Deadline: 9-Nov-21
The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is inviting applications for Improve the sustainability of urban systems and infrastructure to develop research networks that will focus on improving the sustainability of urban systems and infrastructure.
Objectives
- Be centred around net zero plus (climate and environmental change)
- Strengthen engagement
- Enhance the UK’s world leading research on sustainable and resilient infrastructure and urban systems
- Consideration of routes to levelling up the UK
- Develop a skills pipeline
- Investment to improve diversity and grow skills
Priority strand
- Priority strand one: green Infrastructure development linked to blue, brown or grey infrastructure
- Priority strand two: low carbon connected digital infrastructure with considerations between urban and rural environments
- Priority strand three: sustainable urban systems
Funding Information
- They will award 80% of the full economic costs of the project, and your organisation must agree to find the remaining balance. They encourage contributions from external partners which should be included in your proposal.
- There is up to:
- £2,350,000 available from EPSRC
- £500,000 available from NERC
- £150,000 available from AHRC.
- EPSRC, NERC and AHRC expect to fund in the region of £1,000,000 per strand.
- Awards will be made for a 24-month duration.
- They will support costs of building multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary research communities, including:
- investigator salaries
- travel and subsistence
- events
- workshops
- secondments
- horizon scanning
- feasibility studies and pump priming activities
- minor equipment
- administrative support.
- Network Plus grants will not fund associated PhD studentships under this opportunity.
What they’re looking for?
- The Network Plus investment will further strengthen the communities to develop new cross-sector and multidisciplinary academic-led communities that work together to:
- identify opportunities
- address complex challenges
- accelerate solutions-based interventions.
- EPSRC, NERC and AHRC are looking to support and evolve the wider infrastructure and urban systems research communities and strengthen the value of the previous investments in this area. They expect successful bids to be cross-disciplinary, engaging across the portfolios.
- They are interested in developing interdisciplinary communities with a focus on generating positive impact in addition to minimising negative impacts. They are keen to bring together communities in the UK, including:
- engineering
- environmental
- arts and humanities
- economic and social research.
- This is to address national priorities exemplified and demonstrated at the local or regional level, including:
- wellbeing
- social inclusivity
- community engagement
- inequalities
- resilience
- impacts on communities
- nature
- security.
Eligibility Criteria
- Standard UKRI eligibility rules apply.
- Network Plus grants are open to:
- UK higher education institutions
- research council institutes
- UKRI-approved independent research organisations
- eligible public sector research establishments
- NHS bodies with research capacity.
- You can apply if you are resident in the UK and meet at least one of the criteria below:
- are employed at the submitting research organisation at a level equivalent to lecturer or above
- hold a fixed-term contract that extends beyond the duration of the proposed project, and the host research organisation is prepared to give you all the support normal for a permanent employee
- hold an EPSRC, Royal Society or Royal Academy of Engineering fellowship aimed at later career stages
- hold fellowships under other schemes (please contact EPSRC to check eligibility, which is considered on a case-by-case basis).
- Holders of postdoctoral level fellowships are not eligible to apply for an EPSRC grant.
- Individuals wishing to apply and be named as a principal investigator or co-investigator can only be listed on one application (if the applicant is listed as a principal investigator on one application then they cannot be listed on another application as a co-investigator).
- Postdoctoral research assistants (PDRAs) cannot act as the lead proposer, but can be named as a recognised researcher if their contract allows.
- Organisations are not limited in the number of proposals they can submit to this call. They emphasise, however, that a diverse set of proposals will be funded, and it is unlikely that more than one application will be funded from any single research organisation.
- EPSRC, NERC and AHRC encourage all proposals to be from diverse groups of researchers.
- They will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UKRI or any other funder.
For more information, visit https://beta.ukri.org/opportunity/improve-the-sustainability-of-urban-systems-and-infrastructure/
