Water4All 2026 call: sustainable water management

Water4All 2026 call: sustainable water management is sponsored by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Water4All 2026 call: sustainable water management. Funding opportunity from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

Apply via the UKRI portal.

Water4All 2026 call: sustainable water management – UKRI Funding opportunity: Water4All 2026 call: sustainable water management Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) , Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Water4All partnership, European Commission 6 April 2027 2:00pm UK time Submit a pre-proposal on the Water4All website .

Funding for UK based researchers to collaborate with international partners and submit joint application to the Water4All 2026 joint translational call: sustainable water management. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding. To be eligible, transnational research consortia must include teams from a minimum of three countries financially participating in the call .

The full economic cost (FEC) of the total requested budget from all UK partners on a project can be up to £312,500. UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC and fund your project for up to 36 months. Refer to the Water4All website for general eligibility and the specific funding organisation eligibility rules for UKRI before applying.

The research of the UK component must be within: You are encouraged to contact NERC to discuss remit before submitting the proposal. This opportunity is open to UK research organisations with standard eligibility. 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 applications from individuals at any career stage, subject to NERC eligibility criteria The UK project lead must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding. This includes eligible public sector research establishments and independent research organisations.

There is no limit to the number of UK project co-leads per application. However, it must be clear from the application what unique contribution each project co-lead will make to the success of the proposed project.

Other ways different organisations can be involved include: project partners: people who will not receive funding directly from the award but will have an integral role in the proposed project, minor directly incurred costs, such as some travel costs, are acceptable subcontractors: people responsible for providing a service only You may be involved in no more than two applications submitted to this funding opportunity.

Only one of these can be as the Project Partner Coordinator of the research consortium. International researchers To be eligible for the Water4All 2026 joint call, transnational research consortia must include team members from a minimum of three countries financially participating in the funding opportunity. This should include at least two different EU Member States or Horizon Europe associated countries.

Refer to the list of Participating countries on the Water4All website. International researchers cannot be included on the UK component of this funding opportunity as Project co-lead (international). You can consider including international collaborators, or UK partners not eligible to apply for UKRI funding, as project partners.

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. Refer to the Water4All website for full details on the scope of the call and the specific funding organisation eligibility rules for UKRI before applying.

The Water4All 2026 joint transnational call focuses on sustainable water management (excluding extreme events and circularity). It invites proposals that address critical challenges related to: integrated water resource management The call topics are overlapping and non-exclusive. Thus, proposals must address at least one of the following topics and may integrate multiple topics where relevant.

It is not compulsory to address all subtopics within a topic in the proposals. This call addresses four topics with the UK only funding projects within Topics 1, 2 and 3.

Projects are welcome to address one or several of these topics: Topic 1: Integrated monitoring and assessment for sustainable water management: This topic addresses the need for integrated monitoring, data (cross)analysis and sharing, and assessment frameworks that enable a holistic understanding of surface and groundwater, and that facilitate robust, evidence-based decision-making.

Topic 2: Nature-based approaches for resilient water management at hydrological: This topic focuses on nature-based approaches to enhance groundwater resilience, improve water retention and storage, and support adaptive river‑basin and groundwater management.

and hydrogeological system scale Topic 3: Smart, secure and adaptive water infrastructures for sustainable water management: This topic focuses on enhancing the performance, resilience, and security of water infrastructures across scales, from local systems to river basins.

Topic 4: Resilient water systems through systemic change, policy coherence and inclusive governance: This topic aims to strengthen the resilience of river basins, groundwater systems, and coastal waters by integrating systemic approaches with coherent policies and inclusive governance and improved understanding of water’s strategic value. The duration of this award is a maximum of 36 months.

The latest grant start date for UK awards of Water4All projects is 31 March 2028. We anticipate supporting a minimum of 8 projects involving UK research partners across a range of UK budget sizes. UK budget requests exceeding £312,500 at 100% FEC (£250,000 at 80% FEC) should provide additional justification.

The budget applied for shall be stated in Euro. You must include the total UK budget in British Pound Sterling and the exchange rate used within your justification of resources narrative. This should be included in the application form under the section on Explanation and remarks concerning the proposed budget.

You can request standard UKRI eligible costs . In addition you can request costs for NERC non-ship marine facilities and equipment. These costs need to be included in the application and will count towards the funding limit.

Project Co-leads (International) costs 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 Programme governance and reporting Consortium Coordinators will be required to submit: reporting required by UKRI a mid-term progress report deliverables needed to monitor the progress These will be sent to the Central Steering Committee according to common templates, which will be provided.

All partners will have to deliver input for these reports. The monitoring will be conducted during the life span of the project. Further details can be found in the Water4All call document .

You can apply to use a facility or resource in your funding application.

You should discuss your application with the facility or service as soon as possible before you submit your application, to: ensure the details of the proposed work are feasible receive confirmation that they can provide the services required within the timeframe of the funding You should ensure you have prior agreement from the facility before submitting to the funding opportunity and indicate this within your application.

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.

Check the relevant section of the NERC Facilities and resources page for the latest information on how to apply for these services including whether a technical assessment is needed. High Performance Computing (HPC) If you require High Performance Compute (HPC) services, please refer to the HPC section of the NERC facilities and resources for the latest information on how to apply.

Additional provisions available to UK researchers include those listed here facilities and supercomputers (EuroHPC JU) . Ship-time and marine facilities Applications may require non-ship marine facilities. If you wish to use NERC’s marine facilities, then you must complete an online ‘ship-time and marine equipment (SME) or autonomous deployment (ADF) application form’ available from Marine Facilities Planning .

Include the SME or ADF number on the ‘Facilities’ section of your application. SMEs or ADFs must be submitted to and approved by NERC Marine Planning by the time your funding application is submitted. A PDF of the SME or ADF can be attached as a facility form to your application.

If you do not do this, your request may not be included in the NERC Marine Facilities Programme. If you intend on using NERC marine facilities, then see facility availability from 2025 to 2030 . You should also contact marineplanning@nerc.

ukri. org as soon as possible to allow for talks, approval and costs. 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 (TR&I) 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 their 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.

However, 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 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.

You should refer to the Water4All website for full details before applying. You must apply using the Water4All application platform Electronic Proposal Submission System (EPSS). A two-step application procedure will apply, with a mandatory submission of pre-proposals at the first step and submission of full proposals at the second step.

Following the completion of the assessment process, UK applicants on successful applications will be required to submit details of their application through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. Details on how to do this will be provided to relevant project leads following the assessment process.

How we will assess your application You should refer to the Water4All website for full details on how your application will be assessed. The assessment process will be led by the Water4All.

Your application will be assessed by independent experts in a two stage process: At step 1 (pre-proposal stage): (1) Excellence and (2) Impact At step 2 (full proposal stage): (1) Excellence, (2) Impact and (3) Quality and Efficiency of Implementation Get help with developing your proposal For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

Ask about this funding opportunity For general questions regarding the call including general eligibility, call scope and assessment, email the Water4All Call Secretariat, Project Management Agency Karlsruhe (PTKA): water4All. call@ptka. kit.

edu For specific questions regarding UK participation in this call including UKRI eligibility and funding rules, email the NERC Water4All programme team: freshwaterquality@nerc. ukri. org For any technical question regarding the EPSS, email the EPSS Help desk: epss.

water4all@g. etag. ee The Water4All secretariat will hold a general webinar on 17 September (2pm to 4pm CEST).

Register to attend the webinar This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services .