UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service
We are running the funding opportunity on the new UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply for this funding opportunity on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. The funding opportunity will open on the Funding Service at 9:00am UK time on 23 May 2023.
If you do not already have an account with the UKRI Funding Service, you will be able to create one by selecting the ‘start application’ button at the start of this page. Creating an account is a two-minute process requiring you to verify your email address and set a password.
Research offices that have not already received an invitation to open an account should email support@funding-service.ukri.org
Watch our research office webinars about the new UKRI Funding Service.
Submitting your application
Applications should be prepared and submitted by the lead research organisation but should be co-created with input from all investigators, and project partners, and should represent the proposed work of the entire consortia.
To apply:
- Select the ‘Start application’ button at the start of this page.
- This will open the ‘Sign in’ page of UKRI’s Funding Service. If you do not already have an account, you’ll be able to create one. This is a two-minute process requiring you to verify your email address and set a password.
- Start answering the questions detailed in this section of ‘How to apply’. You can save your work and come back to it later. You can also work ‘offline’, copying and pasting into the text boxes provided for your answers.
- Once complete, use the service to send your application to your research office for review. They’ll check it and return it to you if it needs editing.
- Once happy, your research office will submit it to UKRI for assessment. Only they can do this.
As citations can be integral to a case for support, you should balance their inclusion and the benefit they provide against the inclusion of other parts of your answer to each question. Bear in mind that citations, associated reference lists or bibliographies, or both, contribute to, and are included in, the word count of the relevant section.
Deadline
EPSRC must receive your application by 8 August 2023 at 4:00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
You should ensure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines that may be in place.
General text on 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.
General text on outcomes publication
If your application is successful, some personal information will be published via the UKRI Gateway to Research.
UKRI Funding Service: section guidance
Summary
In plain English, provide a summary that can be sent to potential reviewers to determine if your proposal is within their field of expertise.
This summary may be made publicly available on external facing websites, so ensure it can be understood by a variety of readers, for example:
- opinion-formers
- policymakers
- the general public
- the wider research community
Guidance for writing a summary
Succinctly describe your proposed work in terms of:
- its context
- the challenge the project addresses and how it will be applied to this
- its aims and objectives
- its potential applications and benefits
Word count: 550
Section: EPSRC theme alignment
Question: identify which EPSRC theme your programme grant closest aligns to.
In the text box, copy the letter corresponding to your selected theme:
- artificial intelligence (AI)
- digital security and resilience
- energy and decarbonisation
- engineering
- healthcare technologies
- information and communication technologies (ICT)
- manufacturing and circular economy
- mathematical sciences
- physical sciences and advanced materials
- quantum technologies
Additional guidance
This is for administrative purposes to help the initial application processing. We will check your choice and make a final decision on which theme will lead the peer review of your application.
Section: Case for support, technical annex and workplan
Question: what are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work and what is the methodology?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Quality
This includes:
- the novelty, relationship to context, timeliness and relevance to identified stakeholders
- ambition, adventure, transformative aspects or potential outcomes
- the suitability of the proposed methodology and the appropriateness to achieving impact
- the overall vision of the research programme
Additionality
This includes:
- added value and need for support of this research as a coherent programme of inter-related research activities and not a number of smaller research grants
- need for the added flexibility of resources and longer term nature of the grant to achieve the proposed research goals
National importance
This includes:
- contribution to, or helping maintain the health of other disciplines
- contribution to addressing key UK societal challenges and contribution to future UK economic success and development of emerging industry(s)
- meeting national needs by establishing or maintaining a unique, world leading research activity
- complements other UK research funded in the area or related areas, including any relationship to the EPSRC portfolio
Advocacy
This includes:
- advocacy role for the engineering and physical sciences
This should be submitted as a PDF attachment of 20 sides of A4.
You must include:
- description of the proposed research (six sides of A4), including:
- background
- vision and ambition
- research objectives
- research programme and methodology
- added value of the programme grant mechanism
- national importance
- relevance to academic beneficiaries
- technical annex (12 sides of A4), which includes additional information on the scientific research programme. Each work package and their interdependencies
- work plan (two sides of A4). Provide a detailed and comprehensive project plan including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar (additional one side of A4) and demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposed work
Create a document in a word processing application of up to 20 sides of A4 paper in Arial 11pt. Save this as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB.
Section: Management strategy
Question: what is your strategy for managing and monitoring your programme grant?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
In the text box, explain your strategy for using the flexibility of the resources (both for staff and finances) to:
- manage the day-to-day strategy for ensuring individual research projects meet the overall vision for the programme
- seeking external advice, including plans for any independent advisory boards
- monitoring, including the major decision points and how this will be used to reassess the direction of the research programme
- enable creativity@home objectives and how this resource will be managed to deliver benefit to the group and research programme
Word count: 1,000 words
If you have special requirements, such as images, discuss with your programme grant contact about submitting this as a PDF of two sides of A4.
