Understanding the Impacts of the Current El Niño Event
Summary
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Department for International Development (DFID)
invite proposals for a new £4m collaborative research programme on ‘Understanding the Impacts of the
Current El Niño Event’. The programme aims to advance our understanding of the impacts of the current El
Niño in low and middle income countries to increase preparedness and resilience to future events.
The programme will support small projects of up to £300k (100% FEC) and up to 18 months duration to study
the impacts of the current El Niño event in developing countries. Proposals will have to show that there is an
urgent need to collect novel data relating to the local and regional impacts of the current El Niño.
All projects are required to have a Principal Investigator based in a UK Research Organisation eligible for
NERC funding. Projects with co-investigators and researchers based in other organisations, particularly in low
and middle income countries, are encouraged but will receive funding through the lead research
organisation
Proposals must be submitted via the UK Research Councils’ Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system
before 16:00 GMT/UTC on 18th February 2016.
1. Background
El Niño is a prolonged warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and east-central Pacific that
occurs irregularly at about 3-6 year intervals and which weakens the trade winds and alters the monsoon
pattern. This affects global weather patterns and typically results in drought conditions in Southern Africa
and South East Asia and enhanced rainfall in Eastern Africa and South America. The World Meteorological
Organisation is predicting that the current El Niño event will be one of the three strongest recorded since
1950 1 and it is having a significant effect on a number of low and middle income countries. UNICEF is
estimating that 11 million children are at risk of hunger, disease and lack of water in eastern and southern
Africa as a result of the current El Niño 2. The India Meteorological Department is reporting that India as a
whole has suffered a rainfall deficit of 14% during the 2015 Summer Monsoon, with some regions
experiencing a deficit of almost 50% 3. Wildfires in Indonesia, exacerbated by the drought conditions, have
resulted in high pollution levels across South East Asia.
Although some information on the humanitarian impacts of the current El Niño is being collected by aid
agencies, little analysis of other impacts is being undertaken; however El Niño forecasts, mitigation
strategies and the humanitarian response during the event are all strongly informed by analyses of previous
events. Hence more accurate and reliable information on this event (e.g. the scale of the floods and droughts
and their effect on livelihoods, food security, ecosystem services, disease vectors, and key infrastructure) is
needed to enable improvements in El Niño models and forecasts, and ultimately increase preparedness and
resilience to future events. Studying the current El Niño is particularly important as it is an unusually strong
event. The last major El Niño was in 1997/8 and since then there have been major advances in sensor
1
http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/wcp/wcasp/enso_update_latest.html
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_86110.html
3
http://www.imd.gov.in/section/nhac/dynamic/weeklypress.pdf
2
networks, satellite measurements, modelling capacities and data analysis and assimilation techniques that
can be applied to a major El Niño for the first time.
2. Programme Objectives
The aim of this research programme is address the need to have a better understanding of the impacts of
the current El Niño event in low and middle income countries. To enable this aim to be achieved, NERC and
DFID seek to fund projects that:
• improve the environmental and socio-economic evidence base of the impacts of the current El Niño
event, particularly at the local and regional level; and
• have the potential to contribute to future increased resilience to El Niño events, and therefore to
increased societal wellbeing and economic growth
The impacts of El Niño are both varied and widespread, but the focus of the programme will be limited to
cases where there is an urgency to collect novel data relating to the local and regional impacts of the current
El Niño in a low or middle income country (or countries), particularly where such impacts have development
implications. Possible research topics include, but are not limited to, advancing our understanding of El Niño
in relation to:
• the scale and impact of floods and droughts on basin hydrology, e.g. water flow and storage, soil
moisture and water quality;
• the impact on the processes that drive the carbon exchange between the atmosphere and the
tropical biosphere;
• changes in the biodiversity levels and functioning of ecosystems (forests, agricultural etc.) and the
associated provision of the wide variety of services they provide to understand their resilience to
the perturbation;
• the impact of the prolonged dry and wet periods on environmental reservoirs and transmission
pathways of vector-borne diseases, such as malaria and dengue fever;
• impacts on air quality;
• analysis of the impacts of floods, storm surges and landslides, for example on deltas and river banks,
to improve risk models;
• the scale and impact of human displacement;
• temperature extremes (heatwaves, cold snaps) and their impact on human health – including more
direct impacts on health
• the impact on livestock grazing/pasture and coastal fisheries;
• dependence of impacts on existing time-varying and other factors such as food prices, political
economy, pre-existing vulnerabilities, conflict etc.;
• analysis of the socio-economic dimensions of impact, including vulnerability and coping capacity,
differentiated for example, by income group, gender, disabilities etc.; and
• estimates of the social and economic costs of impacts and recovery.
