Funding opportunity

Pre-announcement: DARE UK Real-world Research Exemplar Programme

• Opportunity status: Upcoming
• Funders: Medical Research Council (MRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
• Funding type: Grant
• Total fund: £4,707,500
• Publication date: 30 April 2025
• Opening date: 8 September 2025 9:00am UK time
• Closing date: 5 November 2025 4:00pm UK time

Apply for funding as a real-world research exemplar to use, evaluate and influence new capabilities within and between trusted research environments.

You must be based at an eligible UK research organisation, and you must meet individual eligibility requirements.

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be from £365,700 up to £609,500. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will fund 80% of the FEC.

The duration of this award is a maximum of 12 months.

This is a pre-announcement, and the information may change.

The funding opportunity will open on 8 September 2025. More information will be available on this page then.

Who can apply

This funding opportunity supports research teams from across UKRI research councils remit to partner with trusted research environments (TRE)’s of appropriate maturity to deliver real-world research utilising capabilities introduced through the DARE UK programme.

To lead a project, you must be based at an eligible organisation. Check if your organisation is eligible.

Who is eligible to apply

To be eligible to apply for this funding opportunity you must:

• show that you will lead the project and be actively engaged in the work
• have the relevant expertise and experience to lead or contribute to cross domain research utilising capabilities currently being developed through the DARE UK programme
• meet individual eligibility requirements

For applicants who do not have a contract of employment for the duration of the proposed project, by submitting an application the research organisation is confirming, if it is successful:

• contracts will be extended beyond the end date of the project
• all necessary support for the project and the applicants will be provided, including mentorship and career development for early career researchers

A research organisation may lead or partner on more than one application and applications may comprise more than one research organisation.

Individuals may be project lead on only one application. However, individuals can act as project co-leads on any number of applications.

Who is not eligible to apply

You are not eligible to apply for this funding opportunity as a project lead if you are based at an international research organisation. This does not include project leads from MRC Unit The Gambia or MRC/UVRI Uganda Research Unit at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

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:

• career breaks
• support for people with caring responsibilities
• flexible working
• alternative working patterns

UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

What we're looking for

Scope

Phase 1 of the DARE UK programme delivered the first versions of essential software capabilities needed for federation, semi-automated disclosure control and management of AI models in, and, between trusted research environments (TREs).

The Phase 2 Transformational Programme is funding the continued development and maturation of these capabilities through the TREvolution programme of work, as well as supporting the development of an underpinning interoperability layer.

The Phase 2 TRE Early Adopter programme is funding a pioneering group of UK TREs to evaluate these capabilities in real-world environments and provide dynamic feedback to the TREvolution programme teams.

This current funding opportunity complements the TRE Early Adopter programme by offering pioneering science teams the chance to evaluate these new capabilities from their perspectives as ultimate end-users, and to influence the direction and development of the final versions. The 2024 report Scientific use cases for cross-domain sensitive data research in the UK offers possible examples of the kinds of aspirational projects this funding opportunity aims to build towards in future Phases of the DARE UK programme.

We invite research teams from across UKRI research councils remit to partner with TREs of appropriate maturity to deliver real-world research utilising new capabilities introduced through the DARE UK programme, these are:

• data federation, enabling a researcher to be able to log in to one TRE and work transparently with approved data held in other remote TREs
• analytics federation, enabling a researcher to be able log in to one TRE and send computational jobs to run in other remote TREs against approved data
• semi-automation of output disclosure checks, including from complex artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) algorithms

The real-world research programmes will serve both as testcases, helping to harden federation capabilities towards production-level maturity, and as showcases, proving the utility of the technology in addressing challenging real-world research questions.

Our assessment criteria for eligible applications will favour existing:

• research projects looking to scale populations beyond datasets available in one TRE (Wales + England, for example)
• research projects looking to enrich original cohorts with additional attributes from other datasets (health + education, for example)
• research projects looking to augment individual-level data with complex reference data (geographical and environmental, for example)
• research projects seeking to assess the disclosure risks around the export of trained AI or ML models from one or more TREs

In all cases we will favour previously funded real-world exemplar projects that can utilise the DARE UK infrastructure to scale their ambitions and deliver greater impact.

In all cases public involvement and engagement (PIE) is mandatory. We recommend that you follow the DARE UK PIE guidelines (PDF, 992KB).

Duration

The duration of this award is up to 12 months.

Projects must start by April 2026

Funding available

The FEC of your project can be from £365,700 up to £609,500.

UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC.

Find out more about full economic costing.

What we will fund

You can request funding for costs such as:

• a contribution to the salary of the project lead and co-leads
• support for other posts such as research and technical staff
• research consumables, including cloud computing
• equipment, less than £25,000
• travel costs
• data preparation, provision, preservation and sharing
• knowledge mobilisation and dissemination costs, such as conferences and seminars for a policy or practice audience or pursuit and development of new user contacts
• estates and indirect costs
• costs to support the use and development of open-source software for project delivery
• costs for public involvement and engagement activities, including payments to public contributors

You can also request costs for work to be undertaken at international organisations by international project co-leads. We will fund 100% of the eligible costs.

The total of such costs requested for international applicants from high-income countries (HICs) (those not on the OECD DAC list of ODA recipients), India and China must not exceed 30% of the total resources requested.

What we will not fund

We will not fund:

• any kind of studentships including stipends
• large items of equipment costing over £25,000
• NHS research costs when they are associated with NHS Studies
• animal costs
• publication costs

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.

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.

How to apply

We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. We will publish full details on how to apply when the funding opportunity opens.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process

We will assess your application using the following process.

Panel

We will invite experts to assess the quality of your application and rank it alongside other applications after which the panel will make a funding recommendation.

In the event of high demand for this funding opportunity, UKRI reserves the right to introduce shortlisting at this stage.

We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.

Principles of assessment

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.

Using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in peer review

Reviewers and panellists are not permitted to use generative AI tools to develop their assessment. Using these tools can potentially compromise the confidentiality of the ideas that applicants have entrusted to UKRI to safeguard.

For more detail see our policy on the use of generative AI.

Assessment areas

The full criteria for assessment will be published when the full application funding opportunity opens.

Contact details

Get help with your application

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 UK Research and Innovation (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.

Contact details

For help and advice on costings and writing your application 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 informatics@mrc.ukri.org

For general questions related to MRC funding including our funding opportunities and policy email: rfpd@mrc.ukri.org

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:

• Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
• Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

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.

For further information on submitting an application read How applicants use the Funding Service.

Additional info

Background

DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK) is a programme that aims to establish a safe and collaborative network of Trusted Research Environments (TREs) where approved researchers can efficiently access and analyse sensitive data to advance research for public benefit. By co-creating this network with relevant communities and the public, we aim to enhance research while maintaining the security and confidentiality of sensitive data.

DARE UK was established with the vision for all research and innovation to benefit from seamless, secure use of diverse sensitive data at a pace, efficiency and scale that revolutionises research productivity and accelerates research to deliver public good. DARE UK’s mission is to put the UK at the forefront of sensitive data research and innovation by assembling the tools, technologies and standards needed to streamline secure data linkage and use.

DARE UK is funded by UK Research and Innovation, with oversight from Health Data Research UK and Administrative Data Research UK. We work with key experts in the data research community through various exploratory projects and community-driven efforts, with public involvement at the heart.

Research and innovation impact

Impact can be defined as the long-term intended or unintended effect research and innovation has on society, economy and the environment; to individuals, organisations, and the wider global population.

Research disruption due to COVID-19

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:

• breaks and delays
• disruptive working patterns and conditions
• the loss of ongoing work
• role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic

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.