Natural Environment Research Council
NERC
Funds environmental science: climate, oceans, polar, atmospheric, geological and ecological research. Supports national capability through centres such as the British Antarctic Survey and the British Geological Survey alongside discovery science grants.
- Kind of funder
- Research council
- Where it funds
- UK-wide
- Indicative award size
- £80k – £4m
- Approx. annual research spend
- £400m
- Who can apply
- Universities, Research institutes, Public sector
- Career stages
- PhD / doctoral, Postdoctoral, Early career, Established researcher
Discovery science grants from around £80k; large strategic programmes into the millions.
Research areas
Named schemes (3)
Water4All 2026 call: sustainable water management ↗
Apply for funding to increase our understanding, assessment, management, and governance of water across scales, from catchment to groundwater and from source to sea. Enable better decision-making for public authorities, water managers, and other stakeholders.
Open6 Apr 2027up to £313k per award£1.9m total fundpulled from UKRI 2026-09-11Biodiversa+ 2026 to 2027: novel ecosystems (BiodivFuture) ↗
Apply for funding to increase our understanding of novel ecosystems, their socio-ecological dynamics and consequences, and future pathways and trajectories of change. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for funding.
Open16 Apr 2027up to £375k per award£3.8m total fundpulled from UKRI 2026-09-11NERC Discovery Science (standard and large grants) ↗
Curiosity-driven environmental science. Standard grants run to around £800k; large grants fund consortium-scale programmes several times that.
Rolling / recurringCheck funder site for current round£80k – £4m per awardchecked 2026-05-01