agency to enable genuine two-way exchange of knowledge, information and experience
  • supporting the translation and dissemination of outputs from the programme, ensuring relevance and accessibility to non-specialist audiences
  • helping access and interpret relevant data

Note the Environment Agency’s support is dependent on relevance and resource availability. You should contact the Environment Agency at an early stage and note they are unlikely to consider approaches made after 4 May 2024.

Contact research@environment-agency.gov.uk for more information.

Met Office

The Met Office will assist with research related to the aims of this programme and aligned with the capabilities of the Met Office. These will include:

  • applying national climate scenarios (such as UK Climate Projections (UKCP)) and other hazard information
  • performing climate attribution and monitoring
  • applied science to address third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) risks in many sectors plus improving understanding of complex risks (compound, aggregated and cascading) knowledge integration, climate communications and synthesis for policy

You will be able to discuss with the Met Office (maccteam@metoffice.gov.uk) what indicative activities the Met Office can assist with. No discussion can take place on the quality of the application and the Met Office cannot give a preference for a particular application. However, successful applicants will have the opportunity to work with the Met Office once the successful applications have been awarded, in order to co-develop the Met Office’s programme of activities.

Note that any activities included within your application that require Met Office support should be costed within the maximum amount of £2 million allowable for each project. Each project is allowed to request up to £200,000 of indicative Met Office support that will be paid at 100% FEC. Include support carried out by the Met Office under ‘all Exceptions – Other’. We do not expect any Met Office staff to be named on any applications.

Met Office will engage with all the successfully funded projects to ensure good alignment of its programme of work so that it can best meet the needs of the funded projects in the most effective and coherent way and to agree ways of working together. Once the successful applications have been awarded, the Met Office will run a sandpit type workshop in November 2024 with all the research leads to co-develop a final version of the Met Office’s overall contribution to the research projects part of this programme. It is important to note that working with the Met Office is not a requirement of this programme; but all project leads will have the opportunity to join the sandpit to understand more about what the Met Office work will provide to the wider programme, which will be made available to all project partners.

Note that Met Office support on successful applications will be paid directly from UKRI to the Met Office and not through leading research organisations. Met Office’s total contribution for all research projects is up to £1 million.

What we're looking for

Maximising UK adaptation to climate change: research projects- new transdisciplinary knowledge for UK climate adaptation

This UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding opportunity is part of the Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change programme. The programme is co-funded by UKRI and Defra. It has been co-designed by UKRI, Defra, the Met Office and the Climate Change Committee. It will deliver cutting-edge research, and focus on overcoming behavioural, financial and communication barriers to delivering real-world solutions for policy and wider society.

The aim of the Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change programme is to build capacity, knowledge, and skills that will offer practical and scalable solutions to meet the UK’s challenges in the face of a changing climate and put the UK at the forefront of climate adaptation strategies at both local and national scales.

The programme consists of two strands of commissioning activity:

  • strand one: a climate change adaptation hub – coordination and translation
  • strand two: a series of research projects – new transdisciplinary knowledge for UK climate adaptation

Full details about the programme can be found in the ‘Additional information’ section.

This UKRI funding opportunity is for the climate change adaptation research projects. There was a separate UKRI funding opportunity for the adaptation hub that closed on 1 February 2024.

Aim

This funding opportunity will fund world leading, high impact transdisciplinary research projects to put the UK at the cutting edge of practical and futureproof climate adaptation involving researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders. The funded projects will work directly with the climate change adaptation hub to ensure knowledge exchange between research and policy. UKRI will facilitate introductions between the hub and the successful research projects following award announcements, to enable discussion and plans to be developed around how best to work together to enable knowledge mobilisation.

