Apply for funding to deliver collaborative research which focuses on the underpinning science of aviation’s non-carbon dioxide (non-CO2) impacts to identify benefits, mitigation options, informing industry and government policy decisions.
You must be:
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £385,425. We will fund 80% of the FEC (meaning, £308,340).
Projects must begin by no later than 1 February 2027 and last for no more than 14 months.
This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. .
This funding opportunity is open to research groups and individuals. We:
You may be involved in no more than two applications submitted to this funding opportunity. Only one of these can be as project lead.
Project partners fund their own involvement. We will only fund minor incidental expenses, such as some travel costs, if needed for project partners.
You should include all UK partners not based at approved eligible organisations or international collaborators as project partners. This includes organisations from the business or industrial sectors.
Sub-contracting aspects of the work, meaning particular goods and services, to non-eligible institutions is possible, in line with the .
Projects incorporating funded industrial partners will be eligible for the delivered by the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) which is part of the same research programme. See the ‘What we are looking for’ section for more detail.
We are 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:
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) can offer during the application and assessment process.
Demand management is not currently being applied to this funding opportunity. However, should the level of interest exceed what can be managed within the assessment process, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) may introduce limits on the number of applications that can be submitted. Further details will be clearly communicated where this is the case. UKRI encourages organisations to support applicants in preparing well-planned, high-quality applications that are competitive for funding relative to the funding opportunity.
There is continuing scientific uncertainty regarding the magnitude of aviation’s non-CO2 impacts on the climate, and the UK government has committed to improving their understanding of aviation’s non-CO2 impacts and to identify and develop policy options and measures to mitigate these impacts.
This research programme, in partnership with the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), focuses on aviation’s non-CO2 impacts.
The programme supports research aimed at reducing the non-CO2 climate impacts from aviation, the impacts of which could be greater than CO2 emissions. It seeks to establish how the non-CO2 impacts interact with climate over time, and how to mitigate their impacts with the view to informing industry funding and government policy and investment decisions.
This is the third of three academic-led research opportunities in the current programme. Proposals that build on the existing portfolio by strengthening validation, addressing uncertainties, and decision relevance, rather than duplicating current areas of activity, are particularly encouraged.
For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, as well as information on the programme design, go to the ‘Additional information’ section.
You can address one or more themes set out below and must cover at least one of the three themes for this funding opportunity.
Applications related to multiple themes as well as those with industrial partnerships are encouraged. Short descriptions of the projects already funded can be found on the . We will not fund new projects which directly duplicate research funded to date under this programme; see further information within this section to clarify this detail.
Your project should be focused on technology readiness levels (TRL) 1 to 4. However, proposals should identify how the results obtained will support higher TRL research (for example, that supported by the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI)) and lead to reduced climate impacts of non-CO2 aviation emissions.
Applications can be related to fossil fuel powered aircraft, Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) powered aircraft and or zero-carbon emission aircraft. Applications should focus on civil aviation (passenger or cargo flight) and research in wider sectors where it is applicable to civil aviation. You should not seek to undertake research on aviation CO2 emissions, unless appropriate for the purposes of better understanding a non-CO2 issue.
There is a recognised need to strengthen confidence in how predictions of contrails and the role of aerosols are interpreted and used, and not simply to improve prediction accuracy. You should focus on understanding and characterising uncertainty, robustness, and decision relevance, including:
You should consider recognising failure modes, model dependent differences, and potential unintended consequences, to better distinguish approaches that are ready for wider operational testing from those that still requires further evidence.
Existing funded work within this research programme currently addresses some potentially overlapping areas, including:
Existing projects are currently focused on observational constraints, modelling advances, and uncertainty in contrail and aerosol impacts.
You should clearly articulate how your application would extend beyond existing activity. For example, but not limited to:
Research that supports independent benchmarking or inter comparison of contrail models can provide valuable insights. Applications here may apply multiple approaches to shared datasets or case studies to identify systematic differences, structural biases, and areas of convergence or divergence relevant to operational use.
We encourage applications to this theme which aim to help distinguish contrail mitigation approaches by decision readiness (including assessment of failure modes, risks of false positives or negatives), and potential unintended climate trade-offs. In so doing clarifying which approaches are sufficiently mature for wider operational testing, and which require further evidence.
Further evidence is needed to enhance quantitative understanding of how current and future fuels influence aviation’s non CO2 effects, through changes in exhaust composition and subsequent atmospheric processes. This includes getting an improved understanding of how fuel composition affects particulate emissions (in both non-volatile and volatile particulate matter) sulphur-derived species and water vapour. Emphasis should be on identifying how these changes filter through to climate relevant outcomes.
You should make clear what uncertainty is reduced and what new evidence will be generated. For example, through data, parameterisation or validation.
The research programme has already funded a substantial body of work addressing fuel composition and non CO2 effects alongside related . Your proposal should demonstrate clearly how it addresses the remaining evidence gaps rather than revisiting covered areas. We encourage applications that explicitly consider trade-offs or unintended consequences across multiple non CO2 pathways (rather than focusing on a single mechanism), recognising that mitigation of one effect may influence others.
Your project may cover some of the following. However, the scope is not limited to these bullets alone. You should be clear in your response what you are planning to address:
Additional research that strengthens the understanding of:
Further research is needed to improve understanding of water vapour emissions and nitrogen oxides formation at cruise, including their implications for ice nucleation pathways, ice particle formation and subsequent cloud development, and how these processes vary spatially and temporally with atmospheric background state.
The evidence base on the climate relevance of water exhaust alone remains limited. Proposals are invited which focus on water exhaust behaviour, dispersion and microphysical impacts from fuel cell aircraft. Further understanding in this area will help avoid reliance on assumptions derived from conventional engine plume behaviour.
