Enhancing resilience to wildfires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), 2026

Enhancing resilience to wildfires in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), 2026

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) lists this programme as open. It funds collaborative research with partners in the United States, Canada, or both to improve understanding of wildfire occurrence and impacts in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). The opportunity is administered by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), with co-funding agencies including the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

This is a live 2026 funding round, not a pre-announcement. UKRI published the opportunity and opened it on 2 July 2026. The full application deadline is 1 October 2026 at 4:00pm UK time. There was also a mandatory expression-of-interest (EoI) stage: UKRI required an EoI by 30 July 2026 at 4:00pm UK time, and says a full application without a prior EoI will be rejected. That means the full deadline remains relevant for teams that submitted the EoI, while a team that missed the EoI cannot newly enter the full-application stage for this round.

Key details

What the programme funds

UKRI describes the WUI as the zone where natural and human environments meet, also known as the rural-urban interface. The programme is aimed at research that connects wildfire behaviour with the people, communities, infrastructure, ecosystems, and institutions exposed to it. It is not limited to fire modelling or emergency response. The stated purpose is to produce knowledge and solutions that improve resilience at local, regional, and national scales.

Projects must address at least two of the three programme aims, and one of the selected aims must be aim three:

1. Improve knowledge and understanding of the risks and vulnerabilities associated with wildfire occurrence, intensity, behaviour, and spread in the WUI under evolving and future fire regimes.
2. Investigate wildfire impacts, which may be environmental, social, cultural, related to human health, economic, or connected to the built environment.
3. Develop interventions and solutions for adaptation, mitigation, and recovery from wildfire in the WUI.

The required inclusion of aim three means a proposal should show what will change as a result of the research. A project can study fire behaviour or impacts, but it must also connect that work to practical adaptation, mitigation, or recovery solutions. UKRI expects teams to use interdisciplinary and intersectoral approaches, and it encourages engagement with stakeholders outside academia when that strengthens the route to impact.

Who can apply

The UK project lead must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding. The international structure must be one of the following:

• UK, United States, and Canada;
• UK and United States; or
• UK and Canada.

Each project must include a project lead from the UK and at least one project lead from the United States, Canada, or both. The UK project lead submits one collaborative application to UKRI and describes the contributions of the participating countries. The US or Canadian lead is included in the UKRI application as a project co-lead (international) with zero cost. If the application succeeds, the US or Canadian component will then be submitted to the relevant international funder for funding.

The limits on UK participation are specific. A UK research organisation may be involved in no more than two applications to this opportunity, and only one of those may name the organisation’s applicant as project lead. Projects must also be interdisciplinary and include at least two UKRI Research Council remits in the UK component. A team should therefore check both its host organisation’s application count and the remits represented in its UK work before it commits to the full application.

US participants must be eligible for NSF funding. UKRI points applicants to the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide for the relevant principal investigator and organisation requirements. Canadian researchers may apply through eligible university teams in the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, or health fields, with funding requested from NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR, or a combination of those agencies. Canadian costs must follow the Tri-agency Guide on Financial Administration. The Canadian guidance also asks teams, where relevant, to engage local knowledge, lived experience, knowledge holders, first responders, decision-makers, and Indigenous perspectives, including appropriate approaches to Indigenous data governance.

Funding and budget boundaries

UKRI describes the overall investment as up to £10 million, with £8 million available at 80% full economic cost (FEC). The UK component can have a full economic cost of up to £1.58 million, with the opportunity page listing a maximum award of £1,575,000. UKRI normally funds 80% of UK FEC. Justified equipment is also funded at 80% FEC, and equipment requests above £25,000 need full justification. UK applicants should include additional travel and related costs for at least one UK team member to attend one international cross-programme meeting per year during the 36-month project.

UKRI will not fund PhD studentship costs or ship-time requests for the UK component. A project should keep the UK costs separate from the spending supported by the partner agencies, because each country funds its own researchers and associated costs.

For the US component, teams may request up to $2 million, subject to NSF funding availability. The total request for US researchers and partners is entered in the US component section, with a completed NSF budget and budget justification form uploaded as one PDF. US activity must fall within NSF remit for this programme; UKRI specifically notes that the NSF component excludes medical research.

For Canada, NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR each expect to allocate $3 million CAD to the opportunity. Each agency permits a maximum request of $750,000 CAD per project, or $250,000 CAD per year, and an interdisciplinary project requesting the maximum from all three agencies could request $2.25 million CAD over three years. Canadian budget and justification forms are completed for the agencies from which funding is requested and combined into one PDF. Canadian teams must also answer the private-sector partner question and provide a risk assessment form when the Canadian guidance requires one.