Scope

We are experiencing more frequent and more extreme impacts of climate change in the UK across our cities, communities, infrastructure, economy and ecosystems. These impacts are predicted to increase over the coming decades, even if very large reductions in global emissions are achieved. Recent events, such as the extreme weather seen in the UK during 2022, have highlighted the UK’s vulnerability and limited capability, at present, to address these impacts. Building the UK’s preparedness and resilience to cascading climate impacts is essential to protect our people and economy and manage the environment to avoid the direct and indirect costs of climate change. Failure to respond threatens delivery of key government objectives such as net zero, economic growth and public health.

To date, research has focused on climate hazard, but needs to go further in terms of exposure, vulnerability and adaptive action in policy and practice. Building on the knowledge and legacy of the UK Climate Resilience Programme and other investments in this space, this programme will support research that is policy relevant and co-designed with key stakeholders. Research will help to identify priorities and support the development of policy and practice for adaptation, considering how and when to scale up from the local to national level. It will ultimately produce adaptation solutions for policy consideration that will improve UK resilience to climate impacts while benefitting people and the economy.

Applications are invited for high-impact transdisciplinary research to collaborate and facilitate two-way transfer of knowledge between research, policy and other end users to drive transformation of the UK to adapt to climate change, focusing on four themes:

  • theme one: societies’ exposure and vulnerability to extreme climate hazards
  • theme two: adaptation solutions
  • theme three: future resilience and decision making
  • theme four: enablers of adaptation

The research projects must be transdisciplinary, integrating all relevant disciplines, and closely involving policymakers and other stakeholders in co-design and co-delivery through a systems approach.

Applications should seek to address world class research that can support response to key policy questions in these thematic areas through cutting edge research focusing on a combination of new knowledge, innovations, and socio-economic change.

Key requirements for research projects

Research applications must adopt a systems approach and must include the following in whichever research theme is chosen:

  • timelines/deadlines for when action is needed or should be taken
  • place-focused approaches, for example could include:
    • cross-scale learning, for example how can we learn from place-based adaptation initiatives to influence national policy or inform initiatives in other geographical locations?
    • how do we measure impacts of adaptation on communities and the local and national economy?
    • how can the integration of place-based solutions help with decision making at all geographical scales?
    • what are the features of a place that most influence the implementation and acceptability of adaptation solutions?  What are the interdependencies between places that affect this implementation?
  • health and social inequalities, for example, could include:
    • how does climate change impact different parts of society in different ways; could this exacerbate existing economic, health and social inequalities?
    • how are vulnerable communities engaged in discussions around the co-creation and implementation of adaptation solutions?
    • which groups are particularly vulnerable to climate change and where does this interact across multiple hazards?
    • what are the unintended consequences of adaptation measures on health and social inequalities?
    • place based inequalities, where findings may be used to scale up nationally
  • behavioural responses, for example, could include:
    • how does/should an understanding of behavioural practices inform adaptations to climate change?
    • what are the barriers and enablers for change at different scales – individual, organisational and across society?
    • can the population be segmented in terms of their response to different messages, willingness and capacity to act, which can inform policy responses?

Where appropriate projects should:

  • take into consideration lived experiences of climate change to strengthen adaptative action
  • should think about how to employ technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to assess vulnerability and exposure of landscapes, assets and people rapidly and robustly
  • completed in accordance to government guidance where appropriate (for example the Green Book for appraisal and Magenta Book for evaluation)

Research themes

You should address at least one research theme in your application, details of each research theme are below.

Theme one: societies’ exposure and vulnerability to extreme climate hazards

Implications of societies’ exposure and vulnerability to extreme climate hazards (including droughts, floods, wind, heatwaves) considering the increasing threat and potential impacts of multi, cascading, and individual hazards on people, the economy and the built and natural environment. Considerations could include:

  • understanding of current and predicted risks of exposure to extreme weather on the UK, for example across different groups in society and communities, economic geographies and major infrastructures assets
  • understanding the implications of climate tipping points and high impact, low likelihood events on both UK weather extremes and international extremes with cascading impacts on the UK
  • the UK’s current vulnerability to and ability to respond to extreme weather events across different groups in society and communities, economic geographies and major infrastructures assets
  • development of new adaptation interventions, including consideration of spatial distribution of hazard, consideration of place based vulnerabilities and distributional effects of adaptive actions, as well as, co-benefits of adaptation, for example biodiversity and natural capital
  • sustainable use, assessment and modelling of land use types, for example with urban environments, issues, would include air quality, the urban heat island effect, and transport for climate adaptation

