Funding opportunity

Data for metascience sandpit 2027

• Opportunity status: Upcoming
• Funders: UK Research and Innovation, Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Medical Research Council (MRC)
• Co-funders: Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST)
• Funding type: Grant
• Total fund: £2,000,000
• Publication date: 20 October 2026
• Opening date: 27 October 2026 9:00am UK time
• Closing date: 24 November 2026 4:00pm UK time

Apply to attend a five-day interactive sandpit to develop novel projects that can address multi-faceted metascience questions related to research and development (R&D) funding and inform R&D policymaking.

The sandpit will take place on the 1, 2, 3, 9 and 10 March 2027. The first three days will be in-person and the final two days will be online. Attendance for the full five days will be mandatory for selected participants.

To apply for the sandpit, please complete an expression of interest form.

We expect to fund up to £2 million at 80% full economic cost (FEC) for all research projects arising from the sandpit.

Who can apply

This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible.

Standard ESRC eligibility rules apply but participants from the full breadth of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) remit are welcome to apply.

You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding to lead a project.

Eligible organisations are:

• UK higher education institutions
• research council institutes
• UKRI-approved independent research organisations
• public sector research establishments
• NHS bodies with research capacity

Business, third sector or government body project co-leads

This funding opportunity is also open to applicants from business, third sector or government organisations based in the UK. In this case, ESRC’s rules on inclusion of project co-leads from business, third sector and government will apply.

It should be noted that successful participants from business, third sector and government will not be eligible to take over the leadership of a project as the organisation would not meet UKRI organisational eligibility criteria for a project lead but they could be included in successful projects as project co-leads or project partners. Moreover, project co-leads from UK business, third sector or government organisations will only be able to claim certain costs depending on their organisation type.

For this sandpit event, no more than 20% of the participants will be selected from business, third sector or government organisations.

International applicants

International collaboration is not allowed under this funding opportunity.

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

Demand management

Demand management is not being applied to this funding opportunity.

Aim

The overall aim of this sandpit is to commission novel research projects that use UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) administrative data to answer metascience research questions and provide actionable insights and evidence to decision makers in the R&D system.

More widely, the sandpit will also support thought leadership and community building for metascience in the UK. We want to build new evidence, and draw together existing evidence from across disciplines, to develop solutions that optimise research processes and practices.

Sandpit process

The sandpit will be an intensive, interactive workshop bringing together a diverse group of participants from a range of disciplines and backgrounds to work together over five days. The first three days will be in-person while the final two days of the sandpit will be held remotely.

The sandpit will be led by the UK Metascience Unit, who will be supported by an independent facilitator and a team of mentors. The mentors and a small number of stakeholders will attend the sandpit but will not be eligible to receive research funding. Instead, their role will be to assist you in defining and exploring challenges in this area. The mentors will act as independent reviewers, making a funding recommendation on the emergent projects.

The sandpit process can be broken down into several stages:

• defining the scope of the metascience challenges in the R&D system
• evolving common languages and terminologies amongst participants from a diverse range of backgrounds and disciplines
• drawing upon perspectives from relevant stakeholders and the expertise brought by the participants to share understandings of the challenges
• taking part in sessions focused on the challenges and using creative thinking techniques to identify approaches to help tackle these challenges
• capturing the outputs of the process in the form of highly innovative research project proposals
• reaching a funding decision on projects developed at the sandpit using ‘real-time’ peer review

We do not require you to develop specific plans for research activities prior to the sandpit. Ideas for activities will be developed collaboratively during the process.

Projects developed through the process will pitch for funding on the final sandpit day. Projects arising from the sandpit will be between 12 and 18 months.

Attendance at the sandpit does not guarantee UKRI funding. It is our intention that this sandpit will be a valuable experience for all attendees irrespective of whether funding is secured.

Data access

Participants with Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service or UK Data Service Safe Researcher accreditation will be able to access UKRI data through UKRI DataLab during the sandpit.

Participants without accreditation will be provided with a data dictionary explaining variables and data available but will not have access to record-level data.

You do not need to hold data-access accreditation to apply for or participate in the sandpit.

UKRI is the national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK. UKRI provides a funding service which manages and processes the end-to-end journey of research and innovation funding across the seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England.

UKRI collects information in relation to funding applications, the review and decision process, and the outcomes of funded research. With appropriate safeguards in place, participants at the sandpit will have the opportunity to access and explore many aspects of the information which UKRI collects.

How to apply

You are asked to complete an expression of interest online survey to be considered for the sandpit. The closing date is 24 November 2026 at 4:00pm UK time.

Your expression of interest will be used to assess the suitability of your expertise and skills to participate in the sandpit. No further documentation will be accepted. Incomplete surveys will be rejected.

Please be advised that attendance for the full sandpit is mandatory. The expression of interest survey will require applicants to confirm their commitment to attend the entire sandpit, if selected.

The sandpit will take place over two weeks on the 1, 2, 3, 9 and 10 March 2027.

To support participation in the sandpit, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will cover the costs of accommodation, subsistence, and UK-based travel to the in-person days in line with UKRI policy. Please note that travel from international locations will not be covered.

You are required to inform your university research office, in advance of submitting the expression of interest form, that they are going to apply to attend the sandpit. If you are part of a successful project, your institution will be required to fund 20% of the full economic project costs (as standard).

How we will assess your application

Assessment of applications to attend the sandpit

We will use the following selection criteria to assess applications:

• suitability and fit to the sandpit process
• relevant research expertise and experience
• the ability to work collaboratively with others
• the ability to communicate research insights to non-academic stakeholders

Participant selection will be based solely on the information provided in the expression of interest survey.

Within the pool of applicants selected based on these assessment criteria, we will look to ensure a balance of different disciplines, career paths and backgrounds, geographic distribution and landscape diversity, such as the balance of organisations.

Achieving the sandpit aims will require participants from an appropriate mix of diverse backgrounds and relevant disciplines. Participants from a diverse range of disciplines from across the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) remit are therefore encouraged to apply to attend this sandpit.

Although we are not limiting the range of disciplines that should be represented, we ask you to indicate how given your expertise you can use UKRI data to generate evidence that informs science policy, R&D funding practices, or practice within research-performing organisations.

You need not have conducted metascience research before. Emphasis will be placed on working across disciplines and sectors to foster new collaborations and bring new thinking to metascience research.

In the event of this funding opportunity being substantially oversubscribed as to be unmanageable, UKRI reserves the right to modify the assessment process.

Because of the large number of applications expected, we will not be able to give individual feedback to unsuccessful applicants.

Post-sandpit process

At the sandpit, projects will be assessed by expert review and recommended for funding. Following the sandpit, you will be invited to write a full project application document detailing your intended activities as identified at the sandpit.

It is planned that participants involved in projects identified for funding will be informed within two weeks of the sandpit. Funding will be conditional on receipt of a full application.

The submissions should accurately represent projects or teams assembled at the sandpit. Researchers or other parties not involved in the sandpit cannot receive funding through the successful projects. Non-academic project partners can be added to successful projects after the sandpit process.

The deadline for submission of full proposals is expected to be 13 May 2027.

Awarded projects are expected to start on 1 July 2027.

Projects must be completed by 1 January 2029.

Applications will be submitted through the UKRI Funding Service. Further guidance on this part of the process will be available to the successful project teams.

Contact details

Get help with your application

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page.

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, content or remit of a funding 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 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 metascience@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

Supporting documents

EIA for the opportunity (PDF, 233KB)