Call summary :

Total fund: £4,000,000
Maximum award: £1,000,000
Publication date: 8 June 2023
Opening date: To be confirmed
Closing date: 3 October 2023 4:00pm UK time

Apply for funding for a collaborative UK-India project to improve understanding of geohazard events in India and its neighbouring countries.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for NERC funding and have an Indian partner based at an Ministry of Earth Sciences, India (MoES) institute.
Projects will comprise of a UK component and an India component.
The full economic cost (FEC) of the UK component can be up to £1 million with matched equivalent resources from MoES for Indian applicants.
This is a pre-announcement, and the information may change.
The funding opportunity will open shortly. More information will be available on this page then.

Who can apply
All projects must be collaborative and include UK and Indian researchers. One collaborative application should be submitted to NERC detailing both the UK and Indian contributions to the project.
Each project must list one project lead from the UK and one project co-lead (international) from India.
Applicants may be involved in no more than two applications submitted to this funding Opportunity. Only one of these can be as project lead.

UK eligibility
This is a UKRI funding opportunity led by NERC.
Standard NERC eligibility requirements will apply.

Indian eligibility
The Indian project co-lead may be based at any Indian research institute, but applications must involve collaboration with at least one researcher from a MoES institute.

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:
- career breaks
- support for people with caring responsibilities
- flexible working
- alternative working patterns
Find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI and NERC’s diversity and inclusion action plan.
Full eligibility details will be published when the opportunity opens.

Scope
Building resilience to geohazards presents a major challenge that requires collaborative international action by researchers, policymakers, governments, private sectors, and civil societies.
The Understanding geohazard processes and their impacts across India programme will fund interdisciplinary research that:
- seeks to understand the contextual fundamental physics of earthquake and landslide processes behind geohazard events in India and its neighbouring countries
- explores the social, cultural and environmental impacts of cascading geohazards within India and its neighbouring countries in order to enhance environmental and community resilience at the local, regional and national scale by devising novel risk reduction and mitigation strategies
It is expected that project teams will need to incorporate researchers from a range of disciplines.

Projects should further understanding of and address knowledge gaps in the fundamental properties and physics of earthquake and landslide processes through appropriate methods.

Research should be informed by local knowledge and understanding of disaster events. Projects should therefore employ a participatory approach from the outset in order to co-develop tools and approaches with local communities, that will have direct impact on the ground.

Geographical focus
Projects will need to focus on geohazards in India and its neighbouring countries but can choose to research events that occur at any type of plate boundary, including the previously understudied intraplate regions. Additionally, projects could concentrate on marine earthquakes and tsunamis, including within the Andaman subduction zone. Where appropriate, projects should also outline where their research will have broader global applicability.

Funding available
The FEC of the UK component of your project can be up to £1,000,000.?We will fund 80% of the FEC.
Matched funding will be available from MoES for the Indian component of projects
Full details on what we are looking for will be published when the opportunity opens.