Working with overseas scientists grants continue to be for researchers at eligible research organisations.
You can work with researchers in Ireland, Luxembourg, Brazil, and the US.
The fields you can work in will depend on who you want to work with.
You must submit an expression of interest before your full application.
We will award 80% of the full economic cost (FEC) of the UK costs of the project. Your overseas partners are funded by the relevant overseas agency.
Before applying for funding, check the following:
You must complete an expression of interest before you can apply for this funding opportunity, see the ‘how to apply’ section.
EPSRC standard eligibility rules apply. For full details, visit EPSRC’s eligibility page.
Under the UKRI and Research Council of Norway Money Follows Cooperation agreement a project co-lead (previously co-investigator) can be based in a Norwegian institution.
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:
Find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI.
EPSRC is committed to the continued support of excellent responsive, discovery led research as detailed in EPSRC’s strategic delivery plan 2022 to 2025.
EPSRC works with partners in the UK and abroad to help researchers and research organisations get maximum value from international collaborations and opportunities. The aim is to reduce current barriers to working internationally by allowing researchers to submit a single collaborative application with a joint funding decision, informed by a single lead agency review.
We support high quality research in:
Find out more about our research areas and themes.
The majority of your research must fall within our remit.
EPSRC will work with other research councils to ensure that applications close to remit boundaries are assessed by the most appropriate lead council. We encourage you to contact us first to discuss your proposal if you believe your research may cross research council boundaries.
See our remit query form.
You can work across EPSRC’s remit with researchers supported by:
There is no limit on the length of your project.
There is no limit on the value of the grant.
We will fund 80% FEC of the UK costs of your project.
Read more about EPSRC’s approach to equipment funding.
We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.
If your application includes international applicants, project partners or collaborators, visit Trusted Research for more information on effective international collaboration.
You must complete an expression of interest before you can apply for this opportunity.
If you wish to work with partners who would be funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the Fonds National de la Recherche in Luxembourg, and the São Paulo Research Foundation in Brazil, you should complete the relevant EPSRC online form on behalf of both partners at least three months before making an application.
Express an interest in working with researchers in:
If you wish to work with researchers or partners who would be funded by the NSF in the US, you should complete the EPSRC online form on behalf of both partners if the largest proportion of the research lies in the UK.
If the largest proportion of research lies in the US, your US partners should submit an expression of interest on behalf of both partners to the NSF. You should submit your expression of interest at least three months before making an application.
Express an interest to EPSRC in working with US researchers
We will work with our sister agencies to check your eligibility for funding and to assess whether your proposed project falls within our respective remits and budgets.
If successful, you will be invited to submit a joint application. We will advise you of which round to apply for.
Your overseas partners must meet the eligibility criteria of their relevant funding agency.
We are running the funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply for this funding opportunity on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system.
If you do not already have an account with the UKRI Funding Service, you will be able to create one by selecting the ‘start application’ button at the start of this page. Creating an account is a two minute process requiring you to verify your email address and set a password.
Research offices that have not already received an invitation to open an account should email support@funding-service.ukri.org.
Watch our research office webinars about the new UKRI Funding Service.
Collaborative applications should be prepared and submitted by the lead research organisation through a single application on the Funding Service. The content of the application should be co-created with input from all investigators and project partners and should represent the proposed work of the entire consortium. However, you should only add a single project lead (previously principal investigator) to the application.
To apply:
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.
EPSRC will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity.
If your application is successful, some personal information will be published via the UKRI Gateway to Research.
The closing date for the first responsive mode round on the Funding Service will be 28 September 2023 at 4:00pm.
We must receive your application by this date. You should ensure that you are aware of and follow any internal institutional submission deadlines that may be in place.
The subsequent responsive mode round on the Funding Service will open on 2 October 2023.
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 same round.
Word count: 550
In plain English, provide a summary that can be sent to potential reviewers to determine if your proposal is within their field of expertise.
This summary may be made publicly available on external facing websites, so ensure it can be understood by a variety of readers, for example:
Succinctly describe your proposed work in terms of:
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
You can only list one project lead.
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.
Find out about UKRI’s new grant roles.
Word count: 1
Question: Select the primary EPSRC thematic area your application most closely aligns to.
In the text box, copy the letter corresponding to your selected theme:
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.
Word count 1
Question: Select the agency that you are working with:
In the text box, copy the letter corresponding to your selected theme:
Also upload any additional documents required by that agency. Details of how to do that will be provided in the Funding Service system itself.
Word count 5
You should upload the Vision and Approach document as a six page PDF, plus an additional page for a diagrammatic workplan. The document must have single line spacing, margins of at least 2cm and be typed using Arial 11pt, or another ‘sans serif’ font with an equivalent size to Arial 11pt.
Question: What are you hoping to achieve with and how will you deliver your proposed work?
