Deadline: 1 July 2019
Applications are now open for the first round of the PCAN Fund which is an integral part of the Place-Based Climate Action Network.
The aim of the fund is to stimulate engagement on place-based action beyond the five platforms. It provides small grants to researchers and research users, thus opening the Network to a wider community.
Funding Information
- This first round will support 3 – 6 projects worth £5,000 – £35,000 each, for a total of for £75,000.
- The actual funding envelope and the number of projects could be higher or lower, depending on the quality of proposals received.
Project Selection
- They are interested in proposals that support the design and delivery of local climate action in the UK. This may be achieved, for example, through engagement, training, the co-production of knowledge or academic research that builds delivery capacity in areas such as finance and local governance.
- In this first PCAN round they are keen for some of the proposals that support the design and delivery of climate action in the PCAN partner cities of Belfast, Edinburgh and Leeds.
Applications may be submitted under 5 headings:
- impact grants (e.g., co-production of decision-relevant knowledge)
- engagement grants (e.g., events, secondments, campaigns)
- research grants (aimed preferentially at early career researchers)
- training grants (e.g. skill development)
- innovation grants (e.g. seed-funding for new initiatives or products)
Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
- Relevance to PCAN objectives (including co-development between researchers and research users)
- Innovative features
- Expected impact
- Value for money
- Academic merit (where applicable)
Eligibility Criteria
- The aspiration is to spread PCAN activities as widely as possible. Applications are therefore invited from both practitioners (policy makers, businesses, NGOs etc.) and academics and researchers.
- They particularly encourage submissions from early career researchers and applications that are co-produced by researchers and research users.
- The fund is open to the UK research and climate change community, including members of the PCAN network, such as advisory group members and members of a PCAN platform (e.g. a city commission). Researchers from a PCAN host university are also eligible to apply. Conflict-of-interest rules will be in place to evaluate such proposals.
- Members of the PCAN core team are not eligible for funding. However, winning proposals will be encouraged to work closely with the PCAN team and will be assigned a PCAN champion.
- Applications from outside the UK are possible, but in all cases applicants are responsible for ensuring their eligibility to visit and where necessary work in the UK.
Eligible Expenditure
- A number of different kinds of expenditure can be supported, depending on the design of the application. This may include money for research assistants, research expenses, travel expenses, events and publications. Where applicants require some compensation for their time on the project, it may be possible to pay an honorarium.
- The funding will be at 100% but they are not able to pay indirect costs or estate costs. Should these costs be incurred they would have to be covered by the host institution.
- Contracting will be with the London School of Economics. ESRC rules and expectations (e.g. on ethics, ESRC reporting) will be annexed to the contract and will form part of the agreement.
How to Apply
Expressions of interest (stage 1 proposals) should be submitted electronically via given website.
For more information, please visit https://pcancities.org.uk/call-proposals-round-one
