Deadline: 24-Oct-23
Apply for funding to establish an interdisciplinary research and innovation network consisting of a strategic coordination hub and associated partnerships or spokes that will bring together academic, finance and relevant user communities.
The network will catalyse the integration of biodiversity into financial decision-making, planning and reporting for a nature positive financial system. You must be a grant holder of a grant awarded in phase one of the programme.
Purpose of Programme
- The NERC and Innovate UK research and innovation programme Integrating finance and biodiversity for a nature positive future seeks to address this challenge by exploring the critical gaps in knowledge and understanding, as informed by stakeholders in the finance sector, and by improving the integration of biodiversity into financial decision-making, frameworks, reporting and planning.
- The programme will be delivered in two stages:
- Phase one: where 12 scoping projects and a coordination function were awarded and currently in progress.
- Phase two: the focus of this funding opportunity. Building on the emerging outcomes from Phase one, a distributed virtual research and innovation network will be established to include a strategic coordination hub and up to three initial associated themed spokes/partnerships complemented by the Innovate UK led part of the call
Funding Information
- The full economic cost of the network (hub and spokes) can be up to £3 million.
- NERC will fund at 80% FEC:
- up to £1 million for the Strategic coordination hub (£300,000 to £500,000 per annum).
- remaining funds will be distributed between the spokes, which they anticipate may range between £300,000 to £500,000 each.
- Duration
- The duration of this award is 27 months.
- Awards must start by 2 January 2024.
What they will fund?
They will fund the costs of building interdisciplinary research communities and the activities of the network including but not limited to:
- investigator and researcher salaries, plus associated indirect and estates costs
- travel and subsistence
- workshops
- events
- communications
- horizon scanning
- funding opportunities for pilot research, feasibility testing or pump priming activities
- translation and impact-generating activities linking to user needs such as a repository or live portal of clearly described and broadly accessible case studies to complement the theory
Outcomes
The network (strategic coordination hub and spokes or partnerships) will be expected to:
- build long term capability, cross-sectoral interdisciplinary community with shared understanding;
- bring together and catalyse interdisciplinary capability and a diverse stakeholder community from academia, finance sector, community stewards of biodiversity uplift projects, business and policy, to foster collaboration, common understanding, shared aims and cohesive approaches to drive integration and fill crucial knowledge gaps;
- forge strong partnership with the finance sector, emphasising user engagement, co-design and collaborative approaches, driven by enhanced understanding of the decision-context and information needs of the financial services users;
- embed research, academic data and knowledge of different scales and context, in the development of solutions. Ensure responsiveness to the evolving needs of the finance sector and decision-makers in business;
- adopt a system approach to achieve better understanding of the complex interlinkages between biodiversity, finance and society and what it means for community resilience (environmental and economic) and economic prosperity to support a roadmap to a nature positive future;
- inform investment for new research to fill data and knowledge gaps as the finance sector develops;
- facilitate the development of a skilled community to incorporate reporting on biodiversity for all business sectors in the longer term.
Eligibility Criteria
- The second phase of the Integrating finance and biodiversity for a nature positive future initiative is a closed opportunity. The coordination function awarded in phase one has been tasked with co-developing a cohesive application for the strategic coordination hub and identifying the first spokes of the research and innovation network.
- Grant holders of the NPF Phase one projects and named participants in the programme coordination function are eligible to lead or co-lead the hub or one of the spokes.
- The proposed activities within the network are expected to be relevant to the evolving real-world setting. Recognising the network needs to include relevant expertise and stakeholders, they strongly encourage engagement with other researchers from other relevant UKRI investments such as NERC and ESRC Economics of Biodiversity programme, grant holders of the Nature Finance Seed Corn grants and Knowledge Exchange fellows and the Climate and Environmental Risk Analytics for Resilient Finance (CERAF) programme.
- If individuals or organisations not involved in phase one of the NPF programme are interested in collaborating and engaging with the network.
- International applicants
- They do not fund overseas organisations, except for specific costs for project co-leads (previously co-investigator) from Norway and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
- Project Partners
- A key part of this interdisciplinary initiative is to ensure projects are co-created and informed by users, in particular the finance sector, to ensure the outcomes are relevant, impactful and accessible.
- As such, it is essential that you contribute to the establishment of strong partnerships and foster effective collaboration with relevant stakeholders including organisations in the financial sector, economic and policy entities, regulatory bodies, or other related industries to:
- add value to investments and provide evidence of user needs and relevance
- align with priority policies and ongoing activity
- identify a route to knowledge mobilisation
- make use of partner knowledge and expertise
- When working alongside these stakeholders, you should consider where project partnership can add value through cash contributions, in-kind contributions, or both. All international collaborators, for example relevant international financial policy organisations, or non- academic UK partners (including those from business or financial sectors, not based at approved organisations can be included as project partners but will need to fund their own involvement. NERC grants will only fund minor incidental expenses for these project partners, such as some travel costs.
- The successful network spokes or partnerships will be encouraged to onboard additional project partners during their lifetime, and as the community develops.
For more information, visit NERC.