We are running this funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the UKRI Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.
Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.
To apply
Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.
- Confirm you are the project lead.
- Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org
- Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the ‘How to apply’ section on this Funding finder page.
- Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
- Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
- Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.
Watch our research office webinars about the new UKRI Funding Service.
Deadline
We must receive your application by 4:00pm UK time on the 9 January 2024.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
We will not be returning applications for amendment. If an application is withdrawn prior to peer review or office rejected due to substantive errors in the application, it cannot be resubmitted to the opportunity.
Personal data
Processing personal data
EPSRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your funding service account and the registration of your funding applications.
We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.
Publication of outcomes
EPSRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity.
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
Summary
Word limit: 550
In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.
We may make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, so make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:
- opinion-formers
- policymakers
- the public
- the wider research community
Guidance for writing a summary
Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:
- context
- the challenge the project addresses
- aims and objectives
- potential applications and benefits
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
- project lead (PL)
- project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
- researcher co-lead (RcL)
- specialist
- grant manager
- professional enabling staff
- research and innovation associate
- technician
- visiting researcher
Only list one individual as project lead.
Find out more about UKRI’s new grant roles.
Thematic area alignment
Word limit: 1
Select the primary EPSRC thematic area your application most closely aligns to.
In the text box, copy the letter corresponding to your selected theme:
A. artificial intelligence (AI)
B. digital security and resilience
C. energy and decarbonisation
D. engineering
E. healthcare technologies
F. information and communication technologies (ICT)
G. manufacturing
H. mathematical sciences
I. physical sciences
J. quantum technologies
Additional guidance:
This is for administrative purposes to help the initial application processing. We will check your choice and make a final decision on which theme will lead the peer review of your application.
Section: Case for support, technical annex and workplan
Create a document that includes your responses to all criteria. The document should not be more than 20 sides of A4, single spaced in paper in 11-point Arial (or equivalent sans serif font) with margins of at least 2cm. You may include images, graphs, tables. You can have an additional two page for a diagrammatic workplan.
For the file name, use the unique UKRI Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Case for Support, Technical Annex and Workplan’.
Save this document as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB. Unless specifically requested, do not include any personal data within the attachment.
If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.
Question: what are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work and what is the methodology?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Quality
This includes:
- the novelty, relationship to context, timeliness and relevance to identified stakeholders
- ambition, adventure, transformative aspects or potential outcomes
- the suitability of the proposed methodology and the appropriateness to achieving impact
- the overall vision of the research programme
Additionality
This includes:
- added value and need for support of this research as a coherent programme of inter-related research activities and not a number of smaller research grants
- need for the added flexibility of resources and longer term nature of the grant to achieve the proposed research goals
National importance
This includes:
- contribution to, or helping maintain the health of other disciplines
- contribution to addressing key UK societal challenges and contribution to future UK economic success and development of emerging industry(s)
- meeting national needs by establishing or maintaining a unique, world leading research activity
- complements other UK research funded in the area or related areas, including any relationship to the EPSRC portfolio
Advocacy
This includes:
- advocacy role for the engineering and physical sciences
You must include:
- description of the proposed research (six sides of A4), including:
- background
- vision and ambition
- research objectives
- research programme and methodology
- added value of the programme grant mechanism
- national importance
- relevance to academic beneficiaries
- technical annex (12 sides of A4), which includes additional information on the scientific research programme. Each work package and their interdependencies
- work plan (two sides of A4). Provide a detailed and comprehensive project plan including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar (additional one side of A4) and demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposed work
Applicant and team capability to deliver (track record)
Word limit: 1,000
Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:
- appropriateness of the track record and international benchmarking of the applicants
- the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work of the project team and collaborators
- the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
- development and promotion of careers of all its team members, including investigators, research assistants, technicians, and aligned students
- ability of the principal investigator and team to lead and manage a large, complex investment with sufficient support, infrastructure and resources for the day-to-day running of the programme grant
In addition to 1,000 words on your team’s track record to be entered in the text box, upload a single PDF containing CVs of named research staff, no bigger than 8MB. Each CV can be up to two sides of A4 in Arial 11pt.
For the file name, use the unique funding service number the system gives to your proposal (when you create an application) immediately followed by the words CVs for named research staff. Then use the upload button.
If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the proposal will be rejected.
References
Word limit: 1,500
List the references you have used to support your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Include all references in this section, not in the rest of the application questions.
You should not include any other information in this section.
