Standard research grants (including New Investigator grants)
Annual closing dates: July and December
For 2013 the actual July closing date will be 2 July at 16:00 GMT, which will be strictly applied. Applicants should leave enough time for their application to pass through their organisation's Je-S submission route before 16:00 on the closing date.
The December closing date is still to be confirmed.
The July 2013 call will open and proposals can be submitted on Je-S from 1 April 2013.
This is an open competition for curiosity-motivated basic, strategic or applied research.
The primary criterion for assessment is scientific excellence, with all applications subjected to an Initial Review stage that makes decisions on which proposals should proceed to external review. Moderating Panels meet annually in June and December to grade the applications and make recommendations for funding.
The minimum that can be requested per complete proposal and per component is £65,000 (100% Full Economic Cost) and the maximum for the complete proposal is £1·2 million (100% Full Economic Cost). A validation on the Je-S form will prevent proposals requesting less than £65,000 from being submitted.
The two calls are: Standard Grant July 2013 and Standard Grant - New Investigators July 2013.
Eligibility for the New Investigator call is restricted (see handbook for further details), but beyond that the rules for the two calls are the same.
Exceptional permission to exceed funding maximum
If in exceptional cases the research proposed requires resources above the £1·2m limit, due to high facility, fieldwork, equipment or other costs, but is unable to meet the scale and complexity of research required in the Large Grant scheme, applicants may contact NERC prior to submission to request permission to submit a standard grant proposal that exceeds the maximum funding limit.
Please note that as shiptime and/or marine equipment costs are not calculated prior to submission for standard grant proposals it is not necessary to request exceptional permission to exceed the standard grant maximum based on these anticipated costs. If a proposal requires shiptime and other project costs exceed the standard grant maximum then exceptional permission is required prior to application.
In order to request exceptional permission to submit a standard grant proposal exceeding the maximum funding limit please email Research Grants Team at least 2 months before the call closing date, attaching a document summarising the case for exceptional funding. Up to 2 sides of A4 is permitted to make the case, which should contain as a minimum the following key information:
- Principal Investigator (lead PI if joint proposal)
- Research Organisation
- Intended Standard Grant call closing date for submission
- Project title
- Estimated project budget at 100% FEC (for whole project if joint proposal)
- Details of and justification for individual items expected to exceed 10% of the total budget (except indirect and estates costs)
- Explain why this research is exceptional in requiring resources above the standard grant funding maximum
- Explain why this research does not meet the criteria for the Large Grant scheme
- Explain why this research could not be supported via a series of grants below the standard grant funding maximum
- Related proposals eg resubmission
NERC will provide a decision on whether or not authorisation to exceed the standard grant funding limit is granted at least 1 month before the call closing date. Budget information provided in the case is regarded as an estimate and may vary by up to 10% in any subsequent full proposal.
Authorisation to exceed the standard grant funding limit is valid for submission to the next two standard grant closing dates and only applies to the first directly related submission following approval. For resubmissions the exceptional funding case must also be resubmitted for further consideration prior to re-application.
Any standard grant proposal received that exceeds the maximum funding limit and does not have prior authorisation will be rejected by NERC.