- Home
- Aid by Sector
- Environment
- General environmental protection
- Environmental research
Aid by Sector
Knowledge, Evidence and Engagement Portfolio (KEEP)
UK - Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
KEEP is a research and engagement facility that enables HMG climate leads to commission bespoke evidence and engagement activities to improve the delivery and increase the ambition of UK International Climate Finance activities, supporting developing countries to tackle climate change. It facilitates this by making funds available for research and engagement activities, filling evidence gaps and by ensuring efficient quality assurance and approval procedures
UK Hydrographic Office - Skills Development Bursary
Ministry of Defence
The UKHO’s international bursary training programme is primarily aimed at cartographic capacity building and meets UKHO’s objectives of enhancing data supply with training (with skills and knowledge) and developing or strengthening relationships with key partners.
PROBLUE
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
PROBLUE is the World Bank’s leading multilateral mechanism for leveraging and disbursing blue finance towards sustainable ocean sectors and activities. It is a multi-donor trust fund that supports the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, Life Below Water, and the Bank’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity. PROBLUE aims to do this by reducing the existing blue finance gap by creating the necessary enabling environment for public and private sectors to shift from unsustainable to sustainable activities.
Environmental Pollution Programme
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The Environmental Pollution Programme’s aim is to work with ODA-eligible countries and regions to reduce the adverse impacts of pollution. Work will improve health and reduce environmental harm and poverty that results from chemical, air, waste and water pollution, as part of the Triple Planetary Crisis. 2021-22: Scoping year to share expertise, best practice and invest in research to strengthen the capacity of low- and middle-income countries to meet their obligations under UN Multilateral Environment Agreements and frameworks. 2022-2025: Phase one delivering two multi-year projects in Vietnam and South Africa through delivery partners Global Alliance on Health and Pollution, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and in country organisations. The programme reduced pollution and its impacts on the environment and health by promoting sustainable, economically viable practices, strengthening regulations, and enhancing awareness through multi-sector engagement, robust evidence projects, capacity building and monitoring to support policymaking. 2025-26: This year’s programme will build and expand on the successful approaches on reducing air pollution and increasing uptake of integrated pest management in Vietnam, adding new work on waste and plastic pollution. Work in Uganda will focus on developing a Health and Pollution Action Plan, creating a framework for future action that is aligned with priorities of national stakeholders. The programme will also establish Regional Pollution Forums, working in a multilateral way to amplify impact by spreading knowledge of successful interventions.
International Climate Finance R&D Programme
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
This International Climate Finance (ICF) funded programme will deliver an integrated package of projects to strengthen global knowledge and understanding of the interrelationship between the climate and biodiversity challenges. It will seek to inform the work of policy developers and development practitioners globally and help narrow the funding gap between current and required investment in natural solutions to climate change. It recognises that the scaling, and effectiveness, of natural solutions to the triple challenge of climate change, poverty and biodiversity loss (hereafter referred to as ‘natural solutions’) requires an investment in the primary evidence base needed to inform effective decisions, and drive innovation in the future. The proposed package of work is designed to meet both short and longer-term evidence needs, including to deliver a UNFCCC and CBD legacy, focusing on ensuring strategic, policy-relevant results and a global network of knowledge exchange and learning. As part of this programme, the UK committed £40m to establish the Global Centre on Biodiversity for Climate (GCBC). The GCBC is funded by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) with International Climate Finance, working in partnership with DAI Global as the Management Lead. Through a series of research grant calls the GCBC will support GBF Targets 8,11 & 14 by establishing a global network of research institutions and experts to address critical research gaps in how the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity can address climate solutions and improve livelihoods. The GCBC was announced at COP26 with £40m of UK International Development funding. It contributes to the UK Government’s commitment to spend £3bn of its £11.6bn of International Climate Finance on nature and biodiversity over the 5 years to March 2026. The GCBC aims to support developing countries to shape decision-making and develop policies that better value, protect, restore and sustainably manage biodiversity in ways that tackle resilience to climate change and poverty. For more information, please visit www.gcbc.org.uk