Theme two: adaptation solutions

Analysis of different adaptation solutions to effectively address climate change impacts, could consider a group of hazards or a particular climate risk. Considerations could include:

  • how can adaptation interventions be evaluated? This could include both innovative evaluation methods for impact evaluation against adaptation goals and outcomes and value for money evaluation
  • what existing and emerging adaptation actions would most benefit from being deployed at scale? Taking into consideration the economic, cultural, social and environmental impacts of adaptation solutions, and learnings from international best practice
  • cost benefit analysis in an adaptation context for pragmatic decision making to inform policy, including co-benefits of adaptation solutions
  • what are the social thresholds (that is, levels of damage or costs that society is willing to accept) for adaptation action and transformational adaptation?
  • what transformational changes are required to support societal goals on, for example, net zero, land use, food production
  • what adaptation actions can be taken to prevent cascading climate risk in order to understand what adaptation solutions need to be prioritised, considering urgency of climate risk, suitability of interventions and time needed to design and deploy, as well as the risk of lock in
  • what are the UK limits to adaptation? The potential to adapt to climate change is not limitless. Rising sea levels capable of submerging coastal communities is an example of something that we cannot adapt to

Theme three: future resilience and decision making

Planning and future resilience, using tools and creative aids to help inform decision making under uncertainty. Considerations could include:

  • identifying appropriate decision-making frameworks to provide a causal link between adaptation solutions and relevant climatic threats, for example through Theory of Change approaches
  • exploitation of existing data and climate and or hazard models to support decision making, for example through storyline development, evaluation of uncertainties, new insights into model results and incorporating co-benefits of adaptation
  • use of information on present day and near term climate risks to enhance our understanding of future climate risks, including methods to blend present day information with future climate scenarios
  • design, improvement, management and use of IT in monitoring and modelling of the performance of infrastructure systems for better adaptation solutions
  • understanding and engaging stakeholders and communities in the design, delivery and outcomes of adaptation solutions
  • case studies of use of decision making under uncertainty tools in practice (for example, robust decision making, real options analysis, multi-criteria decision analysis and so on)
  • what can we learn from other countries and cultures who already face particular climate risks today?
  • are there geopolitical trends which might impact the UK’s ability or need to adapt?

Theme four: enablers of adaptation

Identifying and influencing the enablers conducive to effective climate change adaptation. Considerations could include:

  • how effective is the current policy landscape for incentivising public and private adaptation action, identifying trade offs and opportunities for alignment?
  • can regulations, standards and existing strategies be utilised to deliver for adaptation solutions? Are soft measures an effective alternative option?
  • innovative finance based approaches to mitigate and respond to the impacts of climate change on communities and the economy
  • understand how short and long term funding and investment decisions inform climate risk over time, including uncertainties? How can private adaptation investment be made an attractive or lucrative investment?

Additionally, research projects must:

  • engage with the hub so that research project outputs can be translated into suitable evidence for policy audiences and other end-users
  • engage with other projects under the Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change programme to avoid any duplication and share learning
  • embed equality, diversity and inclusivity principles and best practices throughout
  • be delivered in an environmentally sustainable way
  • take a holistic approach that builds on, champions and links to the research and impacts of other key UKRI and wider UK investments in climate adaptation (see ‘Additional information’ section)
  • include NERC remit researchers and must cover at least two UKRI-council remits (NERC and one other) as a minimum, although you are encouraged to utilise the breadth of expertise supported through the funding opportunity
  • engage non academic stakeholders, including policymakers and practitioners at national and local levels across the UK, as well as with civil society and the public
  • be familiar with and consider other research and activity funded outside of this programme but within the climate change adaptation space

The final decision will be to take a balanced portfolio approach, expecting to fund at least one project under each theme, and not fund overlapping projects.

