UKRI NERC AI for Environmental Science Programme is sponsored by UK Research and Innovation (NERC). The UKRI NERC AI for Environmental Science programme funds bold and ambitious projects using AI and data science to address environmental challenges.

Artificial intelligence (AI) for environmental science phase one – UKRI Funding opportunity: Artificial intelligence (AI) for environmental science phase one Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Award range: £200,000 - £400,000 3 October 2025 9:00am UK time 11 December 2025 4:00pm UK time Last updated: 7 April 2026 - see all updates Apply for funding to use artificial intelligence (AI) and data science in new ways to address complex environmental challenges.

We’re seeking bold, innovative ideas with the potential to shape the future of environmental science. based at a UK research organisation eligible for Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funding in a role that meets the individual eligibility requirements The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be between £200,000 and £400,000. We will fund 80% of the FEC.

Projects must start on 1 October 2026 and last for eighteen months. This is the first of a two-phased programme. Before applying for funding, check the following: NERC eligibility guidance for applicants eligibility of your organisation To lead a project, you must be based at an eligible organisation.

Check if your organisation is eligible . This funding opportunity is open to research groups and individuals. We: encourage multidisciplinary research and collaborations with other UK organisations welcome applications from individuals at any career stage, subject to NERC eligibility criteria Who is not eligible to apply You may be involved in no more than two applications submitted to this funding opportunity.

Only one of these can be as project lead. We will accept no more than four applications to this funding opportunity as lead organisation, that is the organisation submitting the application through the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. Due to the high level of interest anticipated for the investment available, we are trialling this approach to manage the impact on the community in assessing the applications.

The research organisation should have a process to ensure that no more than four applications are submitted. Research organisations are asked to actively use an inclusive approach to selecting and maximising the diversity of the applicants they intend to support. UKRI expects that host organisations consider diversity broadly to include backgrounds, career paths, thought and approach as well as protected characteristics.

Project partners fund their own involvement. We will only fund minor incidental expenses, such as some travel costs, if needed for project partners. International researchers We do not fund overseas organisations, except for specific costs for project co-leads from Norway and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).

You should include all other international collaborators (or UK partners not based at approved organisations) as project partners. This includes organisations from the business or financial sectors. Equality, diversity and inclusion We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants.

We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers. We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes: support for people with caring responsibilities alternative working patterns UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

Find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI and NERC’s diversity and inclusion action plan . We will fund bold, ambitious projects that accelerate the development of leading-edge data science tools and AI to help deliver transformative solutions to the intractable environmental challenges of today and the future.

The investment will be in two phases as follows: phase one will support relatively small ‘pump-priming’ activities, with high levels of innovation, adventure, and risk.

This funding opportunity strongly encourages applications from consortia that are able to traverse different disciplinary boundaries in order to develop and apply AI and data science approaches to tackling environmental challenges phase two will be a closed funding opportunity and only projects funded in phase one will be invited to apply.

The most promising projects (based on the transformative nature of what has been achieved to date and ability to deliver maximum impact with more funding) will receive further investment for an additional 42 months to continue Applications are currently being invited for the first phase.

The objectives of this programme are to: develop AI and data science approaches to deliver high quality and trustworthy AI-ready environmental datasets support novel AI and data science capability and techniques in the areas of ‘data analysis, modelling and prediction’ and ‘digitally-enabled decisions’ to support breakthroughs in approaches to tackle significant environmental challenges facing the UK and beyond establish interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary communities to leverage expertise and techniques across different areas of science and research to stimulate innovative approaches, in line with user needs We are investing up to £12 million over five years for research and innovation projects to develop creative and novel approaches to the use of data science and AI to tackle complex environmental challenges in the following three areas.

Environmental hazards and human health This area concerns the effective management of natural hazards and their impact on people including, but not limited to, air quality, flooding, droughts, heat stress and wildfires. For example, the use of data science and AI to predict extreme events and their impact on human health, to optimise response efforts, and to facilitate recovery from hazards.

This might include technologies for early warning systems for vulnerable communities, real-time simulations, or damage assessments. This area concerns the use of data science and AI to provide insights into ecosystem and biodiversity changes, to detect and attribute causes to those changes, and to prioritise and plan conservation efforts.

