The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) are delighted to announce the opening of a new, jointly funded £7.5 million investment: the 'Energy and Communities Collaborative Venture'.
This call for proposals forms part of an investment being made by the Research Council's Energy Research Programme (RCERP). The initiative aims to advance our understanding of issues surrounding energy use within communities with a view to contributing to the Government's green house gas emissions targets. The call invites applicants to address a broad range of research challenges such as community ownership, energy innovation, policy, governance and social movements. Full details of the research challenges are set out in the call for proposals, available below.
The call for proposals encourages active engagement with community organisations and other community stakeholders. As such applicants are encouraged, where appropriate, to demonstrate how they will engage with relevant organisations and groups.
The Energy and Communities call is independent from DECC's Low Carbon Communities Challenge (LCCC). However, applicants may wish to explore synergies with the communities awarded funding by DECC, but this is by no means a prerequisite: there is absolutely no requirement nor expectation that applicants have links to, or funding from, the LCCC. All applications to the Energy and Communities call will be subject to the same independent peer review process with a view to identifying the strongest proposals. Participation in the LCCC or engagement with LCCC partners is not one of the criteria by which applications are assessed.
Ideally, the successful research proposals will begin in mid 2010 with the longest lasting up to five years.
All applications will need to be submitted via Je-S (Joint Electronic Submissions system) - please see Je-S guidance notes for this call below.
For further information please contact either Mrs Trudie Keene (trudie.keene@esrc.ac.uk) or Mrs Krys Rivers (Krys.rivers@esrc.ac.uk).
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