How to apply

Stage one: mandatory expression of interest

The EoI stage was required for eligibility to submit a full application. UKRI set the EoI deadline at 30 July 2026 at 4:00pm UK time and states that a full application submitted without a prior EoI will be rejected. The EoI asks for the proposed team and a summary of the research project. UKRI says the information is not assessed at this stage, will help plan the assessment panel, and is not final: additional partners and international project co-leads can be added later.

Because that EoI deadline has passed, applicants should first confirm that their project has a submitted EoI before investing in a full application. There is no benefit in treating the full deadline as an invitation to bypass the first stage.

Stage two: full application

The full application is submitted through the new UKRI Funding Service. Je-S cannot be used. The UK project lead completes the application, but all team members and partners should contribute to the relevant sections. Only the UK lead research organisation submits the completed application to UKRI.

The live process is:

1. Select Start application on the official UKRI opportunity page.
2. Confirm that you are the project lead, then sign in or create a Funding Service account and select the organisation.
3. Answer the application questions in the Funding Service. Save work in the service or prepare responses offline and copy them into the relevant fields. Upload the required US or Canadian budget documents in the specified component sections.
4. Check the application in read-only view before sending it to the research office.
5. Send the completed application to the research office for checking, including hosting and financial eligibility checks.
6. The research office submits the checked application to UKRI.

UKRI must receive the application by 1 October 2026 at 4:00pm UK time. Applicants should also allow time for their own institutional deadline. After submission, the application cannot be changed, and UKRI warns that an application that does not follow the guidance may be rejected.

What to prepare

The application should make the international contribution visible throughout the case rather than treating the US or Canadian work as an attachment. Identify the UK lead, at least one non-UK project lead, and the contribution each country will make. Put the international lead in the core team as a zero-cost project co-lead (international), then provide the full US or Canada team in the relevant component forms and sections.

The main narrative should explain the knowledge gap, the impacts being investigated, and the intervention or solution that will result. It should show how at least two programme aims are met and identify aim three explicitly. Connect the proposed work to beneficiaries such as communities, emergency services, planners, infrastructure operators, health organisations, land managers, or policy teams when those groups are relevant to the project.

The Funding Service asks for a vision, approach, applicant and team capability, ethics and responsible research and innovation, and resources and cost justification. Data management and sharing is also required. Teams should address consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security, reuse, and applicable information standards when the research involves people, community knowledge, health information, or sensitive location data. UKRI expects responsible research considerations to cover the natural environment, local communities, and equality, diversity, and inclusion.

If a facility or service is needed, UKRI says it should be discussed at least two months before submission so feasibility, availability, and cost can be confirmed. The application should state that prior agreement has been obtained where relevant. Equipment above £25,000 needs a detailed justification. Teams using US or Canadian components should prepare the required partner-agency budget forms early because those documents must be uploaded with the Funding Service application.

Timing and project design

The award must last exactly 36 months, and the UK component must start no later than 12 February 2027. Use that start requirement to test whether contracting, partner approvals, ethics review, data agreements, and field access can be completed in time. The project should also reserve the required annual international cross-programme meeting travel for the relevant country components.

UKRI held an online launch webinar on 9 July 2026 at 5:00pm. The official page links to the recording, slides, and a questions-and-answers document. Those materials are useful for teams that submitted an EoI and are now checking the full application requirements, especially the country-specific budget and team arrangements.

Questions applicants should resolve

Before submission, confirm the following with the research office and international partners:

• Was the mandatory EoI submitted by its deadline?
• Is the UK host eligible, and has it stayed within the limit of two applications with no more than one UK lead role?
• Does the UK component cover at least two UKRI Research Council remits?
• Is there a UK project lead and at least one US or Canadian project lead?
• Are the US and Canadian researchers eligible for their respective agencies?
• Does the proposal address at least two programme aims, including aim three?
• Are UK, US, and Canadian costs separated and supported by the required forms?
• Have data, ethics, Indigenous knowledge, stakeholder participation, and responsible research issues been addressed where relevant?
• Can the award start no later than 12 February 2027 and run for 36 months?

The opportunity remains a suitable listing for eligible teams that completed the EoI stage. For teams that did not, the official EoI rule is decisive: they cannot submit a qualifying full application in this round. The final full deadline is 1 October 2026 at 4:00pm UK time, and the authoritative application instructions are on the UKRI opportunity page. For opportunity-specific questions, UKRI lists wildfires@nerc.ukri.org; Funding Service technical questions go to support@funding-service.ukri.org.