Pushing the Frontiers of Environmental Research

Pushing the Frontiers of Environmental Research

Supports United Kingdom environmental researchers through exploratory innovation grants that expand frontier ecological evidence.

Pushing the Frontiers of Environmental Research is the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) flagship applicant-led, continuously open funding stream, which launched in its current always-open form on 31 March 2026. It replaces the previous Standard Grants route as NERC's primary vehicle for curiosity-driven environmental science and is now part of NERC's Discovery Science family of schemes. There is no closing date; applications can be submitted at any time.

Awards are capped at £950,000 fEC per project, with NERC funding 80% of full economic cost for UK institutions; Norwegian international co-leads are funded at 100% fEC. Projects typically run between three and four years. Eligible applicants must be based at a UK research organisation that meets NERC's eligibility criteria and hold an appropriate role; applications are welcomed from researchers at any career stage, including early-career investigators. Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary proposals are explicitly encouraged. NERC aims to deliver a funding decision within nine months of submission: applications are assessed by expert review and those reaching the quality threshold proceed to a moderation panel.

For-profit companies, nonprofits, and individuals are not eligible; only universities and NERC-eligible research organisations may apply. The breadth of scope — covering climate systems, ocean science, ecology, earth processes, and natural hazards — means the scheme suits researchers who cannot easily fit their work into a thematic call. The nine-month decision window is competitive by UK research-council standards; applicants should ensure their proposal clearly articulates why the science is novel and why it falls within NERC remit rather than a sister council's scope.