Aim
The net-zero economy presents one of the most significant growth opportunities of the 21st century, with an ever-growing demand for securing the supply and establishment of sustainable products and operations and clean energy in the UK. A window of opportunity therefore presents itself for discovering and informing equitable and resilient approaches to the solutions required by the UK’s mid-to-long term future.
This funding opportunity seeks to support up to three critical mass five-year transdisciplinary research programmes that will directly contribute to the shift away from environmentally detrimental materials, technologies, energy solutions and operations to more sustainable, clean and circular alternatives.
This funding opportunity will also support multiple programmes targeting the highlight area of interseasonal energy storage (IES) beyond hydrogen. £9 million of the £22.7 million total fund of this funding opportunity, has been ring-fenced to support the IES highlight area, with the aim of developing the critical solutions needed to store energy in large volumes from season to season in ways that are safe, economical and efficient, to enable the UK to take best advantage of the growth in renewable energy generation. This will enable us to address a breadth of challenges in this area and build capacity in interseasonal energy storage beyond hydrogen.
This funding opportunity is intended as a pilot for EPSRC. We will conduct review and evaluation activities during and after the funding opportunity to inform the targeted priorities of any potential future funding rounds. We welcome any community feedback on any aspect of this funding opportunity – please refer to the ‘Contact details’ section.
Scope
Programmes will deliver innovative and transformative research and innovation to support the UK’s medium to long term sustainable aims to establish the sustainable and net zero future beyond 2030. Themes of focus may include but are not limited to:
- advanced renewable energy technologies with potential to play a part in the energy transition or revisions of existing technologies that provide more sustainable solutions
- decarbonised, sustainable transport, including land, air, sea and cross modal
- sustainable next generation manufacturing technologies, processes and systems
- technologies to enable a circular economy, in particular reuse, refurbish, remanufacture and longer-in-life solutions
We recognise that delivering a sustainable, prosperous and resilient future is complex and high-risk, requiring the integration of multiple stakeholders and broad interdisciplinary teams across and beyond the remit of EPSRC. These critical mass investments will provide the scale, flexibility and length of award necessary to support this.
For applications targeting the IES highlight area, this could include research focused on, but not limited to:
- electrochemical storage
- thermal storage
- gravitational (potential energy) storage
- whole system including the production of the storage technology, storage integration, and use of the energy storage system
You must submit an expression of interest (EoI), no later than 4 March 2025 at 4:00pm UK time to be eligible for this funding opportunity. Please refer to the ‘How to apply’ and ‘How we will assess your application’ sections to learn more on the EoI process and what it must detail.
Opportunity objectives
Successful programmes will address EPSRC’s strategic aims through the following objectives:
- deliver high quality, novel engineering and physical sciences (EPS) research addressing timely and strategically important challenges demonstrably driven directly by the vision of a net zero and sustainable UK and the broader benefits this will bring to society, the economy and the environment
- maximise demonstrable impact from the programme in the medium and longer term through engagement, collaboration and co-creation with industrial, policy and third sector stakeholders and an active consideration of the wider system in which the programme’s research and planned outputs exist
- maximise quality and impact of the programme through collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches and co-creation with new and existing stakeholders, both academic and non-academic, across and beyond EPSRC’s remit
- complement existing EPSRC and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) investments to significantly grow the UK’s EPS capacity and capability in the area
- embed careful consideration of environmental sustainability in all proposed project outputs and outcomes, research approaches and programme operations throughout the lifetime of the programme
Duration
The maximum duration of this award is five years.
The earliest start date for programmes will be in February 2026
Funding available
For applications targeting the IES highlight area, the full economic cost (FEC) of your project can only be up to £3 million. We will fund 80% of the FEC (that is an EPSRC contribution of up to £2.4 million).
For all other applications, the FEC of your programme can be up to £5.7 million. We will fund 80% of the FEC (that is an EPSRC contribution of up to £4.6 million).
What we will fund
This funding opportunity will support programmes for which the core vision and primary research challenge are driven directly by the challenges of delivering a shift away from environmentally detrimental materials, technologies and operations to more sustainable and circular alternatives, and clean energy solutions.
Programmes where driving a sustainable and net zero future from 2030 onwards is not the core focus and vision are not eligible for this funding opportunity, and you should consider alternative funding opportunities. The proposed research must demonstrably lie primarily within EPSRC’s remit. However, involvement of researchers from other disciplines (including those from other UKRI councils) is welcome and encouraged where necessary for the programme. Sustainability research is often interdisciplinary by necessity, so applicants are expected to co-create solutions between different disciplines, within and beyond EPSRC’s remit, as appropriate.
We reserve the right to make such remit decisions without reference to peer review.
Programmes must:
- address one or more timely research challenge or challenges focused on a single strategically important theme which is driven directly by the vision of the transition to sustainable, clean and circular materials, technologies, energy and operations in the UK’s mid-to-long term future from 2030 onwards
- demonstrate a coherent long-term strategic vison and bring together a collaborative and world-leading academic team with relevant stakeholders to address it
- take a systems approach, considering the wider context in which the proposed research and research outcomes will sit and the trade-offs and unintended consequences of the research outcomes
- demonstrate co-creation and collaboration with stakeholders including industry, policy and the third sector to identify timely and strategically important research challenges
- drive added value as a core focus of the programme by demonstrating synergistic connectivity between partners, disciplines, and workstreams
- identify and embed clear, realistic and proportionate impact and translation pathways which will maximise demonstrable impact from the programme in the medium and longer term
- use the scale, flexibility and length of the funding to deliver UK-wide national leadership and advocacy and embed creativity and agility into the plans for the programme
- develop the skills of the researchers and partners involved, embedding equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the programme, as well as supporting development and training for early career researchers
- embed environmental sustainability throughout the programme, both in research outcomes and in programme operations
You must be able to articulate how you will interact with existing investments and demonstrate how your work will compliment and add value to the existing research and innovation landscape.
