The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has awarded a grant of £100,000 to University of Oxford to fund activities this financial year, and by 30 March 2023 at the latest, that will support academics and researchers to build expertise and agility to work across disciplinary boundaries within Discovery Science.
Remit of the fund
NERC seeks to facilitate exciting new collaborations that will build momentum towards true discipline integration. The fund will support HEIs to initiate activities that will help the academic community to develop an understanding of different cross-disciplinary research perspectives and methodologies, which could be used to address environmental challenges.
Examples of project activities that could be undertaken (with suggested budget ranges) include:
- Embedding researchers, for a period of time, in departments outside of their own discipline area (within the same organisation, or in other eligible UK research organisations) or with end-users (eg businesses, policymakers, non-governmental organisations) to understand how their needs could be addressed through interdisciplinary approaches. (£20k fEC per placement)
- Sharing insights on priorities and looking for synergies/ new ideas that cut across departmental and disciplinary boundaries, through seminars, networks, and/or roundtable discussions with policy makers (£10-15k fEC).
- Organising Hack-a-thon/sandpits across departments and disciplines to share learning, understanding of key terms, concepts, language and tools to tackle problems. New teams will develop a project for which they will pitch for proof-of-concept funds which will then be used within the available funding window (up to £10k per project)
The funding must be used to facilitate and enhance interdisciplinary working in Discovery Science. In line with the Pushing the Frontiers call, NERC are seeking to pump-prime collaborations that will enable researchers to be ambitious in the pursuit of curiosity-driven research that address environmental challenges, across the breadth of UKRI remit, including the arts, humanities, engineering and technology, social and medical sciences.
NERC is keen for the environmental research community to think beyond more common disciplinary alliances and to consider areas where the value of different, and less explored, insights can be understood and exploited.
Application deadline to RS is Monday 12th December, 12 noon. Internal departmental deadlines may vary so please check with your department before applying. There will only be one round of funding from this fund.
Please refer to the Guidelines, Application form, and Privacy Notice for further information. Applications must be sent by email to catriona.hopton@admin.ox.ac.uk, copying in your Head of Administration and Finance.