Within the timeframe of the programme a La Niña event may also occur. NERC and DFID are supportive of
projects studying the transition from El Niño to La Niña if the opportunity arises and recognise that any La
Niña elements of the research proposals will be less developed at this stage given the uncertainty about the
timing, scale and impact of the La Niña.
Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary proposals are welcome, but are not a requirement for funding.
Projects that seek to utilise novel approaches and new observing techniques to study El Niño are also
encouraged.
The expected outcome of the programme is a number of studies on the impacts of the current El Niño that
can be used to enable a more effective response to future events, for example by improving country-level
analyses of the likely impacts of El Niño and associated risks to lives and livelihoods. The funders will seek to
ensure that a balanced portfolio of research that covers a range of El Niño impacts in a number of different
countries is supported to enable this outcome to be delivered.
3. Proposal Requirements
3.1 Programme Scope
The ‘Understanding the Impacts of the Current El Niño Event’ programme will support approximately 12
small projects undertaking research to understand the impacts of the current El Niño event. Research on
past or future El Niño events, or the processes and mechanisms responsible for the formation of El Niño is
out of scope.
This programme has been designed to enable the research community to study the current El Niño; it seeks
to support innovative research that cannot be funded through other routes, such as within existing projects
or through normal competitive funding schemes, such as NERC Standard Grants. The research should
therefore be new and urgent, i.e. the opportunity to undertake the research will be short-lived, for
example because the features being studied are transient. The importance of the impact being studied
and the degree to which the research can contribute to resilience to future El Niño events are not evidence
of the urgency of the research. It is expected that successful projects will address all three of the
programme requirements and will: provide evidence of the impacts of the current El Niño event; have the
potential to contribute to increased resilience to future events; and be timely and urgent. As noted in
Section 2, proposals may also include research on the transition from El Niño to La Niña.
Projects can be based in any low or middle income country 4, however to reflect DFID’s priorities it is
anticipated that at least half the available budget will be spent on research focused on low income countries.
Similarly, work in any relevant research discipline (e.g. social, agricultural or medical) is eligible, but to align
with NERC’s priorities it is anticipated that at least half the available budget will be used to support novel,
innovative environmental science.
3.2 Eligible Research Organisations
The lead Research Organisation must be eligible to hold NERC grants; i.e. be an approved UK Higher
Education Institutions (HEIs), Research Council Institutes (RCIs) or Independent Research Organisations
(IROs). Full details of approved RCIs and IROs can be found on the RCUK website.
Non-UK organisations and other UK organisations not currently eligible to receive NERC funding 5 cannot act
as the lead organisation. Individuals based in these organisations may be named as a Co-Investigator (if a
collaborator on the project and receiving funding through the grant), or a Project Partner (if providing
significant cash or in kind contributions to the project) or a sub-contractor (if purely providing a service, with
no intellectual property, author or other rights) and receive funds through the lead organisation.
It is important to highlight that the UK Research Organisation awarded the grant is responsible for the
conduct and administration of the grant. It is accountable for the effective use of public funds, and must
therefore ensure that all grant monies are subject to proper financial management processes. It is the
Research Organisation’s responsibility to ensure that expenditure on collaborations in the UK and abroad is
subject to robust controls to ensure value for money and propriety and that all costs should be fully vouched
and maintained for possible inspection and checks by, or on behalf of, the funding organisations (NERC and
DFID).
If any of the Research Organisations that receive funding from NERC wishes to sub-contract research to an
overseas research organisation or include a Co-Investigator at an overseas research organisation then the UK
Research Organisation must undertake due diligence checks to ensure that the funding will be appropriately
4
See DAC list of ODA Recipients of low and middle income countries
Funding for these organisations will come from DFID and not the Research Councils. These organisations will not be
eligible for any other UK Research Council funding, unless specifically stated by an individual Council.
