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.
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
Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.
- 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. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.
- 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.
When including images, you must:
- provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it in the text box (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit)
- insert each new image on a new line
- use files smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words. The following are not permitted, and your application may be rejected if you include:
- sentences or paragraphs of text
- tables
- excessive quantities of images
A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column.
Watch our research office webinars about the Funding Service.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
References
References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.
Hyperlinks can be used in reference information. When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that:
- references are easily identifiable by the assessors
- references are formatted as appropriate to your research
- persistent identifiers are used where possible
General use of hyperlinks
Applications should be self-contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information. You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI)
Use of generative AI tools to prepare funding applications is permitted, however, caution should be applied.
For more information see our policy on the use of generative AI in application and assessment.
Deadline
AHRC must receive your application by 16 September 2025 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.
Personal data
Processing personal data
AHRC, 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.
Once applications have been assessed and outcomes communicated, they will be shared with the Natural History Museum, London to facilitate the central co-ordination and delivery of the DiSSCo UK programme. If you have any concerns about any elements of your applications being shared post-assessment, please do contact us on infrastructure@ahrc.ukri.org
Sensitive information
If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email infrastructure@ahrc.ukri.org
Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].
Typical examples of confidential information include:
- individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)
- declaration of interest
- additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section
- conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection
- the application is an invited resubmission
For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice.
Publication of outcomes
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 usually make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. 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:
- its context within the wider DiSSCo UK programme
- the role it will play as a regional/national hub
- the partnerships involved and the capacity it will build in the sector
- the collections that will be digitised
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
- project lead (PL)
- project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
- specialist
- professional enabling staff
- technician
Only list one individual as project lead.
We expect DiSSCo UK applications should include the following types of role (see the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance for details)
- digitiser or collections assistant
- senior digitiser
- project manager
- data management and QA
UKRI has introduced a new addition to the ‘Specialist’ role type. Public contributors such as people with lived experience can now be added to an application.
Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.
Application questions
Vision
Word limit: 1,100
What are you hoping to achieve with the proposed infrastructure?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how the proposed infrastructure will:
- offer training opportunities
- enhance, benefit and complement the existing landscape
- support innovation in research
- enhance the UK’s research and innovation capabilities through local and or regional activity.
- build capacity and provide strategic support to Node institutions, enabling collections-level preparation and, where appropriate, digitisation
- contribute to the development of a more sustainable, inclusive and digitally mature natural science collections sector
- sustain mutually beneficial partnerships with Node organisations.
You should show how your proposed infrastructure (i.e. your regional or national hub) will help to deliver a nationwide step-change in the UK’s capability and capacity to digitise its world-class collections, transform access, and strengthen the sector. You should outline any partnerships in this section and how you will help build capacity for digitisation.
References may be included within this section.
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
Approach
Word limit: 2,750
What are your plans to manage and deliver the proposed infrastructure?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
We expect you to show how your approach includes:
- a credible management plan including strategic and operational matters
- details of governance
- a project plan for beginning and scaling up mass digitisation of your collections, including an evidenced estimate of how many specimens your project will digitise
- feasibility of the project plan including a work plan, milestones, and deliverables in the form of a Gantt chart or similar
- identification of risks and appropriate mitigation in the form of key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine the delivery of outputs and outcomes
- a description of the working environment
- identification of how accessibility and inclusiveness have been incorporated into the design of the project
- alignment with an institutional strategy that supports open access and equitable usage
- description and appraisal of digitisation space(s), including readiness and scalability
Contextual information
Please use the guidance provided under the Digitisation sub-heading of the ‘What we are looking for’ section, and the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance when devising your project plans for digitisation.
Please use this section to outline how your proposed project will deliver a programme of digitisation that will generate collections data to the required scale and standard.
References may be included within this section.
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word limit: 1,650
Why are you the right team to deliver and manage the proposed infrastructure?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Evidence of how your team, have:
- the relevant experience, appropriate to career stage
- the right balance of skills and expertise
- the appropriate leadership and management skills and your approach to develop others
- contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community
- the capability to recruit and manage a digitisation project team, including specialist and technical staff, in line with additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance
- demonstrated a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)in recruitment, team development, and project culture
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
The word limit for this section is 1,650 words: 1,150 words to be used for R4RI modules (including references) 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 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 below. 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:
- 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).
You should complete this section as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.
The roles in funding applications policy has descriptions of the different project roles.
Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
Word limit: 500
What are the ethical and 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 your digitisation work will address potential ethical issues relating to colonial provenance and acquisition of specimens, including contested ownership or lack of provenance data
- how your digitisation work will address potential ethical issues relating to the release of data on rare, endangered, or commercially valuable species, which may pose a risk to conservation efforts (for example, through poaching, habitat disturbance, or illegal trade)
- whether and how benefits from your digitisation (for example, data, capacity-building) will be shared with originating communities or countries, particularly where specimens have colonial origins
- 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.
Resources and cost justification
Word limit: 1,100
What will you need to deliver and manage the proposed infrastructure 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
- any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
- all facilities and infrastructure costs
- if applicable, disposal or decommissioning costs
- if applicable, subscription costs
- if applicable, licence costs
- costs associated with supporting Node partners, including subcontracting or devolved funding models
- any additional training and professional development required for digitisation teams and technical staff
- travel or transportation costs for moving staff or collections
- digitisation equipment costs
You can request costs associated with reasonable adjustments where they increase as a direct result of working on the project. For further information see Disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders.
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
Collections
Word limit: 1,650
What collections do you propose to digitise and why are these the most suitable for funding in this round?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Assessors want to see:
- that the botanical and entomological collections you are proposing to digitise are critically important for research.
- that the identified collections are both ready and suitable for digitisation to the required scale and standard
- that the current physical state of the collections and any impacts on or imperatives for immediate digitisation have been considered
- that the collections will help address the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change and inform sustainable policy and investment
- any evidence of user demand for these collections
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
References may be included within this section.
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. Project partners may be in industry, academia, third sector or government organisations in the UK or overseas, including partners based in the EU.
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 indirect) 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
Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the project partners section. These should be uploaded in English or Welsh only.
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
- have a page limit of 2 sides A4 per partner
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 project partners’ section.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
