Knowledge Exchange

Closing date and time for outline proposals: 16:00 on 3 March 2016

Awards totalling £2·5-£5m are available to research organisations over 5 years to boost impact from NERC environmental science.

The Environmental Science Impact Programme (ESIP) is dedicated to bringing research organisations together with businesses, policy bodies and other actors contributing to economic development specific to their location to deliver significant regional impact from NERC environmental science.

Opening date on Je-S: 4 February 2016
Closing date on Je-S: 16:00 on 17 March 2016
Interview dates: To be confirmed

The Innovation Projects call supports projects that are likely to generate little or no commercial return, but which will deliver impact.

The call aims to increase and accelerate the uptake and impact of NERC funded research output by supporting translational and knowledge exchange activity which delivers direct tangible and demonstrable benefits to end users. The Follow-on Fund is for those projects that aim to be fully commercialised with a revenue stream derived from licensing, spinouts, consultancy etc.

This pilot round of the NERC Follow-on Fund has increased the previous maximum amount that could be applied for (£125k) to up to £250k (£200k at 80% FEC). As part of the pilot, NERC has also introduced more flexible time scales, ie funding for projects lasting between 3 and 24 months. These changes have been introduced to provide projects with the very best opportunity for commercial exploitation.