Apply for funding to support ambitious collaborative research programmes.
Prosperity Partnerships projects must:
EPSRC will fund 80% of the full economic cost (FEC) of your application.
The business cash contribution must at least match the amount funded by EPSRC.
Businesses can act as the ‘primary business partner’ if they are:
We welcome consortia of businesses of any size including Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs). One of the businesses needs to act as the primary business partner. We encourage SME participation and use the European Commission definition of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. Check the definitions of SMEs.
Your application must show evidence that all partners were involved in the creation of the project.
Research organisations can act as the ‘primary academic partner’ if they are eligible to receive research council funding:
EPSRC standard eligibility rules apply. For full details, visit EPSRC’s eligibility page
The primary academic partner should start and create the application on the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service, but all partners are expected to contribute to the application in the spirit of the partnership before its added to the system.
This funding opportunity has a ‘primary business partner’ as well as a ‘primary academic partner’. Only the primary academic partner may be added on the Funding Service platform, so one individual will be the named project lead in the Funding Service. Please also indicate, under the ‘Applicant and team capability section’, the name of the individual who will be the primary business partner in your application. All assessment stages will consider both roles.
Individuals can only be in these roles on one application, but organisations can lead multiple applications. They may also be a contributor to other applications. They are required to declare, as part of their applications, that they will commit the stated resources to all successful applications they are involved in.
A primary academic partner and a primary business partner can only be in these joint roles on one application, but businesses and research organisations can support multiple applications. They may also be a contributor to other applications. They are required to declare, as part of their applications, that they will commit the stated resources to all successful applications they are involved in.
UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new Funding Service. For full details, visit Eligibility as an individual.
If you are planning to include international collaborators on your application, you should visit Trusted Research for guidance on getting the most out of international collaboration while protecting intellectual property, sensitive research and personal information.
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.
This funding opportunity is aimed at supporting promising earlier-stage research partnerships which are on their way towards becoming strategic partnerships, as well as established partnerships that already have a long-term strategic partnership in place.
A strategic partnership in this context is one which is established, trusted, and built on a track record of significant, regular, collaborative research projects which the academic and business partners have developed and completed together. The strategic partnership will be recognised by both parties, have a clear trajectory for future collaborative work, and may involve the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) or collaboration agreement.
You can request doctoral studentships as part of the project, but these studentships will not be funded through EPSRC money. They will be fully costed research assistants (research and innovation associates) funded by either the academic or the business partner(s).
If your collaborative relationship is at a relatively early-stage of approximately one to five years in duration, then the amount of EPSRC funding you may apply for must not exceed £1 million. Grants are normally between two to three years in duration. Shortlisted applications will go directly to an expert interview panel. Funding decisions will be made by November 2024. Those invited to interview may respond to any panel feedback and queries during their interview.
If your collaborative relationship is well-established and has lasted for five years or more, then there is no restriction on the maximum amount of EPSRC funding you may apply for. Grants are normally between three to five years in duration. This route is intended for larger grants of more than £1 million. Shortlisted applications will undergo peer review, before going to an expert interview panel and will be able to respond to reviewer feedback. All the appropriate comments will be made available to the interview panel. Funding decisions will be made in January 2025.
We are particularly looking to encourage Small Medium Enterprise (SME) involvement. This could be alone, or as part of a consortium, or as part of the supply chain of a larger company. Smaller businesses may prefer to support smaller projects and are welcome to consider route one even if they have a more established partnership.
We expect this funding opportunity to be highly competitive. The shortlisting panel will decide which are the most compelling and competitive applications to take forward to the next stage.
The funding available for each route is:
EPSRC Prosperity Partnerships funding opportunities aim is to fund business-led research that arises from an industrial need, with the work being co-delivered between the business and academic partners. The funding opportunity is aimed at supporting excellent, world-leading fundamental research which has clear benefit to the businesses involved, resulting in accelerated impact arising from the new knowledge, innovations, or technologies.
Co-creation of the research programme is essential. We expect programmes funded through this funding opportunity to:
It should be clear that both the business and academic researchers are making distinct intellectual contributions to the partnership.
You must declare if an applicant is discharging responsibilities within a business and a research organisation which are both partnering on the same project. If this is the case, you must also clarify the separation of duties and the management of potential conflicts of interest.
