The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is a world-leading centre of excellence in environmental science. NERC funds and carries out leading-edge research, training and innovation in the environmental sciences to help society understand and respond to global environmental change. The organisation is headquartered in Swindon, United Kingdom.
NERC was established in 1965 as a statutory body under the Science and Technology Act 1965. It superseded the former Advisory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (ACSIR), which had been created in 1926. In addition to funding research, NERC also provides advice on environmental issues to government departments, non-governmental organisations and businesses. It also disseminates its findings to the public through publications, websites and educational outreach programmes.
The council is governed by a board of trustees, which currently comprises 14 members drawn from academia, business, government and the third sector. The board is chaired by Professor Dame Julia Slingo DBE FRS FREng FRMetS FLSW CBE DLitt HonFREng FMedSci HonFSciTech FIET FCGI FCIMechE FWES FBES FFISWEM FICE FMEG GAICD HonFRMSG FSIAgEng MCChem MRSC CPhys CPsychol CSci CChem FBPharmS FIHort FSBio FAcSS FAAAS FARCSI FRSA FIRSE MIEE MIEEE MInstP MFSSoc RSE DWEM HonRSAeS RSNG RSAmSoc GMcG MA Cantab FSA Scot DFRSM ACGI AFHEA AGSM BSc Lond PhD Leeds DSc Essex MD Glasgow MB ChB Bristol DM Oxf FRCGP DCH Lond DGM Manchester
NERC is an executive non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom Government sponsored by the Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Its main offices are at Polaris House in Swindon with other sites located across England, Scotland and Wales including: Edinburgh; Wallingford; Reading; Leeds; Leicester; Norwich; Nottingham; Cambridge; Bedford; Oxfordshire; Hampshire; Lancashire and Cumbria. NERC employs around 1120 staff (equivalent to 860 full-time equivalent). The Chief Executive is Duncan Wingham who took up post on 1 September 2014 succeeding Prof Paul Leinster who retired after 10 years in post.
The annual budget for 2015/16 was £380 million (US$600 million), 16% of which comes from core UK Government grant-in-aid with a further 5% coming from devolved administrations within Scotland (£15M), Wales (£5M)and Northern Ireland(£1M). The remainder comes from other sources including research councils in other countries such as Sweden (£3M), Norway(£2M), Denmark(£2M) Finland(£0.7M) as well as industrial companies or charitable trusts (£75 M).