Our vision
Environmental science which is ambitious, novel and a force for innovation.
Our mission
To tackle global environmental challenges, increase societal resilience, and enable sustainable economic growth through strategic investment in researchers, innovators, facilities and data, which together deliver a world-leading environmental science capability.
Our role
NERC is a thought leader for UK environmental science. We drive new research and innovation to advance the frontiers of science and benefit society. We invest in building a community of environmental scientists who work across disciplines in research and industry.
The knowledge and data we generate are used for the benefit of citizens across the UK, enhancing their prosperity, safety and quality of life. Our funding supports the UK as an international leader in evidence-driven environmental policy.
Foreword from Executive Chair
Reimagining the frontiers of environmental science
We live in an age of far-reaching change. I am in no doubt that through our funding of environmental science we can, and will continue to, enable sustainable growth and security, addressing the triple lock on resilience of biodiversity decline, climate change and pollution. As custodians of environmental science funding in the UK we seek to ensure tangible benefits to the country and its citizens through informed investment to deliver a green economy.
The coming decade will be transformative. Green technologies and services are already central to the fundamental systems of our economy including the food system, planning, the national grid and the financial sector. Big data and new analytical technologies including AI will unlock new insights into the environment, health and society, boosting productivity and prosperity. And environmental science too will be revolutionised, innovating to understand the environment in real time and harness that knowledge for the benefit of citizens, driving improvements in how we build resilience, adapt to our changing climate, enhance health and wellbeing and enable green economic growth.
That is why for the first time NERC has produced a Forward Look, a ten-year framework which sets out how we wish to guide and shape environmental science and our funding goals. This responds to the ambition of government for a long-term approach to research and innovation, with science embedded in all areas of policy and delivery to drive the best outcomes for the country and citizens. The long-term and partner-focused approach of the Forward Look will help us deliver the fundamental priorities of growth and security and revitalise key areas such as our international work and our talent pipeline.
We set out three broad priorities:
- to deliver growth through the environment, and ensure the transition to net zero benefits everyone
- to ensure society is resilient to environmental change and the impacts of that change
- to support emerging industries and enable smarter regulation
NERC will fund science to support growth in a way which values and integrates nature, unlocks new markets through responsible innovation and environmental evidence, and supports our community in marrying their creativity with entrepreneurialism, creating opportunities for new products and services to emerge from our science. We will support the UK ambition for resilient national security by considering environmental, geopolitical and geoeconomic systems together, and protect people, their jobs and communities by improving resilience to climate change. These priorities together anticipate the needs of government, business and citizens in the coming decade.
We cannot deliver on these priorities without our enabling capabilities. To generate knowledge and provide the basis of our more focused interventions, we will invest in the curiosity-driven breadth of understanding in our researchers, Centres and research institutions. We will also need to expand our community, welcoming in talent from all disciplines to bring their insights and methods to bear on environmental issues, finding new transdisciplinary approaches to solve problems and improve lives. This includes all career stages, beginning with a talent and skills pipeline that ensures environmental scientists and innovators can develop the right skills for the coming decades, including in commercialisation, data analytics, and interdisciplinary working.
Our funding of environmental science through the challenges which we tackle, increasingly needs us to work in partnership, finding creative ways to use insights from our science alongside the physical, social and life sciences to create research and innovation with real impacts on people’s lives. Our data and analytical capability is critical to this, and data is the point of connection across UKRI, with government and other funders. We will ensure the rich information we hold on the environment is fit for the future to intersect with other large datasets (including health and social data) and inform decision making.
This Forward Look is a shared vision for how to develop environmental science in the next decade which NERC, our community and our partners will need to deliver together. In developing this framework we have been challenged, and challenged ourselves, to be ambitious in recognition of the scale of the challenges we face, and the prize for meeting them. Through this work we can drive forward progress in environmental science, generate growth, improve the lives of our citizens, and deliver positive change in the world. I look forward to our work together.
Professor Louise Heathwaite CBE FRS, Executive Chair, UKRI Natural Environment Research Council
Green growth
A thriving economy rooted in the environment
We will transform how we value and manage nature, ensuring environmental science supports innovation and key green growth sectors. We will drive an environmentally-responsible net zero transition through our investments in research, innovation and skills, and in partnership with government and business.