For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the ‘Additional information’ section.

Duration

The duration of this award is up to two years and six months.

Projects must start by 31 December 2024.

Funding available

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £2 million.

We will fund 80% of the FEC with the following exceptions:

  • justified equipment would be funded at 50%
  • project co-leads from business, third sector, or government bodies that cannot fund their own participation can be costed for at 100% for eligible costs (for full details, please see ESRC guidance on the inclusion of UK business, third sector or government body project co-leads on applications), but must not exceed 30% of the overall cost of the grant (at 100% FEC)
  • up to £200,000 of the £2 million can be used to work with the Met Office and this will be funded at 100% FEC and paid directly to the Met Office from UKRI

We would not expect applications to include costs for ship and marine equipment (SME).

What we will not fund

We will not fund:

  • PhD studentship costs

Services and facilities

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

You should discuss your application with the facility or service at least two months before the funding opportunity’s closing date 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 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) and the large research facilities at Harwell have their own policies for access and costing.

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.

If the data relates to other UKRI research councils, see ESRC, EPSRC and MRC for the relevant guidance.

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.

How to apply

There are two stages to apply for this UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding opportunity:

  • notification of intent
  • full application

Notification of intent

There is a mandatory notification of intent (NoI) stage for this UKRI funding opportunity.

To submit an NoI, fill in this form by 30 May 2024 at 4:00pm UK time. If a full application is submitted without a prior NoI by the stated deadline, it will be rejected.

The NoI form requests details of the proposed research projects team and a summary of the research project application. This information will not be assessed but will be used to inform plans for the assessment panel. Nothing provided as part of the NoI step is considered finalised, therefore additional partners and investigators may be added at a later stage, and the application may change significantly as further details are prepared.

You will receive an automated email acknowledgement once you have submitted your NoI. Once you have submitted your NoI you may submit your full application.

Full application

We are running this funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.

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.

Watch our recording on how to apply for an opportunity in the Funding Service.

To apply

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

  1. Confirm you are the project lead.
  2. Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org
    Allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service.
  1. 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.
  2. Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
  3. Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
  4. Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.

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

  • use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
  • insert each new image onto a new line
  • provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
  • ensure that files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format

Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service.

For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:

References

Applications should be self-contained, and hyperlinks should only be used to provide links directly to reference information. To ensure the information’s integrity is maintained, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers should be used. Assessors are not required to access links to carry out assessment or recommend a funding decision. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to your application.

Reference should be included in the appropriate question section of the application and be easily identifiable by the assessors for example (Smith, Research Paper, 2019).

You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.

Deadline

We must receive your application by 16 July 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 the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.

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.

NERC, as part of UKRI, will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with Defra so that they can participate in the assessment process. For more information on how Defra uses personal information, visit the Defra website.

Publication of outcomes

NERC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity on What NERC has funded.

If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.

Summary

Word count: 550

In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.

We may make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, so make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:

  • opinion-formers
  • policymakers
  • the public
  • the wider research community

Guidance for writing a summary

Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:

  • context
  • the challenge the project addresses
  • aims and objectives
  • potential applications and benefits

Core team

List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:

  • project lead (PL)
  • project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
  • project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
  • specialist
  • grant manager
  • professional enabling staff
  • research and innovation associate
  • technician
  • visiting researcher
  • researcher co-lead (RcL)

Only list one individual as project lead.

The project lead is responsible for setting up and completing the application process on the Funding Service.

The project co-lead international may only be used for collaborators based at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and in Norway, where NERC has collaboration agreements in place. We do not otherwise accept project co-lead (international) applicants.

Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.

