[Medin_dacwg] SMMR - funding opportunity?

[Postlethwaite, Clare]

Dear MEDIN DACs,

Last week I participated in a stakeholder - researcher workshop for the upcoming Sustainable Marine Management Resources funding call. This may be an opportunity for MEDIN DACs or other MEDIN partners to get involved with or lead collaborative bids for funding.

See my notes from the workshop below and let me know if you would like any further information.

Best wishes,
Clare

Notes from SMMR workshop 31st March 2020

The Sustainable Marine Management Resources (SMMR) stakeholder-researcher workshop was held to set the scene for an upcoming funding call. Because of the current travel restrictions, the workshop was held virtually using Zoom. Technologically, the virtual workshop was very successful with 150 attendees in plenary for the morning session and 2x6 smaller breakout sessions running concomitantly in the afternoon.

The SMMR programme will be run and sponsored by NERC and EPSRC but has clear links into government. The funding for SMMR comes from the Strategic Priorities Fund and the programme has been co-designed by the policy and research communities. SMMR is about the application of science to solve societal problems.

SMMR has a total pot of £12.4m to be allocated to ~6 projects at 80% FEC for 36 months. Funds will be allocated in 2 tranches. £1.5m for first tranche of 6 x 36 month projects. This will be followed up with up to £2.55m available as a second tranche of funding, only available to those successful in the first tranche. Defra is keen that its arm’s length bodies are involved.


Key dates:

  *   Announcement of Opportunity to be released by end of April.
  *   Proposal submission by JeS. Anticipate deadline for submissions: September (under negotiation due to COVID-19)
  *   Peer review October
  *   Decision November
  *   Successful projects start April 2021
  *   Sept 2022 mid project review. (Project could be terminated at this stage if not producing anticipated results).

Desirable features of SMMR projects:

Interdisciplinary; Impact driven; Innovative; Collaborative; Original; Strong stake holder engagement; Not business as usual; It is about the application of science for societal problems.


At the end of the morning session, the panel took questions and I managed to ask a data specific one.


Q: Do the panel envisage that there will be new marine data collected as part of this programme (and by data I mean both environmental data and socio-economic data)? How will the champions ensure that the data are made available for the long-term, ensuring transparency and reproducibility of the work and enhancing its value (societal, cultural, economic, scientific …)?

A: Where possible we expect the projects to make use of the considerable existing data archives (Defra and Marine Scotland were particularly mentioned here). In particular, we expect that existing data will be used for any modelling projects and would be supported. Where new data is needed to fill gaps, that is admissible and normal UKRI rules/data policy will apply. i.e. data will have to be submitted to UKRI data centres. However, the SMMR programme would like to facilitate a step change, whereby we facilitate sharing data for policy much more rapidly than has previously been the case. As a principle and ethos of SMMR, open data should be promoted.


This may be a funding opportunity for MEDIN data centres/partners to be involved with.

The video from the morning session will be made available online at www.smmr.org.uk<http://www.smmr.org.uk/> along with the FAQ document.


The pre-announcment of the research programme is available here:
https://nerc.ukri.org/research/funded/programmes/marine-resources/news/pre-announcement-smmr-research-programme/








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