There is no economy without the environment. Much of our global economy relies on natural assets that underpin our daily lives (including food, energy, water, and materials for manufacturing). We have exceeded six out of nine planetary boundaries, taking more from our planet than it can sustain (PDF, 1.87MB). Our future prosperity relies on our ability to protect, restore and enhance environmental systems.
We will draw on our deep understanding of environmental systems and leverage our convening power for solutions-focused partnerships to support economic growth. This will include land, water and subsurface-use choices, including for agriculture and building; green energy and infrastructure; circular economy approaches; supporting the ecosystems of our land, freshwater, coasts and ocean; and research to support the nation’s long-term health through, for example, clean air and water, and access to nature in communities across the UK.
Our goals
Tackle climate change mitigation and adaptation together
We will ensure mitigation approaches enable a just and environmentally-positive net zero transition. Mitigation solutions will be integrated with adaptation to a changed climate, and be designed to maximise co-benefits such as health.
Deliver prosperity through effective management and restoration of the environment
We will advance understanding of the value of nature to society and the economy, working in partnership with business and government to bring scientific intelligence to bear on how we use, protect, and restore the environment.
Maximise the value of the environment to the UK economy
We will take a whole systems approach to the environment that enables better choices and drives growth in key sectors such as planning and construction, energy, and food.
Environmental security
Political, economic and social systems prepared for environmental change
We will seek to address the underlying environmental causes of global instability and integrate them into effective management of social, economic and geopolitical risk, working in partnership at the interface between natural hazards, environmental change and national security.
Climate risks are geopolitical risks – they are systemic and pervasive across our critical systems and our way of life. As a global leader on climate and nature, the UK can forge a fairer, more stable world. Many of the current and future challenges we face are a direct result of, or exacerbated by, environmental change. These include increased pressure on ecosystems, land and natural resources and air quality, threats to the security of clean water and energy, the resilience of our national infrastructure, migration and geopolitical instability.
NERC-funded research plays a critical role in modelling and predicting environmental change across the full range of scales at which its impacts are felt. We will help build these insights into social, economic, and diplomatic risk assessments. Environmental science can inform UK preparedness for significant potential geopolitical shifts such as an ice-free Arctic. Our work prevents economic and social disruption, for example, through increasing the resilience of global supply chains and protecting environmentally-exposed infrastructure such as the satellites and undersea cables that keep the global economy running.
Our goals
Increase our power to predict environmental change
We will improve the accuracy of sensing and earth observation towards near real-time. Models and simulations built on and fused with this data will provide more accurate short and long-term predictions, better communicate impacts and uncertainties, and be integrated into economic, social and diplomatic planning, including national security considerations.
Integrate geopolitical and environmental risks
We will build new forms of collaboration and deeper international partnerships, linking environmental science with international relations, trade and security considerations, including a focus on critical geopolitical areas such as the polar, sub-Saharan and Indo-Pacific regions.
Build resilience in critical systems
Our capability to model and predict environmental change will inform the design of physical infrastructure and social systems, ensuring that they are adapted for a changed climate and more resilient to environmental hazards, including cascading effects.
Responsible innovation
Environmental insights help grow new markets, enable smarter regulation and inform effective policy
We will provide evidence to enable nature-positive innovation, green growth, and smarter regulation, developing the funding approaches and training needed to drive increased entrepreneurialism among our community, and improving the usability and timeliness of our data.
Embedding environmental considerations in the design of new products and services, not as an ‘add-on’, makes them more desirable for consumers while reducing waste and maximising resource efficiency. We will identify emerging industries and work to build in sustainability, using our whole-system insights to minimise harm and boost positive environmental impacts. As business expands to new environments such as the subsurface or the deep ocean, we will set baselines to understand the long-term impacts of these activities. In this way we ensure that new activities are environmentally sound and support the UK’s competitive advantage.
NERC will support our researchers to embed new technologies such as AI and engineering biology in their work, balancing their transformative power with their potential environmental and social consequences. To encourage high-risk, high-reward entrepreneurialism across our community we will adjust our approaches to funding and accept that some things will fail.