Application questions

Vision

Word limit: 1,100

What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Explain how your proposed work:

  • is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the field(s) or area(s)
  • has the potential to advance current understanding, or generate new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area of its focus
  • is timely, given current trends, context, and needs
  • impacts world-leading research, society, the economy or the environment

In the Vision section we also expect you to:

  • demonstrate how your research project will align with the aims of the maximising UK adaptation to climate change programme and ensure cohesion across the programme
  • identify the potential direct or indirect benefits and who the beneficiaries might be

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the ‘How to apply’ section.

References may be included within this section.

Approach

Word limit: 2,800

How are you going to deliver your proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Explain how you have designed your work so that it:

  • is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives
  • is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how you will manage them
  • uses a clearly written and transparent methodology (if applicable)
  • summarises the previous work and describes how you will build on and progress this work (if applicable)
  • will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts

Within the Approach section we also expect you to:

  • demonstrate how the research projects will convene a transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral community with representation from a diverse range of stakeholders
  • demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposed work
  • provide a detailed and comprehensive project plan, including milestones and timelines in the form of a chart or diagram
  • describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the ‘How to apply’ section.

References may be included within this section.

Applicant and team capability to deliver

Word limit: 1,650

Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:

  • the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
  • the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
  • the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
  • contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the ‘How to apply’ section.

The word count for this section is 1,650 words: 1,150 words to be used for R4RI modules (including references) and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.

Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work. The Met Office are providing a service, and we would not expect any names on the application.

Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed. Use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI. You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:

  • contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge
  • the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships
  • contributions to the wider research and innovation community
  • contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit
Additions

Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences, or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).

Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.

References may be included within this section.

UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the Funding Service.

For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.

Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)

Word limit: 500

What are the ethical or RRI implications and issues relating to the proposed work? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why.

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:

  • the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations
  • how you will manage these considerations
  • environmental ethical considerations
  • consideration for preventing environmental harm and enhancing environmental benefit in line with NERC’s responsible business statement

If you are collecting or using data, identify:

  • any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing or storing the data including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical considerations and, in particular, strategies to not preclude further reuse of data
  • formal information standards with which your study will comply

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the ‘How to apply’ section.

Research involving human participation

Word limit: 700

Will the project involve the use of human subjects or their personal information?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

If you are proposing research that requires the involvement of human subjects, provide the name of any required approving body and whether approval is already in place.

Justify the number and the diversity of the participants involved, as well as any procedures.

Provide details of any areas of substantial or moderate severity of impact.

If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.

Project partners

Provide details about any project partners’ contributions.

Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.

A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities.

Add the following project partner details:

  • organisation name and address (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable)
  • project partner contact name and email address
  • type of contribution (direct or in-direct) and its monetary value

If a detail is entered incorrectly and you have saved the entry, remove the specific project partner record and re-add it with the correct information.

For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

Facilities

Word limit: 250

Does your proposed research require the support and use of a facility?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

If you will need to use a facility, follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Ensure you have prior agreement so that if you are offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on your project.

For each requested facility you will need to provide the:

  • name of facility, copied and pasted from the facility information list (DOCX, 37KB)
  • proposed usage or costs, or costs per unit where indicated on the facility information list
  • confirmation you have their agreement where required

If you have to attach a facility form, for example NERC ship-time and marine equipment, then upload it as a PDF. If you need to upload multiple forms, then combine them into a single PDF.

If you will not need to use a facility, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.

Data management and sharing

Word limit: 500

How will you manage and share data collected or acquired through the proposed research?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Provide a data management plan that clearly details how you will comply with UKRI’s published data sharing policy, which includes detailed guidance notes.

