Within our funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), we have just over £750k to support innovative, short-term projects to further explore how we might define, enact or explore Ecological Citizenship for a sustainable digital society.
This fund will be split across 3 years of funding. Thank you to everyone who applied for our first year of funding under the theme Materials & Resources - the quality of the applications we received was outstanding. We really appreciate the time and effort involved.
Our next funding call: The Natural World, will open on 01.11.24
What are we looking for?
We are looking to fund and support projects that will contribute to the concept and exploration of Ecological Citizenship and catalyse positive climate action towards a sustainable digital society.
We welcome applications that go beyond the usual and celebrate unexplored areas within our call themes. We encourage experimentation and projects, ideas, interventions or initiatives that work 'with' rather than 'to' or 'for'.
We hope to target overlooked communities that can benefit from Ecological Citizenship and are open to varieties of impact, looking at both scale / breadth and intensity of impact, and impact well beyond human species.
Where appropriate, we hope you will commit to completing projects through the most sustainable practices, with the least environmental impact as possible.
Our overarching review will be based on quality and originality. We encourage applications from a wide range of regions across the UK and encourage applications from Early Career Researchers (ECRs).
Eligibility Requirements
In order to apply to the Ecological Citizen(s) funding, your project MUST be led by a principal investigator (PI) who is a member of research or teaching staff at an EPSRC eligible, UK-based institution*.
This includes most UK universities and various other research centres or establishments. You can check your / your institutions eligibility via the UKRI website here or get in touch with the Ecological Citizens Team via our email, ecological.citizens@rca.ac.uk
*If you are not currently affiliated with an eligible institution, we will aim to facilitate match making between researchers and non-academic partners where possible.
Call for Proposals 2024 - 25: The Natural World
For 2024 - 25 we are looking to fund projects that focus on The Natural World
The Ecological Citizens Network+ invites proposals for collaborations between academic, industry, and third-sector partners that will contribute to the concept of Ecological Citizenship and catalyse positive climate action towards a sustainable digital society.
Applications are invited that align with one or more of the themes in the following list:
- Nature based Solutions (NbS).
- Connectivity to / between natural worlds, systems and more-than-human life.
- Natural world focused systems and futures.
- Interaction(s) between animal, human, more-than-human and environmental health.
- Regenerative economies through societies and communities.
- Environmental monitoring and alternative citizen science for sustainable practices.
- Appropriate and / or considered biodiversity and rewilding.
The Natural World includes the essential qualities that make up life as well as the physical spaces, places, conditions and interactions between everything on our interconnected planet.
Plants and animals; soil, water and air; weather and shelter; movement, growth, reproduction. Nature is physical, contextual and conscious and not just tied to the countryside, but in our waterways, rooftops and school playgrounds; embedded in our cultures and history.
(updated 07.10.24)
Critical Dates
- Next funding call announced: 8th October 2024
- Submission Opens: 1st November 2024
- Submission Deadline: Midnight (23:59) on 31st January 2025
- Review process: February/March 2025
- Notification of outcome: early April 2025
- Successful projects to commence by the 1st September 2025
Funding Bands
A) Feasibility (£15k) | Maximum 6 month project.
A mix of desk-based and research field work to define the: opportunities, pitfalls and barriers of an EC touchpoint that can be built on, catalyse others or deliver tangible outputs. This may include: scoping work, small scale field work, catalysing activities that lead to strategic outputs, identifying key / potential audiences or specific areas of focus, defining and developing themes, areas of opportunity and insights or primary research and action research.
B) Prototype(s) (£20k) | Maximum 12 month project.
The development of an ‘EC touchpoint’ as a tangible manifestation uniting partners and relevant stakeholders for scale and impact. This may include: making / prototyping, opening a prototype for others to use, building, testing and reiterating.
C) Deployment(s) (£40-50k) | Maximum 12 month project.
Small to medium scale roll out of an ‘EC touchpoint’ with communities, locations, partners or other appropriate organisations. This may include: delivering (small scale trial / deployment) with pertinent stakeholders, trialling an innovation or technology in situ, with a community or an environment and exploring opportunities for scale or replication of an innovation or intervention.
(updated 07.10.24)