Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: Sandpit: AI decision support for national security and defence

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Apply to attend a five-day interactive interdisciplinary sandpit to develop projects on decision support using artificial intelligence (AI), for national security and defence applications. Participants selected to attend must do so for all online and in-person days.

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

You must complete an expression of interest to apply.

Attendance at the sandpit does not guarantee UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding.

Who can apply

Before applying for funding, check the Eligibility of your organisation. Please note that businesses are not eligible to apply for funding through this scheme.

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

UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new UKRI Funding Service.

For full details, visit Eligibility as an individual.

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

Find out more about equality, diversity and inclusion at UKRI.

What we're looking for

Aim

The UK’s ability to produce novel AI decision support solutions is vital for responding to the challenges facing the national security and defence sectors. The previous UK government shared some of these challenges in the Integrated Review Refresh 2023: Responding to a more contested and volatile world and since its publication, the global landscape has become more complex.

Consequently, UKRI and EPSRC, in collaboration with National Security Technology and Innovation Exchange and UK government partners, are inviting applicants to attend a joint sandpit to deliver new, innovative, multidisciplinary and transformative approaches to AI decision support for national security and defence.

A collaborative sandpit approach has been chosen to generate research applications that:

  • take into account the needs of UK defence and security stakeholders from across government
  • form new collaborations between researchers, innovators and government users of research (stakeholders) in diverse research areas
  • create new and transformative research ideas in using AI to support decision making, and allowing researchers to pitch projects for funding to test and de-risk novel ideas
  • address key research challenges that are identified and described at the sandpit
  • can be led by researchers who have not worked in this sector before

No prior involvement with the defence or security sector is required, but it is our intention that participants at the sandpit will remain engaged with stakeholders from the defence and security sectors and be inspired to form longer term collaborations.

Sandpit

The sandpit will be an intensive, inclusive, interactive and creative environment, supporting a diverse group of participants from a range of disciplines and backgrounds in UKRI’s remit to work together.

We recognise the value in enabling collaboration across disciplines which may not usually come together to address the challenges being tackled. The unique opportunity provided by this sandpit will be that attendees will have access to government stakeholders, to drive the research towards real-world scenarios.

The sandpit will be overseen by a director, who will be supported by a team of mentors. The director, mentors and a small number of stakeholders will attend the sandpit but will not be eligible to receive research funding. Instead, their role will be to assist participants in defining and exploring challenges in this area. The director and mentors will act as independent reviewers, making a funding recommendation on the emergent projects.

The sandpit process can be broken down into several stages:

  • defining the scope of any research to address the UK’s defence and security challenges
  • cultivating a common language and terminologies amongst people from a diverse range of backgrounds and disciplines
  • sharing understandings of the challenges, and the expertise brought by the participants to the sandpit, and perspectives from relevant stakeholders
  • immersing participants in collaborative thinking processes and ideas sharing to construct innovative approaches
  • capturing the outputs in the form of highly innovative research projects
  • a funding decision on those projects at the sandpit using ‘real-time’ peer review

Scope

Recent advances in AI technologies hold exciting potential to enhance decision support in the national security and defence sectors. In an increasingly contested and volatile world, exploiting AI for decision support is expected to yield new intelligence insights beyond the capability of human analysts, by identifying threats and emerging risks and boosting productivity.

In defence and national security contexts, leaders are tasked with making high-stakes decisions. These decisions require processing and analysing vast amounts of information from diverse sources, which can range from satellite imagery to cybersecurity data to social media analysis. Traditionally, human analysts have handled this information, but as the volume and complexity of the data have increased, it has become harder to sift through it manually in a timely manner. It is therefore critical to enable effective interaction between humans and AI systems.

