Apply for funding in automatic translation of scientific knowledge to overcome language and cultural barriers.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for EPSRC funding. Project consortia must have at least three eligible partner countries.
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £371,000. EPSRC will fund 80% of the FEC.
Projects can be 24 to 36 months duration.
Full information and application submission are available on the CHIST-ERA website.
To lead a project, you must be based at an eligible organisation. Check if your organisation is eligible.
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) standard eligibility rules apply. For full details, visit EPSRC’s eligibility page.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has introduced new role types for funding opportunities. For full details, visit Eligibility as an individual.
The project co-lead (international) (PcL (I)) role should only be used for applications making use of the UKRI-RCN Money Follows Cooperation agreement or the UKRI-IIASA agreement. EPSRC does not otherwise accept project co-lead (international) applicants.
We will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UKRI or any other funder.
Find out more about EPSRC’s resubmissions policy.
We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.
We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:
UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.
CHIST-ERA is a consortium of research funding organisations in Europe and beyond supporting use-inspired basic research in information and communication technologies (ICT) or at the interface between ICT and other domains. The CHIST-ERA consortium is itself supported by Horizon Europe and is part of the European Innovation Council’s Pathfinder programme.
CHIST-ERA promotes novel and multidisciplinary research with the potential to lead to significant technology breakthroughs in the long term. The funding organisations jointly support high risk and high impact research projects selected in the framework of CHIST-ERA, to reinforce European capabilities in promising new or emerging ICT or ICT-related research topics.
This multilateral call focuses on automatic translation of scientific knowledge to overcome language and cultural barriers.
Machine translation of this kind encompasses multiple scientific challenges: translation of complex documents (including graphs, images, tables videos and other supporting information) with intricate cross-references, terminology and phraseology issues and dependencies at the document-level, for instance. In addition, it is necessary to adapt styles and lexicons from a variety of scientific domains and to remain open to accurate simplification and summarisation of the content, across linguistic and cultural barriers.
This CHIST-ERA call will address the following two main strategic objectives:
Projects should address one or more of the following issues:
Funded projects are expected to significantly advance the state-of-the-art by achieving one or more of the following objectives:
Funded projects should comprise an initial stage where datasets, data repositories, and performance indicators will be defined and established. Tools and methodologies developed should be evaluated against the declared datasets and repositories according to performance indicators.
Full information about this call is available on the CHIST-ERA website. Applications should be submitted following the full call guidance.
The duration of this award is between 24 and 36 months.
Projects are anticipated to start in November 2025.
The FEC of your project can be up to £371,000.
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) will fund 80% of the FEC.
Partners in the consortium are funded by their respective countries research organisation and must abide by the funding rules as laid out in the full call document.
UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.
As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.
See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.
You can apply to this funding opportunity on the CHIST-ERA website.
You cannot apply on the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service or Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
The coordinator prepares a joint proposal for the whole consortium, using the template available on the CHIST-ERA website. The form is submitted via the electronic submission system on the website.
The consortium coordinator is responsible for completing the application process, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.
To support the applicants, see the following services: information webinars, FAQs, partner search tool and online networking event, and submission technical guidelines.
There is no requirement for match funding from the organisations hosting the project lead, project co-leads or other staff employed on the grant. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) advises reviewers and panel members not to consider the level of matched university funding as a factor on which to base funding decisions. Project partners are expected to contribute to the project, either with cash or in-kind contributions.
CHIST-ERA must receive your application by 15 April 2025 at 4:00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
Following the submission of your application to the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected. If an application is withdrawn prior to peer review or office rejected due to substantive errors in the application, it cannot be resubmitted to the opportunity.
EPSRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at EPSRC Funding Applications Outcomes
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
The consortium coordinator prepares a joint proposal for the whole consortium, using the template available on the CHIST-ERA website. The form is submitted via the electronic submission system on the website.
The call follows a one-stage submission and evaluation procedure. The proposal (typically 20 to 30 pages) is submitted and evaluated by a joint international evaluation panel.
Full details can be found in the call announcement and application form on the CHIST-ERA website.
The assessment areas we will use are:
Further details of assessment questions and criteria can be found in the full announcement on the CHIST-ERA website.
If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page.
For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.
For questions related to this specific funding opportunity please contact ICT.theme@epsrc.ukri.org
Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications should be directed through the CHIST-ERA website.
Impact can be defined as the long-term intended or unintended effect research and innovation has on society, economy and the environment; to individuals, organisations, and the wider global population.
We will hold a webinar on 27 February 2025 at 1:00pm UK time (2:00pm Central European Time). This will provide more information about the funding opportunity and a chance to ask questions.
We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:
Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant and their wider team to deliver the research they are proposing.
Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.
