Internal Call: NERC funding to support Discipline Hopping for Environmental Solutions
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has offered a grant of £75,000 to Newcastle University (subject to confirmation) to fund activities by 31 March 2022 at the latest that will support academics and researchers within our organisation to build expertise and agility to work across disciplinary boundaries.
Example (but not exclusive) activities include:
- Embedding researchers, for a period of time, in departments outside of their own discipline area.
- Sharing insights on priorities and looking for synergies/ new ideas that cut across departmental boundaries.
- Work shadowing in other departments, for example to learn new skills and techniques.
- Organising meetings/ seminars/ workshops between departments and disciplines to share learning, understanding of key terms, concepts, language and tools to tackle problems.
- Working with end users (e.g. businesses, policymakers, non-governmental organisations) to understand how their needs could be addressed through interdisciplinary approaches.
Call for Expressions of Interest
We invite Expressions of Interest (EOIs) for funding to support discipline-hopping activities that will help address environmental challenges (see attached PDF call document for more details). The outcome on which EOIs to fund will be made by an internal Discipline Hopping Fund (DHF) committee, a diverse, multidisciplinary, and cross-University group that have all completed unconscious bias training.
We expect to make awards in the range of £20,000−£40,000 (full economic cost), but are open to receiving EOIs outside this range if clear reasoning.
Given the tight timescale, the deadline for emailing the short EOI form (see attached Word document) to Jarlath McKenna <jarlath.mckenna@newcastle.ac.uk> is 5pm on 6th December 2021. You will be informed of the outcome in mid-December. We request that you have the relevant support and approval in place to undertake the proposed activity.