Lough Neagh – Microbial Source Tracking for Enhanced Environmental Analysis
- Funding available: up to £820,000 at 80% full economic cost (equivalent to £1,025,000 at FEC).
- Call opening: 20th October 2025
- Call closing: 23:00 GMT, 1 December 2025
- Funding source: The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA)
- Funder: The University of Leeds
As part of the UK Freshwater Quality Research Programme, funding is available for one new research project to develop and apply advanced microbial source tracking methodologies for the Lough Neagh catchment system.
Research will include advanced microbial source tracking for Lough Neagh and its main catchments to understand and map microbial sources and transmission routes, and their relative importance and impacts including on antimicrobial resistance.
All proposals must include environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis but may also apply other techniques. It is also essential that any derived datasets, models or tools developed in the project will be integrated into a scalable, IT-enabled platform to ensure accessibility and utility in line with the Open Data Strategy for Northern Ireland.
This funding call is being administered by the University of Leeds as host of the UK Freshwater Quality Research Programme Champion Team. The University of Leeds will fund one successful project at 80% of the full economic cost (up to £820,000). The successful project will become part of the wider UK Freshwater Quality Research Programme, which is funded by NERC and Defra.
Researchers submitting proposals must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funding – please note, to maintain impartiality, funding is not available for employees of the University of Leeds.
How to apply
Further details of this call, including the background, project scope and requirements are included in this call guidance document.
To apply to this call please complete the Application Form and submit this as a PDF, along with any required supporting documents, to freshwater@leeds.ac.uk by the closing date.
Applicants are advised to consult the Lough Neagh Report and Action Plan when writing their proposal.
If you have any questions regarding this call, please contact the Freshwater Quality Champions team – freshwater@leeds.ac.uk