For example:

  • military commanders may need to quickly assess battlefield conditions, including troop movements, weather, terrain, and enemy activities
  • government analysts must analyse vast amounts of radio frequency signals and network traffic in real time to identify and mitigate potential threats, such as unauthorised communications, jamming attempts, or hostile activities
  • cyber defence teams must identify, in real time, suspicious activity on a network that might signal a breach or ongoing attack

In these scenarios, assurance is required that AI systems are reliable, transparent, and accurate when supporting decision making. It is imperative that we understand how AI arrives at its conclusions, which means the AI must provide explainable insights, showing not just the outcome but the reasoning behind it as well as validation of sources. Additionally, in this context we must have confidence that AI systems are free from biases that could skew analysis, especially in high-stakes environments where inaccurate outputs could have significant consequences.

This sandpit therefore seeks to create new capabilities that deliver responsible, ethical and trustworthy technologies for decision support using AI, with the ability to identify and prioritise risks in data. The sandpit will enable understanding of the real-world context in which the interventions may be used. This will be achieved by bringing researchers, innovators, and problem owners from across a range of disciplines together in new collaborations for application driven research and innovation.

Participants at the sandpit will be introduced to a number of defence and security scenarios by users of technology from across government and will be encouraged to approach problems in an interdisciplinary manner. For that reason, we encourage applications from a range of disciplines including but not limited to:

  • AI technologies
  • behavioural sciences
  • mathematical sciences
  • human factors
  • natural language processing
  • statistics
  • linguistics
  • computer sciences
  • signal, wireless and network processing
  • ethics
  • audio visual analysis
  • engineering
  • high performance computing
  • modelling and simulation
  • digital twinning
  • cybersecurity
  • psychology
  • digital forensics
  • sociology
  • legal studies
  • responsible research and innovation

Funding available

It is expected that three projects will be funded, sharing up to £3 million of total funding at 80% full economic cost.

Accommodation will be provided during the residential component of the sandpit. However, participants must make their own travel arrangements. Travel and subsistence costs will be reimbursed.

Since this sandpit is partially residential, and where employers cannot help, EPSRC, in line with UKRI policy, will cover the costs of any additional childcare or caring responsibilities, which is deemed necessary during this period.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. 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 organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks. See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.

How to apply

Applying to participate in the sandpit

Apply to this sandpit by completing an expression of interest (EOI), through an EOI survey.

Please note that each question in this survey is accompanied by a specific word limit indicated at the end of each question.

The EOI survey will require applicants to confirm their commitment to attend the entire sandpit if shortlisted. Please be advised, applicants must be able to attend the virtual sandpit day on 17 January 2025 and the in-person sandpit from 20 to 23 January 2025.

Information about the venue and the exact format of the sandpit will be provided to the successful participants. Accommodation will be provided. However, participants must make their own travel arrangements. We welcome applications and enquiries from individuals with additional needs for whom specific provisions may need to be made, for example, caring responsibilities and people with disabilities.

We are committed to creating a more inclusive research base in line with our equality, diversity and inclusion action plan and encourage applications from under-represented groups.

Individuals who have applied to or attended a sandpit previously are welcome to apply to this sandpit.

Deadline

The deadline for EOIs is 4:00pm on 31 October 2024. Please note that late submissions will not be considered.

Selected participants

EPSRC will confirm selected participants for the sandpit, subject to security checks, by the end of November 2024.

Applicants who are selected to attend the sandpit will be asked to provide basic personal information directly to the National Security Technology and Innovation Exchange in order for mandatory security checks to be completed. Attendance at the sandpit will be subject to this security clearance.

Selected applicants will be required to inform their university research office, in advance of the event, that they will attend the sandpit. If funded through the sandpit, their institution will be required to fund 20% of the full economic project costs as standard.

Processing personal data

EPSRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your application 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.

If your application is successful, and you successfully receive funding through the sandpit, we may publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.

Contact details

  • title
  • first name
  • last name
  • department
  • organisation
  • email address

Questions for assessment

  • Please describe any experience you may have in developing innovative approaches to research.
  • The sandpit is a unique environment providing you with the opportunity to meet and work with new individuals from a diverse range of disciplines. Please describe your approach to interdisciplinary teamworking and any experience you may have in this area.
  • What experience do you have of communicating and engaging with diverse non-academic stakeholders?
  • Using language suitable for non-experts, please describe your research interests and how these, along with your experience, complement the scope of this sandpit.

