Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Hub

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) invites a full proposal for an Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Hub. Up to £3.27 million (at 80% FEC) is available to support up to one hub for up to 45 months from 1 January 2021.

An application will only be accepted from the successful UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Coordinators.

A proposal is invited which will provide national leadership and coordination, driving knowledge exchange and whole-systems learning across the circular economy investments funded under this programme and the wider research and innovation landscape (with academic, policy, consumer, third sector and business stakeholders).

The remit of the hub should span across UKRI remit that are all required to tackle the key cross-cutting challenges:

  • arts and humanities
  • biological sciences
  • engineering sciences
  • environmental sciences
  • physical sciences
  • social sciences.

The UK has potential to grow and prosper sustainably by transitioning to a more circular economy, where resources are processed with sustainability, waste minimisation and efficiency in mind, and where product lifecycles are optimised to generate more economic and social value before recycling and/or reuse. However, this transition requires clear, evidence-based, implementation pathways, with broad underpinning research evidence. It must provide not only technical, technological and scientific advances, but also the social, behavioural, cultural, ethical, environmental, economic, legal and regulatory understanding required to support a successful transition.

To address this, the £30 million UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy programme will be delivered by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Natural Environment Research Council, and Innovate UK, with DEFRA and BEIS.

The programme will support up to an interdisciplinary hub via this £3.27 million call.

The programme is also supporting up to five interdisciplinary centres via a concurrent call.

This UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Hub call is the second in a two-stage process:

  • the first stage was a competition to identify the appropriate coordinator (or co-coordinators) who will act as thought leaders, ambassadors, and consensus builders for developing an interdisciplinary circular economy community, facilitating the development of circular economy strategies and approaches
  • at this second stage, the successful coordinators are invited to prepare a single full application for the Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Hub and will need to submit this application through the Joint Electronic Submission system (Je-S) by 4 August 2020 16.00. Only the successful coordinators are eligible to apply to this call as principal Investigators.

Applicants are encouraged to contact UKRI with any queries: circular.economy@epsrc.ukri.org.

Supporting documents

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