We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (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 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
You can only apply for this funding opportunity if we have invited you to do so. The start application link will be provided via email.
- 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
Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service.
- 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.
Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You should:
- use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
- insert each new image onto a new line
- provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
- ensure files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
Deadline
EPSRC must receive your application by 30 May 2024 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 funding 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.
EPSRC, as part of UKRI, may share the application and any personal information that it contains across UKRI as part of any possible pre-assessment or consideration.
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:
- the hub vision, aims and objectives
- its context
- the challenge(s) the project addresses
- its potential applications and benefits
- the partnership working
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
- project lead (PL)
- project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
- project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
- researcher co-lead (RcL)
- specialist
- grant manager
- professional enabling staff
- research and innovation associate
- technician
- visiting researcher
Only list one individual as project lead.
The hub will need to identify a senior leadership team. The director will be listed as the project lead and remaining leadership team will be listed as project co-leads.
Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.
Application questions
Vision and Approach
Create a document that includes your responses to all criteria. The document should not be more than 16-sides of A4, comprising eight-sides for the vision and approach, and eight-sides for a technical annex.
This document should be 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.
For the file name, use the unique Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Vision and Approach’.
Save this document as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB. Unless specifically requested, do not include any sensitive data within the attachment.
If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.
The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.
Vision
What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
For the Vision, explain how your proposed work:
- aligns strategically to the funding opportunity aims and scope
- demonstrates a coherent strategic vision and establishes clear outcomes
- is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the field(s) or area(s)
- has the potential to advance current understanding, generates new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area
- is timely given current trends, context and needs
- impacts world-leading research, society, the economy or the environment
Within the Vision section we also expect you to:
- identify the potential direct or indirect benefits and who the beneficiaries might be
- identify key communities and future hub members
- identify how the hub will provide an inclusive environment with a strong ethos of skills development for hub members
Approach
How are you going to deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
For the Approach, explain how you have designed your work so that it:
- will deliver against the expectations outlined in the funding opportunity
- is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives
- is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed
- If applicable, uses a clear and transparent methodology
- where applicable, summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed
- will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts
- describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place, and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work
Within the Approach section we also expect you to:
- describe how the hub will be a leader within the landscape or a UK centre of excellence, while having reach into England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and regions thereof, noting that there is a separate ‘Organisational support’ section where detail should be provided
- outline an exciting, multidisciplinary and innovative core programme of research that advances strategic research capabilities underpinning our future catalysis science and technology portfolio, noting that there is a separate ‘technical annex’ where detail should be provided
- demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposed work, noting that there are separate ‘Strategic equipment’ and ‘Facilities’ sections where detail should be provided
- demonstrate genuine, substantiative partnerships with co-creation, co-delivery and embedded partnership working within all the hub activities, noting that there is a separate ‘Co-creation and leverage funding’ section where detail should be provided
- explain how you will identify key opportunities for future research, innovation and growth in relevant sectors, support knowledge transfer and accelerate impacts (economic, social, and environmental), noting that there is a separate ‘Added value’ section where detail should be provided.
- also, within the ‘Added value’ section, provide clear plans for how you will:
- network relevant communities and stakeholders including how you will support and build equitable, diverse, inclusive, and accessible communities
- build links between government and policy stakeholders, and research communities (academic or industry), supporting two-way communication and collaboration
- engage with other strategic investments in the wider landscape such as programme grants, prosperity partnerships, infrastructure initiatives such as Physical Sciences Data Initiative, Supergen hubs, circular economy hubs, health technology hubs, as well as other key investments in the UKRI portfolio
- explain the use of the flexible fund to commission feasibility studies or other activities, noting that there is a separate ‘Flexible fund’ section where detail should be provided.
Organisational support
Word limit: 1,500
Provide details of support from your research organisation(s).
What the assessors are looking for in your response
- provide a statement of support from your research organisation(s) detailing how the hub fits within the wider interest and strategies. 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 panel will be looking for a strong statement of commitment from your research organisation(s)
- 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
Strategic infrastructure (only use this section if you are including strategic infrastructure in your application)
Word limit: 750 (per item of strategic infrastructure)
Why is this infrastructure needed, and why should EPSRC support it?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Enter ‘N/A’ in the text box and do not upload an attachment for this section if you are not applying for strategic equipment with this funding opportunity.
Explain how the infrastructure sought will:
- meet national needs by establishing or maintaining a unique or world leading activity, or both
- enhance and complement the existing regional or national research capability
- evidence the strong demand and community need from a diverse and inclusive user base
- meet the strategic aims of the funding organisation
Describe alternative plans for how the research would be achieved should the equipment not be funded. The plans should reflect:
- host organisation strategies for this infrastructure
- institutional commitment to the infrastructure landscape
- how the infrastructure sought is different from what is already available in the wider research landscape
Facilities
Word limit: 1,000
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
Enter N/A in the text box if not applicable to your proposed work.