For example, the development of new AI and data-science based approaches to enhance complex monitoring at the species and ecosystem level, or predictive modelling for habitat conservation and ecosystem restoration. This area concerns sustainable ocean management and climate resilience.

For example, the use of data science and AI to transform our ability to understand and predict complex weather and ocean patterns, uncover hidden connections in climate data, and deliver more efficient ocean-climate models. This could include the development of algorithms for ocean data analysis, the development of multi-modal models, and the prediction and forecasting of extreme events.

Applications that do not address environmental challenges in one or more of the three areas above are not within the scope of this funding opportunity. While illustrative examples have been given for each area, these are not intended to limit the scope of applications within these three areas.

It is anticipated that the assessment process will be designed to deliver a balanced portfolio of investments across these areas, and across a range of novel AI and data science approaches. We envisage that applicants will develop or use, or develop and use, novel AI and data science approaches to tackle the environmental challenges above in a range of different ways.

Examples of approach include, but are not limited to: hybrid models which bring together physics-based and data-driven approaches the use of multi-modal models capable of integrating and interpreting diverse (for example, large, small, sparse, complex) environmental and multidisciplinary datasets the use of foundation models to provide insights and tools for better data analysis, prediction, and decision-making small language models to support environmental science in an energy efficient and sustainable way Examples of outcomes include, but are not limited to: high quality and trustworthy AI-ready datasets the more effective quantification and management of uncertainty and risk more efficient and less carbon-intensive approaches to modelling new insights into the trends, correlations and patterns within complex systems novel approaches to simulation, prediction and forecasting, including the upscaling and downscaling of projections from local to global scale optimised solutions to resource allocation problems trustworthy new decision-support tools to enable timely mitigation and adaptation measures We encourage you to be as adventurous as possible in your thinking.

We want the research we support through this investment to result in the use of data science and AI to develop new approaches to tackling some of the most significant environmental challenges facing the UK and beyond. We are seeking to support creative and potentially unconventional ways of working, rather than incremental development.

At the same time, we are open to activities across the technology readiness levels (TRLs), from the development of novel algorithms to the application of an established technology from another domain to address a key environmental challenge. The criteria in the following two paragraphs apply to all applications, regardless of the TRL of the activities.

Innovative approaches are highly likely to benefit from interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and multidisciplinary working. We are therefore seeking to support teams that include expertise across disciplines, appropriate to both the data science and AI and the environmental challenge. It is also likely the advanced techniques from across different areas of science and research could be leveraged to tackle environmental challenges.

At the same time as being novel and adventurous, you should ensure that your proposed research is designed with end users in mind. This means designing for policy and operational needs and addressing potential barriers to ultimate real-world use throughout your work.

This includes considering data ethics and ensuring that methodologies are repeatable (and could be standardised in the future), robust data assurance processes can be developed, and that data generated meet FAIR standards (PDF, 174KB) .

You are expected to embed the principles of responsible AI and responsible research and innovation (RRI) throughout your activities, to identify and mitigate against possible cybersecurity risks and to consider equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

We note that the work may include citizen science or other approaches, and that there will be a need to interface with the NERC Environmental Data Service or other appropriate data infrastructure. For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, see the ‘Additional information’ section. You are encouraged to work across research communities and disciplines in order to develop innovative and ground-breaking approaches.

You are also encouraged to work closely with user communities within the business, policy and third sector (or any other sector deemed appropriate) in order to deliver impact. We will support funded projects to engage and connect with the existing ecosystem of UK AI investments and provide a gateway into the wider UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) community, to identify and capture synergies.

This will include working closely with Responsible AI UK , whose role it is to empower and connect the funded AI ecosystem. The duration of this award is 18 months. Projects must start on 1 October 2026.

Phase two support will be awarded to the most successful teams in phase one, following assessment of a phase two application and the outputs of phase one activities. If successful, phase two funding will be for an additional 42 months. This programme is made up of two phases which has a total budget of £12 million over five years.

For this initial phase, the FEC for the grant can be between £200,000 and £400,000. For the second phase of the programme, the FEC will likely be between £1. 3 million and £1.

8 million. For both phases, we will fund 80% of the FEC with the following exceptions: eligible costs for international project co-lead involvement would be funded at 100% This funding opportunity sources its funds from the NERC budget. The phase two challenge will open approximately five months before the end of phase one and applications will be assessed before the end of phase one.

