Pre-announcement: Enhancing resilience to wildfires in the wildland-urban interface

- Funders: UK Research and Innovation - Funding type: Grant - Total fund: £10,000,000

Apply for funding to deliver collaborative research projects with partners from the US, Canada or both to improve understanding of and resilience to wildfire occurrence and impacts in the wildland-urban interface.

You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding.

The full economic cost (FEC) of the UK component can be up to £1.58 million. Matched equivalent resources are anticipated from participating funders (NSF, NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR) for US and Canada applicants.

The UK component of your project must start by 12 February 2027 and last for 36 months.

This is a pre-announcement and the information may change.

The funding opportunity is expected to open in late June 2026 (date to be confirmed). More information will be available on this page then.

Who can apply

Projects must be one of the following collaboration configurations:

- UK-US-Canada

- UK-US

- UK-Canada

One collaborative application should be submitted by the UK project lead to UKRI, detailing both the UK and US, Canada, or both, contributions to the project.

Each project must contain a project lead from the UK and at least one project lead from the US, Canada or both. The role of UK project lead is for system administrative purposes and does not reflect how you construct your international team. It is expected that project teams will incorporate researchers from a range of disciplines in order to fully address the aims of the programme.

Who is eligible to apply

UK eligibility (UKRI)

This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible.

Applicants based at a UK research organisation may be involved in no more than two applications submitted to this funding opportunity. Only one of these can be as project lead.

This is a UKRI funding opportunity administered by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).

Before applying for funding, check the NERC eligibility guidance for applicants.

This funding opportunity is open to research groups and individuals. We encourage interdisciplinary and intersectoral research and collaborations with other organisations.

We welcome applications from individuals at any career stage, subject to NERC eligibility criteria.

US eligibility (NSF)

NSF is interested in supporting convergent wildland fire research in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) as described under NSF’s FIRE program. NSF welcomes proposals from US academic institutions, as well as non-profit or non-academic organisations, for-profit organisations and state or local governments on behalf of all qualified scientists, engineers, and educators. Information on principal investigator and organisation eligibility may be found within the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) under the section for Who May Submit Proposals.

Canada eligibility (NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR)

This funding opportunity is open to Canadian university researchers in the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities and health fields. If you are a Canadian university researcher eligible to receive NSERC, SSHRC or CIHR funds, you can apply independently or as a team. If you apply as a team, your co-applicants must also meet NSERC, SSHRC or CIHR eligibility requirements. Collaborators and partner organisations from outside academia (industry, public, not-for-profit) are permitted.

Other international researchers

Under the UKRI and Research Council of Norway Money Follows Cooperation agreement a project co-lead (international) (previously co-investigator) can be based in a Norwegian institution. Read more about this in the NERC eligibility guidance for applicants.

All other international collaborators should be included (or UK partners not based at approved organisations) as project partners. This includes organisations from the business or financial sectors.

UK component project partners must fund their own involvement. UKRI will only fund minor incidental expenses, such as some travel costs, if needed for project partners.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.

We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

- career breaks

- support for people with caring responsibilities

- flexible working

- alternative working patterns

UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

What we're looking for

Aim

Wildfires are becoming more frequent, severe, and unpredictable, exposing gaps in how we understand, prepare for, and respond to these events. To address this global challenge a new holistic interdisciplinary, intersectoral and convergent approach is needed. The challenge also requires a proactive and scalable perspective that recognises the variety and connectedness of components of wildfire and wildland fire across all systems. Innovative research is needed to develop new frameworks that better explain current fire behaviour, assess emerging risks and impacts, and guide more effective prevention, mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Scope

The Enhancing Resilience to Wildfires in the Wildland-Urban Interface programme is an investment of up to £10 million (£8 million at 80% FEC) from UKRI with anticipated matched equivalent resources from participating agencies (NSF, NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR) for Canadian and US applicants.

The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is also known as the rural-urban interface (RUI), often used interchangeably to refer to zones where natural and human environments meet. For consistency, the term wildland-urban interface (WUI) will be used.

This research programme will fund essential interdisciplinary research on the WUI to:

- catalyse new and existing collaborations and strengthen capacity amongst researchers across various jurisdictions in the UK, and the US, Canada or both

- enhance resilience to wildfire risk (for example, environmental, structural, health and community) at the local, regional and national scale

The programme will achieve this through the follow three aims:

- aim one: enhance knowledge and understanding of the risk and vulnerabilities of wildfire occurrence, intensity, behaviour and spread within the WUI under evolving and future fire regime scenarios

- aim two: investigate impacts (for example, environmental, social, cultural, human health, economic, or built environment) of wildfire occurrence in the WUI

- aim three: develop interventions and solutions for adaptation, mitigation, and recovery to wildfire in the WUI

Applications are required to demonstrate how they will advance knowledge and produce solutions focused outcomes against the programme aims. Applications must address at least two of the programme aims listed above, of which one of these must be aim three.

Projects must include the UK and at least one other partner country from the US, Canada or both. Each partner country will support the eligible costs of their own researchers.

Duration

The duration of this award must be 36 months.

The UK component of your project must start by 12 February 2027.

Funding available

Each country involved in this trilateral programme will support its own researchers and associated costs.

The FEC of the UK component of your project can be up to £1.58 million. UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC with the following exceptions:

- justified equipment is funded at 80% FEC. Any requests for equipment over £25,000 must be fully justified as part of your application. You are reminded that funding for equipment is subject to consideration by NERC, based on the justification of resources and budget availability

- eligible costs for project co-leads (international) (PcL (I)) from Norway would be funded at 100% FEC. Read more about this in the agreement between UKRI and Norway

Matched equivalent resources are anticipated from participating funders (NSF, NSERC, SSHRC and CIHR) for US and Canada applicants. We will publish full details on funding available when the funding opportunity opens.

How to apply

We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.

We will publish full details on how to apply when the funding opportunity opens.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process

We will assess your application using the following process.

Panel

Applications will go to a panel of independent, international experts who will make a funding recommendation.

Participating funders will make the final funding decision.

For more information on how we prioritise applications for funding please visit How we make decisions.

Feedback

We will give feedback with the outcome of your application.

Principles of assessment

We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.

Find out about the UKRI principles of assessment and decision-making.

Full details of the assessment process will be given when the full funding opportunity is launched

Additional info

Webinar for potential applicants

An online webinar will be held in the weeks following the launch of this funding opportunity. This will provide an opportunity for potential applicants to find out more about the funding opportunity and ask questions. We will publish full details on how to register for this webinar when the funding opportunity opens.