Science for Humanitarian Emergencies & Resilience (SHEAR) – Catalyst grants (bid outline deadline: 21st November 2017; full proposal deadline: 10th April 2018)

Science for Humanitarian Emergencies & Resilience (SHEAR) is a new international research programme jointly funded by the UK's Department for International Development, NERC and the Economic & Social Research Council. The overall SHEAR programme focuses on four areas: disaster risk assessment (mapping and analyses), sub-seasonal to seasonal forecasting, disaster risk monitoring, and the integration of these into practical decision making.

Projects will be expected to focus on weather-related hazards such as floods and droughts, heatwaves and the events weather can trigger, such as landslides - and improving peoples’ resilience to these, in Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia. The Catalyst grants should not duplicate already funded research, including current SHEAR grants, but will compliment ongoing activities. They should be coherent activities to address the SHEAR goals. Further details on activities already funded under the SHEAR programme can be found on NERC Grants on the Web.

This call has two stages: an Outline Bid and an invited Full Proposal. Submission of an outline proposal is mandatory in order to participate in the funding round at the full proposal stage. All outline proposals will be assessed by an Assessment Panel and only applicants successful at the Outline Bid stage will be invited to submit Full Proposals. Full details on the submission and assessment procedures for Full proposals will be provided to the PIs of successful Outline Bids on the week commencing 22 January 2018.

This Catalyst grants call will aim to support small projects with a maximum project size of £250k (100% FEC); with UK institutions eligible for 80% FEC and overseas organisations eligible for 100% direct project costs. The total available budget for this call is £2.5M and it is anticipated that 10-12 projects will be funded. It is expected that projects will start in September 2018 and have a maximum duration of two years.