The research challenges to be addressed in your Prosperity Partnership collaboration should:
We recognise that the specific outcomes will be unique to each project, but you should consider how they may:
Ultimately, the project should be providing economic impact and prosperity which wouldn’t exist without the partnership.
The primary business partner and primary academic partner should consider the following criteria before applying:
The business and academic partners can commit to leveraging EPSRC funding for their Prosperity Partnership, and should consider the following:
The project should address research areas and challenges based on EPSRC’s strategic delivery plan.
We welcome applications across the whole breadth of EPSRC’s remit, but for this round of Prosperity Partnerships we are particularly encouraging applications for certain areas in EPSRC’s Quantum Technologies and Engineering Net Zero portfolios. These notices apply to both routes and further details of these ‘highlight notices’ are provided below.
As detailed in the National Quantum Strategy, the UK has set out bold ambitions to deliver a quantum enabled economy by 2033. The UK government has also published five quantum missions to drive growth and support priority areas of the innovation system in achieving the aims of the Quantum Strategy.
A quantum enabled economy will comprise a world leading sector where quantum technologies are an integral part of the UK’s future digital infrastructure and advanced manufacturing base, driving growth and helping to build a thriving and resilient economy and society. In order to achieve this, we must support and champion collaborations between our strong research community and vibrant industrial community.
Therefore, EPSRC is seeking to support applications to the Prosperity Partnership scheme in Quantum Technologies. We are looking for applications across the breadth of our research portfolio including:
We want to support the excellence of our research base and accelerate the development of new technologies towards commercialisation. This includes supporting partnerships to develop the supply chain, collaborate with industry, and work with end users. Recognising the breadth and diversity of industry within the growing quantum technologies landscape we want to encourage applications in both routes of the opportunity. Through this we believe we can have the most impact in supporting the development of new quantum technologies emerging from the research base through the translation pipeline and towards creating a quantum enabled economy.
As part of EPSRC’s Engineering Net Zero priority we are focused on both pioneering environmentally sustainable advanced technologies and harnessing the power of transformative technologies to provide solutions to support our environmental sustainability goals.
This includes both the discovery and development of the next generation of more environmentally sustainable advanced technologies and processes; and the identification of near-term solutions to increase the environmental sustainability of current generations spanning low and zero carbon solutions, such as renewable energy technologies, as well as transformative technologies themselves such as:
More widely, there is also huge opportunity in enabling the utilisation of digital and transformative technologies to enable a step change in the productivity, resilience and sustainability of UK industries, national infrastructures such as our energy networks and transports systems, and the ability to help solve some of our most challenging problems and de-risk technologies at an early stage through using advanced computing and modelling. We would therefore welcome Prosperity Partnership proposals which address these priorities.
All applications will be assessed equally, and funding priority will not be given to any particular area of research.
EPSRC funding is at 80% of full economic costs of the application. In this funding opportunity, if there is only one business partner involved in the project, then they must provide a cash contribution which at least matches the EPSRC funding. In-kind contributions will be in addition to this cash component. See examples in the costings template (DOCX, 82KB).
Please see the ’Definitive list of eligible cash contributions’ section. Any contribution not included in the cash contribution list will count as ‘in-kind’.
The combined cash contributions from all the business partners must at least match the EPSRC funding requested. We expect the primary business partner’s cash contribution to be larger than any cash contribution from other business partners on this project. This expectation does not apply to an application from a consortium of SMEs. Additional project partner contributions are encouraged. See SME example in the costings and examples document.
In-kind contributions, such as data, software, management time, or facilities access are welcome and can help show business commitment to the success of the project. However, they will not count towards the industry matching contributions.
Any academic partner’s cash contribution (including the primary academic partner) does not contribute to the matching figure requirements.
No UKRI or other UK government money, as part of baseline funding or otherwise, may be used as part of the matching contribution.
EPSRC does not mandate a specific audit format for the business contributions to a project, however, a record must be provided if requested. This must be able to demonstrate a continuous auditable cash transfer, or staff time-record, by the business partner per year in each year of the project.
The gross salary for the staff (such as researchers, postdoctoral research associates, technicians, and the project manager) can be counted towards the cash contribution (that is, including indirect costs such as pension, National Insurance, taxes and so on), but business overheads and profits cannot. The salary of a single member of staff can be covered in partnership by the primary business partner and EPSRC funds in a ratio that best suits the project.