Research programmes should:
- look to integrate leading-edge analysis of whole life cycle, social engagement or behavioural science, alongside engineering, physical, and environmental science approaches to enhance the translatability of findings into viable solutions
- build upon existing UKRI research investments, from fundamental to applied, avoiding duplication, competition, and ensuring collaboration where applicable, building upon or partnering with existing UK and international academic and stakeholder initiatives relevant to the challenge area of focus, including exchanging knowledge, drawing on experience and outcomes and collaborating on data use and collection
- anticipate the need for freedom to respond quickly to new arising challenges, bring in new collaborators, attract more funding, and cross-fertilise ideas
Equipment (up to £400,000 per item)
Quotes for equipment do not need to be included in your application, but please retain quotes for equipment costing more than £138,000 as we may ask for these at post-panel stage before releasing funds.
What we will not fund
We will not fund programmes where:
- the majority of the research is outside of EPSRC remit. Proposals deemed to not be within EPSRC remit will be rejected
- a sustainable future is a beneficiary or potential impact pathway rather than the core focus of the programme. This will be deemed out of scope by the outline panel and applicants will not be invited to submit a full proposal
Due to previous recent UKRI investment activity, the primary focus should not be on:
- hydrogen production or systems integration
- hydrogen based interseasonal energy storage
- nuclear fission
- nuclear fusion
- industrial decarbonisation
- healthcare manufacturing
Or areas already supported by the programmes successfully funded through:
The onus is on you to demonstrate additionality to the portfolio.
Programmes addressing areas covered by investments made in manufacturing research hubs for a sustainable future are not excluded from this funding opportunity. However, you must demonstrate how your project would be complementary to these and other UKRI investments and add value to the broader research and innovation landscape.
Definitions
Transdisciplinary research
Transdisciplinary research has various definitions but is often defined as research that transgresses boundaries between disciplinary knowledge or integrates different bodies of knowledge and actively co-creates knowledge between academic and societal partners such as policymakers or business.
We encourage programmes to build an appropriate team that brings together academic and broader stakeholders from across UKRI’s remit. Proposals which do not bring together different disciplines alongside stakeholder involvement will be out of scope.
Systems approach
Programmes must evaluate the context of the wider system within which the proposed research outputs would sit to enable consideration of the economic, environmental and social trade-offs, risks and mitigations associated with different approaches. You are not asked to research the entire system or necessarily carry out systems engineering but should consider:
- the systems that your work will sit within and interact with, and the feedback loops and unintended consequences this may generate. These may be upstream or downstream of your system and at similar or different scales
- the wider social, legal, regulatory, economic and environmental context
Such considerations may include questions such as:
- how does your research influence or impact other parts of the system?
- how could other systems influence or impact your material, technology or operation?
- what further research might be needed for your technology or process to have the desired impact in a current or future system? Your programme may not necessarily deliver this further research, but it should look to identify it and consider the implications of it
Programmes should consider the risks, costs and trade-offs associated with different materials, technologies and processes, using tools and approaches such as life cycle analysis and impact assessments where appropriate.
Co-creation and stakeholder engagement
With this funding opportunity we aim to maximise impact through engagement, collaboration and co-creation with industrial, policy and third sector stakeholders.
Programmes should have a strategy for engaging with stakeholders, both academic and non-academic, across and beyond EPSRC’s remit. This should include plans to interact with a new and emerging range of relevant collaborators throughout the lifetime of the grant. You should provide clear evidence of genuine, substantive partnerships, with co-creation and co-delivery of projects and activities in addition to financial contributions.
There is no minimum leverage or number of partners that we require but appropriate evidence beyond standard letters of support is required to demonstrate true co-creation and engagement. This could include but is not limited to industry member time, knowledge exchange, drawing on expertise, experience and outcomes, collaborating on data use and collection, use cases, secondments and so on. However, we do expect leverage to grow over the lifetime of the programme as stakeholder relationships progress and new partnerships are formed.
You should consider how you will embed stakeholder interactions in the programme’s governance structure. In particular, advice from users must be appropriately utilised in the decision-making strategy to grow diverse user engagement, both in terms of number of users and value of contributions to the programme (financial and in-kind). Relationships with stakeholders should evolve as appropriate as the programme and the research develops.
Supporting skills and talent
We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.
Environmental sustainability
UKRI’s environmental sustainability strategy lays out our ambition to actively lead environmental sustainability across our sectors. This includes a vision to ensure that all major investment and funding decisions we make are directly informed by environmental sustainability, recognising environmental benefits as well as potential for environmental harm.
In alignment with this, UKRI is tackling the challenge of environmental sustainability through our ‘building a green future’ strategic theme, which aims to develop whole systems solutions to improve the health of our environment and deliver net zero, securing prosperity across the whole of the UK.
Environmental sustainability is complex and there are often conflicting drivers. In this context EPSRC consider it to include consideration of such broad areas as:
- reducing greenhouse gases
- protecting and enhancing the natural environment and biodiversity
- waste or pollution elimination
- energy and resource efficiency and circular economy
EPSRC (on behalf of UKRI) expects programmes to embed careful consideration of environmental sustainability at all stages of the research and innovation process and throughout the lifetime of the grant.
In particular, for this funding opportunity programmes should ensure that environmental impact and mitigation of the proposed research approaches and programme operations, as well as the associated project outputs and outcomes, is considered. Programmes must also seek opportunities to influence others and leave a legacy of environmental sustainability within the broader operations of their academic and industry partners.
Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)
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.
