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.
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
Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.
- 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 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. You should:
- use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
- insert each new image onto a new line
- provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
- ensure files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format
Watch our research office webinars about the Funding Service.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
References
Applications should be self-contained, and hyperlinks should only be used to provide links directly to reference information. To ensure the information’s integrity is maintained, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers should be used. Assessors are not required to access links to carry out assessment or recommend a funding decision. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.
References should be included in the appropriate question section of the application and be easily identifiable by the assessors for example (Smith, Research Paper, 2019).
You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.
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
This is an open opportunity. We will not publish closing dates, instead we will batch applications internally. Our initial batching date is planned for summer 2025, but this is subject to change. You should apply when your application is ready for submission and not be concerned about a closing date or batching date.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
Following the submission of your application to the 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 opportunity.
Personal data
Processing personal data
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.
Sensitive information
If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email tfschangeepsrc@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:
- 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
EPSRC, as part of UKRI, will not publish the outcomes of this opportunity as its initial purpose is to gather information.
Summary
Word limit: 550
In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable people to assess your application.
This summary may be 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(s) the proposed infrastructure/facility would address
- 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)
- project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
- specialist
Project co-leads should be members of the relevant community who have had a direct input into the preparation of the statement of need. The statement of need should be for a wider community, not just the needs of the applicants listed. It does not automatically follow that those in the community who prepared the statement of need should be the ones who lead the preparation of any potential future funding application.
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 the proposed infrastructure/facility?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how the proposed infrastructure/facility will:
- be timely, given current trends and context
- meet the evidenced needs of clearly identified user groups
- have measurable impact
- enable high quality and important research
- meet the strategic aims of the funder or government
- offer training opportunities
- enhance, benefit and complement the existing landscape
- support innovation in research
- be of international importance (if applicable)
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.
Within the Vision section we also expect you to:
- highlight the consequences of not delivering this infrastructure
- state which other council’s remit(s) this would fall in if this infrastructure would enable cross-disciplinary research
Purpose and importance of the infrastructure
Word limit: 1,000
What is the proposed infrastructure or facility and its capabilities? Why is it needed and why should UKRI support it?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
- a description of the proposed infrastructure or facility and its primary function, including an indication of what the infrastructure should provide to be of maximum benefit to the research community
- a description of what technologies, capabilities, and services would be available through the proposed infrastructure
- a description of the type and number of staff required to run the proposed infrastructure, including for the set-up stage if appropriate
Explain how the proposed infrastructure:
- is timely, given current trends and context
- delivers an unmet need and how its capability is vital to the UK research and innovation landscape if none exist
- meets national needs by establishing or maintaining a unique, world leading activity or both
- meets community demand and need from a diverse and inclusive user base
- enhances and complements existing research capability at a national scale with reference to existing facilities and equipment in the UK and international landscape where appropriate
- meets the strategic aims of UKRI, EPSRC or the government, with reference to any relevant roadmaps, government strategic reports and papers where appropriate
- link to other capabilities, if applicable, for example National Research Facilities, high performance computing facilities or other large digital research infrastructures, large scale laboratories, institutes
Impact
Word limit: 500
What is the impact of the proposed infrastructure?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
- a description on the potential impact of the proposed infrastructure on the research community and how will it work with industrial interests, across the range of types of impact (scientific and academic, people, economic, skills and training, socio-economic and so on)
- a clear pathway for expanding the user base and accelerating the identified impacts
- a description on how the proposed infrastructure can support training of skilled people and enable potentially transformative research with impact on the society, the economy or both
Users and community engagement
Word limit: 750
Who is the intended user base of the proposed infrastructure?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
- information and evidence on the level of community engagement and support that has led to the statement of need
- a description of the UK communities that will benefit from the usage of this proposed infrastructure, including the expected number and type of users (both academic and other stakeholders)
- any specific information on key research groups and their underpinning funding portfolio
- the envisaged projected growth of the user base over the next five years
Sustainability
Word limit: 750
What steps have you taken to ensure the sustainability (economic, environmental and social) of your proposed infrastructure?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
For the sustainability, explain how the proposed infrastructure:
- is as economically, environmentally and socially sustainable as possible
- delivers large scale societal, environmental and economic benefits
- will have its lifetime maximised, including stating what the expected lifetime is and, where relevant, how the asset will be sustainably decommissioned
Within the Sustainability section we also expect you to explain:
- how long-term operational and maintenance costs, including staffing, will be supported
- how the proposed asset will be integrated into an existing UKRI service, facility, equipment pool, or similar
- how the proposed asset is complementary to UKRI or host institute carbon reduction targets
- if relevant, how the proposed asset contributes to a broader approach to environmental sustainability, such an enhancing biodiversity or clean air, as well as reducing carbon emissions
- your plans for sustainability and legacy beyond the end of UKRI funding. These could include cost recovery models, securing additional funding, development or expansion after the initial period of funding
- how you have considered equality, diversity and inclusion, including equitable access, in the design and planned use of the asset to maximise benefit to the UK environmental sciences community
Data management and sharing
Word limit: 500
How will you manage and share data collected or acquired through the proposed infrastructure?
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.
Outline costs and justification
Note that there is no direct funding associated with this statement of need opportunity.
Word limit: 1,000
What are the expected costs of the proposed infrastructure or facility and the justification of the proposed infrastructure or facility?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
- the approximate total values in GBP (£) for the expected directly incurred – equipment cost and yearly recurrent resource costs
- justification on why this model is the most appropriate, as opposed to other approaches (such as local provision or EPSRC strategic infrastructure scheme, and so on)
There will be future steps to establish the scope and scale for any funded activity if and when that happens.
At this point we require indicative costs only over 10 years of operation. These should be split into capital requirements and yearly recurrent resource costs. A table template is provided as an additional attachment. Please complete the table and paste it into the question text box in the Funding Service.
In cases where there are existing UK capabilities or equipment that the proposed activity could utilise, the statement of need should describe both:
- the costs of supporting this if the existing capabilities or equipment did not exist
- the costs of this if it were to use existing capabilities and equipment
Reasons to be considered as justification may include the need for specialised expertise in the technique, a new technique that is still at the early stages, unique capabilities (rather than just extra capacity), efficiencies of scale, fostering new communities or any other well founded and clearly explained justifications for a large-scale infrastructure.
Authors
Word limit: 750
Who are the authors of this statement of need?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
- a list of who was directly involved in writing this statement of need, including their name, their research interests, and affiliated institution or organisation
It is important that the statement of need is a community backed document.
Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)
Word limit: 500
What are the ethical and 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.
If you are collecting or using data you should identify:
- any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing or storing the data (including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical considerations and, in particular, strategies to not preclude further reuse of data)
- formal information standards that your proposed work will comply with
Additional sub-questions (to be answered only if appropriate) relating to research involving:
- animals
- human participants
- genetically modified organisms