Global Fund For Coral Reefs (GFCR)
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
Coral reefs are amongst the most valuable ecosystems on earth, harbouring the highest biodiversity of any ecosystem, supporting 25% of marine life and providing a myriad of benefits to thousands of species. The Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) is a project within the Blue Planet Fund portfolio. The GFCR is the first Multi-partner Trust Fund for Sustainable Development Goal 14. It provides finance for coral reefs with particular attention on Small Island Developing States. The GFCR promotes a ‘protect-transform-restore-recover’ approach through the creation and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to save and protect coral reefs in the face of serious decline and extinction. The GFCR has four main outcomes: Protect priority coral reef sites and climate change-affected refugia Transforming the livelihoods of coral reef-dependent communities Restoration and adaptation technologies Recovery of coral reef-dependent communities to major shocks
Global Programme on Sustainability
Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs
The programme supports sustainable economic growth that is both long-lasting and resilient to climate-related stressors. It does this through the integration of natural capital into decision making by governments, the private sector and financial institutions. The inability to value natural capital can undermine long-term growth and critically, the livelihoods of the poorest people dependent on ecosystems for their livelihoods. This programme directly addresses this challenge by (i) investing in data and research on natural capital; (ii) assisting countries to integrate this analysis into government policy making; and (iii) integrating this data and analysis into financial sector decision making.
Building Disaster Resilience to Seismic Hazards in Uganda
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Uganda is situated between the Eastern and Western branches of the East African Rift system and is prone to moderate level seismicity causing several destructive events in the past. Currently, seismic risk in Uganda is increasing at a fast pace due to high population growth, rapid urbanisation and vulnerable building stock caused by lack of building regulations and expertise for designing and constructing earthquake resistant structures. Therefore, there is an urgent need (i) to characterise seismic hazard (including earthquake induces landslides) using new methods, (ii) to categorise structural systems of residential building stock, (iii) to determine the location and distribution of different building categories realistically at national level, (iv) to assess their expected performances, (v) to determine seismic risk, and (vi) to develop risk reduction and management strategies. However, assessment and management of seismic risks in Uganda is a big challenge due to limited data availability, lack of expertise and insufficient resources. This project brings together a partnership of researchers from the University of Sheffield in the UK, and Makerere and Kyambogo Universities in Uganda, for the first time, to address the challenge faced by Uganda. The assembled research team will work towards the achievement of ambitious objectives of the project in close collaboration to reduce future earthquake related loses and develop more resilient communities in Uganda against seismic events. The project team will actively engage with governmental and non-governmental agencies in Uganda (such as National Bureau of Standards, National Building Review Board, Engineers Registration Board, Institution of Professional Engineers) to understand needs within the country, disseminate project outputs widely and maximise impact. Meetings with key policy makers will be held to examine potential areas for future development of the Seismic Design Code and risk management tools, to discuss barriers to change, and to develop proposals for change. Presentations to local communities will also be carried out to understand their current awareness of seismic risk and mitigation measures and to gather feedback on the accessibility and acceptability of the proposed changes and developed tools. The project will also train next generation of researchers, academics, practitioners, engineers, PhD and MSc students in Uganda by organising free online courses to equip them with necessary knowledge and skills in the fields of seismic design, vulnerability, risk and resilience.
SMART-H: SMART-Health-care facilities towards resilient, green, and sustainable medical systems.