For the Vision, explain how your proposed work:
Within the Vision section we also expect you to:
For the Approach, explain how you have designed your work so that it:
Within the Approach section we also expect you to:
Word count: 1,500 (1,000 words to be used for R4RI modules and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions)
Question: Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:
Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you, and if relevant your team (investigators, researchers, other (technical) staff for example research software engineers, data scientists and so on, and partners), have and how this will help to deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.
Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed. You should use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI. You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:
Additions: Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences or outputs, but any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).
You should complete this as a narrative and you should avoid CV type format.
Word count: 1,000
Question: List the references you have used to support your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
You should include all references in this section of the application and 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 ensure the information’s integrity is maintained include, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers.
You must not include links to web resources in order to extend your application.
Word count: 1000
Question: Provide details about any project partners’ contributions using the template provided.
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 do have project partners, download and complete the project partner contributions template (DOCX, 52KB) then copy and paste the table within it into the text box.
Ensure you have obtained prior agreement from project partners that, should you be offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the template.
A project partner is a collaborating organisation that is contributing to the application and will have an integral role in the proposed research. Project partners cannot normally receive funding directly from the grant. Two exceptions to this are:
Word count: 10
Question: Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the table in the previous ‘contributions’ section.
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 ‘contributions’ section, enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box.
Each letter or email you provide should:
Unless specifically requested, do not include any personal data within the attachment. Upload details are provided within the service on the actual application.
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 co-project lead research organisations.
Word count: 250
Question: Does your proposed research require the support and use of a facility?
If not, enter N/A into the text box, mark this section as complete and move on to the next section.
If you will need to use a facility, you should follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Where prior agreement is required, ensure you obtain their agreement that, should you be offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on your project.
In the text box, for each requested facility you should provide under the following headings:
Do not put the facility contact details in your response.
Word count: 10
Question: Is there sensitive information you need to share with UKRI that you do not want shared with assessors?
If you do not have anything to share, enter ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move on to the next section.
If you, or a key team member, need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, enter the words ‘email sent’ in the text box.
Then email the Funding Service helpdesk on support@funding-service.ukri.org. You must include in the subject line: <EPSRC responsive mode, sensitive info, Funding Service application number>.
Typical examples of confidential information include:
For information about how UKRI handles personal data, see UKRI’s privacy notice.
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 textbox for the justification of resources to provide further details on what is being requested and why it is needed to deliver your proposed work.
Question: What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?
Word count: 1000
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Using the text box, demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:
This resources and cost justification should not simply be a list of the resources requested, as this will already be given in the costs table. Costings should be justified on the basis of full economic costs (FEC) of the project, not just on the costs expected from UKRI. For some items we do not expect you to justify the monetary value, rather the type of resource, such as amount of time or type of staff requested.
Where you do not provide adequate justification for a resource, we may deduct it from any funding awarded.
You should identify:
Reviewers and panels may acknowledge the impact of university support but will not consider the level of matched university funding as a factor on which to base funding recommendations.
Word count: 500
Question: 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.
Using the text box, demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations, and how you will manage them.
Additional sub-questions (to be answered only if appropriate) will be included in the Funding Service. These will ask about numbers, species/strain and justification about:
We will assess your application using the following process.
We will invite at least three peers to review your application independently, against the published criteria (areas of assessment) for this funding opportunity.
You will not be able to nominate reviewers for your application. Expert reviewers will continue to be selected by EPSRC.
UKRI are monitoring the requirement for applicant nominated reviewers as we review policies and processes as part of the continued development of the new UKRI Funding Service.
You will be able to respond to reviewers’ comments if your application gains enough support.
If your application gains enough support from reviewers, your application, reviewers’ comments and your response will go to the most appropriate prioritisation panel. Using this information, the panel will score it against our assessment criteria (areas of assessment) and rank it with alongside other applications.
EPSRC responsive mode panels are structured as follows:
Panel membership for each panel is taken from across the disciplines to cover the breadth of proposals considered in each panel.
The criteria against which your application will be assessed directly relates to the core responsive mode application questions:
Further detail on what the assessors are looking for is available in the questions in the How to apply section.
Panels are expected to be held during spring and summer 2024.
No further feedback beyond the reviewers’ comments will be provided after the panel.
UKRI supports the San Francisco declaration on research assessment (DORA) and recognises the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.
Find out about the UKRI Principles of Assessment and Decision Making.
For help on costings and writing your application, contact your research office. Allow enough time for your organisation’s submission process.
Email: support@funding-service.ukri.org
We aim to respond to emails within two working days.
Phone: 01793 547490
Our phone lines are open:
For information about how UKRI handles personal data, see UKRI’s privacy notice.
We will held a webinar at 1:00pm on 21 June 2023. This provided information about the funding opportunity and a chance to ask questions.
Watch a recording of the webinar
Webinar passcode: B7V+gWct
Equality impact assessment for EPSRC Responsive Mode Working with Overseas Scientists (PDF, 268KB)