Please indicate:

  • which NERC data centre is required to archive the data
  • whether the total volume of data is likely to be larger than 1TB
  • any other detail on how you will comply with NERC data policy
  • requirements of the proposed sensing system or capability on current digital research infrastructure (including data and compute)
  • how data accessibility for both private and public end users will be enhanced

Resources and cost justification

Word limit: 2,000

What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:

  • project staff
  • significant travel for field work or collaboration (but not regular travel between collaborating organisations or to conferences)
  • any equipment that will cost more than £10,000
  • any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
  • all facilities and infrastructure costs
  • all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’

Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. Overall, they want to be assured that:

  • all resources are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
  • the project will make optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
  • maximise potential outcomes and impacts

If you have equipment costs, input these under the ‘Directly Incurred’ heading on the Funding Service. This will allow them to be costed at 50% at the awarding stage (and ignore the 80% FEC displayed on the Funding Service).

Note that any activities included within your application that require Met Office support should be costed within the maximum amount of £2 million allowable for the project. Each project is allowed to request up to £200,000 of Met Office funding that will be paid at 100% FEC. Include work carried out by the Met Office under ‘all Exceptions – other’.

Met Office will engage with all the successfully funded projects to ensure good alignment of its programme of work so that it can best meet the needs of the funded projects in the most effective and coherent way and to agree ways of working together. Once the successful applications have been awarded, the Met Office will run a sandpit type workshop in November 2024 with all the research leads to co-develop a final version of the Met Office’s overall contribution to the research projects part of this programme. It is important to note that working with the Met Office is not a requirement of this programme; but all project leads will have the opportunity to join the sandpit to understand more about what the Met Office work will provide to the wider programme, which will be made available to all project partners.

Note that Met Office support on successful applications will be paid directly from UKRI to the Met Office and not through leading research organisations.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process

We will assess your application using the following process.

Notification of Intent

Each research project application must submit a Notification of Intent (NoI). There will be no assessment at this stage but submission of a NoI is mandatory to apply to the full application stage. Full details in ‘How to apply’.

Assessment panel

An assessment panel comprised of independent external panel members will review your application against the assessment criteria and rank it alongside other applications. Panel members will consist of experts spanning the breadth of the UKRI funding opportunity remit. After which the panel will make a funding recommendation.

UKRI and Defra will make the final funding decision based on panel recommendations.

Timescale

We aim to complete the assessment process within four months of the funding opportunity deadline.

Feedback

We will give feedback with the outcome of your application.

Principles of assessment

We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.

Find out about the UKRI principles of assessment and decision making.

We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.

Sharing data with co-funders

We will need to share the application, including any personal information that it contains, with Defra so that they can participate in the assessment process.

For more information on how Defra uses personal information, visit the Defra website.

Assessment criteria

The criteria against which your application will be assessed are:

  • vision
  • approach
  • applicant and team capability to deliver
  • ethics and responsible research and innovation

Find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section.

Contact details

Get help with your application

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the Helpdesk will triage and prioritise those queries with an imminent opportunity deadline or a technical issue. Enquiries raised where information is available on the Funding Finder opportunity page and should be understood early in the application process (for example, regarding eligibility or content/remit of an opportunity) will not constitute a priority case and will be addressed as soon as possible.

Contact details

For help and advice on costings and writing your application, contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

For questions related to this specific funding opportunity, contact ukclimateadaptation@nerc.ukri.org

Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications through the Funding Service should be directed to the helpdesk.

Email: support@funding-service.ukri.org

Phone: 01793 547490

Our phone lines are open:

  • Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
  • Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

To help us process queries quicker, we request that users highlight the council and opportunity name in the subject title of their email query, include the application reference number, and refrain from contacting more than one mailbox at a time.

You can also find information on submitting an application.

Sensitive information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email ukclimateadaptation@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 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection

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

Additional info

Background

This UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding opportunity is a component of the UKRI-Defra funded Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change programme.

Programme aims and scope

The aim of the Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change programme is to build capacity, knowledge, and skills that will offer practical and scalable solutions to meet the UK’s environmental commitments and put the UK at the forefront of climate adaptation strategies at both local and national scales.