The appropriateness of the time devoted to the project will be assessed during peer review.
Please note that the salary of the person who is the primary business partner must be paid by the business and is ineligible as cash or in-kind contributions.
All or part of the gross salary cost associated with research associates employed by research organisations to work exclusively on the Prosperity Partnership. Research associates can also be employed directly by the businesses in the partnership and claim the gross salary as a cash contribution if they are exclusively committed to working on the Prosperity Partnership.
Pro rata gross salary cost of a professional project manager is an eligible cash contribution. The expectation is that they will devote a significant and appropriate amount of their time on the Prosperity Partnership required for the project.
Pro rata gross salary costs of specialists are an eligible cash contribution. A specialist is an individual who brings specialist skills and intellectual input to the project, for example: data scientist, graphic designer, high-level or specialist technician or librarian. They must be employed by the primary business partner or one of the collaborating partners and the expectation is that they will devote a significant and appropriate amount of their time on the Prosperity Partnership required for the project.
New software licences needed for the project and their maintenance cost for the duration of the grant. Software licences or intellectual property owned by the business which are already accessible by the partners will apply at marginal cost, not at market rate.
Genuine new equipment purchases, please see ‘Requested funds from EPSRC may include…’ below. The equipment should be dedicated to the objectives of the Prosperity Partnership and their utilisation should be critical to deliver the activity. The access does not have to be restricted to the project members, but EPSRC expects that the equipment will be available to project members as required for the project. All equipment should be appropriately justified.
Equipment produced by the business, but only at the cost of manufacture, not market rate.
These are specific consumable materials which are required for certain equipment, for example material used in 3D-printing.
Access to specific equipment and facilities critical to achieve the outcomes of the project (including access to labs and use of lab equipment). If the facility is based at the academic or primary business partner, the contribution will be at the internal rate, not market rate.
Facilities refurbishment can be an eligible research organisation cash contribution if the upgrade will increase the capability of the facilities. This contribution must be justified in addition to any estate costs already factored in.
Business cash donation which will be provided to the partner universities, for the universities to manage in line with the project objectives.
Requested funds from EPSRC may include:
Quotes for equipment do not need to be included in your application, but please retain quotes for equipment costing more than £138,000 as we may ask for these at post-panel stage before releasing funds.
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.
The primary academic partner 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.
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. You must:
Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
EPSRC must receive your application by 21 May 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. If an application is withdrawn prior to peer review or office rejected due to substantive errors in the application, it cannot be resubmitted to the funding opportunity.
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.
EPSRC, as part of UKRI, will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with relevant Research Councils if there is a substantial element of the proposed work which lies outside EPSRC remit.
Word limit: 550
In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.
We may make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, so make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:
Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:
Word limit: 1
Please indicate which route you are applying for.
This is a mandatory section to complete, please choose either:
A: Route one: up to £1 million (80% full economic cost); generally, for early-stage relationships of one to five years’ duration
B: Route two: over £1 million (80% full economic cost); only for established collaborative relationships of at least five years’ duration
In the text box, copy just the letter (either A or B) that corresponds to your selected route. Do not input any additional text. We will check your choice, but we and the shortlisting panel reserve the right to move your application between the two routes based on evidence submitted.
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
Only list one individual as project lead.
Primary business partner: Although the primary business partner is a key member of the team, they cannot be listed here as a core grant role. Instead, details should be added under the ‘Applicant and team capability to deliver’ and ‘Project partner’ sections.
The primary academic partner should start and create the application on the Funding Service, but all partners are expected to contribute to the application in the spirit of the partnership before its added to the system.
Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.
Create a document that includes your responses to all criteria. The document should not be more than eight pages sides of A4, single spaced in paper in 11-point Arial (or equivalent sans serif font) with margins of at least 2cm. You may include images, graphs, tables. You can have an additional page for a diagrammatic workplan.
For the file name, use the unique Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Vision and Approach’.
Save this document as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB. Unless specifically requested, do not include any sensitive 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.
What are you hoping to achieve with and how will you deliver your proposed work?
For the Vision, explain how your proposed work:
Within the Vision section we also expect you to:
For the Approach, explain how you have designed your work so that it:
Within the Approach section we also expect you to:
Word limit: 3,000
Why are you the right team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
Within this section provide the names, titles, business name and research organisation name of both the primary business partner and the primary academic partner.
