Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: Pre-announcement: Research and partnership hubs for a healthy society

Apply for funding to establish a large-scale multidisciplinary research hub drawing on expertise across the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and health research community to support people to live healthier lives and prevent ill health. Proposals should address long term research challenges in the priority area(s) of prevention, early diagnosis and self-management of health.

You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for EPSRC funding.

This is a pre-announcement and the information may change.

The funding opportunity will open on 15 July 2025. More information will be available on this page then.

Who can apply

To lead a project, you must be based at an eligible organisation. Check if your organisation is eligible.

EPSRC standard eligibility rules apply. For full details, visit EPSRC’s eligibility page.

Resubmissions

We will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UKRI or any other funder.

Find out more about EPSRC’s resubmissions policy.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

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:

  • career breaks
  • support for people with caring responsibilities
  • flexible working
  • alternative working patterns

UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

What we're looking for

Aim

Research and partnership hubs for a healthy society will deliver a number of large-scale, multidisciplinary research hubs drawing on expertise across the engineering and physical sciences research communities to build and develop strategic research capabilities of importance to healthcare technologies and ultimately enable people to live healthier lives.

Supporting people to live healthier lives and preventing ill health are of key importance for the UK and globally. EPSRC-supported research can have an important role in prevention of disease and population health, from preparing for pandemics and slowing the spread of infectious diseases to diagnosing diseases such as cancer at a much earlier stage. These are current areas of relative underinvestment.

The research and partnership hubs for a healthy society will support partnerships across the wider research and health landscape, bringing together complementary expertise to co-deliver advancement in the priority areas of prevention, early diagnosis and self-management of health.

Scope

Research and partnership hubs for a healthy society will complement and refresh our existing portfolio of hubs from the first round of Research and partnership hubs for health technologies: full stage and must contribute to delivering the EPSRC health technologies strategy.

Given that this is the second round of funding, we will seek to fill strategic gaps in provision remaining from the first round and not duplicate substantial investments already made. Therefore, we have identified priority challenge areas which this funding opportunity will support. Hubs must address at least one of the following challenge areas in their proposal.

Hub challenge areas

The hubs that are funded through this funding opportunity will be critical mass investments that are expected to form connections to the wider health technologies research and innovation ecosystem. They will have a core mission and sets of activities and objectives in one or more of the following areas:

  1. Prevention and population health
    This priority looks to focus on the need for novel techniques that optimise health, prevent, and ultimately help eliminate disease.
  2. Supporting people to manage their own health
    This priority focuses on a shift in services out of hospitals and into the community and home.
  3. Novel techniques for early diagnosis
    Hubs addressing this priority area are expected to develop novel techniques that optimise patient-specific illness prediction and early and accurate diagnosis.

Public and patient involvement and engagement (PPIE) and partnership working

PPIE is a key cross-cutting theme of the new EPSRC health technologies strategy. We expect all hubs to integrate PPIE at all stages of the research and innovation process.

Translation

As leaders in the community, hubs will be expected to develop a clear plan for translation and maximising impacts from the research outputs, products and technologies developed throughout their lifetime.

What is a hub?

A typical hub will include the following:

  • a physical or virtual centre, comprising multiple institutions but based around a lead institution
  • a hub director (academic) with a proven track record of managing large investments and excellence within their discipline or sector
  • a wider leadership team from across relevant disciplines and sectors with a track record of excellence within their field
  • a management team including a hub manager and administrative team as required to ensure efficient running of the hub
  • a named lead for each of PPIE and partnership working and translation and impact
  • research staff distributed across the project. Funding cannot be requested from these grants for PhD studentships or related funding. However, students funded from other sources can be incorporated into the broader project plan, provided that PhD students’ work is not part of the critical path of the hub’s research
  • appropriate advisory and governance structures including an independent advisory board

Funding opportunity objectives

The hubs will:

  • deliver a programme of high quality, multidisciplinary research of importance to one or more of the challenges outlined in this funding opportunity
  • create a critical mass of research capacity in a particular area, driving forward the national research agenda to actively build a wider research and innovation ecosystem
  • act as UK leaders in the field on behalf of the wider research landscape. Hubs will be expected to engage with relevant research partners throughout their lifetime
  • embed PPIE throughout the hub aims, objectives and operations, considering the context of each hub’s specific research area
  • engage with a diverse range of relevant partners to ensure research is co-created and co-delivered with users
  • ensure a clear route to translation for research outcomes by developing a translation and impact action plan which considers the specific translation context and challenges within the hub’s research area and community

Due to the scale of these awards, significant collaboration and leverage (cash or in-kind) will be expected from project partners (for example, business, public sector, third sector).

How to apply

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. We will publish full details on how to apply when the funding opportunity opens.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process

This funding opportunity will have a two-stage assessment process consisting of an outline stage and a full proposal stage The full proposal stage will be assessed through expert peer review and interview.

Further details of the assessment process and assessment criteria will be published when the funding opportunity opens.

Contact details

Get help with your application

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page

IMPORTANT NOTE: The Helpdesk is committed to helping users of the 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.

Contact details

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 healthcare@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:

  • Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
  • Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

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.

For further information on submitting an application read How applicants use the Funding Service

Additional info

Background

In 2023 the EPSRC Healthcare Technologies theme issued a funding opportunity to support five research and partnership hubs for health technologies. This funding opportunity looked to establish a number of large-scale, multidisciplinary research hubs, drawing on expertise across the engineering and physical sciences and health research community to build and develop strategic research capabilities of importance to one or more of the challenge areas outlined in the new health technologies strategy.

Research and innovation impact

Impact can be defined as the long-term intended or unintended effect research and innovation has on society, economy and the environment; to individuals, organisations, and the wider global population.

Webinar for potential applicants

We will hold a webinar to provide more information about the funding opportunity and a chance to ask questions. Full details will be published in due course.

Research disruption due to COVID-19

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:

  • breaks and delays
  • disruptive working patterns and conditions
  • the loss of ongoing work
  • role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic

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.

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services.