Please note that this call is now closed

Applications to the first call for the Future of UK Treescapes programme closed on 15 December 2020. You can read the full call text here.

Six projects were selected in the first call and have now begun their research. These projects will explore how trees, woods and forests function. They will look at what needs to be done to grow and protect our future treescapes so they truly benefit nature and society as a whole. Our projects bring together diverse teams to undertake world-leading research, from scientists to artists, humanitarians to forest managers. The projects will run for a total of 3 years.

Branching Out (£2.3m)

Branching Out aims to develop new ways of mapping, predicting, and communicating social and cultural values to support robust, evidence-based decision-making and management of UK Treescapes.

Contact: Sally Bellman

CASTOR (£2m)

CASTOR will explore how woodland along rivers and waterways can build a healthier and richer environmental landscape, fight climate change and protect cultural heritage.

Contact: Dr Matthew Dennis

Connected Treescapes (£1.7m)

Connected Treescapes will explore the value of trees, including the benefits for people’s well-being, cultural heritage and wildlife.

Contacts: Dr Julia Touza (for general aspects of engagement and KE) or Dr Vadim Saraev (for economic and portfolio approach aspects of engagement and KE)

newLEAF (£1.8m)

newLeaf will look at how quickly trees can adapt to change in the wild and whether human intervention is needed to protect their future.

Contact: Dr Stephen Cavers

MEMBRA: Understanding Memory of UK Treescapes for Better Resilience and Adaptation (£1.8m)

MEMBRA will study epigenetic changes from stress and whether these changes are passed down through generations in UK tree species.

Contacts: Dr Estrella Luna-Diez (for general aspects of engagement and KE) and/or Dr Katherine Earnshaw (for arts, humanities and policy aspects of engagement and KE)

Voices of the Future (£1.6m)

Voices of the Future will work with children and young people to re-imagine Treescapes.

Contact: Dr Simon Carr

Find out more about our Funded Projects

Future of UK Treescapes Large Grant Call

Please note that this call is now closed and all details here are recorded for your information only.

Opportunity status: Closed
Funders: UK Research and Innovation, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Funding type: Grant
Total fund: £10,000,000
Maximum award: £2,000,000
Publication date: 2 September 2020
Opening date:
Closing date:

UKRI (NERC, AHRC and ESRC), Defra, Welsh government and Scottish government invite proposals for grants as part of the Future of UK treescapes programme.

The call will support grants that address one or more of the programme’s themes:

  • theme one: forms, functions and values of UK treescapes
  • theme two: opportunities, barriers and pathways for expansion of UK treescapes
  • theme three: resilience of UK treescapes to global change.

Proposals are expected to take an interdisciplinary approach bringing together environmental scientists, social scientists, economists and, arts and humanities researchers to form substantial research collaborations.

Proposals that only involve collaboration between researchers within the remit of a single research council are out of scope.

Standard eligibility rules apply but, in addition, collaborations with Forest Research (FR) are permitted under this call.

If such a collaboration is recommended for funding, Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Welsh Government and Scottish Government will fund the FR component whilst NERC, AHRC and ESRC will fund the other, eligible organisations.

See the announcement of opportunity for how to apply with FR collaborators.

There is up to £10 million available from NERC, AHRC and ESRC for this call with additional funding from Defra, Welsh Government and Scottish Government for FR collaborations.

Individual proposals may request up to £2 million (80% full economic cost) over 36 months. It is expected that up to six proposals will be funded.

All projects must start by 1 August 2021.

Programme webinars

UKRI (NERC, ESRC and AHRC), Defra, Scottish government and Welsh government held a programme webinar for potential applicants on 20 October 2020. This enabled applicants to learn more about:

You can hear the recording of the webinar here (Use passcode yN9@+7cj)

Additional programme workshops were also held to explore opportunities for arts, humanities, economics and social science within the programme and how AHRC and ESRC communities can collaborate with environmental scientists to develop interdisciplinary proposals.

AHRC hosted two online workshop sessions on 8 and 13 October 2020.

These sessions provided an overview of the Future of UK Treescapes programme and recently announced call for proposals. There was an introduction from the newly appointed programme ambassadors, as well as two presentations from stakeholders:

Session one provided an overview of the programme, see the recording of the webinar (Passcode: 6M&LYJaj).

View the presentations from the webinar:

ESRC also held a workshop on 20 October.

Collaborator finder

In conjunction with the webinar and workshops, the funders are launching a ‘collaborator finder’. This short survey provides a platform to help researchers and stakeholders interested in developing a proposal for submission to the funding call to find and contact potential collaborators and project partners.

Information provided will be shared by email as a password-protected PDF with all participants in the survey following the second AHRC workshop and again following the ESRC workshop and programme webinar. Those interested should therefore complete the survey as early as possible and by 14 October 2020. The final date for completing the survey is 23 October 2020.

Potential applicants can also contact the programme ambassadors to discuss what support they can offer in helping to identify potential collaborators (treescapes@glos.ac.uk).

All personal data provided via this survey will be processed in accordance with current UK data protection legislation. Details can be found in the guidance notes and on the UKRI privacy notice.

How to apply

You must apply using the Joint Electronic Submission system (Je-S).

See the announcement of opportunity for full details of the call and how to apply.

UK treescapes grant call announcement of opportunity (PDF, 140KB).

Forest Research budget form (Word, 25KB).

Contacts

For further details, please contact Lucy Hopewell at uktreescapes@nerc.ukri.org