Although I came across this rather late it is interesting that this research investment is being made after the Brexit vote. Effective communication is a major challenge to all of those who work and believe in science and evidence based approaches to policy making.

New public engagement funding call – Engaging the UK public with the big issues of environmental science

NERC is inviting proposals under this programme for public engagement projects costing up to £20k that must be delivered between January and end of March 2017.

A call information event will be held on Thursday 22 September 2016. Applications to attend this event will close at 16:00 on Monday 12 September. Please see the Announcement of Opportunity document below for more information.

This call initiates delivery of NERC’s public engagement strategy through:

• engaging members of the UK public with relevant contemporary issues of environmental science through delivery of environmental science public engagement activity
• building public engagement capacity in the environmental science research community and providing opportunities for early career researchers and PhD students to develop skills, practice and embed public engagement in their research careers
• building partnerships between researchers and publics or public-facing groups, and between research organisations.

Projects will focus on broad, contemporary issues of environmental science, not specific research projects or grants. Total funding of up to £200K is available for this call. An additional budget is available to provide matched funding up to the total value of the proposal (an additional maximum £20k) to provide training and support for the involvement of early-career researchers and PhD students in public engagement projects. The closing date for proposals is 16:00 on 3 November 2016.

Applicants are referred to the Announcement of Opportunity document below for further details.

Announcement of Opportunity (PDF, 419KB)