The Enhancing Resilience to Wildfires in the Wildland-Urban Interface programme supports collaborative research projects with partners from the United States, Canada, or both to improve understanding of and resilience to wildfire occurrence and impacts in the wildland-urban interface (WUI).

Overview

Wildfires are becoming more frequent, severe, and unpredictable, exposing gaps in how communities understand, prepare for, and respond to these events. This programme funds essential interdisciplinary research on the wildland-urban interface to catalyse new and existing collaborations and strengthen capacity among researchers across the UK, the United States, Canada, or both. The programme will enhance resilience to wildfire risk at local, regional, and national scales.

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).

Funding and Benefits

Total fund: £10,000,000 from UKRI, with anticipated matched equivalent resources from participating funders (NSF, NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR) for United States and Canada applicants.

Maximum award: The full economic cost (FEC) of the UK component can be up to £1,575,000 (£1.58 million). UKRI funds 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.
• Eligible costs for project co-leads (international) from Norway are funded at 100% FEC.

Duration: 36 months. The UK component of each project must start by 12 February 2027.

Funding type: Grant.

Eligibility

Applicants must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding. Projects must be one of the following collaboration configurations: UK-US-Canada, UK-US, or UK-Canada.

Each project must contain a project lead from the UK and at least one project lead from the United States, Canada, or both. The UK project lead role is for system administrative purposes and does not reflect how international teams are constructed. Project teams are expected to incorporate researchers from a range of disciplines.

UK eligibility (UKRI): This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Applicants may be involved in no more than two applications submitted to this funding opportunity, and only one of these can be as project lead. This opportunity is administered by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Applications are welcome from individuals at any career stage, subject to NERC eligibility criteria.

US eligibility (NSF): 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.

Canada eligibility (NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR): Canadian university researchers in the natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and health fields who are eligible to receive NSERC, SSHRC, or CIHR funds may apply independently or as a team.

Other international researchers: Under the UKRI and Research Council of Norway Money Follows Cooperation agreement, a project co-lead (international) may be based in a Norwegian institution. All other international collaborators should be included as project partners.

Research Areas

The programme seeks to achieve the following three aims. Applications must address at least two of the programme aims, and one of these must be aim three:

• 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.

Application Process

Applications are submitted via the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. The Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system is not used for this opportunity. One collaborative application should be submitted by the UK project lead to UKRI, detailing both the UK and United States, Canada, or both contributions to the project.

Full details on how to apply will be published when the funding opportunity opens. An online webinar for potential applicants will be held in the weeks following the launch.

Deadline and Timeline

Publication date: 20 May 2026

Opening date: Expected late June 2026 (date to be confirmed)

Closing date: To be confirmed

Contact Information

Questions about this funding opportunity: wildfires@nerc.ukri.org

System or submission enquiries: support@funding-service.ukri.org | Phone: 01793 547490

Phone lines are open Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm, Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm.

For help with costings and writing applications, applicants should contact their research office in the first instance.