Additional questions

Participants will be selected based on their answers to the above questions primarily. In addition, the selection panel will reflect on the career stages and regions of applicants to ensure a diverse group of participants, therefore participants will be asked questions about these in the survey.

We are interested in understanding the pool of applicants that we are reaching with this opportunity, therefore the survey will ask for the following information. Please note, this information will not be used as part of the assessment process:

  • sex
  • gender identity
  • ethnicity
  • disability

Each of these questions will include the option to answer with ‘prefer not to say’.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process for applications to attend the sandpit

Applications to attend the sandpit will be assessed by a selection panel comprised of the sandpit director, mentors and UKRI staff. Participant selection will be based solely on the information provided in the expression of interest survey.

The assessment criteria are as follows:

  • the ability to develop innovative approaches to research
  • the ability to work collaboratively and within interdisciplinary environment
  • the ability to communicate and engage with diverse non-academic stakeholders
  • relevant research expertise and experience
  • the ability to explain research to non-experts

Participants will be selected primarily based on these assessment criteria. However, the panel will also look to ensure sandpit participants have expertise in a mix of disciplines and backgrounds.

Because of the considerable number of applications expected, we will not be able to give individual feedback to unsuccessful applicants.

In the event of this funding opportunity being oversubscribed as to be unmanageable, EPSRC reserves the right to modify the assessment process.

Please note that attendance at the sandpit does not guarantee UKRI funding.

Full proposal assessment

Following the sandpit, project leads and co-leads involved in the projects recommended for funding will be invited to write a full project application detailing their intended activities as identified at the sandpit.

It is planned that participants involved in projects identified for funding will be informed within two weeks of the sandpit. Funding will be conditional on receipt of a full application. Staff recruited to funded projects will be required to undergo security checks.

The criteria used throughout the process of developing and assessing the final applications will be equally weighted. Final applications will also be subject to standard EPSRC assessment criteria.

Assessment criteria

  • fit to opportunity
    • novel, highly multidisciplinary research projects, clearly reflecting the distinctive opportunity for creating such projects that the sandpit provides
    • clear relevance to and the potential to make a distinctive and novel contribution to addressing the research challenges in this area
    • clear relevance to and the potential to make a distinctive and novel contribution to addressing the needs of the stakeholders
  • vision of the project
  • approach to the project
  • capability of the applicant or applicants and the project team to deliver the project
  • resources requested to do the project
  • ethical and responsible research and innovation considerations of the project

The deadline for submission of full applications is expected to be in March 2025.

Final funding decisions will be made in Spring 2025 following review of the full applications by the sandpit mentors and director to ensure what is submitted is in keeping with what was presented at the sandpit.

Any collaborative project funded through this programme must have a signed collaboration agreement between the partners before the start of any grant.

We attach significant 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 must be carried out in the manner agreed in the project’s collaboration agreement.

Read EPSRC requirements on collaboration agreements.

Please note, applications which are funded via this call will be made available to the National Security Technology and Innovation Exchange and relevant government partners.

Principles of assessment

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.

Contact details

Get help with your application

For help and advice on writing your application, please contact your research office in the first instance.

For questions related to this specific opportunity, or if you need to provide us with sensitive information relevant to your application, please contact
ns-sandpit@epsrc.ukri.org

Additional info

NSTIx

National Security Technology and Innovation Exchange (NSTIx) is a government-led science, technology and innovation (ST&I) partnership that enables coherent and agile delivery of innovative national security outcomes through a coordinated and systematic approach to research and capability development.

NSTIx engages with UK government organisations that require national security ST&I to identify and communicate cross-cutting areas for collaboration and co-creation. NSTIx also promotes engagement with providers and end users of ST&I, including with industry and academia, to enable better outcomes for all parties.

