RESET Strategic Research Projects 2026–2027: Up to £2.5 Million for Ecosystem Transition Research

RESET Strategic Research Projects 2026–2027: Up to £2.5 Million for Ecosystem Transition Research

The Resilient Economy and Security through Ecosystem Transitions (RESET) strategic research grant is a new UKRI opportunity for teams studying how ecosystems change, reorganise, collapse or settle into novel states. The call is co-funded, co-designed and co-delivered by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra). It is aimed at research that can improve understanding of ecosystem function and resilience while also explaining consequences for economic prosperity, national security and wider society.

The 2026 round is open. A project can request up to £2.5 million in full economic cost (FEC), with NERC and Defra funding 80% of the FEC in the normal case. Awards can run for up to three years and must start by 14 February 2027. The application deadline is 4:00pm UK time on 22 October 2026. A non-mandatory notification of intent is due earlier, by 4:00pm UK time on 16 September 2026.

This is a substantial research grant rather than a small conservation award or a general climate project fund. The strongest fit is a UK-led interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary project that asks a clear question about ecosystem transitions and connects its evidence to resilience, risk, security, prosperity or sustainable management. International study systems are allowed, but an overseas-focused proposal must explain how its findings will support sustainable growth and security in the UK, for example through a clear UK application or a telecoupling relationship.

Key details

The opportunity page says the programme expects to support a portfolio of roughly six to eight strategic research projects. That is an indication of the intended scale of the call, not a guaranteed number of awards for any particular theme or institution.

What the RESET grant is designed to fund

RESET is concerned with ecosystem transitions rather than environmental description alone. The call uses the idea of novel ecosystems for systems whose biotic, abiotic and social components have been changed by human influence and whose resulting qualities may not resemble historical conditions. Climate change, species loss, species introductions, altered species ranges, changing trophic interactions and other pressures can all contribute to a transition.

The funders want research that improves the evidence base for anticipating these changes and deciding how to respond. Projects should produce evidence, methods or models that can be used by the wider RESET programme, including its programme hub. The hub will synthesise findings, align concepts and terminology, engage stakeholders such as policymakers, businesses, finance, land managers and the public, and support policy-facing work.

The call identifies three research themes. A project must address one or more of them, and the application should name the chosen theme or themes at the beginning of its Vision response.

1. Predicting ecosystem change and transitions. This includes studying how ecosystems disassemble, reassemble, reorganise or return to stability; how species interactions and trophic networks affect function; how transitions cross terrestrial, freshwater and coastal boundaries; and how indicators, models and monitoring systems can detect early warning signs.

2. Understanding ecosystem change through cascading risks. This theme covers the way changes in ecosystem functions can propagate through ecosystem services, social systems and economic systems. It also includes uncertainty, lag effects, irreversible change, risk perception, governance and inclusive approaches to resilience.

3. Building ecosystem resilience. This includes land-use and livelihood approaches, management methods that protect function during change, the resilience of novel ecosystems, altered disturbance regimes such as wildfire or flooding, and co-developed scenarios that help communities and other stakeholders evaluate restoration, adaptation or acceptance of changed states.

The scope is deliberately broad in geography but not unlimited in subject. A project should focus on natural or semi-natural ecosystems in terrestrial, freshwater or terrestrial-marine transitional settings. Coastal seas are in scope where they interact strongly with terrestrial and freshwater systems, and the call defines coastal seas for this purpose as within three nautical miles of the shoreline. Projects focused primarily on urban built-up areas, intensive farming or aquaculture, intensive commercial forestry, active mining or oil and gas extraction, or major infrastructure are out of scope unless the research question genuinely centres on a relevant natural or semi-natural ecosystem around them.

Who can apply and who should partner

The project lead must be based at an eligible UK research organisation under NERC rules. The opportunity is open to research groups and individuals, and the funders welcome applicants at any career stage subject to the normal eligibility requirements. The call encourages collaboration beyond environmental science, including biology, social science, economics, arts and humanities. That does not mean every application needs a large consortium. It means the team should contain the expertise needed to answer the question and interpret its consequences.

International researchers may participate as project co-lead (international), subject to UKRI eligibility guidance. The eligible costs for an international co-lead contribution can be funded at 100%, but that contribution must not exceed 30% of the overall cost calculated at 100% FEC and must be fully justified. Other international collaborators, and UK partners that are not based at approved organisations, should normally be included as project partners. Project partners do not receive the grant directly, although minor directly incurred costs such as some travel can be eligible.