Co-creation and leverage funding
Word limit: 1,000
How have you co-created and designed your research programme to maximise the impact and to leverage funding?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you have designed your research programme so that it:
- has been co-created and will be co-delivered in partnership with relevant stakeholders, identifies and embeds clear, realistic and proportionate pathways to maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts of all types
- drives added value as a core focus of the programme by demonstrating synergistic connectivity between partners, and disciplines
- is positioned at the forefront of your chosen research area, displaying leadership and advocacy on a national scale
- describes the leverage funding from the project partner(s) and the plans to increase this over the lifetime of the hub
Added value
Word limit: 1,000
What is the added value that this hub will enable that would not be possible otherwise?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Demonstrate how the hub will achieve the following:
- create new interdisciplinary research communities and topics
- broaden engagement with stakeholders to identify new areas of common ground and increase the impact of existing investments
- provide a critical mass of researchers with a range of expertise and experience
- promote mobility between academia, industry and other sectors
- achieve sustainability of impacts beyond the funding requested
Flexible fund
Word limit: 1,000
Question: how will you use and manage the hub’s flexible fund?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you will use and manage the flexible fund so that it:
- supports the hub’s objectives
- distributes funding appropriately across a diverse range of activities
- where appropriate, distributes funding through clear, transparent, competitive and inclusive processes
- builds new capacity in key fields and career stages
- ensures appropriate processes for monitoring, reporting and governance of funded activities
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word limit: 2,000
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:
- the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
- the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
- the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
- contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the service.
The word count for this section is 2,000 words; 1,500 words to be used for R4RI modules and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.
Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help 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. 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:
- contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge
- the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships
- contributions to the wider research and innovation community
- contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit
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 you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them). Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.
UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new Funding Service. For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.
Leadership, governance and management
Word limit: 1,500
How will you manage the hub to successfully deliver its objectives?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how the hub will be managed, demonstrating how it:
- will be effectively governed, including details about advisory groups
- will be effectively and inclusively managed, demonstrated by a clear management plan which includes a project plan with Gantt chart, associated risks, milestones, and deliverables, and includes consideration of how the flexible fund will be managed
- if applicable, has a credible plan for prioritising access and maximising usage of strategic equipment and infrastructure. This should include any application and assessment processes and an estimate for the balance of users from the host institution, academics from external institutions and industrial users. Consideration should be given to an appropriate cost recovery model, and the training and development of specialist technical staff
- has a plan for data management and accessibility
- has clear leadership team roles and responsibilities
- will manage and encourage partnerships with non-HEI organisations across government, industry and civil society
- has plans for monitoring progress against Key Performance Indicators, as well as self-evaluation throughout the lifetime of the award
- will embed creativity and agility into the programme in order to respond to a changing landscape
- will develop and progress the careers of all team members, including investigators, research assistants, any aligned students, technicians and other non-academic staff
- has embed consideration of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within the context of the hub at all levels and in all aspects of the programme
Please identify the percentage of time the director and leaders team will be spending on managing the project. Time to do research team for the leadership team will need to be additional to this.
You must create a document that includes:
- a project plan including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar (additional two-page A4)
- a detailed and appropriate plan for how you will acquire and manage data (additional one-page A4)
This document should be 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.
For the file name, use the unique Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Project plan & Data management plan’.
Save this document as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB. Unless specifically requested, do not include any sensitive data within the attachment.
If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.
Embedding environmental sustainability
Word limit: 1,000
How will you embed environmental sustainability within all the hub’s activities?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how the hub will:
- centre and embed environmental sustainability throughout its aims, objectives, operations, and research outcomes, in accordance with the context of specific research area(s)
- ensure that environmental impact and mitigation is explicitly considered at all stages of the research lifecycle and throughout the lifetime of the award
- demonstrate leadership in environmental sustainability by carrying out hub operations in an environmentally sustainable way, with consideration of how to minimise the negative environmental impact of running the hub
- seek opportunities to influence others and leave a legacy of environmental sustainability within the broader operations of your academic and industry partners, including upskilling the community to support the embedding of sustainability and circularity across the research and innovation lifecycle
Environmental sustainability may include consideration of such broad areas as:
- reducing carbon emissions
- protecting and enhancing the natural environment and biodiversity
- waste or pollution elimination
- resource efficiency and circular economy
Environmental sustainability is complex and there are often conflicting drivers. The UK Catalysis Hub will need to take a whole systems approach to enable consideration of the trade-offs, risks and mitigations associated with different approaches and ensure research outcomes are used to support industry and government partners to make informed choices and mitigate unintended consequences.
References
Word limit: 1,000
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
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.
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 Project partner section.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box, or if you do not have any project partners enter N/A. 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 sensitive 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. If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
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.
Resources and cost justification
Word limit: 1,500
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
- resource allocated to the flexible fund
- all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’
For strategic infrastructure (if requested), provide justification of:
- the cost of the proposed infrastructure, and any associated procurement costs
- any resources (for example staff or maintenance costs) associated with the infrastructure
- the nature and level of contributions from your organisation or partner organisations if applicable
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
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 based on the 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.
Additionally, where relevant you should explain:
- support for activities to either expand the user base for equipment, increase impact, for public engagement, knowledge exchange or to support responsible innovation
- support for preserving, long-term storage, or sharing of data
- support from your organisation or partner organisations and how that enhances value for money
- evidence that environmental sustainability has been considered and reflected in your proposed resource and justified appropriately
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.
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 Funding 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 sample
