This grants round will consider grant requests to support particle physics experiment research.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) funding and a member of the particle physics community.
This grant round takes place every four years.
The grant period will be 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2029.
We will award 80% of the full economic cost (FEC) of your research.
Proposals for research must fall within the particle physics experiment remit.
Before applying for funding, check the Eligibility of your organisation.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new UKRI Funding Service. For full details, visit Eligibility of applicants.
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.
The particle physics experiment consolidated grants round takes place every four years to support particle physics experiment research. Funding is for 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2029.
You are asked to submit realistic bids, for example, using the current award as a starting point.
This grants round will consider consolidated grant requests in the particle physics experiment subject area. Where more than one department or group at a university is involved in the same subject area, a single consolidated grant proposal should be submitted.
Groups from different institutions working collaboratively in the same well-defined research area may apply for a consolidated research grant as a consortium.
Please read the guidance notes at the Additional information section for full details.
The duration of the award will be four years.
The grants must start on 1 October 2025.
The budget is currently £24.5 million per year, plus £500,000 per year for capital equipment, however, as the grant period covers a comprehensive spending review this cannot be guaranteed.
We will fund 80% of the FEC.
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 UKRI’s trusted research and innovation for more information on effective international collaboration.
Find out about getting funding for international collaboration.
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.
For this funding opportunity we are using a hybrid approach. You will be required to complete financial information for all the staff requested and provide high level information for the non-staff costs within the Funding Service. You will be required to answer several questions and upload a case for support which should be provided as an attachment within the Funding Service.
We will require you to provide more detailed financial information off-system.
All proposals should be submitted online using the Funding Service. How applicants use the Funding Service, includes how to create your Funding Service account, user briefings and training tutorials and system help.
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.
For consortium grants, only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.
To apply
Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.
Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant:
This relates to the Funding Service only, not the uploaded document.
Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
We must receive your application by 21 February 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.
STFC, 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.
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
Word limit: 550
In plain English, please provide a summary of your application.
We may make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, so make it suitable for a variety of readers.
Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
Only list one individual as project lead.
Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.
Word limit: 5
We require you to provide a case for support document which should be uploaded as an attachment. Our applicant guidance provides the details required to write this document.
Create a document that includes your responses to all criteria. Please see the supporting document for the relevant page limits. The document should be single spaced, 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 ‘Case for support’.
Save this document as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB. Unless specifically requested, please do not include any sensitive personal 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.
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.
Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:
You are expected to consider UKRI’s trusted research and innovation work programme aimed at protecting all those working in our thriving and collaborative international research and innovation sector.
Project leads are asked to answer the following questions associated the experiments that the group participates in:
a. Does the research in this application relate to any of the 17 sensitive areas of the economy identified in the NS&I Act?
b. Does the research in this application include international collaboration?
c. Is this application part of an experiment at an international facility?
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the service.
Word limit: 1,000
How will you manage and share data collected or acquired through the proposed research?
Provide a data management plan that clearly details how you will comply with UKRI’s published data sharing policy, which includes detailed guidance notes.
Please use the data management plan guidance provided by STFC.
Word limit: 5
You will be required to input financial information for all the staff requested and provide high level information for the non-staff costs within the Funding Service. In addition, we will require you to complete a detailed breakdown of the costs as you would have done through the Je-S system. You will need to confirm you have submitted this breakdown to us within the Funding Service.
The resource and cost justification for this funding opportunity must be included within the case for support What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost? section. Details around the page count can be found in the supporting documentation. You will need to confirm within the Funding Service that this information has been included in your Case for Support and that the financial spreadsheet has been provided.
All costs associated with the research proposal must be justified, with the exception of estates, indirects, and infrastructure technician costs, and the unit cost of the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) -determined elements such as investigator salary costs or research facility charge-out costs, although the amount of resource required does need to be justified.
Assessors want you to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work show the following:
We will assess your application using the following process.
We will invite external experts to review your application independently, against the specified criteria for this funding opportunity. External reviewers will be selected by the panel.
Following the external review process, the Particle Physics Grants Panel (Experiment) will collectively review all the proposals against the criteria, rank them and make recommendations. The peer review meeting will be held over a three day meeting in June 2024.
STFC will make the final funding decision.
We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.
Find out about the UKRI principles of assessment and decision making.
The assessment areas we will use are:
Find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section.
Find out more about STFC’s assessment process.
If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page
Important note: The Helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UKRI Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the Helpdesk will triage and prioritise those queries with an imminent opportunity deadline or a technical issue. Enquiries raised where information is available on the Funding Finder opportunity page and should be understood early in the application process (for example, regarding eligibility or content/remit of an opportunity) will not constitute a priority case and will be addressed as soon as possible.
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: Lindsay Clark lindsay.clark@stfc.ukri.org and pp@stfc.ac.uk inbox.
Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications through the Funding Service should be directed to the helpdesk.
Email: support@funding-service.ukri.org
Phone: 01793 547490
Our phone lines are open:
To help us process queries quicker, we request that users highlight the council and opportunity name in the subject title of their email query, include the application reference number, and refrain from contacting more than one mailbox at a time.
Find out more information on submitting an application.
If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, please email the Funding Service helpdesk on contact support@funding-service.ukri.org
Include in the subject line: Particle Physics Experiment Consolidated Grants 2024 sensitive information; your Funding Service application number.
Typical examples of confidential information include:
For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice.
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.
Page limit guidance table (PDF, 99.6KB)
