Pushing the Frontiers of Environmental Science Research
NERC Internal Demand Management
Pushing the Frontiers of Environmental Science Research
In 2015, NERC introduced a Demand Management quota system, whereby institutions whose 6-round success rate for the former Standard Grants scheme (including New Investigator grants) fell below 20% received a cap on the number of proposals they could submit for that financial year's rounds. Imperial has achieved a success rate above 20% over the grant rounds included the NERC calculations, and therefore will not have an institutional cap imposed for the July 2024 and January 2025 rounds. To increase the quality of proposals being submitted to avoid future restriction, an internal review group will aid in the support of bids. Terms of Reference for the NERC Proposals Review Group (PDF)
Note that Pushing the Frontiers is now submitted via the new UKRI Funding Service and the required application components have been updated. To reflect this, PIs are asked to submit the following to the internal demand management process:
- Lay Summary (550 words)
- Completed 'Vision' section (1,100 words)
- Completed ‘Approach’ section (2,750 words)
- Capability to Deliver (1,150 words for Resume for Researchers modules plus 500 for "Additions" if required)
- Resources and cost justification (2,000 words)
Please note that references should be included in the appropriate question section of the application and be easily identifiable by the assessors, for example (Smith, Research Paper, 2019).
References should be included within the appropriate section of the application. Incomplete submissions will not be considered by the Group - please follow the NERC guidance with regards to what to include in each section and relevant formatting. NERC also requests a section on ethics and responsible research and innovation (500 words) - this will only be requested from PIs that are recommended to go forward.
PIs are strongly encouraged to note the NERC Reviewer's Guidance for Pushing the Frontiers as well as the guidance on the NERC funding opportunity when developing their proposals, particularly in regard to the Capability to Deliver section, which should be a narrative, drawing on the Royal Society’s Résumé for Researchers, explaining the team’s suitability to undertake and deliver high quality, innovative science.
The Group strongly encourages PIs to discuss their proposal ideas as early as possible with colleagues and/or their Head of Department, and for Departments to be involved in bids prior to PI submission to the institutional level group for subject specific support or earlier triage, as suits their local practice. Please check with your Department for any review/support processes with which you may need to engage.
All proposals that involve a submission from Imperial must go through the internal process. If Imperial is not the lead on a bid we would recommend that unless there are overriding reasons not to, Co-I costs are included on the lead institution's application (NERC no longer imposes a limit on these costs) instead of submitting a separate application. More details can be found in the FAQs section of NERC's webpage on Demand Management.
January 2025 ROUND INTERNAL PROCESS (INTERNAL DEADLINE: 11 November, midday)
- September: Announcement of internal institutional review process
- September - November: Participation of PI in local Departmental review/support processes available
- 11 November, midday: Submission of paperwork to researchoffice.fundingstrategy@imperial.ac.uk (Dr Dania Grant-Serroukh, Funding Strategy Team)
- 3 December: Review Group meets; suggestions for how to strengthen proposals returned to PIs and Heads of Departments by Funding Strategy Team.
- Post-meeting: Funding Strategy Team informs Faculty Research Services Managers of the panel recommendations.
- December - January : PIs submitting to the round progress their proposals as per guidance from the Review Group. PIs should involve their Faculty Research Services teams as soon as possible and submit in line with their internal deadlines to allow these teams to perform necessary checks.
Resources
Panel insights
A member of a recent NERC Pushing the Frontiers Sift Panel has shared their insights and tips for grant writers based on this experience (access for College staff only).
Examples of successful proposals
Some Imperial academics that have successfully been awarded NERC Standard Grant funding since the July 2014 round have agreed to share their Case for Support as examples. These documents, organised by Faculty, can be accessed on the Research Office Sharepoint site (College staff access only).