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
SMART-H is the first step towards establishing SMART (e.g., resilient, sustainable, and green) Health-care facilities in Malawi and ensure continuity of operations of critical services before, during and after disasters and health crises to promote better community health and provide better services for patients and staff. A novel roadmap for stakeholders will be implemented to assess the adequacy of existing healthcare facilities and establish the selection criteria to identify those facilities eligible for mitigation strategies. It will provide an informed pathway on how government, business and society should intervene to prepare medical facilities to meet global standards and respond to disruptive events. The novel concept of this research consists of creating an integrated analysis framework to i) assess multi-hazards by probabilistic analyses, ii) identify medical baselines (e.g., health-care building types with similar structural and architectural features) on a variety of parameters collected through field investigations, iii) develop dynamic structural and thermal models to assess the physical and energy performance, and estimate direct and indirect losses and health and wellbeing of people associated with disasters driven by climate change for prioritising vulnerable baselines, iv) recommend mitigation strategies and optimize them using life-cycle approaches to reduce CO2 and improve energy efficiency, and v) produce cost-benefit analyses to plan mitigation investments for reducing future impact from multi-hazard-risks and health crises. This work will deliver a dataset, which will encourage stakeholders to take risk-informed and inclusive decisions at local, regional, and national level and promote medical facility renovations. The results will demonstrate that multi-disciplinary research is crucial to prioritise the extent and nature of repair of medical facilities. Depending on the policymakers' primary concerns different pathways should be considered to improve multi-hazard preparedness and response to health emergencies and disasters. To maximise the impact of the proposed research, a workshop in Malawi will be delivered to illustrate the potential of the proposed strategies amongst policy makers and industries operating in health emergency planning and response. This will create additional drive across sectors for financial initiatives and alternatives for inclusive healthcare. Dissemination of the research will be through publications in high profile journals and key conferences in this field.
UKCEH National Capability ODA: Options for Net Zero Plus and Climate Change Adaptation
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Project centred on advancing the capabilities of selected LMIC countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal, South Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria) to deliver climate change mitigation and adaptation approaches. This includes 1) delivering capabilities that support the development and delivery of plans to reduce emissions and increase carbon sinks of natural and managed ecosystems while considering possible cascading effects and trade-offs that impact on the wellbeing and livelihoods of the population in beneficiary countries. 2) Supporting beneficiary countries in their National Adaptation Planning in response to climate change through enhancing the predictability of changing freshwater resources and improving hydro-meteorological forecasting to inform early-warning systems for cascading hazards.
BGS National Capability ODA: Geoscience to tackle global environmental challenges
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Global environmental challenges will be the focus of BGS' research, specifically: strengthening adaptation and resilience to geological hazards and climate change; security and sustainability of resource supply chains; and reduction in risk to urban and rural infrastructure. These are highly complex interconnected issues, all underpinned by the geosciences, and with an international collaborative approach the proposed research can play a role in tackling them. Our programme will be organised and managed around three interlinked Research and Innovation Challenges (RICs) representing the global environmental challenges: RIC 1: Living in multi-hazard environments RIC 2: Resources for the future RIC 3: Land use change Key to success is research co-designed and delivered via equitable partnerships. To facilitate this translation and to build-in opportunities for inter-connectivity of projects across the programme, we have framed the RICs to work in three key contexts to realise maximum benefit: (1) The urbanising world, representing areas experiencing rapid urbanisation, (2) Resource research emerging economies, representing countries essential to the global supply chain for minerals, energy and food, and (3) Communities on the climate change frontline, where effects will be most impactful or represent scenarios translatable to other parts of the world. BGS has extensive experience in geological multi-hazards research and support for national emergency response organisations. In RIC 1 we will (a) develop new methods for characterising, monitoring and forecasting hazards, both natural and anthropogenic, (b) undertake research into hazards and their impacts in multi-hazard locations including Indonesia, the Philippines and the UK Overseas Territories, and (c) investigate how geoscience knowledge and expertise supports disaster preparedness, response and recovery worldwide and how this can be improved. Geoscience is key to ensuring the sustainable supply of raw materials required to reach net zero, to continue global economic and social development and, along with the supply of food and water resources, to sustain and promote equitable development. Our RIC 2 research will focus on sub-Saharan Africa, the Li-Triangle in South America, and the Philippines. It will: (a) leverage BGS expertise in global raw material supply chain/circular economy research in critical and energy transition raw materials, raw materials for rapid urbanisation and trade-offs associated with mineral waste, (b) develop the geological model structures to facilitate the development of geothermal energy in LMICs, and requirements for sub-surface storage of CO2, and (c) inform strategies for the sustainable use of biophysical resources for food production and utilisation of water resources, for mitigation of environmental degradation and improve supply resilience to support population growth and climate change. Sustainable land management and climate change adaptation research in RIC 3 will work in south and south east Asia, Mexico and east Africa to investigate: (a) climate and anthropogenic pressures on climate and anthropogenic pressures on soil and water quality and quantity; (b) geoscience solutions for sustainable land management to improve agricultural and groundwater resilience; and (c) urban geohazards which are compounded by rapid expansion, and mitigations to increase resilience to these pressures and from climate change impacts.