The programme will address challenges identified in the latest Climate Change Committee National adaptation progress report around:

  • driving reductions in exposure and vulnerability to climate risks
  • increasing resilience of people, ecosystems and infrastructure to cascading climate impacts
  • understanding risks to the UK economy from climate change outside of the UK

In addition, the programme will support the implementation of the third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) (PDF, 15.4MB) and development of the fourth Climate Change Risk Assessment through:

  • dealing with climate risks in a systematic and human-centric way
  • understanding the socio-economic landscape to contextualise physical hazard information and give a true picture of climate impact
  • enabling adaptation through learning what works and what incentives are needed to enhance the adaptation landscape

To date, research has focused on climate risk and vulnerability to climate shocks but needs to go further in terms of adaptive action in policy and practice. Building on knowledge and legacy of the UK Climate Resilience Strategic Priorities Fund programme and other relevant investments.  This funding opportunity forms part of UKRI’s Building a Green Future and Building a Secure and Resilient World as described in the UKRI Strategy 2022 to 2027: Transforming tomorrow together. The Building a Green Future strategic theme aims to accelerate the green economy by supporting research and innovation that unlocks solutions essential to achieving net zero in the UK by 2050. The Building a Secure and Resilient World theme aims to strengthen security and resilience, from individual to national level, across a range of social and economic areas at the heart of daily life. Research will help to identify priorities and develop policy and practice for adaptation, considering how and when to scale up from the local to national level. It will ultimately produce adaptation solutions that will improve UK resilience to climate impacts while benefitting people and the economy.

The programme will fund research under three key themes:

  • skills, partnerships and knowledge transfer
  • data and information
  • implementing effective and sustainable UK climate adaptation

Details of the areas of interest falling under each theme are specified in the ‘What we are looking for’ section of this funding opportunity.

Programme outcomes

This programme will address challenges identified in the latest Climate Change Committee adaptation progress report (PDF, 15.4MB) around driving reductions in exposure and vulnerability to climate risks, increasing resilience of people, ecosystems and infrastructure to cascading climate impacts and understanding risks to the UK economy from climate change outside of the UK. In addition, it will support implementation of the NAP3 and development of the fourth Climate Change Risk Assessment through:

  • dealing with climate risks in a systematic and human centric way
  • understanding the socio-economic landscape to contextualise physical hazard information and give a true picture of climate impact
  • enabling adaptation through learning what works and what incentives are needed to enhance the adaptation landscape

This programme will put the UK at the forefront of climate adaptation strategies by:

  • creating capability and capacity that results in mobilisation, advancing knowledge, partnerships and skills that have long term legacy
  • embedding research into policy and practice through partnership, resulting in evidence based policy in climate adaptation
  • developing place based adaptation solutions that can be scaled up across the UK to increase national resilience to climate shocks and stresses
  • building evidence and understanding of what works in terms of effective and efficient adaptive measures
  • exploring and developing new opportunities that have real world impact to increase resilience across the UK
  • supporting implementation of the NAP3
  • ensuring public engagement is at the centre of informing decision making to achieve sustainable change

Anticipated outputs of research projects

  • production of new knowledge, data, information, resources, tools, and technologies which support the development of policy and practice advice for climate adaptation
  • dissemination of new knowledge from funded projects through specialist and non specialist publications, policy briefings and events
  • new and improved academic collaborations across disciplines, which facilitate the delivery of transdisciplinary approaches to address challenge areas
  • new and improved collaborations and partnerships with key stakeholders, including end users and policy makers
  • leverage of additional support, including funding to develop or sustain the research

Anticipated outcomes of research projects

  • new capacity and capability in climate adaptation
  • improved partnership working that embeds research into policy and practice, resulting in evidence-based policy in climate adaptation
  • enhanced transdisciplinary research on climate change adaptation
  • place based adaptation measures and solutions developed that can be scaled up across the UK to increase national resilience to climate shocks and stresses
  • new evidence and understanding of what works to support effective and efficient climate adaptation
  • better use of existing data, including models to better understand climate change adaptation under different scenarios

Wider funding landscape

The Maximising UK Adaptation to Climate Change programme will link to, build on and use lessons learned from relevant UKRI and wider UK investments including, but not limited to:

The UK Climate Resilience programme was a four year Strategic Priorities Fund (SPF) interdisciplinary research programme led jointly by UKRI and the Met Office that sought to quantify UK climate risk and build resilience, producing usable outputs to directly support decision-making.