We advise you not to include hyperlinks, as assessors are not obliged to access the information they lead to or consider it in their assessment of your application.
If linking to web resources, to maintain the information’s integrity, include persistent identifiers (such as digital object identifiers) where possible.
You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.
Project partners: contributions
Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.
A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities.
Project partners cannot normally receive funding directly from the grant. Two exceptions to this are:
- where a project partner is providing services or equipment that will go through a formal procurement process audited by the host research organisation
- the project partner can receive small amounts of funding from the grant, such as for travel and subsistence to attend project meetings. These will need to be requested and fully justified in the application
Add the following project partner details:
• the organisation name and address (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable)
• the project partner contact name and email address
• the type of contribution (direct or in-direct) and its monetary value
If a detail is entered incorrectly and you have saved the entry, remove the specific project partner record and re-add it with the correct information.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Project partners: letters (or emails) of support
Word limit 10
Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the table in the previous ‘contributions’ section.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you do not have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next section.
If you have named project partners in the previous ‘Project partners: contributions’ section, enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box.
Each letter or email you provide should:
- confirm the partner’s commitment to the project
- clearly explain the value, relevance, and possible benefits of the work to them
- describe any additional value that they bring to the project
Save letters or emails of support from each partner in a single PDF no bigger than 8MB. Unless specially requested, please do not include any personal data within the attachment.
For the file name, use the unique funding service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Project partner’.
If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.
The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.
Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the contributions template.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Do not provide letters of support from host and project co-leads’ research organisations.
Facilities
Word limit: 500
Does your proposed research require the support and use of a facility?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you will need to use a facility, follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Ensure you have prior agreement so that if you are offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on your project.
For each requested facility you will need to provide the:
- name of facility, copied and pasted from the facility information list (DOCX, 35KB)
- proposed usage or costs, or costs per unit where indicated on the facility information list
- confirmation you have their agreement where required.
Copy the following text: ‘I confirm that I have contacted the facility and have their agreement that, should I be offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on my project for the usage specified.’
Do not put the facility contact details in your response.
If you will not need to use a facility, you will be able to indicate this in the UKRI Funding Service.
Resources and cost justification
Word limit: 1,500
Using the costs table within the resources and cost summary, provide details of the total funding required under each fund heading. You should include high-level costs only, not a detailed breakdown of individual items. You should use the text box for the justification of resources to provide further details on what is being requested and why it is needed to deliver your proposed work.
What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:
- project staff
- significant travel for field work or collaboration (but not regular travel between collaborating organisations or to conferences)
- any equipment that will cost more than £10,000
- any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
- all facilities and infrastructure costs
- all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’
Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. Overall, they want you to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:
- are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
- represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
- maximise potential outcomes and impacts
Management strategy
Word limit: 1,000
Question: what is your strategy for managing and monitoring your programme grant?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
In the text box, explain your strategy for using the flexibility of the resources (both for staff and finances) to:
- manage the day-to-day strategy for ensuring individual research projects meet the overall vision for the programme
- seeking external advice, including plans for any independent advisory boards
- monitoring, including the major decision points and how this will be used to reassess the direction of the research programme
- enable creativity@home objectives and how this resource will be managed to deliver benefit to the group and research programme
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the service.
Your organisation’s support
Word limit: 1,500
Provide details of support from your research organisation.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a Statement of Support from your research organisation detailing why the proposed work is needed. This should include details of any matched funding that will be provided to support the activity and any additional support that might add value to the work.
The assessors will be looking for a strong statement of commitment from your research organisation.
We recognise that in some instances, this information may be provided by the Research Office, the Technology Transfer Office (TTO) or equivalent, or a combination of both.
You must also include the following details:
- a significant person’s name and their position, from the TTO or Research Office, or both
- office address or web link
- agreement to the purchase of large equipment costed on the application and funding of at least 20% towards this equipment
Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
Word limit: 500
What are the ethical or RRI implications and issues relating to the proposed work? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:
- the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations
- how you will manage these considerations
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the service.
If you are collecting or using data, identify:
- any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing or storing the data including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical considerations and, in particular, strategies to not preclude further reuse of data
- formal information standards with which your study will comply
Additional sub-questions (to be answered only if appropriate) will be included in the Funding Service. These will ask about numbers, species or strain and justification about:
- genetic and biological risk
- research involving the use of animals
- conducting research with animal overseas
- research involving human participation
- research involving human tissues or biological samples
