The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is the UK research council responsible for funding environmental science, from climate and ocean science to biodiversity, earth systems, and natural hazards. NERC describes itself as “the driving force of investment in environmental science” in the UK. It is one of the seven discipline-based research councils that, together with Innovate UK and Research England, make up UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) — like its sibling councils, NERC does not run a wholly separate application or costing system, and applicants engage with it largely through UKRI’s shared infrastructure. NERC is based at Polaris House in Swindon, the same site that hosts several other UKRI councils.
NERC’s role within UKRI
UKRI comprises nine constituent organisations: seven research councils (AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, EPSRC, MRC, NERC, and STFC), Innovate UK, and Research England. NERC sets its own strategic priorities, funding calls, and peer-review panels for environmental science specifically, but shares UKRI-wide infrastructure — the application portal, the full economic costing model, the researcher-development mandate, and the post-award reporting system — with the other six research councils. Because environmental science overlaps heavily with engineering, health, and social-science questions, NERC frequently co-funds or jointly runs calls with neighbouring councils such as EPSRC (physical sciences and engineering) and ESRC (social and policy dimensions of environmental change) rather than treating environmental research as belonging exclusively to a single council’s remit.
What NERC funds
NERC’s remit spans the full range of environmental and natural sciences, including:
- Earth sciences: geology, geophysics, and earth system processes
- Climate and atmospheric science
- Ocean and marine science
- Ecology, biodiversity, and terrestrial and freshwater environmental science
- Natural hazards, including flooding, volcanic activity, and extreme weather
- Environmental data infrastructure and long-term environmental monitoring, delivered in part through NERC-funded research centres and national capability facilities
Much of NERC’s investment goes to applicant-led (responsive-mode) research grants, but a meaningful share also funds national capability — shared infrastructure, survey ships, monitoring networks, and research centres — that the wider environmental science community relies on rather than any single funded project.
Main funding routes and grant types
NERC organises its core applicant-led (“discovery science”) portfolio into three grant types, each funded at NERC’s standard 80% of full economic cost (fEC):
Pushing the Frontiers Grants
NERC’s core investigator-led responsive-mode scheme, open to any environmental science topic within remit. Awards are funded up to £950,000 per award (at 100% fEC, of which NERC pays 80%), typically running three to four years. Submission is always open — there are no fixed closing dates — and proposals are assessed through expert review with a moderating panel.
Large Grants
NERC’s route for ambitious, larger-scale, often multidisciplinary environmental science that a single Pushing the Frontiers-sized award could not cover. Large Grants fund between £1.12 million and £3.45 million per award (at 100% fEC, of which NERC pays 80%), for up to five years. Unlike Pushing the Frontiers Grants, Large Grants use a two-stage process: outline applications typically close in March, with full applications from invited outlines typically closing in November. NERC launched a discovery science large grants funding opportunity in October 2025 with an uplifted budget of £20 million, and has signalled it intends to replace its existing Large Grants and Highlight Topics routes with a single new scheme funded on a similar scale — always check the live scheme list on ukri.org before costing a proposal, since NERC’s applicant-led structure is under active revision.
Urgency Funding
A fast-track route for short-lived, time-critical environmental research opportunities — for example, responding to an unfolding natural hazard or a narrow window to collect perishable field data. Urgency Funding awards up to £100,000 per award (at 100% fEC, of which NERC pays 80%), for up to 12 months. Submission is always open, using a two-stage process, and NERC targets a six-week turnaround with review by a NERC Peer Review College member.
Highlight Topics
Time-limited, strategically targeted calls within specific environmental science themes NERC has identified as priorities. Project size and duration are set individually for each highlight topic, up to a value of £4 million and four years in length. As noted above, NERC has indicated Highlight Topics will be folded into a single new applicant-led scheme alongside Large Grants — confirm current terms directly with UKRI before assuming a specific highlight topic call is still open in its previously published form.
Fellowships and doctoral training
Alongside project grants, NERC funds career-stage fellowships supporting researchers moving toward independence, and postgraduate training principally through Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs), following the same consortium-based doctoral-training model used across UKRI’s other research councils. NERC-funded studentships follow the UKRI-wide minimum doctoral stipend — £20,780 a year for 2025/26, rising to £21,805 a year from 1 October 2026 — plus a £2,000 a year London weighting unchanged since 2006, unless an individual DTP or a non-academic co-funder pays above that floor.
Funding rate: full economic costing at 80%
Like every UKRI research council, NERC funds proposals on a full economic cost (fEC) basis rather than reimbursing only direct project costs. Universities calculate fEC using the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) methodology, which UKRI validates institution by institution; other eligible research organisations may apply a UKRI-validated dispensation rate instead. NERC then funds 80% of the agreed fEC, with the host institution expected to find the remaining 20% from its own resources, commonly absorbed through indirect-cost recovery rather than charged separately to the project. This 80%/TRAC structure is a UKRI-wide policy, not a NERC-specific rate — the same figure applies whether the award comes from NERC, AHRC, EPSRC, ESRC, or MRC.
