Stage one: expression of interest
The initial expression of interest stage required companies to submit a concise (approximately 500 words) ‘challenge statement’ describing their problem.
Successful applicants at this stage will have been invited to submit a full stage application
Stage two: full proposal
If successful at expression of interest stage, you will work together with STFC scientists and business development managers to develop a fully costed project proposal.
We are running this funding opportunity on the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service.
Please note that the application must be completed by the academic partner, and it is important that the application is started by the project lead. 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
You can only apply for this funding opportunity if we have invited you to do so following a successful expression of interest application. The start application link will be provided via email from business.unit@bbsrc.ukri.org
- Follow the link in the email to the Funding Service and 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 funding 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.
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
BBSRC and STFC must receive your application by 4th December 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
BBSRC and STFC, 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.
Sensitive information
If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email business.unit@bbsrc.ukri.org
Include in the subject line: [OPP1037 BBSRC STFC Facility Access Funding for Bioscience Partnerships; 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
BBSRC and STFC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity.
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:
- context
- the challenge the project addresses
- aims and objectives
- potential applications and benefits
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
- research and innovation associate
- technician
- researcher co-lead (RcL)
Only list one individual as project lead. Only members of the research organisation team should be listed in this section.
Key members of staff from the business partner should be listed in the ‘Project partner’ and ‘Letter of support’ sections of the application form.
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: 1,000
What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your proposed work:
- is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the field(s) or area(s)
- has the potential to advance current understanding, or generate new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area
- is timely given current trends, context, and needs
- impacts world-leading research, society, the economy, or the environment
Within the Vision section, we also expect you to:
- briefly describe the problem (as per your challenge statement)
- describe the direct and indirect academic beneficiaries from the research
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: 1,250
How are you going to deliver your proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you have designed your approach so that it:
- is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives
- is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed
- uses a clearly written and transparent methodology (if applicable)
- summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed (if applicable)
- will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts
- describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work
Within the Approach section, we also expect you to:
- clearly define any goals or project deliverables
- provide a detailed and comprehensive project plan, including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar
- provide comprehensive details about the risks of the project which are on the critical pathway to the project succeeding, including a risk assessment matrix, how likely the risks are and how the risks will be managed
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.
Partnership
Word limit: 750
Why is the proposed industry-academia partnership well suited to solve the challenge?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your proposed work justifies the need for the partnership by demonstrating:
- how the available expertise from both the industry and academic partners will be maximally utilised to generate meaningful benefits for both partners
- how effective collaboration will be facilitated throughout the duration of the project
- a clear potential for knowledge exchange
- substantive shared interests indicating the potential for a longer-term collaboration
Within the Partnership section we also expect you to:
- describe the expertise of the partners and how these relate to the challenge
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word limit: 1,650
Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:
- the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
- the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
- the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
- contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community
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 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:
- 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).
Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.
References may be included within this section.
The roles in funding applications policy has descriptions of the different project roles.
Facilities
Word limit: 750
Does STFC have the relevant expertise and facilities to tackle the problem?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your proposed work:
- utilises the relevant expertise and facilities on offer to approach the problem
- leverages unique or uncommon facilities, skillsets and expertise that are not readily available at contract laboratories, universities, or other large research organisations
It is expected that this question will be completed in collaboration with the facility or facilities you propose to work with.
Potential for impact
Word limit: 1,000
What are the potential impacts of the proposed project for the partner company and wider community? How and when will these be achieved?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Discuss the proposal’s potential and mechanism for achieving a realistic set of anticipated benefits for the company and wider community that:
- are well understood and clearly described
- are likely to succeed
- represent a high economic return on investment within a reasonable timeframe
Within the Potential for impact section, we also expect you to:
- highlight, and where possible estimate the potential value (in £) of, benefits for the partner company. Examples include: increase in revenue from sales, licensing or exports; improvements to the quality of products or services and the resulting impact to the company; increase in employment of staff; improvements to company productivity including efficiency improvements in production processes, cost reductions in products or skilled services or greater outputs from the same or reduced inputs; acceleration of route to market for a product or service
- highlight any potential benefits for the wider community. You could discuss: the benefits of the project more widely within the industry, for example, any improvements to how the industry operates and the potential for uptake of any outputs of the project by other companies; benefits more widely to the company’s local geographical region. For example, this may include strengthening industry in the area, stimulating research and development and increasing investment; any additional benefits that have not been previously described such as increased competitiveness of UK industry, a reduction in imports into the UK, improved environmental benefits (for example, reduction in waste going to landfill), and workforce upskilling
- consider the timescale over which you would you expect to realise the benefits described. Provide specific and measurable information if possible. As an approximate guide a proposal scoring at the lower end of this assessment criteria will expect to accomplish the proposed benefits in a timeframe of ten-years or greater. A proposal scoring at the upper end of this assessment criteria will expect to accomplish the proposed benefits in a timeframe of two years or less.
- include evidence that the proposal would represent good value for money if successfully completed. As an approximate guide a proposal scoring at the lower end of this assessment criteria will have estimated economic return to investment ratio of less than 1.0. A proposal scoring at the upper end of this assessment criteria will have estimated economic return to investment ratio of greater than 10.0. The estimated economic return to investment is calculated by dividing the value of the project to the company by the value of the programme investment in the project
It is expected that this question will be completed in collaboration with the company lead.
