UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service
We are running the funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply for this opportunity 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 on YouTube.
To apply
Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.
- Confirm you are the project lead.
- Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org
- 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.
- Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
- Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.
Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service.
Deadline
We must receive your application by 3 October 2023 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.
We will not be returning applications for amendment.
Personal data
Processing personal data
NERC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your funding service account and the registration of your funding applications.
We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.
We will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with the Ministry of Earth Sciences, India (MoES) so that they can participate in the assessment process. MoES will handle personal data as governed by India’s policy on data sharing and dissemination.
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.
UKRI Funding Service: section guidance
Summary
Word count: 550
In plain English, provide a summary that 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
Succinctly describe your proposed work in terms of:
- context
- the challenge the project addresses
- aims and objectives
- potential applications and benefits
Applicants
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))
- researcher co-lead
- specialist
- grant manager
- professional enabling staff
- research and innovation associate
- technician
- visiting researcher
Only list one individual as project lead.
Section: Vision and Approach
Word count: 5
Create a document that includes your responses to all criteria. The document should not be more than six-sides of A4, single line spacing in 11-point Arial (or equivalent sans serif font) with margins of at least 2cm. You may include images, graphs, tables. One extra side is allowed for the project plan (for example a Gantt chart).
For the file name, use the unique funding service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Vision and Approach’.
Save this document as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB. Unless specifically requested, please do not include any personal data within the attachment.
If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.
The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.
Question: What are you hoping to achieve with and how will you deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
For the Vision, explain how your proposed work:
- is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the fields or areas
- has the potential to advance current understanding, generates new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area
- is timely given current trends, context and needs
- impacts world-leading research, society, the economy or the environment
Within the Vision section we also expect you to:
- clearly describe how your application will address one or more knowledge gaps in our current understanding of the fundamental properties and physics of earthquake or landslide processes, and justify why your chosen methods are the most appropriate
- describe how you will utilise knowledge and understanding gained from the project to refine hazard forecasting and early warning systems of earthquakes or landslides, or both, and subsequent cascading hazards
- describe how your project will enhance resilience to geohazards through novel mitigation strategies
- identify the potential direct or indirect benefits and who the beneficiaries might be
For the Approach, 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 they will be managed
- if applicable, uses a clear and transparent methodology
- if applicable, summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed
- will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts
- describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place, its location, and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work
Within the Approach section we also expect you to:
- demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the project
- demonstrate how your proposed project represents a true collaborative partnership between the UK and India, highlighting the relevance and benefits the research will bring to both countries
- demonstrate how you will employ a participatory approach throughout the project so that your research will be both informed by local knowledge and understanding of geohazards events, and so that new understanding, tools and approaches are developed in partnership with local communities
- provide a detailed and comprehensive integrated project plan including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar clearly demonstrating an equal commitment to the project from the UK and Indian side in terms of effort (additional one page A4)
Section: Project partners: contributions
Word count: 1,000
Question: Provide details about any project partners’ contributions.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you do have project partners, download and complete the project partner contributions template (DOCX 52.1KB) then copy and paste the table within it into the text box.
Ensure you have obtained prior agreement from project partners that, should you be offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the template.
A project partner is a collaborating organisation that is contributing to the application and will have an integral role in the proposed research. Project partners cannot normally receive funding directly from the grant. Two exceptions to this are:
- where a project partner is providing services or equipment that will go through a formal procurement process audited by the host research organisation
- the project partner can receive small amounts of funding from the grant, such as for travel and subsistence to attend project meetings. These will need to be requested and fully justified in the application
If you do not have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next section.
Section: Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word count: 1,500 (1,000 words to be used for R4RI modules and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions)
Question: 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 the positive research environment and wider community
The word count for this section is 1,500 words – 1,000 words to be used for R4RI modules 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 lead and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help to deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.
Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed. You should 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 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 like a CV.
UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new Funding Service.
For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.
Section: Data management and sharing
Word count: 500
Question: How will you manage and share data collected or acquired through the proposed research?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide an outline data management plan which should clearly detail how you will comply with NERC’s published Data Sharing Policy, which includes detailed guidance notes.
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
For details of data centres, see the NERC Environmental Data Service.
We will pay the data centre directly for archival and curation services, but you should ensure that you request sufficient resource to cover preparation of data for archiving by your research team.
Additional services from the data centres, such as database development or a specialist in project data management during your project, must be discussed with the relevant data centre prior to submission and the costs included in your application.
Section: Ethics and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)
Word count: 1,000
Question: 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
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
Section: Facilities
Word count: 250
Question: 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, you should follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Where prior agreement is required, ensure you obtain their agreement that, should you be 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, 34.9KB)
- 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, 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.
Section: Resources and cost justification
Word count: 2,500
Question: What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
UK costs
Justify the UK components 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 appropriate
- the project will make optimal use of resources to achieve its outcomes
Indian costs
The total cost for all Indian partners (added up) should be entered as one figure under the International co-Iead role heading.
A breakdown of funding requested from MoES (Rs in Lakh) to cover the Indian component of the application should also be included, split into the following:
- staff
- consumables
- travel and subsistence
- other costs
- equipment
For each heading a total cost should be supplied and a breakdown of how that will be split across the four project years.
Justification for all costs should be provided.
If funding is requested for multiple organisations a separate breakdown should be given for each.
Equipment
All items of permanent equipment costing Rs. 50,000 or above or requiring import into India should be detailed separately. Other minor items may be clubbed. Provisions for installation charge, inland transport and insurance should be included within the estimated cost. For each item of equipment, the following should be provided:
- detailed specifications of the equipment proposed
- details of existing equipment in the country and the need for the additional facility
- statement on the capabilities of the principal investigator in using the equipment
- cost estimate (notional quotations)
- for major equipment of cost greater than Rs. 50 lacs, details should be given on how the instrument will be maintained after project completion
Section: References
Word count: 1,000
Question: List the references you’ve used to support your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Include all references in this section, not in the rest of the application questions.
You should not include any other information in this section.
We advise you not to include hyperlinks, as assessors are not obliged to access the information they lead to or consider it in their assessment of your application.
If linking to web resources, to maintain the information’s integrity, include persistent identifiers (such as digital object identifiers) where possible.
You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.