5
used. The Research Organisation must confirm to NERC that it has undertaken suitable due diligence checks
within 3 months of the start of the grant.
CGIAR organisations are eligible to be involved with an application with an eligible UK Principal Investigator.
However, under DFID funding rules they should not apply as developing country partners since they have
competitive international terms and conditions and are able to recruit internationally.
3.3 Research Roles and Eligibility
With the exception of project partners and ‘staff’ such as researchers and technicians, individuals may be
named on a maximum of two Grants submitted, and may be named as a lead Principal Investigator (PI) on
only one. The total time commitment across the applications with which they are involved should not
exceed 100%. If individuals are named on more than two submitted proposals then additional proposals will
be rejected, which may be to the detriment of both the individual and projects concerned.
Full information on individual eligibility and role descriptions can be found under Section C (pages 14-19) of
the NERC Grants Handbook.
3.4. Associated Studentships on a Proposal
Associated studentships (either Masters or PhD studentships) cannot be included on proposals submitted to
this programme.
3.5. Demonstrating the Pathway to Impact
The projects are expected to deliver both academic impact (for example research papers, significant new
data and understanding) and a pathway to significant and sustainable development impact in order to
address a central goal of both NERC and DFID; excellence with impact.
An acceptable Pathway to Impact is required before a grant may start. A clearly articulated demand for the
proposed research is expected. The Pathways to Impact strategy is expected to identify target beneficiaries
from the proposed research over different timescales, how they will benefit and what actions will be taken
within the project to increase the likelihood of the research reaching the identified beneficiaries and
maximise the likelihood of the identified benefits being achieved. This should include reference to the
specific objectives and outputs of this programme.
DFID and NERC have several resources available to support the development of Pathways to Impact
including:
• DFID Research Uptake Guidance.
• NERC Pathways to Impact Policy and Guidance.
• RCUK Pathways to Impact Guidance.
3.6 Data policy
NERC and DFID require that all funded projects implement a data management scheme which covers
practical arrangements during the project and subsequent long-term availability of the data sets. In line with
NERC and DFID’s data policies the data from the projects will be lodged with the appropriate NERC
Designated Data Centre or other appropriate publically available data repositories.
NERC and DFID put an obligation upon PIs to ensure that data management is undertaken in a suitable way.
Applicants are required to submit an outline Data Management Plan (ODMP), to identify the data sets likely
to be available for archiving and reuse at the end of the grant. There will be no charge to the project for a
NERC Data Centre to accept and manage the agreed data sets at the end of the grant but any in-project data
management activities should be costed and included within the proposals. If proposals do include any costs
for the Data Centre then these will be removed from the proposal. Further information is provided on the
NERC data management planning webpages.
All relevant data sets suitable for long-term preservation should be lodged with the appropriate data centre
by the end of the project. It is expected that all data sets lodged with the data centres will be openly
available for use by anybody without any restrictions as soon as the project has completed. Requests to
restrict access to the data beyond the end of the project must be discussed with, and approved by, the
funders.
NERC and DFID have recently adopted new policies on open access publication. It is now required that all
publications be open access. It is expected that all academic journal publications be open access (gold or
green), and where possible this should include book and book chapters. Further information is available
from the RCUK Open Access Policy and the DFID Research Open and Enhanced Access Policy.
Costs associated with open access should be considered a legitimate research expense and included in the
overall research budget as long as:
• The costs are proportionate, reasonable and represent value for money. The funders would expect
that most costs are likely to be Article Processing Charges (‘APCs’, ‘author fees’ or ‘publication fees’).
The price of an APC varies widely, but the Government Finch Report suggested a current average
APC price of £1450+VAT.
• Existing arrangements and resources at the host institution are used first when available and
appropriate. UK institutions covered by the block grant from RCUK for open access costs cannot
claim the costs, but other UK organisations can. Where open access is sought for publications from
multiple organisations, some of which receive the RCUK block grant and some which do not, it is the
responsibility of the organisation of the first author to lead on any costs.
4. Application Process
The Understanding the Impacts of the Current El Niño Event call will provide funding of up to £300k for a
maximum duration of 18 months. It is a requirement of the funding that the projects start in April 2016.
