The UK’s research funding body Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has launched a call for proposals as part of the Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) research programme funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and NERC.

The deadline for submission of outline proposals is 16:00 UK local time (GMT+1), Tuesday 15 July 2014.

FCFA is a £20 million international, interdisciplinary programme to advance scientific understanding and prediction of African climate variability and change to inform medium-term adaptation decisions (5-40 years), and develop the knowledge, data and tools to better integrate this science into decision making today.

Regional Consortium Grants

This call is for Regional Consortium Grant outline proposals, which will provide an opportunity for the world's best researchers to undertake large-scale, complex and interdisciplinary natural and social science research addressing the three pillars of FCFA:

1. World-leading scientific research to advance understanding and prediction of African climate variability and change over medium-term timescales (5 to 40 years);
2. Interdisciplinary research to support better integration of science into decision making;
3. Pilot studies, co-produced with users, to demonstrate the use of climate information and tools in real decisions.

Proposals are invited for funding of up to £4 million full economic cost (FEC) per consortium. This call has a total available budget of £12 million. Proposals will be funded for a maximum duration of four years with an expected start date of April 2015.

Proposals are expected to cover all three research pillars of FCFA for a defined region of sub-Saharan Africa and are required to make the case for the geographic region to be addressed in terms of the opportunity to deliver world-leading science and the potential to make clear improvements in the quality and availability of climate information, adding value to existing science and initiatives.

Global Climate Model Development

A call for Global Climate Model Development proposals is also being launched in parallel. The announcement provides an opportunity for the world's best researchers to undertake large-scale, complex natural science research to advance the prediction of African climate variability and change through model development of global models with an African lens.

Both calls are open and NERC welcomes international applicants, particularly those based in sub-Saharan Africa. Please visit the NERC website for full details on this opportunity and all application materials or the FCFA website for more.

Background information

CDKN has produced a background paper that informs this call for proposals:

Exploring the role of climate science in supporting long-term adaptation and decision-making in sub-Saharan Africa  by Lindsey Jones, Elizabeth Carabine, Anna Hickman, Lara Langston, Shehnaaz Moosa and Ronald Mukanya.

CDKN has been managing the scoping phase of the FCFA programme, read more here: FCFA scoping phase.

Image: Sahara dust storm heads toward Europe, courtesy NASA Goddard