Find out more about NSTIx.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The long-term strength of the UK research base depends on harnessing all the available talent. UKRI expects that equality and diversity is embedded at all levels and in all aspects of research practice and funding policy.

We welcome applications from academics who job share, have a part-time contract, or need flexible working arrangements. We are committed to a policy of equal opportunities for our applicants for funding and encourage applications from those from under-represented groups.

Find out more about equality, diversity, and inclusion at EPSRC.

Responsible innovation and trusted research

EPSRC is fully committed to developing and promoting responsible innovation and trusted research. Research can not only deliver shared understanding, knowledge, and value, but also unintended consequences, questions, ethical dilemmas and, at times, unexpected social transformations.

We recognise that we have a duty of care to:

  • promote approaches to responsible innovation that will initiate ongoing reflection about the potential ethical and societal implications of the research that we sponsor
  • encourage our research community to do likewise

Projects funded through this sandpit will be required to embed principles of responsible innovation and those of trusted research throughout their activities and will be expected to engage with the relevant regulatory bodies where concerns may arise under the National Security and Investment Act. Aspects of bias, privacy, security and ethics should be considered where appropriate.

AI stakeholders

Projects emerging from this sandpit will be expected to engage (where applicable) with the wider community of UKRI AI investments. This includes Alan Turing Institute, the UKRI AI Centres for Doctoral Training, the EPSRC AI hubs, and Responsible AI UK, whose role is to bring together the UK AI community to ensure that AI is developed and deployed in a responsible and trustworthy manner.

Ethical information

EPSRC will not fund a project if it believes that there are ethical concerns that have been overlooked or not appropriately accounted for. Sandpit participants who are selected to submit an application, will be required to detail ethical considerations in keeping with UKRI guidance under the UKRI Funding Service.

UKRI strategy: transforming tomorrow together: building a secure and resilient world strategic theme

The UKRI strategy for 2022 to 2027, transforming tomorrow together, outlines five strategic themes which look to harness the full power of the UK’s research and innovation system to address major national and global challenges. ‘Building a secure and resilient world’ is one the themes under the auspices of which UKRI will catalyse, convene and conduct research and innovation, through taking a systemic approach that is human-centred, aimed at strengthening societal and economic resilience.

The theme aims to enhance national security across virtual and physical environments, by improving awareness of risks and threats, preparedness, informed decision-making and response, and allowing change to be understood as a force for good.

‘Building a secure and resilient world’ directly tackles core methodologies for supporting a better and more robust approach to managing crisis from business to government to communities. A core focus of the theme is on supporting systems thinking and decision making to reduce risk and strengthen our security and resilience, and showing how this should support, and be implemented by, communities at every level, from local to international.

We have identified five inter-related sub-themes, through which UKRI will deliver a range of activities tailored to enable resilience to different risks in different systems that is built on the strengths of our current economy and society, helps reduce vulnerability, prepares for robust and rapid responses and enhances recovery, and encourages approaches which bring positive transformation. The five sub-themes are:

  1. Global order in a time of change: enable UK to take one of the leading positions in shaping an international order that is secure, resilient and just.
  2. Technologies for resilience, security and defence: advance capacity of state defence and security, society and economy to reduce vulnerabilities, to respond to and recover from shocks through innovation and technological advancement.
  3. Resilient and secure supply chains: increase the resilience of supply chains (food, critical materials, manufacturing, complex systems) to a wide variety to potentially interacting shocks.
  4. Behavioural and cultural resilience: reduce the impact of shocks on individuals and communities through adaptation and embracing change, deployment of resources for personal resilience that is fair and just.
  5. Strengthening resilience in natural and built environment: mitigate impact of natural and anthropogenic hazards and risks on wider societal processes and operations in rural and urban contexts being responsive to particular requirements of place.

This opportunity speaks directly to the ‘technologies for resilience security and defence’ sub-theme.

Additional disability and accessibility adjustments

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

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 applicants 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

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 applicants.

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.

Supporting documents

Equality impact assessment (PDF, 164KB)

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