We will support technological and nature-based solutions for carbon abatement and sequestration. Where technologies may be developed in the future to engineer the climate, we will invest in understanding their potential impacts on the environment and informing the policy framework for their regulation and governance.
Our goals
Harness novel technology
We will enhance our environmental science capabilities by integrating cutting-edge technologies, such as autonomous systems and advanced sensors. From this, the innovation needed to deliver the research we fund will be faster with clearer routes to commercialisation, including technology transfer to and from other sectors.
Robust evidence without advocacy
We will be able to quickly model interventions in Earth systems (such as geoengineering, weather modification or deep-sea mining), and prepare appropriate policy and regulatory advice and mitigating actions.
Innovate from our data
The usability of UK environmental data for environmental decision making by non-specialists will be substantially enhanced, including improvements in monitoring and interoperability with other large datasets such as population-level health and social data.
Frontiers of knowledge
World-leading curiosity-driven research and a diverse talent pipeline to meet research and business needs
Curiosity-driven discovery science is the bedrock of NERC’s activity. Our funding enables researchers to pursue new ideas, generate knowledge and change our understanding of the environment in which we live. Through our investment in discovery science, we will ensure the health of our disciplines, enable discoveries that fundamentally shift how we understand and manage the environment, and deliver solutions that address environmental change. Ultimately, this funding grows the capability of our research base to address our strategic priorities, provide advice to government and unlock responsible innovation.
NERC has a critical role in ensuring the UK has talented researchers and innovators, able to lead on both our strategic priorities and undertake world-leading curiosity-driven environmental science. NERC will continue to invest in training across its remit, equipping environmental science graduates with the range of skills they need for modern research and innovation. We will support UKRI activity to enhance our offer with interdisciplinary and solutions-focused postgraduate training, and ensure that at all career stages the best researchers and innovators can work in environmental science and address shared challenges.
Our goals
Develop a thriving community of researchers and innovators
Our training and funding choices will foster inter and trans-disciplinary research, and talented people from outside environmental sciences will be able to contribute effectively to our work.
Design innovative funding approaches
More agile funding, including increased risk appetite and fail fast approaches, will lead to testing ideas more quickly, enhancing innovation and increasing efficiency.
Build a skilled workforce
The UK will have the right blend of research, innovation and technical skills to deliver our ambitions and support key growth sectors like data analytics, environmental management and responsible investment.
National capability
The research base, data, facilities and infrastructures to deliver world-class science and foster innovation
NERC infrastructures and facilities are foundational to the UK’s world-leading environmental science. They enable prosperity across the UK and contribute to the national interest, including responding to environmental emergencies, and supporting our national security and resilience. The breadth and depth of the data provided through our Centres and infrastructure enables decision-making at a range of scales, unlocking solutions for sustainable growth at local, regional and national levels.
Our funding supports clusters of knowledge and expertise at universities, independent research organisations (IROs) and Centres across the UK. The research we fund through our Centres, alongside our investment in data, centres of excellence and interdisciplinary projects at universities and IROs, provides critical momentum for environmental science and a strong foundation to build partnerships internationally, with government and with business to deliver knowledge exchange, translation and commercialisation of our investments.
Our goals
Support research infrastructures fit for the future
Our infrastructure and facilities will be equipped for the developing needs of environmental science, including developing innovative solutions to gather data on the environment and a suite of digital research infrastructures to increase the interoperability and use of that information.
Increased agility and sustainability
We will embrace the opportunity of technological developments (for example, in autonomy and remote sensing) to increase efficiency and reduce carbon intensity, and develop funding models (including commercial investment) which ensure the viability of our Centres and infrastructure.
Unlock innovation
We will support our research community in translating their work to commercial opportunities, including through our funding, dedicated spaces for business interaction and knowledge transfer, the provision of evidence and insight, and the use of facilities for testing and development.