The call also sets a participation limit. An individual may be involved in no more than two applications submitted to this opportunity and the related RESET Hub opportunity, with only one of those applications as project lead. Check this across your whole team before committing to a proposal. A strong application can still be ineligible if a researcher has been added to too many teams.

The programme expects funded projects to work closely with the RESET hub and other programme activities during the award. A partnership should therefore be more than a list of names. Explain what each co-lead, partner, stakeholder or facility contributes, how their contribution changes the research, and how the team will share evidence with the wider programme.

Funding, duration and costs

The maximum full economic cost is £2.5 million per project. NERC and Defra will normally fund 80% of the FEC, leaving the standard 20% FEC contribution to be handled through the host organisation’s normal UKRI arrangements. There is no separate requirement for additional matched funding beyond that 20% FEC contribution. Third-party partners are encouraged to contribute cash or in-kind support where useful, but the application should distinguish those contributions from UKRI-funded costs.

Projects may run for up to three years and must start no later than 14 February 2027. The budget can include eligible research staff, equipment, research expenses, facilities, data management and other costs allowed by UKRI and NERC rules. NERC non-ship marine facilities and equipment can be requested when relevant. NERC ship-time costs and PhD studentship costs are not funded through this opportunity, so a marine or doctoral plan must not quietly assume that the grant will cover them.

Facility planning needs to start early. Applicants are expected to discuss a required facility or service with the provider at least two months before submission, obtain confirmation that it can deliver the work, and cost the service inside the funding limit. For marine facilities, the necessary ship-time and marine equipment or autonomous deployment form must be approved by the time the funding application is submitted. The official page gives 31 August 2026 as the latest date to contact NERC Marine Planning for this call.

There is an additional time-sensitive requirement for applicants needing British Antarctic Survey logistics support. The pre-award operational support planning questionnaire deadline is 20 August 2026. If that applies to your project, treat the date as immediate and confirm the process with the Antarctic Access Office; the official call says an application requiring Antarctic logistics will not be awarded without approved planning.

Application process and timeline

Applications use the new UKRI Funding Service. The lead organisation must be registered there, and the project lead is responsible for setting up and completing the application. The completed application goes to the host research office for checking before the research office submits it to UKRI. Je-S is not the system for this call.

The notification of intent is optional and is not assessed. It asks for basic team information and a short project summary to help UKRI plan the assessment process. The team can change between the notification and the full application, so the NoI does not lock the final project design. Even though it is optional, submitting it is useful if you already have a credible project outline because it puts the proposal into the funder’s assessment planning and creates an early deadline for resolving team and scope questions.

The full application must arrive by 4:00pm UK time on 22 October 2026. The Funding Service does not accept late submission, and a submitted application cannot be changed or returned for amendment. Build in time for institutional checks, finance approval, partner confirmations and any technical assessment for facilities. Do not treat the funder’s deadline as your internal deadline.

The expected assessment timeline is unusual enough to plan around. Reviewers will take part in distributed peer review (DPR) from 9 November to 4 December 2026. The funding decision is expected in January 2027, and the funders aim to complete assessment within six months of the closing date. Successful projects must still be ready to begin by 14 February 2027.

Required materials and application questions

The Funding Service asks for a plain-English summary with a 550-word limit. It may be published externally, so it should explain the context, challenge, aims, benefits and potential users without confidential information. The summary is also used to identify suitable reviewers; make the central research problem legible to experts outside the narrowest subfield.

The Vision response has a 2,000-word limit. It should establish the importance and quality of the research, explain why it is timely, identify the RESET theme or themes at the start, and name direct or indirect beneficiaries. The Approach response has a 4,000-word limit and should describe the methodology, feasibility, risks, prior work, facilities, environment, translation route and detailed milestones. UKRI specifically expects a project plan with milestones and timelines, such as a Gantt chart or similar.

The Applicant and Team Capability to Deliver section has a 1,650-word limit. It uses the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format rather than a conventional CV. Use the team’s past contributions to show that the proposed work can be delivered, that the team has the right mix of expertise, and that it can create a positive research environment. The optional additions field can provide context such as career breaks, but it should not become a second achievements list.

The form also asks about ethics and responsible research and innovation, animal involvement, genetically modified organisms or genetic technologies, human participation in health-related research where applicable, data management and sharing, trusted research, classification and team expertise. Complete conditional sections honestly even when the answer is that they do not apply. A proposal that ignores data reuse, community participation, biological risk or international collaboration controls can create avoidable questions about responsible delivery.