Section: Your organisation’s support
Question: provide details of support from your research organisation.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a statement of support from your research organisation detailing why the proposed work is needed. 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 committee will be looking for a strong statement of commitment from your research organisation.
EPSRC recognises 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
- agreement to the purchase of large equipment costed on the grant and funding of at least 20% towards this equipment
Upload details are provided within the service on the actual application.
Section: Project partners: contributions
Question: provide details about any project partners’ contributions using the template provided.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you do not have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next section.
If you do have project partners, download and complete the project partner contributions template (DOCX, 52KB) then copy and paste the table within it into the text box.
Ensure you have obtained prior agreement from project partners that, should you be offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the template.
Project partners are collaborating organisations who are contributing to the application and will have an integral role in the proposed research. Project partners cannot normally receive funding directly from the grant. Two exceptions to this are:
- where a project partner is providing services or equipment that will go through a formal procurement process audited by the host research organisation
- the project partner can receive small amounts of funding from the grant, such as for travel and subsistence to attend project meetings. These will need to be requested and fully justified in the application
Section: Project partners: letters (or emails) of support
Question: upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the table in the previous ‘contributions’ section.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you do not have any project partners, simply add ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move to the next section.
If you have named project partners in the previous ‘contributions’ section, enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box.
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
Do not provide letters of support from host and co-investigator’s research organisations.
Unless specifically requested, do not include any personal data within the attachment.
Upload details are provided within the service on the actual application.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Section: Applicant and team capability to deliver (Track Record)
Question: why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:
- appropriateness of the track record and international benchmarking of the applicants
- the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work of the project team and collaborators
- the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
- development and promotion of careers of all its team members, including investigators, research assistants, technicians, and aligned students
- ability of the principal investigator and team to lead and manage a large, complex investment with sufficient support, infrastructure and resources for the day-to-day running of the programme grant
Word count: 1,000
In addition to 1,000 words on your team’s track record, upload a single PDF containing CVs of named research staff on your programme grant.
Create a document in a word processing application of up to two sides of A4 paper per CV in Arial 11pt. Save this as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB. Merge all CVs into a single PDF and put ‘N/A’ in the text box.
For the file name, use the unique funding service number the system gives to your proposal (when you create an application) immediately followed by the words CVs for named research staff. Then use the upload button.
If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the proposal will be rejected.
Section: References
Question: list the references you have used to support your application.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
You should include all references in this section of the application and 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 ensure the information’s integrity is maintained include, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers.
You must not include links to web resources in order to extend your application.
Word count: 1,000
Section: Facilities
Question: does your proposed research require the support and use of a facility?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If not, enter ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move on to the next section.
If you will need to use a facility, you should follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Where prior agreement is required, ensure you obtain their agreement that, should you be offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on your project.
In the text box, for each requested facility you should provide:
- the name of facility, copied and pasted from the combined facilities list (DOCX, 37KB)
- the proposed usage time or costs, or costs per unit where indicted on the combined facilities list
- confirmation you have their agreement where required. Copy the following text: ‘I confirm that I have contacted the facility and have their agreement that, should I be offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on my project for the usage specified.’
Do not put the facility contact details in your response.
Word count: 500
Section: Resources and cost justification
Using the costs table within the resources and cost summary, provide details of the total funding required under each fund heading. You should include high-level costs only, not a detailed breakdown of individual items. You should use the text box for the justification of resources to provide further details on what is being requested and why it is needed to deliver your proposed work.
Question: what will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Using the text box, 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
Contributions from your organisation should be included in the ‘Your organisation’s support’ section. Contributions from partner organisations should be covered in the ‘Project partners: contributions’ section.
For all items of equipment costing more than £25,000, you must provide a summary, in the text box, detailing quotations from at least three suppliers. If there are only one or two suppliers for any piece of equipment, state this and explain why.
Upload details are provided within the service on the actual application.
This section should not simply be a list of the resources requested, as this will already be given in the costs table. Costings should be justified on the basis of 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.
You should identify:
- support for activities to either increase impact, for public engagement, knowledge exchange or to support responsible innovation
- support for access to facilities, infrastructure or procurement of equipment
- support for preserving, long-term storage, or sharing of data
- support from your organisation or partner organisations
Word count: 1,500
Section: Sensitive information
Question: is there sensitive information you need to share with UKRI that you do not want shared with assessors?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If not, enter ‘N/A’ into the text box, mark this section as complete and move on to the next section.
If you, or a key team member, need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, enter the words ‘email sent’ in the text box.
Then contact the Funding Service helpdesk. Include your application name and number in the subject line, after the pre-populated words ‘sensitive information’.
Typical examples of confidential information include:
- applicant 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, see UKRI’s privacy notice.
Section: Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
Question: 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
Using the text box, demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations, and how you will manage them.
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 samples
Word count: 500
