Funding opportunity

Isambard-AI and Dawn AIRR supercomputers: Rapid Access route

• Opportunity status: Open
• Funders: UK Research and Innovation, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Innovate UK, Medical Research Council (MRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
• Funding type: Other
• Publication date: 18 August 2025
• Opening date: N/A
• Closing date: Open - no closing date

Open to researchers at UK-registered micro, small and medium businesses, this access route supports early-stage development of artificial intelligence (AI) products prior to market launch.

Eligible research and development activities include:

• feasibility studies
• industrial research
• experimental development

Up to 20,000 graphics processing unit (GPU) hours on the Isambard-AI and Dawn AI Research Resource (AIRR) supercomputers is available per project, to be used within three months of project start. No funding is available to successful applicants.

Your organisation must be a UK registered business and have a Companies House registration number.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to eligible researchers from UK registered micro, small or medium-sized businesses across the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) remit.

To be a project lead, you must have a contract (of longer duration than your proposed project) with your organisation. Your organisation must have a Companies House registration number.

For more information on company sizes, refer to the company accounts guidance.

There is no limit to the number of applications from any one organisation.

We welcome collaborative projects, however this route is not aimed at large research programmes.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all applicants. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone.

What we're looking for

The Rapid Access route, aimed at start-ups and small and medium enterprises, allows for small amounts of compute that can be secured quickly, with a minimum amount of friction. This is to allow them to conduct research and development activities at short notice and respond rapidly to market opportunities.

This route is open to any eligible business, however, we are particularly keen to hear from projects that contribute to delivering against the government’s five missions:

• growing the economy
• an NHS fit for the future
• safer streets
• opportunity for all
• making Britain a clean energy superpower

This route covers activities that fall into the following categories:

• feasibility studies
• industrial research
• experimental development

See more on our categories of research and development.

Resources available

Each application can request 20,000 GPU hours on either of the AIRR services, Dawn or Isambard-AI.

The GPU hours must be used within three months of the project being awarded.

This application process is purely for compute resource. No funding is available to successful applicants.

Trusted research and innovation (TR&I)

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks.

Trusted research and innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary.

Our TR&I principles set out UKRI’s expectations of projects awarded through this route in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

Subsidy control and state aid where applicable

All AIRR access routes provide awards in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

See further information about the Subsidy requirements for this route, including the relevant support ratios.

How to apply

You can use the AIRRPortal to apply to use AIRR.

Apply to use AIRR

See guidance on how to apply to the Rapid Access route. If your application does not follow this guidance, it may be rejected.

General guidance on using the AIRRPortal can be found at:

AIRRPortal: how to apply (UKRI guidance)

AIRRPortal guidance (PDF, 448KB)

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to ensure that:

• all information provided in the application is accurate
• the application meets the eligibility and scope criteria for the chosen access route
• the application contains the additional documents requested in the guidance (templates available on the AIRRPortal)

Processing personal data and data sharing

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will need to collect some personal information to manage your application.

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.

UKRI will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) so that they can participate in the assessment process.

See more information on how DSIT uses personal information.

How we will assess your application

Rapid Access applications will be subject to a light touch review by a member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) delivery team.

The aim is that this will be done on a weekly cadence, with a maximum time-to-resource-access of two weeks after the date of submission.

The UKRI and DSIT delivery team will use the following assessment criteria:

• are the project objectives in scope for the AIRR programme?
• has the project demonstrated that access to AIRR would add value to the project?
• have any concerns been raised regarding the project compliance information?

We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.

Contact details

Contact us at airr@ukri.org to ask for guidance.

Additional info

Background

The AIRR programme intends to address the significant shortage of publicly available computing resources in the UK. In January 2025 the government announced expanding AIRR capacity by at least 20 times by 2030, as part of the AI Opportunities Action Plan.

The government has committed to spending an extra £1 billion to scale up our compute power by a factor of 20, giving Britain the power to become an AI leader.

AIRR is a partnership between:

• UK government
• UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
• University of Cambridge
• University of Bristol
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
• Nvidia
• Intel
• Dell

AIRR compute clusters

The government is investing significantly in the Isambard-AI and Dawn AIRR clusters and will have invested over £350 million by 2030.

Isambard-AI (University of Bristol)

The Isambard-AI facility is the UK’s most powerful public compute facility. It is made up of 5,448 Nvidia GH200 Grace-Hopper superchips (supplied by HPE) and operated by the University of Bristol at Bristol’s National Composites Centre.

See further information on the Isambard-AI  system.

Dawn (University of Cambridge)

The Cambridge Dawn facility is made up of 1,024 Intel Data Centre GPU Max 1550 GPUs. It is a close partnership between Cambridge, Intel and Dell at the Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab.

See further information on the Dawn system.

Supporting documents

Guidance on how to apply to the Rapid Access route: AIRR Rapid Access route (UKRI guidance)

General guidance on using the AIRRPortal

AIRRPortal guidance (PDF, 448KB)