Resources and cost justification
Word limit: 1,000
What will you need to deliver your proposed work 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
- significant travel for field work or collaboration (but not regular travel between collaborating organisations or to conferences)
- any equipment that will cost more than £25,000
- any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
- all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’
STFC facility costs will be captured in the ‘Project partner’ section.
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
Project partners
Add details about any project partners’ contributions.
A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct contributions for example cash, donated equipment and resources, or staff seconded to the project, or indirect and in-kind contributions for example use of project partner’s equipment, datasets, or 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.
Any collaborative project funded through this initiative must have a signed collaboration agreement between the business and academic partners before the start of any grant.
The business-academic partnership will also need to sign a user agreement outlining STFC standard terms and conditions for the facility (or facilities) they intend to work with. Any partnership intending to work with The Diamond Light Source will need to sign a user agreement specific to that facility.
UKRI attach great importance to the dissemination of research findings and the publishing of information about the research they support in the public domain. However, all dissemination and publication activities must be carried out in the manner that is consistent with the project’s collaboration agreement.
Project partners: letters (or emails) of support
Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner and STFC facility 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. 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 two sides A4 per partner
This section should include letters of support from the STFC facilities requested and these should be signed by the departmental director. The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.
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.
Your organisation’s support
Word limit: 10
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 how they will support you, as the applicant, and your proposed activities. 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.
Assessors will be looking for a strong statement of support from your research organisation. This information should have been approved for submission by an appropriate institutional authority.
You must also include the following details:
- a significant person’s name, their position and office or department, or all
- office address or web link
- Confirmation that a collaboration agreement will be put in place with the project partners if an award is made.
Upload details are provided within the Funding Service on the actual application.
Data management and sharing
Word limit: 500
How will you manage and share data collected or acquired through the proposed research?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a data management plan that clearly details how you will comply with UKRI’s published data sharing policy, which includes detailed guidance notes.
Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
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.
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 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.
Genetic and biological risk
Word limit: 700
Does your proposed research involve any genetic or biological risk?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
In respect of animals, plants or microbes, are you proposing to:
- use genetic modification as an experimental tool, like studying gene function in a genetically modified organism
- release genetically modified organisms
- ultimately develop commercial and industrial genetically modified outcomes
If yes, provide the name of any required approving body and state if approval is already in place. If it is not, provide an indicative timeframe for obtaining the required approval.
Identify the organism or organisms as a plant, animal or microbe and specify the species and which of the three categories the research relates to.
Identify the genetic and biological risks resulting from the proposed research, their implications, and any mitigation you plan on taking. Assessors will want to know you have considered the risks and their implications to justify that any identified risks do not outweigh any benefits of the proposed research.
If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Research involving the use of animals
Does your proposed research involve the use of vertebrate animals or other organisms covered by the Animals Scientific Procedures Act?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing research that requires using animals, download and complete the Research involving the use of animals template (DOCX, 52.5KB), which contains all the questions relating to research using vertebrate animals or other Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 regulated organisms.
Save it as a PDF. The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.
If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Conducting research with animals overseas
Word limit: 700
Will any of the proposed animal research be conducted overseas?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing to conduct overseas research, it must be conducted in accordance with welfare standards consistent with those in the UK, as in Responsibility in the use of animals in bioscience research. Ensure all named applicants in the UK and overseas are aware of this requirement.
If your application proposes animal research to be conducted overseas, you must provide a statement in the text box. Depending on the species involved, you may also need to upload a completed template for each species listed.
Statement
Provide a statement to confirm that:
- all named applicants are aware of the requirements and have agreed to abide by them
- this overseas research will be conducted in accordance with welfare standards consistent with the principles of UK legislation
- the expectation set out in Responsibility in the use of animals in bioscience research will be applied and maintained
- appropriate national and institutional approvals are in place
Templates
Overseas studies proposing to use non-human primates, cats, dogs, equines or pigs will be assessed during NC3Rs review of research applications. Provide the required information by completing the template from the question ‘Research involving the use of animals’.
For studies involving other species, such as:
- rodents
- rabbits
- sheep
- goats
- pigs
- cattle
- xenopus laevis and xenopus tropicalis
- zebrafish
Select, download, and complete the relevant Word checklist or checklists by exploring NC3Rs checklist for the use of animals overseas.
Save your completed template as a PDF and upload to the Funding Service. If you use more than one checklist template, save it as a single PDF.
The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.
If conducting research with animals overseas does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Research involving human participation
Word limit: 700
Will the project involve the use of human subjects or their personal information?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing research that requires the involvement of human subjects, provide the name of any required approving body and whether approval is already in place.
Justify the number and the diversity of the participants involved, as well as any procedures.
Provide details of any areas of substantial or moderate severity of impact.
If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Research involving human tissues or biological samples
Word limit: 700
Does your proposed research involve the use of human tissues, or biological samples?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you are proposing work that involves human tissues or biological samples, provide the name of any required approving body and whether approval is already in place.
Justify the use of human tissue or biological samples specifying the nature and quantity of the material to be used and its source.
If this does not apply to your proposed work, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