Forcing is assessed as small for present day aviation, producing a positive radiative forcing that is highly sensitive to emission altitude and atmospheric transport. However, there are evidence gaps on how applicable current evidence will be to future fuels and zero emission aircraft and current research evidence is not sufficiently well-defined to provide robust policy decisions. Projects are invited which advance confidence in this forcing to improve monitoring and reporting frameworks for non CO2 impacts, as these are developed with future advancement in fuels and zero emission aircraft.
Projects under this theme should aim to better our understanding of atmospheric science specifically to help improve decision-making related to reducing the non-CO2 climate impacts of aviation. Projects must also ensure they are oriented to meeting the goals of the overall research programme:
Your project should be targeted at particular groups or a range of stakeholders. For example, policy, airlines, manufacturers, energy companies. You may focus on, but are not limited to:
Your projects should aim to improve overall understanding by bringing together different research strands. This may include aligning scientific and operational analysis of mitigation concepts and their real world feasibility.
Projects are encouraged to focus on approaches that address:
Metrics and equivalence frameworks for non CO2 impacts are already an active area of research within the programme, in recognition that no single metric is universally suitable across all contexts. Projects addressing this theme should focus on how metrics are applied and interpreted, rather than developing new metrics and frameworks. This may include the treatment and communication of uncertainty, confidence and timescales, rather than developing new standalone metrics in isolation.
Research in this area that explicitly supports risk informed decision-making, for example in operational planning, monitoring and reporting, or future policy development, should provide strong complementarity to existing scientific studies and ongoing European activities. Your project should acknowledge where these links, beneficiaries and complementarities occur and avoid duplication.
The duration of this award is a maximum of 14 months.
Projects should start no later than 1 February 2027.
The FEC of your project can be up to £385,425.
We will fund 80% of the FEC (meaning, £308,340) with the exception that eligible costs for international project co-lead involvement would be funded at 100%.
This funding opportunity sources its funds from the NERC budget.
We anticipate funding up to six projects. This is expected to be a minimum of one project under each theme. The programme expert advisory group (EAG) will make recommendations for a balanced portfolio to the funders, who will make the final funding decision. The funders may increase the number of projects supported through this opportunity should further budget become available and if submissions are sufficient high quality.
We will fund facilities costs as part of this funding opportunity.
We will not fund:
You can apply to use a facility or resource in your funding application.
You should discuss your application with the facility or service as soon as possible and ideally two months before the funding opportunity’s closing date to:
The facility will provide a technical assessment that includes the calculated cost of providing the service. NERC services and facilities must be costed within the limits of the funding.
You should not submit the technical assessment with the application, but you must confirm you have received it.
For more information, see the .
Read the full list of .
High Performance Computing (HPC), and the large research facilities at Harwell have their own policies for access and costing.
Note the ARCHER2 service end date is 21 November 2026. Where you require HPC provision after November 2026, you are advised to explore alternative provisions such as other UKRI provisions listed or commercial HPC services. Where you are seeking to use other UKRI provisions then you must adhere to the relevant access process. Where you are seeking to use commercial HPC services then the full cost of access to commercial HPC services must be included in your application.
UKRI provisions include:
See also, that are available to UK researchers.
We encourage you to follow the principles of the and the .
UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.
As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.
See , including where you can find additional support.
You must adhere to and and complete the ‘Data management and sharing’ question.
For details of data centres, see the .
We will pay the data centre directly on behalf of the programme for archival and curation services, but you should ensure that you request sufficient resource to cover preparation of data for archiving by the research team. Additional services from the data centres, such as database development or a specialist in project data management during your project, will need to be discussed with the relevant data centre prior to submission, costs for additional services will need to be funded from your grant.
Through our funding processes, we seek to make a positive contribution to society and the environment. This is not just through research outputs and outcomes but through the way in which research is conducted and facilities managed.
All NERC grant holders are to adopt responsible research practices as set out in the .
Responsible research is defined as reducing harm or enhancing benefit on the environment and society through effective management of research activities and facilities. Specifically, this covers:
You should consider the responsible research context of your project, not the host institution as a whole. You should take action to enhance your responsible research approach where practical and reasonable.
We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service, so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.
Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.
Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page:
Please be aware that research office and finance teams undertake checks on hosting arrangements and financial eligibility. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with all opportunity requirements lies with the applicant.
Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.
When including images, you must:
Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words. The following are not permitted, and your application will be rejected if you include:
A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.
Hyperlinks can be used in reference information. When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that:
Applications should be self-contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information. You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision.
Use of generative AI tools to prepare funding applications is permitted, however, caution should be applied.
For more information see our .
We must receive your application by 8 September 2026 at 4:00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
Following the submission of your application to this funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and submitted applications will not be amended. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.
NERC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.
We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our .
NERC, as part of UKRI, will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with programme partners so they can participate in the assessment of this funding opportunity:
For more information on how DfT, DBT and ATI use personal information, visit:
If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email
Include in the subject line: Aviation non-CO2 funding opportunity; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number.
Typical examples of confidential information include:
For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read .
There is no requirement for matched funding from the institutions hosting the project lead, project co-leads or other staff employed on the application, beyond the standard 20% FEC. Expert reviewers and panels assessing UKRI funding applications must not consider levels of institutional matched funding as a factor on which to base recommendations. Direct and in-kind contributions from third party project partners are encouraged.
This policy does not remove the need for support from host organisations who must provide the necessary research environment and infrastructure for award-specific activities funded by UKRI. For example, research facilities, training and development of staff.
NERC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at .
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the .
Word limit: 550
In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.
We usually make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. Make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:
Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
Only list one individual as project lead.
UKRI has introduced a new addition to the ‘Specialist’ role type. Public contributors such as people with lived experience can now be added to an application.