Successful phase two applications will be expected to have demonstrated evidence of the following during phase one: the impact to date of their innovative approach to bringing data science and AI to bear on key environmental challenges their potential to deliver further transformation in the use of data science and AI to address environmental challenges with further funding the real-world usability of the tools or technologies or approach that will be developed, in line with user needs deliverability of plans for a second phase, including the appropriateness of the team, collaborators and partners to maximise impact This will allow us to prioritise funding transformative ideas that have the greatest potential for meaningful and lasting contributions to environmental science.

Further details on what can be applied for in the second phase will be given to successful phase one applicants in due course. requests for equipment of £25,000 and over.

You should request smaller items of equipment (under £25,000 individually) under ‘Consumables (other directly incurred costs)’ in your application costs for ship and marine equipment (SME) (this relates to phase one only) projects that are solely focused on data gathering You can apply to use a facility (excluding the FAAM Airborne Laboratory for phase one) or resource in your funding application.

You should discuss your application with the facility or service at least two months before the funding opportunity’s closing date to: discuss the proposed work in detail receive confirmation that they can provide the services required within the timeframe of the funding The facility will provide a technical assessment that includes the calculated cost of providing the service.

NERC services and facilities must be costed within the limits of the funding. You should not submit the technical assessment with the application, but you must confirm you have received it. For more information, see the NERC research grants and fellowships handbook .

Read the full list of NERC facilities that require a technical assessment . High Performance Computing (HPC) and the large research facilities at Harwell have their own policies for access and costing.

For information, see the NERC policy on access to high performance computing As part of the Comprehensive Spending Review in June 2025, the UK government committed up to £750 million into a new national supercomputer service hosted at the University of Edinburgh. The new national supercomputer will replace the current ARCHER2 supercomputer, with this service due to end on 21 November 2026.

UKRI are working on options for the period of transition and further details will be communicated in due course. You are able to continue to apply for time on ARCHER2, noting provision is not guaranteed after November 2026, or explore use of other UKRI or commercial service provisions. Where you are seeking to use other UKRI provisions then you must adhere to the relevant access process.

Where you are seeking to use commercial HPC services then the full cost of access to commercial HPC services must be included in your application. Other HPC provisions include but are not limited to: Isambard three tier two supercomputer led by University of Bristol (further details are available from Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCs) .

Access is managed via the UKRI Access to HPC opportunity European supercomputers (EuroHPC JU) AI Research Resource (AIRR) UK researchers are able to apply for time on AIRR for AI-related research. Access is via the Gateway Route . Note AIRR is not listed on the facility list in the UKRI Funding Service.

Applications via the Gateway route are open year round. You will need to obtain access to datasets independently of NERC. Your project planning should outline how access to data and permissions to utilise data for AI analysis will be secured, where necessary.

Ship-time and marine facilities Given the objectives of the programme, we do not anticipate that project leads will request substantial use of our ships and marine facilities. The use of NERC’s marine facilities is not an option for phase one of this programme, but may be explored for phase two.

If you wish to use NERC’s marine facilities for phase two, upon successfully gaining funding for phase one, then see the information on the website which advises on facility availability . A Ship Time and Marine Planning equipment form needs to be submitted through the Marine Facilities Planning portal and you should also contact marineplanning@nerc. ukri.

org to discuss your requirements as soon as possible but at least two months prior to the phase two funding opportunity closing date. Supporting skills and talent We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment .

Trusted Research and Innovation UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how your proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks. See further guidance and information about TR&I , including where you can find additional support.

You must adhere to UKRI open research policy and NERC data policy and complete the ‘Data management and sharing’ question. For details of data centres, see the NERC Environmental Data Service . We will pay the data centre directly on behalf of the programme for archival and curation services, but you should ensure that you request sufficient resource to cover preparation of data for archiving by the research team.

Additional services from the data centres, such as database development or a specialist in project data management during your project, will need to be discussed with the relevant data centre prior to submission. Costs for additional services will need to be funded from your grant. Through our funding processes, we seek to make a positive contribution to society and the environment.

