RESET ecosystem resilience research grants
Grants for UK-led research into how ecosystems change and how to protect their functions and resilience as climate change and other pressures intensify.
Denne finansieringsmulighed er i øjeblikket beskrevet på engelsk.
Fund research on natural or semi-natural land, freshwater and coastal ecosystems under the Resilient Economy and Security through Ecosystem Transitions (RESET) programme. Your project must address at least one of three themes: predicting ecosystem transitions, understanding how ecosystem changes spread risks through society and the economy, or building ecosystem resilience. Most of the research must fall within environmental science covered by NERC; wider disciplines are encouraged.
The project’s full economic cost can be up to £2.5 million. This includes direct research costs and the organisation’s indirect costs, such as space and central services. The usual grant pays 80% of that cost, or £2 million for a project costing £2.5 million. Eligible international co-lead costs are funded at 100%, and their combined contribution must stay within 30% of the project’s full economic cost. Justify and itemise these costs. International co-lead salaries need specific justification, such as standard practice at their institution and lack of another funding source. Overseas overheads are normally excluded, and overseas equipment worth more than £25,000 is excluded; possible exceptions for eligible developing-country partners require the call to specify them.
International staff employed by the overseas research organisation can receive 100% of eligible direct costs; staff employed by a UK organisation and seconded overseas receive 80%. Costs for reasonable adjustments that increase because of the project may exceed the call’s funding maximum. PhD studentships and NERC ship time are excluded. Non-ship marine facilities and equipment costs must be included within the funding limit.
Awards last up to three years and must start by 14 February 2027. Funded teams must collaborate with the RESET hub and other programme activities, report regularly to the programme board, and undergo a mid-term review that decides whether funding continues.
The award is paid to the UK lead organisation, which pays any international partner. Significant project changes must be discussed with UKRI; it may require revised proposals for approval. Changes involving animals or human participants that affect the project’s ethical characteristics need prior approval.
Your organisation must submit its final expenditure statement within three months after the grant ends. UKRI recovers unspent funds. Keep accounting records for the current financial year plus the following six years after submitting that statement. Report outputs, outcomes and impacts through UKRI’s system during the grant and for some years afterwards; a separate end-of-award report, if required, is due within three months. Failure to report outcomes can suspend payments and prevent new proposals naming the grant holder as lead or co-lead. An overdue end-of-award report also prevents further applications from that grant holder. If that report or the expenditure statement is late, UKRI recovers 20% of expenditure after three months and all payments after six months. An appeal must be made within 60 days of the pay run imposing the sanction. Failure to meet grant conditions can also lead to suspended payments, termination or recovery.
Eligibility
- The project lead must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for NERC funding. The call accepts organisations with standard eligibility, including approved public-sector research establishments and independent research organisations. The submitting organisation checks your suitability, eligibility and hosting arrangements.
- Demonstrate the skills and capability to deliver the project. Hold an employment contract before the grant starts that lasts through the grant, or have an existing substantial relationship, such as an honorary or emeritus position, with access to the support needed to conduct research as an employee. Be resident in the UK when applying or plan to reside there for the project. Residency exceptions include employment at an overseas campus of a UK-owned organisation, calls permitting overseas applicants, and Irish residents employed by an eligible Northern Ireland organisation; the UK-based project-lead requirement still applies to this call.
- For the international co-lead route, UKRI’s policy requires the UK lead to be employed by the eligible UK research organisation. International co-leads must be employed by an overseas research organisation meeting equivalent eligibility requirements: a registered nonprofit higher-education institution, a research institute receiving long-term national funding, or an independent organisation with its own capacity to carry out and lead research that is independent of government, financially or otherwise, including qualifying charities and NGOs. The UK organisation must check their eligibility and arrange collaboration agreements. Explain their intellectual contribution; they cannot replace the UK project lead. Other overseas collaborators and UK collaborators outside approved research organisations can participate as project partners. Defra itself cannot be a project partner; its arm’s-length bodies approved as UKRI public-sector research establishments may apply if they meet the wider criteria.
- You can be involved in no more than two applications across this call and the related RESET Hub call, and lead only one.
- Projects may study ecosystems anywhere, but justify the location and relevance. Work outside the UK must show how it supports UK sustainable growth and security, for example through knowledge transferable to the UK or effects on UK supply chains.
- Projects primarily focused on built-up urban areas, intensive farming or aquaculture, intensive commercial forestry plantations, active mining or oil and gas extraction, or major infrastructure are excluded. Their verges and margins can be included. Mixed agricultural landscapes qualify when ecosystem change, rather than agricultural management, is the research focus. Coastal seas qualify within three nautical miles of shore when they are strongly influenced by and interact with land and freshwater ecosystems. Projects primarily developing operational systems to classify nature-security risks, early-warning frameworks for policymakers, government decision-support tools, or applied ecosystem assessment toolkits are excluded unless they are research outputs supplying underpinning evidence or methods for the wider RESET programme.
- Your team must take part in distributed peer review: applicants review each other’s proposals. Nominate the project lead and suitable co-leads, with two to four team members equipped to review. Each reviewer may receive up to six applications and must complete them within three weeks during 9 November to 4 December 2026. Failure to submit reviews on time leads to automatic rejection unless NERC has been told of exceptional circumstances. Consistently poor-quality reviews or attempts to manipulate scores can also stop your application from proceeding.
- If your project needs facilities, you must already have met the applicable preparation requirements. Facility use requires prior agreement and, where needed, a technical assessment; discuss it with the service at least two months before submission. For NERC marine facilities, the latest date to contact Marine Planning was 31 August 2026, and the relevant marine-equipment or autonomous-deployment request must be approved by application submission. BAS Antarctic logistics required a pre-award planning questionnaire by 20 August 2026 and approval before an award. These earlier facility deadlines have passed: the open full-application route does not reopen them.
How to apply
- Status
- lukket
- Åbner
- Lukker
- Vilkår for ansøgningsrunden
- Full applications are open; the earlier notification of intent was optional.
- Marine facilities and Antarctic logistics have earlier prerequisites that are not reopened by this application window.
Apply through the UKRI Funding Service. Create an account or sign in, confirm that you are the project lead and use your registered research organisation. Complete the questions, then send the application to your research office for checking and submission; only the lead organisation can submit it to UKRI. Observe any earlier internal deadline. UKRI must receive the completed application by 22 October 2026 at 16:00 UK time.
The notification of intent deadline was 16 September, but that notification was optional. You can submit a full application without having sent one.
Read the call’s distributed peer-review guidance before applying and ensure your nominated reviewers can fulfil the commitment. NERC and Defra select a balanced portfolio across research themes, ecosystem types and locations; a qualifying application is not guaranteed funding.
Complete the data-management and sharing question and follow UKRI’s open-research policy and NERC’s data policy.