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 (6)
Advancing solutions for critical mineral production and recycling ↗
Apply for funding for pump-priming research to explore, test and validate disruptive and transformative solutions for critical mineral extraction, processing, recovery, reprocessing, recycling or re-mining. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding.
Open7 Jan 2027up to £305k per award£1.5m total fundpulled from UKRI 2026-10-14Water4All 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 2026-09-12Biodiversa+ 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 2026-09-12NERC 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 2026-05-01NERC urgency funding ↗
Apply for funding to respond quickly to transient, unexpected environmental research opportunities created by sporadic natural occurrences such as earthquakes, droughts, floods, or ephemeral events in ecosystems. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for NERC funding.
OpenCheck funder site for current roundup to £100k per awardpulled from UKRI 2026-09-24Pushing the frontiers of environmental research ↗
Apply for funding to pursue an adventurous, ambitious curiosity-driven project in environmental research. You must be: based at a UK research organisation eligible for Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funding in a role that meets the individual eligibility requirements
OpenCheck funder site for current roundup to £950k per awardpulled from UKRI 2026-09-23