AI for Climate - Met Office
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
New multi-year activity ( this proposal covers FY24/25 only) using AI to advance weather and climate science, and hence deliver improved predictions and projections more quickly than would otherwise be possible. AI and data science is of considerable interest to several developing countries, both in terms of developing their expertise in this area and for the potential benefits it offers in terms of reducing the need for expensive high performance computer resource. The activity aims to work with partner countries ( India [ODA] & South Africa) to co-develop region-specific climate models with AI/ML built in to equip in-country partners with the capability to better understand climate risks. This work will also result in models that can be used by other ODA-eligible countries to support their current capability to understand and adapt to climate change.
Weather and Climate Science for Service Partnership S E Asia (WCSSP) - Calls - tender - UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Strengthened partnership between meteorological services in UK, Philippines, Malaysia Vietnam, and Indonesia - research on understanding and evaluating convective processes over SE Asia.
Climate Science for Service Partnership (CSSP) Brazil - Calls- tender-UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Collaborative climate science research programme between Brazilian and UK to improve understanding of recent climate changes and Brazil’s role in mitigation activities to inform international negotiations; to enhance projections of future weather and climate extremes and impacts to inform decision making and contribute to disaster risk reduction in Brazil. Research on Moisture Transport and Deforestation.
Climate Science for Service Partnership (CSSP) Brazil - Calls- tender-UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Collaborative climate science research programme between Brazil and UK to improve understanding of recent climate changes and Brazil’s role in mitigation activities to inform international negotiations; to enhance projections of future weather and climate extremes and impacts to inform decision making and contribute to disaster risk reduction in Brazil. Research into Sub-seasonal and seasonal predictions for advancing climate services in Brazil.
Climate Science for Service Partnership (CSSP) Brazil - Calls- tender-UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Collaborative climate science research programme between Brazil and UK to improve understanding of recent climate changes and Brazil’s role in mitigation activities to inform international negotiations; to enhance projections of future weather and climate extremes and impacts to inform decision making and contribute to disaster risk reduction in Brazil. Research hydrological cycle responses to land-use change and climate change over Brazil
Climate Science for Service Partnership (CSSP) Brazil - Calls- tender-UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Collaborative climate science research programme between Brazil and UK to improve understanding of recent climate changes and Brazil’s role in mitigation activities to inform international negotiations; to enhance projections of future weather and climate extremes and impacts to inform decision making and contribute to disaster risk reduction in Brazil. Research in understanding and attributing weather and climate events, and their socio-economic impacts on key food, water and health sectors in Brazil.
Climate Science for Service Partnership (CSSP) Brazil - Calls- tender-UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Collaborative climate science research programme between Brazil and UK to improve understanding of recent climate changes and Brazil’s role in mitigation activities to inform international negotiations; to enhance projections of future weather and climate extremes and impacts to inform decision making and contribute to disaster risk reduction in Brazil. Research into ecosystems responses to extremes.
Climate Science for Service Partnership (WCSSP) South Africa - Calls- tender-UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Collaborative project between meteorological services in South Africa and UK focusing on capacity building for improved weather and climate services, enabling mitigation of risk from extreme weather events. Research into improving representation of Climate Variability and change over Africa by using Machine Learning as a tool for Data Rescue.
Climate Science for Service Partnership (WCSSP) South Africa - Calls- tender-UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTH
DEPARTMENT FOR SCIENCE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY
Collaborative project between meteorological services in South Africa and UK focusing on capacity building for improved weather and climate services, enabling mitigation of risk from extreme weather events. Research into advancing rip current forecasts for beach locations across South Africa.
Advanced filters
To search for Programmes in a specific time period, please enter the start and end dates.