This budget limit refers to the total (100%) financial cost incurred to undertake the project (including
overheads and any NERC facility costs). Any applications which go over the budget of £300k will be
automatically rejected. This call has been allocated a total budget of £4m which may be revised at the
discretion of the funders.
Proposals must be submitted via the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system by 16:00 GMT/UTC on 18th
February 2016.
Applicants may submit their proposal as a single Je-S application only. Joint applications are not allowed for
this call.
This call will award funds to the lead institution named on each application, which will then be responsible
for disbursing funds to other institutions/organisations named on that application.
In order to prepare a Je-S proposal submission the person preparing the proposal has to create a new
proposal. The process for this is as follows:
• On logging into Je-S select the Research Council – NERC
• Select the Document type ‘Standard Proposal’
• Select Scheme –‘ Directed’
• Select call ‘NERC DFID collaboration El Nino 2016
All applications must be submitted in English and costed in pounds sterling (£/GBP)
All applications must be submitted using single-spaced typescript of minimum font size 11 point Arial font
or other sans serif typeface of equivalent size to Arial 11 with margins of at least 2 cm. References must
also be presented in minimum font size 11 point. Arial narrow and Calibri are not allowable font types.
Page limit restrictions apply and should be adhered to. Failure to adhere to these guidelines will result in
rejection of your application. Please note that on submission all non-PDF documents are converted to PDF
and the use of non-standard fonts may result in errors or font conversion.
Applicants should ensure that their proposal conforms to all eligibility and submission rules; otherwise
their proposal may be rejected without peer review. More details on NERC’s submission rules can be found
in the NERC research grant and fellowships handbook and in the submission rules on the NERC website.
In order to prepare a Je-S proposal submission, the person preparing the proposal has to log onto Je-S and
create a new proposal. Note that this person must have previously created an individual Je-S account for
themselves. This should be done well in advance of the application deadline as there may be some delay in
the approval of an individual Je-S account.
Any individuals that will be named on the application (with the exception of Project Partners and subcontractors) must have an individual Je-S account for themselves or will need to create an account in order
to be added to an application. It is also necessary to for an individual’s organisation to have been registered
before they can register themselves. Guidance on how to register an organisation and how to create an
individual Je-S account can be found in Annex A.
4.1 Documents required
The grant application will comprise a Je-S pro-forma and a number of attachments - case for support, data
management plan, justification of resources, pathways to impact, CVs, letters of support, and, if applicable,
facilities application forms. Details of what is required in each document are given in this section.
The Je-S pro-forma has a series of sections that need to be completed:
• Title of the proposal
• Objectives
• Summary
• Academic Beneficiaries
• Nominated referees
• Project Partners
• Letters of Support from Project Partners
The Case for Support is comprised of two parts:
I.
Previous Track Record – up to 2 sides of A4
II.
Description of Proposed Research – up to 4 sides of A4
The Previous Track Record should be a maximum of 2 sides of A4 and include a brief outline of the
organisations involved in the project, as named on the component applications, and address the following
aspects:
•
Describe the nature of the organisations named (i.e. university, research institute, NGO, etc)
•
Importantly, the track record should concentrate on the key named individuals/researchers, their
role in the project and details of relevant experience and how they are best suited to conduct the
research proposed. You may also wish to include details of any external funding held for key
individuals and their organisations
•
Indicate where your previous work has contributed to progressing the field of research, and/or
providing impact, evidenced by including the top 3 – 5 relevant publications per PI, Co-PI and Co-I.
•
Outline the specific expertise available for the research at the host organisation and that of any
associated organisations and beneficiaries
The Description of the Proposed Research should be a maximum of 4 sides of A4. The Description of
Proposed Research contains the substance of the research application. It is essential that a coherent
exposition of the proposed project is presented. The Description of Proposed Research should address the
following points:
• Underlying rationale, scientific, technological and developmental issues to be addressed
• Specific objectives, hypotheses and research questions of the project, including their potential
relevance to international research work in the field, relevance to the Understanding the Impacts of
the Current El Niño aims, and anticipated achievements and outputs
• Methodology and approach; this should include methods and location of data collection, and details
on the use and manipulation of data.