How to apply: the UKRI Funding Service
NERC funding opportunities are found and applied for through the UKRI Funding Service (funding-service.ukri.org), UKRI’s single online platform for finding opportunities, submitting applications, and managing awards through to final reporting across all seven research councils. The Funding Service replaced the older Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system. A typical NERC application moves through: identifying a live opportunity via the UKRI funding finder (ukri.org/opportunity/) or NERC’s own council pages (ukri.org/councils/nerc/), developing the case for support and budget with institutional research-office sign-off, submission ahead of the published deadline (or, for Pushing the Frontiers Grants and Urgency Funding, at any time), assessment by a NERC peer-review college and moderating panel, and — if successful — award set-up and the start of post-award reporting obligations.
Eligibility and the review process
Eligibility is set at the UKRI level (which organisations and individuals qualify as eligible applicants and research organisations) and then refined per scheme by NERC (career-stage requirements for early-career routes, subject fit for a given call or highlight topic). Applications are assessed through peer review — external reviewers and a NERC funding panel or peer-review college score proposals against published assessment criteria, typically covering scientific quality, significance, and value for money. Because panel composition and assessment criteria are published per call, always confirm the specific criteria for the opportunity being applied to rather than assuming they match a previous NERC round.
After the award: reporting obligations
Once a NERC grant is active, the principal investigator takes on UKRI-wide post-award obligations shared with every other research council, not NERC-specific ones:
- Researchfish — the mandatory annual outcomes-reporting platform UKRI requires funded researchers to use, from early in the project until at least five years after it ends.
- Gateway to Research (GtR) — UKRI’s public data portal, which publishes project, funding, and outcome data (drawn substantially from Researchfish submissions) for every NERC-funded project.
- R4RI (Resume for Research and Innovation) — UKRI’s narrative CV format, required in place of a traditional academic CV on NERC applications that ask for applicant track-record information.
Institutions running NERC grants also apply through, and manage funds via, the same UKRI Funding Service used at application stage — there is no separate NERC-only award-management portal.
How NERC differs from UKRI’s other research councils
All seven UKRI research councils share the same overarching application system, fEC/TRAC costing model, and Researchfish reporting requirement, but each has a distinct subject remit:
- NERC — environmental and natural sciences: earth, ocean, atmospheric, and ecological science, and natural hazards
- EPSRC — engineering, physical sciences, mathematics, and digital technology
- MRC — medical, biomedical, and clinical research
- BBSRC — biotechnology and biological sciences
- ESRC — economic, social, behavioural, and human data science research
- AHRC — arts and humanities
- STFC — physics, astronomy, particle physics, and large research facilities
Research spanning NERC’s remit and a neighbouring council’s — for example environmental science and engineering (NERC/EPSRC), or environmental change and social policy (NERC/ESRC) — is often jointly funded or co-badged across councils, reflecting UKRI’s cross-council funding model rather than forcing a proposal into a single council’s remit. For the full picture of how NERC fits alongside the other eight UKRI bodies and the shared UKRI Funding Service, see CASRAI’s overview guide, UKRI Grants: How the Nine Councils and Funding Service Fit Together.
Where to find current NERC funding opportunities
Because deadlines, award values, and open/closed status change frequently — and NERC in particular is actively restructuring its Large Grants and Highlight Topics routes — treat any specific figures in secondary sources, including this guide, as indicative rather than current. The authoritative, continuously updated sources are:
- UKRI funding finder (ukri.org/opportunity/) — searchable by council, filterable to NERC-led and NERC-co-funded calls
- NERC’s own council pages (ukri.org/councils/nerc/) — remit, priorities, and funding category overviews
- UKRI Funding Service — where NERC applications are actually submitted and managed through to award closeout
Frequently asked questions
Is NERC the same as UKRI?
No. NERC is one of UKRI’s seven discipline-based research councils, not UKRI itself. UKRI is the umbrella body that comprises NERC, six other research councils (AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, EPSRC, MRC, STFC), Innovate UK, and Research England.
What does NERC fund?
NERC funds environmental and natural science research — earth sciences, climate and atmospheric science, ocean and marine science, ecology and biodiversity, and natural hazards — through applicant-led research grants (Pushing the Frontiers Grants, Large Grants, Urgency Funding), thematic Highlight Topics, fellowships, doctoral training, and national capability infrastructure such as monitoring networks and survey facilities.
How much can a NERC grant be worth?
It depends on the scheme: Pushing the Frontiers Grants fund up to £950,000, Large Grants fund between £1.12 million and £3.45 million, Urgency Funding covers up to £100,000, and Highlight Topics are set individually up to £4 million — all at 100% fEC, of which NERC pays 80%.
How much of a project’s cost does NERC fund?
NERC funds 80% of a project’s full economic cost (fEC), the same rate applied UKRI-wide, with the host institution expected to cover the remaining 20%.
Where do I apply for NERC funding?
Through the UKRI Funding Service (funding-service.ukri.org), the single application and award-management platform shared by all seven UKRI research councils, which replaced the earlier Je-S system.
Does NERC have fixed application deadlines?
Not for Pushing the Frontiers Grants or Urgency Funding, which are always open for submission. Large Grants use a two-stage process with outline applications typically closing in March and full applications typically closing in November; Highlight Topics have their own call-specific deadlines. Always confirm current dates on the live ukri.org opportunity listing.
