Title

Environmental Microbiology & Human Health Programme

Funder

NERC

Deadline

24th March 2014 (for Outline Bids)

Value

Aquatic microbiology topic: Up to £900k (at 80% FEC). The FSA and Defra may also contribute up to £250k additional funding “top-up” for (an expected) one project each that addresses outcomes of importance to each organisation (i.e. the total funding that can be applied for as part of this project will be £1·15m). It is not a requirement to apply for either the FSA or the Defra “top-up” money, as the primary assessment criteria is the fit to the priorities of the call and science excellence.

Bioaerosols topic: Up to £1.2m (at 80% FEC).

Aim

The Environmental Microbiology & Human Health research programme has the vision of providing the scientific evidence to support fast and efficient identification of pathogenic/allergenic microorganisms and biological material in environmental media which can be used in appropriate tools and models for the protection of public health.

This call is for research grants which address the vision of the programme. Applicants should note that all those intending to submit a proposal to this call are required to submit an Outline Bid for each project. There are two topics for this call:

• aquatic microbiology
• bioaerosols 

For the aquatic microbiology topic, applications will be supported on freshwater and/or coastal microorganism(s) that have an impact on human health and must cover:

1. enhancing the speed, accuracy and reproducibility of detection and sampling methods, with particular interest in cutting edge and novel techniques; and
2. demonstrating the use of the enhanced techniques for process studies. 

Applications for the bioaerosols topic must cover:

1. enhancing the speed, accuracy and reproducibility of detection methods (possibly including improved molecular methods and sequencing techniques and/or address the problem of counting non-viable organisms), with particular interest in cutting edge and novel techniques; and
2. demonstrating the use of the enhanced techniques for process studies.

Length

Up to 3 years

Eligibility

Standard NERC eligibility criteria apply

Details

http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/emhh/events/ao.asp