How to make the case credible to reviewers

Start with a transition that can be observed and tested. “Ecosystems are changing rapidly” is context, not a research question. A stronger framing identifies the system, the pressure, the suspected transition pathway, the function or service at risk, and the evidence needed to distinguish competing explanations. Then connect that evidence to one of the RESET themes and explain why the work needs a three-year strategic project rather than a smaller study.

Make the UK relevance explicit. An overseas case study can be eligible, but the application must show how knowledge will translate to UK security, prosperity, resilience or decision-making. If the argument depends on telecoupling, identify the connection rather than assuming reviewers will infer it from a map. If the project covers multiple ecosystems, explain the comparison logic and avoid presenting a collection of unrelated case studies.

Treat uncertainty as part of the science. The call is interested in tipping points, lag effects, irreversible change, early warning indicators and risk propagation. State what is uncertain, how that uncertainty will be measured, and how the project will prevent a model or indicator from being mistaken for a reliable prediction before it has been tested. Include plausible failure modes and decision points in the work plan.

Design the stakeholder role carefully. The programme hub will engage policy, business, finance, land managers and the public, but a project should not promise a generic workshop as its main impact pathway. Identify who needs the evidence, what decision they face, what format would be usable, and how the team will test whether the output is understandable and relevant. Community or Indigenous participation should be resourced and governed as part of the research design, not added as a late communications activity.

Distributed peer review and common mistakes

Every applicant team must nominate between two and four team members, including the project lead, to act as reviewers. The nominated reviewers do not need to belong to the NERC Peer Review College. Each reviewer may receive up to six applications and will have three weeks to complete the reviews during the DPR period. The team must check availability before naming people. Failure to provide required reviews can lead to automatic rejection of the application in which the reviewer is involved, unless exceptional circumstances have been reported to NERC.

Common mistakes include treating the call as a general biodiversity grant, choosing an ecosystem that is out of scope, proposing a policy tool without enough underlying research, and listing partners without showing their unique contribution. Another mistake is requesting the maximum budget by default. Cost the work needed to answer the question, justify every major facility and staff line, and show what would change if a cost or data source becomes unavailable.

Do not hide the programme obligations. Successful teams must engage with the RESET hub, provide regular reporting to the Programme Executive Board and take part in the mid-term review. The proposal should show how the research will share methods, evidence and case studies with the wider programme. It should also respect UKRI open research and NERC data policies, including the resources needed to prepare data for archiving.

Frequently asked questions

Is the notification of intent required?

No. The official call describes the NoI as non-mandatory, and a team can submit a full application without it. The NoI deadline is 16 September 2026 at 4:00pm UK time. Submitting one can still help UKRI prepare review arrangements and gives the team an early scope checkpoint.

Can a project study an ecosystem outside the UK?

Yes, but the application must justify the location and explain how the work supports sustainable growth and security in the UK. A proposal should identify the relevant UK connection rather than relying on the general importance of global biodiversity.

Can international researchers lead the project?

The project lead must be at an eligible UK research organisation. International researchers can participate as project co-lead (international) under NERC and UKRI rules. Other overseas collaborators should normally be project partners.

Does the award pay for PhD studentships or NERC ship time?

No. The call expressly excludes PhD studentship costs and NERC ship-time costs. Non-ship marine facilities and equipment may be included when properly planned and costed.

What happens after submission?

The application goes through distributed peer review, with reviews scheduled from 9 November to 4 December 2026. NERC and Defra will make the final portfolio decision, with funding decisions expected in January 2027. The funders aim to complete assessment within six months of the closing date.

Official links and next steps

Start with the official UKRI RESET strategic research opportunity and read the full scope, eligibility, cost rules, application questions and DPR conditions. Then register or verify the lead organisation in the UKRI Funding Service, confirm NERC eligibility with the research office, and map the proposed work to one or more of the three RESET themes.

Before drafting the full form, assemble the core team, check the two-application participation limit, contact any required facilities, and identify the nominated DPR reviewers. Write a short transition logic that links ecosystem pressure to measurable change, societal or economic risk, evidence generation and a realistic use pathway. Finally, work backward from 22 October 2026 at 4:00pm UK time, leaving enough time for institutional approval and a complete technical check in the Funding Service.