Partnerships
Collaborations that deliver impactful solutions and sustain the UK’s leadership in action on environmental change
Environmental science is fundamental to creating the imaginative, socially acceptable solutions we need to tackle national and global challenges. We will not achieve this by working alone. NERC will work with partners to co-design programmes that deliver on our shared priorities and create the conditions for new insights, tools and methods. We will continue to develop excellent interdisciplinary research (curiosity-driven and applied) across UKRI and with other funders in the UK and internationally. With government, we will co-deliver activities where policy priorities need the expertise of our community, and foster connections with businesses which can benefit from environmental insights. And we will continue the important work of engaging the public with our science, making our work relevant to their concerns and bringing in diverse approaches to understanding the environment.
We will enable active engagement and leadership internationally to frame strategy and inform policy, such as the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as supporting the government in international dialogues covering geological, oceanic and polar science, UN activity including COP, and G7/G20 engagement. Through these activities, we will maximise the impact of our investments by fostering national and international collaboration and build UK soft power though research and innovation.
Our goals
The UK as an international partner of choice
We will make it easier for our community to partner internationally through strategic bilateral and multilateral collaborations, engagement in European funding frameworks and equitable partnerships to address shared environmental challenges.
Partnerships that deliver for the economy and society
We will connect public bodies, research and business in partnerships which maximise the impact of environmental science through knowledge exchange, translation, and commercialisation.
Partnerships with impact
We will engage strategically to build mutually beneficial partnerships that open opportunities for co-designed and co-funded activity, enable us to be more agile and creative in how we work, and unlock barriers to collaboration for our community.
Annex: case studies
Offshore wind drives clean growth
Offshore wind is a key part of the UK’s net zero strategy.
Decades of NERC investment has enabled the UK to become a world leader in offshore wind energy while protecting key marine species and habitats.
Unique long-term datasets and detailed mapping and tidal models, coupled with innovations, infrastructure and expert knowledge, are used by all of the sector’s main players. NERC-backed research and innovation is helping governments to assess and select viable sites, reducing developer costs and risks, and boosting biodiversity protection.
Achievements
- £2.8 billion estimated benefits to UK offshore wind from NERC science
- 20 times return on NERC investment
- 32,000 UK offshore wind jobs already created
- 100,000 jobs predicted by 2030
Recycling valuable metals
E-waste is the world’s fastest growing waste stream.
NERC science has supported the development of eco-friendly technology to recover critical minerals needed for green growth from e-waste.
The innovative recycling process was developed by University of Leicester researchers, who worked with recycling company DEScycle to adapt it for recovering valuable metals such as copper and nickel from waste electrical and electronic equipment. DEScycle is now scaling up pre-commercial operations, working with partners to open a specialist recycling facility in Gateshead.
Achievements
- £15 million private capital investment in DEScycle
- £1 million UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship
Space weather forecasts protect the economy
Severe space weather events can disrupt power grids, satellites and aircraft.
Long-term investment in space weather research, observations and modelling at the British Antarctic Survey and the British Geological Survey has increased UK security.
NERC science prompted the inclusion of space weather on the National Risk Register, and plays a central role in Met Office space weather warnings, which enable infrastructure operators, the satellite industry and the Ministry of Defence to take protective action.
Achievements
- £60 million annual savings to the UK electricity grid from Met Office warnings
- £20 million UKRI Strategic Priority Fund investment in space weather research with the Met Office, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Transport
Adapting to the changing arctic
Patchier, more changeable sea ice brings higher navigation risks.
NERC science has helped the UK, indigenous communities and seafarers to better understand and adapt to the changing nature of polar sea ice, reducing the costs and risks of navigation.
The Polar View service provided by the British Antarctic Survey and partners provides timely, customised information on Arctic and Antarctic sea ice that helps vessels maintain compliance with maritime regulations while minimising their impact on the environment. The service is used by governments, defence, search and rescue, tourist operators and shipping companies.
Achievements
- Polar View had 3,000 unique users every month
- 22,000 satellite image products downloaded per month during peak season (Arctic and Antarctic)
- six months advance prediction capability of the new AI-driven IceNet service
Nature-based geoengineering
The climate change committee advises that CO₂ removal from the atmosphere will be essential in meeting the UK’s 2050 net zero goals.
