ARIA seeks proposals for ecosystem engineering for sustainability, with as much as £500k per challenge.

It needs to be famous that initiatives on agricultural crops and animals are out of scope, though modelling biodiversity and interactions is. Full info is under.

To assist scientific and technological breakthroughs, ARIA Programme Administrators can award funding to small however extremely bold initiatives, “alternative seeds”, to assist bold analysis aligned to their alternative areas.

For alternative seed initiatives ARIA’s Programme Administrators are in search of daring concepts that might change the dialog about what is feasible or invaluable and supply steps in direction of new capabilities. You probably have an necessary concept you’re obsessive about, however you don’t presently have the sources or assist to take it ahead, we’d like to listen to from you. Concepts might come from anyplace, so we welcome proposals from people and groups who’re early of their profession or who’ve atypical backgrounds. We care extra about your concept and your intrinsic motivation than we do about your CV.

Engineering Ecosystem Resilience funding name

Programme Director Yannick Wurm’s alternative house, ‘Engineering Ecosystem Resilience’, asks: “How can we turn out to be as exact and purposeful in our interactions with residing techniques as we’re once we construct buildings or software program, so we are able to make ecosystems resilient and reverse biodiversity decline?” We’re seeking to fund excessive potential proposals with as much as £500,000 every. We initially anticipate to fund round 10 alternative seeds on this house.

We offer funding between £10,000 to £500,000 per challenge, inclusive of VAT (the place relevant) and all related prices (each direct and oblique). There is no such thing as a minimal size for a proposed challenge; the utmost size is three years.

Who can apply?

ARIA welcome proposals from throughout the R&D ecosystem, together with people (together with these not affiliated with an organisation), universities (together with proposals from college students, postdocs and employees), analysis establishments, small, medium and enormous corporations, charities and public sector analysis organisations.

In case you are an abroad applicant you must word that our main focus might be on funding those that are primarily based within the UK or these keen to conduct the bulk (> 50%) of the challenge from the UK. In distinctive circumstances, funding will be awarded exterior the UK if we imagine the proposed challenge can considerably profit the UK.

Scope

Inside the scope outlined on this part and our analysis standards, we’re fascinated with what you actually need to do. The steerage under is that can assist you assess whether or not your concept aligns with this funding name.

In scope:

  • Concepts that sit inside the ‘Engineering Ecosystem Resilience’ alternative house. By this, we imply your proposal ought to present how your concept both aligns with or challenges the assumptions of the Abstract, Beliefs, or Observations within the alternative house.
  • Concepts that vary from early stage curiosity-driven analysis via to translational and close-to-commercial science and expertise.

Out of scope:

  • Concepts that focus on Yannick’s objective of Accelerating Adaptation, as described in his programme thesis. By this we imply concepts which match squarely inside the programme.
  • Concepts which might be more likely to occur with out ARIA assist, for instance, via different funding mechanisms.
  • Business merchandise.

Examples of concepts we take into account in scope:

  • Detection, containment or management of invasive or pest species or their impacts.
  • New approaches for measuring or modelling biodiversity/resilience/vulnerabilities/interactions.
  • Understanding impacts of various Miyawaki micro-forest or inexperienced wall methods.
  • Cut back methane emissions from riverbed micro organism by creating instruments that keep dissolved oxygen ranges.
  • AI-enabled real-time sensing for adaptive rapid-response administration.

Examples of concepts that might be out of scope:

  • Creating a squirrel pox vaccine for pink squirrels
  • Agricultural crops or animals
  • Bettering renewable vitality or greenhouse fuel applied sciences

The best way to apply

Functions should be submtited by 2pm GMT on 2nd February 2026. Full details about this name and the apllication course of will be discovered on the ARIA web site.