UK Climate Projections (UKCP) is a climate analysis tool that forms part of the Met Office Hadley Centre Climate programme. The UKCP18 project uses cutting edge climate science to provide updated observations and climate change projections out to 2100 in the UK and globally. This equips the UK with information to help adapt to the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change.

The findings of a public dialogue on public perceptions and attitudes towards Climate Adaptation (overseen by Defra in partnership with UKRI’s Sciencewise programme) informed the development of the NAP3. The NAP3 sets out the actions that the UK government and others will take to adapt to the impacts of climate change in 2023 to 28.

The UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI) is a national centre established to accelerate the adoption and use of climate and environmental data and analytics by financial institutions internationally.

The What works network aims to improve the way government and other public sector organisations create, share and use high quality evidence in decision making. It supports more effective and efficient services across the public sector at national and local levels.

The Developing Local Policy Innovation Partnerships (LPIPs) programme funds a network of partnerships that address social, community, economic and environmental priorities that contribute towards inclusive sustainable economic growth. LPIPs aim to connect local policy and research partners, providing research, evidence, data and expertise to take advantage of opportunities and find place-based solutions to challenges that matter to local people and communities.

The Changing the Environment programme aims to stimulate new collaborations across disciplines to develop solutions to issues including helping rural communities adapt to climate change, biodiversity loss, achieving net zero cities, and providing timely data, analysis and evidence for policy decisions.

The Regional Impact from Science of the Environment programme brought research organisations together with businesses, policy bodies and other organisations to deliver high impact and focused research translation and innovation in environmental science.

The Place-based Approaches to Sustainable Living programme will deliver interdisciplinary research on place-based approaches for an environmentally sustainable future to provide understanding that will enable enhanced evidence-based decision making.

The Place Based Climate Action Network brings together the research community and decision makers in the public, private and third sectors to translate climate policy into action ‘on the ground’ to bring about transformative change.

Some of the programmes recently commissioned also as part of UKRI Strategic themes of particular relevance include:

Governance

Steering for the programme will be provided by a Programme Executive Board and Programme Advisory Group (PAG), who will provide input throughout the duration of the award. The research projects team will be required to provide reporting updates to the PAG on a quarterly basis initially and biannually thereafter. The research projects will be expected to engage with the hub and other projects funded through the wider programme as well as those funded externally that have relevance to the topic of Climate Change Adaptation.

Webinar for potential applicants

We held a webinar on 20 March 2024. This provided more information about the UKRI funding opportunity and was a chance to ask questions.

Watch the webinar recording via Zoom.

Passcode: c4B4&HWS

View the webinar slides (PDF, 1MB).

Read the webinar FAQ (PDF, 190KB).

Our commitment to the principles of the Modern Slavery Act 2015

Modern slavery is a crime and a violation of fundamental human rights. It takes various forms which deprive a person of their liberty in order to exploit them for personal or commercial gain, such as:

  • slavery
  • servitude
  • human trafficking
  • forced and compulsory labour

We are committed to the principles of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and the abolition of modern slavery and human trafficking.

Updates

  • 17 April 2024
    In 'Who can apply' under the 'Met Office' section, the email address has been updated from 'macc@metoffice.gov.uk' to 'maccteam@metoffice.gov.uk'.
  • 17 April 2024
    New additional text for the Environment Agency (new offer of partner for applicants) has been added to 'Who can apply' at the end of the 'Partnering with stakeholders' section.
  • 27 March 2024
    The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has indicated in advance a desire to collaborate and provide advice to applicants. Information about the support they will provide and contact details added under Who can apply. Webinar recording and slides added under Additional info.

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