The NERC-led Greenhouse Gas Removal Demonstrator programme (GGRD) is researching technologies that use land-based approaches to benefit the climate and environment.
The multi-disciplinary programme is exploring the viability and benefits of techniques such as biochar, peatland restoration, perennial biomass crops and tree planting.
Achievements
- £31.5 million UKRI Strategic Priority Fund investment in GGRD
- four tonnes CO2 per hectare removed in recent US-led enhanced rock weathering trial
- 10 to 15% increase in crop yields following an improvement in soil quality
Biodiversity tool for nature impact
Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) cited in IPBES global biodiversity and United Nations nature impact reports.
With nature in a growing state of crisis around the world, the ability to determine how much terrestrial biodiversity can be affected by land use change and human pressures is fundamental to its future restoration and protection. The NERC-funded BII models how species will respond to future human-driven scenarios.
Achievements
- five million scientific observations in the BII database, developed by the Natural History Museum, Imperial College London and partners
- 58,000 plant, animal and fungus species covered
- 100 plus countries included
- 45,000 businesses worldwide, whose data has been combined with BII by international consultants Bloomberg to help investors assess their exposure to nature-related risks
Turning the tide against plastic pollution
Microplastics have been found everywhere, including in human bodies.
By revealing the dangers of microplastic pollution, NERC-funded scientists opened a new field of research and sparked global action.
Twenty years ago, NERC-funded researchers were the first to reveal the devastating harm that microplastics were doing to microscopic sea life. This early investigation opened a new field of research and prompted governments, businesses and the public to take action to reduce plastic use.
Achievements
- 4,000 tonnes of cosmetic microplastic beads prevented from entering the oceans annually from the UK alone, following their ban in 2018
- 98% reduction in single-use plastic bags issued by UK retailers from 2014 to 2024
- 68 years of continuous sampling of plankton, which confirmed the alarming rise in ingested microplastics
NERC data helps solve society’s challenges
Long-term NERC investment in data boosts the UK economy and increases environmental security.
Benefits to national and regional governments, businesses, communities and critical national infrastructure include reducing the costs and risks of building houses and infrastructure, increasing resilience to natural hazards and driving climate action.
Achievements
- 70% reduction in need for in-tunnel testing for the new Farringdon Elizabeth Line station
- all NERC data-driven science is central to all IPCC Assessment Reports, which drive international action on climate change
- 25,000GB of NERC data including 100 plus years of specimens and measurements
- 150,000 NERC data service users
Rt Hon Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, said:
Data is the DNA of modern life and quietly drives every aspect of our society and economy.
Developing a new multi-disciplinary research community
Climate change is the single biggest health threat facing humanity, according to the world health organisation.
NERC and partners have grown a new generation of researchers working at the interface between environment and health, delivering solutions that work for people and the environment.
Over the last 20 years NERC has funded research and training with the Medical Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Department of Health and Social Care and Defra.
Achievements
- 80% of UK population covered by a new technique that detected outbreaks more quickly and cheaply during the COVID-19 pandemic
- 2.9 million residents set to benefit from the West Midlands Air Quality Strategy underpinned by NERC science
- insight into the spread of anti-microbial resistance from the environment to humans has informed UK, EU and UN strategies
International action on climate and biodiversity
The top three global risks over the next 10 years reported by global leaders are climate and biodiversity-driven.
NERC science is central to landmark international assessments that power action to reduce emissions and deliver solutions for a greener economy.
Our world-leading observations, models and scientists anchor international environmental dialogue initiatives in the latest science and deliver soft power for the UK. Examples underpinned by NERC science include:
- UN climate negotiations
- UN biodiversity negotiations
- the Global Methane Pledge
- Montreal Protocol (substances that deplete the ozone layer)
Achievements
- 140 countries have adopted net zero targets
- 39% capital value of global businesses with emission reduction targets aligned to the UN Paris Agreement
- 19% of papers cited in the IPCC 6th Assessment Physical Science Report (2021) were NERC-funded, a proportion only exceeded by one other funder
- 5% of papers cited in the IPBES Global Assessment Report (2019) were NERC-funded, a proportion only exceeded by one other funder