• How the proposed research addresses the programme aims, i.e. demonstrating:
o How the research will contribute to our understanding of the impacts of El Niño in a low or
middle income country (or countries); and
o How the research could contribute to increased resilience to future El Niño events.
•
Why the research is timely and urgent can cannot be supported through other routes.
• Programme and/or plan of research.
• For proposals requiring access to data from elsewhere applicants are asked to provide evidence in
their proposal of agreed access.
Data Management Plan – up to 1 page of A4. This plan should include information about how the project
will manage the data produced. It must identify the datasets that the research will produce and which will
be of potential long-term value and which the NERC data centres will need to manage and make available to
enable re-use after the end of the research.
Justification of Resources requested – up to 2 sides of A4. This should state the full cost of the project and
explain why the requested resources are needed, including identifying why the proposal presents value for
money. It should include a justification for all Directly Incurred Costs, Investigator effort, use of pool staff
resources and any access to shared facilities and equipment being sought. No justification of Directly
Allocated Estates and Indirect Costs is required. Please note that budgets may be reduced if considered
excessive.
Pathways to Impact attachment – up to 2 sides of A4. The ‘Pathways to Impact’ describes how the proposed
work will achieve impact and build capacity. Guidance on demonstrating a pathway to impact is given in
Section 3.5.
A Curriculum Vitae (CV) for all named research staff: PIs, Co-Is, Researcher Co-Is, named Researchers and
Visiting Researchers (up to 2 sides of A4 for each CV).
Letters of support from any project partners – up to 2 sides of A4 each. Each Project Partner must provide a
detailed signed letter of support of up to 2 sides of A4.The letter of support should confirm the
organisation’s commitment to the proposed project, identify the value, relevance and possible benefits of
the proposed work to the partner, the period of support, the full nature of the collaboration and how the
partner will be involved in the project and provide added value. Partner contributions, whether in cash or in
kind, should be explained in detail in the case for support, including the equivalent value of any in-kind
contributions. The letter should be written when the proposal is being prepared and targeted specifically to
the project.
Application forms for any NERC Facilities/Shiptime requested.
Applicants may also apply for access to any of the RCUK services and facilities. Prior to submitting the
proposal, applicants must first contact the facility to seek agreement that they could provide the service
required and obtain a technical assessment (quote). Applicants should contact the relevant facility well in
advance of the closing date to ensure that the facility can provide the quote in time to be submitted with the
proposal. Applicants should refer to the point 219 of the NERC Grants Handbook for further detail. The cost
of the facility must be included under other DI and be included within the £300k maximum budget.
Applicants must also state on the Je-S form that access to Research Council Facilities will be required. This
situated within the section ‘Summary of Resources Required for Project’ where there is an option to select
‘Add New Research Facility’. If ARCHER and/or MONSooN/RDF/JASMIN (as applicable) are selected an
option to describe ‘Proposed Usage’ will appear. Please state in the free text box at this point if the HPC form
is submitted (>160 MAU in any one year).
4.2 Project Finances
The financial cost of the project should be identified in the following components of the application:
• Je-S pro-forma
• Justification of Resources document.
See section 4.1 for further details of the information required in each of these components.
All applicants are advised to consult their institutional finance officers when completing the financial parts
of the application.
All applicants should enter the 100% full economic costs of the proposed research into the budget sections
of the Je-S form. Any applications with an overall cost over £300k– including facilities cost – will be rejected.
All costs should be in pounds sterling (£). UK based organisations will receive 80% of the FEC of the work,
while the non-UK organisations can request 100% direct costs.
All costs associated with the project must be itemised in the Je-S proforma and justified in the Justification of
Resources document.
UK Organisational Budgets:
• UK organisations will receive 80% of the full economic cost of the project, as per standard Research
Council funding rules. UK universities are required to calculate the FEC using the “TRAC”
(Transparent Approach to Costing) methodology.
• Other eligible UK organisations use an equivalent methodology, which has been validated by the
Research Councils.
• Overseas travel and expenses costs incurred by members of UK institutions will be paid at 80% and
must be included as costs related to that UK institution.
Non-UK Organisation Budgets:
• Non-UK organisations are expected to be able to comply with full and transparent costing for budget
elements.
