Small Grant Funding Call

As part of the Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure (FDRI) Project, funding is available for up to three new research projects to advance hydrological modelling or field experimentation within the Upper Tweed, Upper Severn, and Chess catchments. Each small grant, up to £15,000, will support innovative approaches that engage with FDRI’s state-of-the-art field and digital technologies, helping to inform the ongoing rollout of national hydrological infrastructure. This funding call is being administered by Lancaster University as host of the FDRI Chief Science Advisor.

Background

FDRI is a £38 million five-year capital investment in world leading hydrological research infrastructure, which will feature a network of instrumented basins providing nationally relevant data. The project will instrument the 139 km² Upper Tweed, 174 km² Upper Severn and 105 km² Chess catchments with the latest technology as a focus or demonstrator for UK-wide initiatives in hydrological modelling and field experimentation. Digital solutions will underpin the observational infrastructure and facilitate data use.

The FDRI team has recently appointed Catchment Champions to encourage research engagement across the target catchments. In parallel, they have released new long-term, quality-assured data for the Upper Severn catchment. To support the wider UK hydrological community, FDRI has supported the production of a new dataset comprising of long-term discharge records at a 15-min resolution for most publicly funded UK river stations. This work has also contributed to an update of the CAMELS-GB dataset that for the first time includes hourly rainfall and discharge for most of those river catchments. Together, these initiatives create opportunities for UK researchers to engage with the FDRI catchments, through fieldwork and/or modelling, placing them in the broader context of UK hydrology and addressing key research challenges. To support this engagement, FDRI is offering small grants to UK researchers.

Aim of the Call

The purpose of this small grant call is to encourage novel research that will inform the rollout of FDRI’s field and digital technologies and lay the groundwork for future major funding programmes.

Eligibility

Applications are welcome from both Early Career Researchers, defined as those within five years of starting research, and established academics at UK universities/institutes. Projects may focus entirely on modelling or involve experimental fieldwork, but all proposals must make a clear link either to the hydrological behaviour of the Upper Tweed, Upper Severn or Chess catchments, or to the advanced technologies being developed for FDRI. Within this context, research may explore hydrological modelling, hydrological processes including those relevant to water quality, or hydrological field technology. Examples of possible topics are provided below to stimulate ideas, but applicants are encouraged to propose their own.

Individual Catchment Champions and FDRI partner institutions (UKCEH, BGS, Bristol and Imperial) are ineligible to apply for this call.

Funding and Resources

Each grant is worth up to £15,000 inclusive of VAT, with most resources expected to cover staff time and institutional overheads, though equipment and travel costs may also be included.

Application Requirements

Proposals should not exceed four pages of A4 in total, including:

• two pages for the science case including justification, figures and references,
• one page for resources detailing staff time (hours, days or FTE), costs per person, institutional overheads, equipment and travel (trips, cost per trip and total),
• one page summarising the curriculum vitae of all team members.

Applications must be submitted as a single PDF by email to chiefscienceadvisor-fdri@lancaster.ac.uk by 17:00 GMT on 20 April 2026.

Assessment

An independent panel of hydrologists will assess bids based on: (1) scientific excellence and novelty, and (2) relevance to FDRI’s developing technology systems. By applying, you agree for it to be shared for assessment purposes. Grants may run for up to twelve months, though shorter projects are also welcome.

Grant Conditions

Award recipients will be required to follow the ‘Specific terms, conditions, and requirements’ (below). We expect to make three awards under this call, with the intention that at least one will involve an Early Career Researcher.

Further information

For questions about the scope of the small grant bids or details of FDRI’s developing infrastructure, contact the NERC Chief Science Advisor at chiefscienceadvisor-fdri@lancaster.ac.uk. Award holders will be expected to share plans and headline findings with the relevant Catchment Champions and may seek advice from the Chief Science Advisor at any stage of the grant.

This award is subject to UKRI Terms and Conditions of Grants Meeting terms and conditions for funding – UKRI, as well as specific terms set out in this award letter.

Specific Terms, conditions, and requirements

The following conditions apply to this award:

1. The funding is cash limited. The Awardee should inform Lancaster University of any risk of overspend at the earliest opportunity.
2. The funding is either Resource (recurrent expenditure) or Capital (limited to the procurement, build or enhancement of assets) and spend should be charged accordingly.
3. The Awardee is required to participate in NERC assurance activity associated with this award. To satisfy this requirement, unless otherwise agreed in writing, Lancaster University will request a one-page end of project report from the Awardee that shall include details of the final project expenditure which shall be submitted to NERC following completion of each project. Further information on assurance will be provided by Lancaster as advised by NERC to meet NERC's requirements.
4. Any risk of material deviation from the funding profile should be relayed to Lancaster University (consultancy@lancaster.ac.uk).
5. The Awardee may not vary the deliverables in the proposals unless prior agreement has been sought and obtained from Lancaster University.
6. The Awardee will need to invoice Lancaster University for the agreed amount.
7. Lancaster University is to establish local governance to cover contract, restricted fund control, budget expenditure, programme, quality, delivery, and risk as appropriate to the size and nature of the project. Lancaster University will also ensure that this requirement is flowed down to awardees, who will be asked to outline the proposed local governance in their grant applications.
8. Lancaster University is required to demonstrate how net zero targets, environmental sustainability and equality, diversity and inclusion issues will be addressed which will support delivery of the Proposals. Lancaster University currently has and will continue to maintain appropriate institutional level policies, procedures and reports to support this requirement, which shall be available to NERC upon written request.
9. Where awards result in assets, award holders are required to maximise the exploitation of the assets to support high-quality research and innovation and to enable wider access where appropriate.
10. Where awards result in assets, award holders must assist with any reporting or review requirements requested by NERC up to eighteen months after the equipment becomes operational or capital maintenance work has been conducted, including details of equipment usage. Award holders must keep a record of all usage, providing details of the user and scientific project, which must be made available to NERC.
11. Where awards result in assets, NERC reserves the right to conduct asset validation and verification up to eighteen months post award, which could include site visits to view the equipment.
12. Awardees should consider the equality impacts of their projects. Guidance on undertaking an equality impact assessment will be provided.