AHRC/NERC Call to Research the Hidden Histories of Environmental Science

New funding call available to research how UK environmental science can learn from the past.

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) are providing a call for applications to the main research opportunity for the programme ‘Hidden histories of environmental science: Acknowledging legacies of race, social injustice and exclusion to inform the future’.

The opportunity will take an interdisciplinary approach bringing together teams including environmental scientists, arts, humanities, economic and social science researchers, practitioners and community groups to form substantial research collaborations. These collaborations will seek to understand and acknowledge how the future of modern UK environmental science can be informed by the past, in particular the relationship between the sector and its underpinning colonial history, and how different cultural perceptions of environmental science can be incorporated today.

Proposals must include at least one arts and humanities researcher eligible for UKRI funding and working in AHRC disciplines, and at least one environmental science researcher eligible for UKRI funding and working in NERC’s remit. Proposals must also engage with at least one community group or non-academic organisation.

Research proposals should be submitted up to a maximum value of £125,000 (at 100% full economic cost) with UKRI’s contribution being £100,000 (at 80% full economic cost) per project.

Projects should have a start date of no later than 4 January 2022 and be between 12 and 15 months in duration. Projects must be completed by 31 March 2023.

Applications should be submitted online by the 5 October 2021 (4pm UK time).