This is not just through research outputs and outcomes but through the way in which research is conducted and facilities managed. All NERC grant holders are to adopt responsible research practices as set out in the NERC responsible business statement . Responsible research is defined as reducing harm or enhancing benefit on the environment and society through effective management of research activities and facilities.

Specifically, this covers: equality, diversity and inclusion You should consider the responsible research context of your project, not the host institution as a whole. You should take action to enhance your responsible research approach where practical and reasonable. We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so ensure that your organisation is registered.

You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application. Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.

Watch our recording on how to apply for an opportunity in the Funding Service . Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page. Confirm you are the project lead.

Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.

Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service.

All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page. Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office. Send the completed application to your research office for checking.

They will return it to you if it needs editing. Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI. Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

When including images, you must: provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it in the text box (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit) insert each new image on a new line use files smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words.

The following are not permitted, and your application may be rejected if you include: sentences or paragraphs of text excessive quantities of images A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column.

For more guidance on the Funding Service, see: how applicants use the Funding Service how research offices use the Funding Service how reviewers use the Funding Service References should be included within the word limit of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application. Hyperlinks can be used in reference information.

When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that: references are easily identifiable by the assessors references are formatted as appropriate to your research persistent identifiers are used where possible General use of hyperlinks Applications should be self-contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information.

You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) Use of generative AI tools to prepare funding applications is permitted, however, caution should be applied.

For more information see our policy on the use of generative AI in application and assessment . We must receive your application by 11 December 2025 at 4:00pm UK time. You will not be able to apply after this time.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines. Following the submission of your application to the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.

NERC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications. We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice .

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email AI4ES@nerc. ukri. org .

Include in the subject line: AI4ES; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number.

Typical examples of confidential information include: individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave) additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice .

Institutional matched funding There is no requirement for matched funding from the institution(s) hosting the project lead, project co-leads or other staff employed on the application, beyond any 20% FEC contribution. UKRI advises reviewers and panel members not to consider the level of matched host institution funding as a factor on which to base funding recommendations.

Any project partners are expected to contribute to the project, either with cash or in-kind contributions. NERC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity on What NERC has funded . If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research .

In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application. We usually make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information.

Make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example: the wider research community Guidance for writing a summary Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of: the challenge the project addresses potential applications and benefits List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following: project co-lead (UK) (PcL) project co-lead (international) (PcL (I)) professional enabling staff research and innovation associate Only list one individual as project lead.

The project lead is responsible for setting up and completing the application process on the Funding Service. UKRI has introduced a new addition to the ‘Specialist’ role type. Public contributors such as people with lived experience can now be added to an application.

Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications . What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response Explain how your proposed work: is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the field(s) or area(s) has the potential to advance current understanding, or generate new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area is timely given current trends, context, and needs impacts world-leading research, society, the economy, or the environment Within this section we also expect you to: describe how your project is novel, adventurous and potentially transformative articulate how your novel project using AI or data science or both, will enable significant advances in our ability to tackle key UK and global environmental challenges outline how your project addresses the priorities of the funding opportunity provide an initial vision for the potential longer-term impacts of your project if you were successful at winning both phase one and two funding References may be included within this section.

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the ‘How to apply’ section. How are you going to deliver your proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response Explain how you have designed your approach so that it: is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed uses a clearly written and transparent methodology (if applicable) summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed (if applicable) will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work Within this section we also expect you to: articulate how your proposed approach will enable environmental challenges to be addressed in a new way, meeting the needs of key users and stakeholders evidence cross-disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity or multidisciplinarity, or a combination of those, of team and approach describe how you will build trust and usability in the capability being developed alongside your adventurous approach demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposed work identify and mitigate against possible cybersecurity risks References may be included within this section.

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the ‘How to apply’ section. Applicant and team capability to deliver Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have: the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

Further details are provided in the ‘How to apply’ section. The word limit for this section is 1,650 words: 1,150 words to be used for R4RI modules (including references) and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.

Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.

Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed. Use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI .

You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings: contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships contributions to the wider research and innovation community contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit Complete this as a narrative.

Do not format it like a CV. References may be included within this section. The roles in funding applications policy has descriptions of the different project roles.

Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences, or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).

Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI) What are the ethical or RRI implications and issues relating to the proposed work? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why. What the assessors are looking for in your response Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations, and