Show evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the service.
The word count for this section is 3,000 words: 2,500 words to be used for R4RI modules 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 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. 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:
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). Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.
UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new Funding Service. For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.
Word limit: 1,000
List the references you have used to support your application.
Include all references in this section, 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 maintain the information’s integrity, include persistent identifiers (such as digital object identifiers) where possible.
You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.
Add details about any project partners’ contributions. This should include the contributions of the primary business partner.
A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. The primary business partner’s contribution must include a direct (cash) element. Other project partner contributions may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions.
Add the following details for all contributing project partners:
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.
Word limit: 10
Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the ‘Project partner’ section.
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:
Letters of support must contain the following statement: ‘This letter commits [organisation name] to honour the resources committed in all successful applications to this funding opportunity that they are named on’.
Save letters or emails of support from each partner in a single PDF no bigger than 8MB. Unless specially requested, please do not include any sensitive personal data within the attachment.
For the file name, use the unique Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Project partner’.
If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.
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.
For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.
Do not provide letters of support from project leads and project co-leads’ research organisations.
Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the contributions template.
Word limit: 250
Does your proposed research require the support and use of a facility?
If you will need to use a facility, follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Ensure you have prior agreement so that if you are offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on your project.
For each requested facility you will need to provide the:
If you will not need to use a facility, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service by entering N/A.
Word limit: 1,000
What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?
Justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:
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:
Download and complete the mandatory costings template, which will be used to determine whether matched funding meets the required threshold for this funding opportunity.
All contributions provided by project partners must be clearly listed and broken down by the headings stipulated.
The template costings table covers three main areas which needs to be recorded as follows:
Upload a single PDF ensuring it is no larger than 8MB. For the file name, use the unique Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Costings table’.
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 may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
If you are collecting or using data, identify:
Additional sub-questions (to be answered only if appropriate) will be included in the Funding Service. These will ask about numbers, species/strain and justification about:
Word limit: 500
Provide details of support from your research organisation.
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.
Statements of support must contain the following ‘This statement commits [research organisation name] to honour the resources committed in all successful applications to this funding opportunity that they are named on’.
The assessors will check that the Statement of Support includes:
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:
Route one assessments will be via:
Route two assessments will be via:
The expert shortlisting prioritisation panel will assess applications for both routes and decide which applicants should go forward to the next stage of the assessment process. It will be undertaken by a panel of experts, assembled mainly from academic and business Prosperity Partnership grant holders.
Assessors will use your submitted application to make a judgement as to whether the application fits the opportunity requirements as set out in the ‘What we are looking for’ section.
The shortlisting panel will produce rank-ordered lists to prioritise the applications in order to manage the next stage in the process. We expect to hold no more than 30 interviews for each of the routes. Shortlisted applicants for route one will be notified and invited to interview soon after the panel date.
We will invite experts to review your application independently, against all the specified criteria for this funding opportunity.
You will not be able to nominate reviewers for applications on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. Research councils will continue to select expert reviewers. We are monitoring the requirement for applicant-nominated reviewers as we review policies and processes as part of the continued development of the new Funding Service.
The interview panel will be composed of business/user and academic members across the broad remit of relevant sectors, who are either existing EPSRC Prosperity Partnerships grant holders or have significant experience of delivering successful business-academia partnerships. The interview panel will produce a rank-ordered list of proposals and make funding recommendations to EPSRC based on further exploration of all the assessment criteria.
Route one funding decisions are expected by November 2024.
Route two funding decisions are expected by late January 2025.
If your application was discussed by a panel and there is any relevant feedback it will be communicated to you with the outcome of your application.
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.
We will need to share the application (including any personal information that it contains) if applicable for potential co-funding with relevant research councils so that they can participate in the assessment process.
We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.
The criteria we will assess your application against are:
Find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Helpdesk is committed to helping users of 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.
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 prosperity prosperitypartnerships@epsrc.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:
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 contact prosperitypartnerships@epsrc.ukri.org
Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; 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.
Quick guide to EPSRC Prosperity Partnerships
We held a webinar on 21 March 2024. This provided more information about the funding opportunity and a chance to ask questions.
Watch the webinar recording via Zoom.
Passcode: Hc4JpJ&r
View the webinar slides (PDF, 4MB).
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.