• Non UK organisations will be supported at 100% FEC for the direct costs of the research (e.g. staff,
Travel, consumables).
• The costs associated for Non-UK organisations will show up as 80% in the application but will be
manually adjusted to be paid at 100% when received by NERC.
• In addition indirect costs (including estates costs) maybe charged on staff salary and other staffrelated costs (i.e. statutory contributions analogous to UK National Insurance or Superannuation
contributions).
• Overheads may not be charged on non-staff related direct costs, for example, equipment, travel and
subsistence, consultancies, conferences, etc.
• The following rates for indirect costs should be applied: - for applicants from low and middle-income
countries, the rate is 50%; for applicants from high-income countries and CGIAR institutes the rate is
20%.
• For further guidance on what overhead budgets can be used please see Annex B
• Non-UK organisations should not enter any costs in the ‘Estates’ section of Je-S. All overheads should
be entered as an ‘Other Directly Incurred Cost’ of Je-S.
• In order to mark the costs payable at 100%, please include the name of the overseas institution in
the cost description as shown in the example below
• Costs from UK and Non-UK organisations should be entered as separate items. For example T&S
costs for field work should be entered as two separate lines i.e. that related to UK organisations
payable at 80% and that related to non-UK organisations payable at 100%, we will manually adjust
the Non-UK organisations costs to be paid at 100%.
Example of cost description:
Travel and Subsistence
Destination and Purpose
Outside UK
UK Institution name- travel/trip description
Outside UK
Overseas Institution name - travel/trip description
Within UK
UK Institution name - travel/trip description
Outside UK
Overseas Institution name - travel/trip description
Total £
Total £
Other Directly Incurred Costs
Description
UK Institution name - cost description
UK Institution name - cost description
Overseas Institution name - cost description
Overseas Institution name - cost description
Total £
Total £
5. Assessment Process
An Assessment Panel comprised of independent experts will review, grade and rank the proposals. The
recommendations of the Panel will provide the basis for the funding decision by NERC and DFID. Note that
the funders will be seeking to support approximately 12 projects that will provide evidence on a range of
impacts in a range of low and middle income countries and will consider the overall balance of research
needed to deliver the programme in making decisions about which grants to fund. To reflect DFID’s priorities
it is anticipated that at least half the available budget will be spent on research focused on low income
countries and to align with NERC’s priorities it is anticipated that at least half the available budget will be
used to support novel, innovative environmental science.
The assessment criteria, which have equal weighting, are:
• Science Excellence; and
• Fit to Programme Objectives
The Science Excellence criteria relates to the originality and quality of the proposed research and the
importance of the questions being addressed.
The Fit to Programme Objectives criteria relates to the degree to which the proposed research addresses the
two objectives of this programme, which are to:
• provide evidence of the impacts of the current El Niño event, particularly at the local and regional
level;
• have the potential to contribute to increased resilience to El Niño events, and therefore to increased
societal wellbeing and economic growth; and
The focus of the programme is on the collection of data that is timely and urgent that cannot be supported
through other funding routes and applicants should also explicitly address how the research meets this
requirement of the programme in their proposal.
Applicants will be given feedback from the Panel summarising the reasons why the proposal was
successful/unsuccessful. No further feedback will be available.
6. Post Award Management
Representatives from all the funded projects will be expected to attend a programme kick-off meeting in
May 2016 (date and venue tbc). This meeting will provide an opportunity for the project teams to meet each
other and gain an overview of the funded research.
A small portion of the £4m budget will be held back to support programme-level knowledge exchange, data
management costs and integration activities, which all projects will be expected to participate in. The
mechanisms for developing and agreeing these activities will be discussed at the kick-off meeting
Each project will also be expected to produce a short final report, and may be required to respond to other
ad hoc queries for information from NERC and DFID.
7. Timeline
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
January 2016 - Announcement of Opportunity
18th February 2016 - Closing date for proposals
w/c 7th March 2016 - Assessment Panel
w/c 21stMarch 2016 - Award Letter Issued
April 2016 - Projects Commence
May 2016 - Kick-off meeting
30th September 2017 - Latest possible end date for projects
All grants must start on or before 30th April 2016.
8. Queries
All queries should be directed to the programme secretariat at [email protected]