Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

Please see our new Research Councils: major changes and budget announcements page for the latest updates about changes to grant programmes, grant administration, financial management of awards, and the impact of moves to the Shared Services Centre.

Background information on the NERC

Areas supported Environmental sciences
Types of funding Postgraduate, Fellowships, Research Grants, Knowledge Transfer. See Available Grants
Funding Guide See Forms and Handbooks to all NERC funding opportunities
NERC funding opportunities On the NERC website
On ResearchProfessional.com. You will need to log in or click on Campus Access to view these
NERC Research Income at Oxford 2010/11: Oxford received £7.1M  (11th largest research funder of the University)
Applications and Award Activity at Oxford 2010/11: 98 applications submitted to the value of £26.0M. 54 new NERC awards accepted worth £9.4M, including financial amendments to existing awards (University financial year Aug-Jul)
Success Rates 2010/11- by volume of applications (responsive mode)
National average: 18%. Oxford: 28%. (NERC financial year Apr-Mar)
See the NERC's Research Statistics webpage
Back to top

Preparing your application

  • It is essential that you refer to the Funding Guide and any specific guidance issued with the funding call or opportunity. Contact the Council directly for further guidance.
  • If you are thinking of putting together a grant application, please get in touch with your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator as soon as possible (and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline), so that they can provide advice and assistance with the preparation of your proposal. The sooner you get in touch, the more they will be able to help.

Further information

Back to top

Using the Je-S system for grant applications

Je-S is the Research Councils' web-based Joint Electronic Submission system for grant applications and award administration. All applications must be prepared and submitted via Je-S.

If you are new to Je-S, you will need to create a user account - please refer to Step 1 in our Application Process section. Your co-investigators will also need an account. Please note that you can also grant access to co-investigators or other colleagues so that they can view and edit the application directly in the system.

Please refer to the links below for more information about using Je-S at the application stage.

Further information:

Back to top

Preparing a Case for Support

  • This is the part of the application where you will describe your proposed project and why you should be funded to carry it out.
  • Ensure that your case is well-structured and addresses the issues or questions raised in the call.
  • Familiarise yourself with the assessment criteria that will be used - and the weighting given to each.
  • When writing your proposal be aware of who will ultimately be reading and assessing it. This will not just be subject experts but also generalists sitting on review panels, as well as (in some cases) research users.
  • Use the advice and expertise of colleagues, especially those who have had successful proposals - it can be helpful to ask colleagues who are both expert and non-expert in your field to read and comment on your application.
  • As with all aspects of your application, don't overlook 'minor details'. The wrong font size or exceeding page limits will result in your application being returned by the funder - and sometimes not considered at all.
Back to top

Ethics

  • The Je-S forms ask whether there are any ethical implications arising from the proposed research. This might include research involving human participants.

Further information

Back to top

Pathways to Impact

  • Applicants to the majority of NERC funding calls and schemes are required to complete an up to two-page Pathways to Impact section.

  • The Pathways to Impact section allows researchers to identify the potential scientific, societal, economic or cultural impacts of their research.

  • Researchers must ensure that any confidential information is described in the Impact Statement or Plan rather than in the Impact Summary.

Further Information

Back to top

Costing and Budgeting

  • Your Departmental Administrator, Research Officer or Research Facilitator will assist you to identify the costs of your project and also prepare a Resolve costing. Please contact them as soon as you are thinking about applying and at the very latest four weeks before the deadline. The Resolve costing will provide the financial information that you must include in the Je-S forms and, since this is the form that indicates Departmental approval of the costs of a project, it has to be provided to Research Services before the application can be approved and submitted by the University to the funder.
  • Applications should be costed on a full economic cost (FEC) basis. The Council will contribute 80% of these costs with the exceptions of project studentships which are paid at 100%, and equipment costs where different funding rules apply depending on the value of each individual item of equipment. For further information please see Research Councils and Equipment Funding.
  • Note that there are (maximum and minimum) limits of the funds sought for certain schemes - check the scheme guidance for details.
Further information for researchers:

Further information for Departmental administrators:

Back to top

Justification of Resources

  • All applications must include an attachment which sets out the justification for the resources requested. This is an opportunity to explain in words why you require the resources detailed in your budget.
  • Note that this is not justifying the costs (money) sought, rather the resources required to undertake the project, such as equipment or number of staff but also the level (seniority) of proposed staff and the proportion of their time they will dedicate to the project.
Back to top

I'm ready to submit my application - what should I do now?

  • Firstly check that your application is complete and includes all the information and attachments required by the Council (this includes letters of support, CVs, lists of publications etc). You can use the 'Validate' function in Je-S to detect any errors in data fields that need to be corrected before the system will allow you to submit it to the next stage.
  • Hitting 'Submit' on Je-S doesn't submit the application. It sends it to the next stage of the process which is to your Departmental Approver Pool. You should therefore check that they are expecting this and have received it.
  • Once your Departmental Approver has approved the application on behalf of your Department it is routed via the Je-S system to Research Services.
  • Research Services reviews applications on behalf of the University and will liaise with you and/or your Departmental Administrator over any queries or changes that might be needed to the application.
  • Research Services submits the approved application to the Council.

Further Information

Back to top

The application has been submitted - what next?

  • All proposals are first assessed on general eligibility and assessment requirements.
  • Proposals which do not meet these criteria will be rejected and returned to the applicant with feedback on why the proposal could not proceed.
  • Proposals that meet the criteria will then go on to the Peer Review College.
  • NERC notifies applicants of the outcome via Je-S. For details please see our Offer Acceptances and Start Certificates page. If unsuccessful you can check whether a resubmission is possible.
  • Do let your Departmental Administrator know the outcome of your proposal. Where it is to be funded they will liaise with you and Research Services regarding the acceptance of the award.

Further Information

Back to top

Managing your award

  • Please refer to the Forms and Handbooks to all NERC funding opportunities and the Research Council Terms and Conditions for FEC Grants.
  • See Managing awards for the process at Oxford for accepting and managing awards.
  • See also NERC's own information in their 'What happens next?' pages. 
  • See our Offer Acceptances and Start Certificates page for information about how this process works on Je-S
  • See our Grant Maintenance page for information about how to request changes to your award on Je-S (e.g. request an extension, change of grant title, change of grant holder).
  • All Directly Incurred staff working on Research Council projects must complete timesheets unless they are 100% charged to one project. See Other key funder requirements for further information, including a sample timesheet.
  • See our Academic Reporting and Expenditure Statements page for information about these requirements and the penalties for late submission of reports. See also NERC's Guidance on the Submission of Final Reports.
  • All claims, invoices and financial statements to funders must go out from Research Accounts, never directly from Departments.
  • All NERC-funded researchers must complete an annual online questionnaire on the specific outputs from their research grants. Information requested includes: publications, new or improved products, services or equipment developed, knowledge exchange and possible beneficiaries, external co-funding, patents and public understanding of science initiatives. This information is collected via NERC's Research Outputs Database and applied to each grant during its lifetime, for the year in which the grant completes and for a further two years.
  • Publications arising from research funded by the NERC should include an acknowledgement of NERC support as set out in the NERC Research Grants Handbook.
  • NERC requires that an electronic copy of any published peer-reviewed paper, supported in whole or in part by NERC funding, is deposited at the earliest opportunity in an e-print repository in accordance with NERC's Guidance on access to research outputs.

Further information

Back to top

Documents

Related links

Joint Electronic Submission system (Je-S)

Find out more