Funding opportunity

Funding opportunity: UK Compute Roadmap – Community Centres of Excellence

Opportunity status:: Upcoming
Funders:: UK Research and Innovation
Funding type:: Grant
Total fund:: £20,000,000
Maximum award:: £2,000,000
Publication date:: 2 November 2026
Opening date:: 3 November 2026 9:00am UK time
Closing date:: 12 January 2027 4:00pm UK time

Apply for funding to establish a Community Centre of Excellence (CCE) that will provide a world class service layer for researchers and innovators to utilise the UKRI National Compute Resources (NCRs). A CCE is a mechanism for providing services and or resources that build an additional community-owned service layer or custodianship of a platform layer embedded between users and NCRs. CCEs will combine community stewardship, deep service provision and access to ensure research communities succeed.

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £2 million for three years. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will fund 100% of the FEC.

Who can apply

Find out if you can apply for funding.

This opportunity is open to organisations with standard and non-standard eligibility.

You must be based at an organisation eligible for UKRI funding. Your organisation must meet standard UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) eligibility or intend to complete the non-standard eligibility process for this funding opportunity before an award is made.

Further details on non-standard eligibility checking will be included in the full application funding opportunity.

Check if your organisation is eligible.

Who is eligible to apply

This funding opportunity is open to applicants who meet the individual eligibility criteria.

A research technical professional can apply as a project lead or project co-lead, provided that they meet the UKRI individual eligibility criteria.

Resubmissions

We will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UKRI. Find out more about UKRI’s resubmission 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

Demand management

Demand management is not being applied to this funding opportunity.

Aim

Community Centres of Excellence (CCEs) will collectively provide users with high-quality services and resources that enable them to maximise benefits from the UK compute ecosystem.

UKRI investment in National Compute Resources (NCRs) marked a step change in provision of national compute capability, moving away from supporting vertically integrated and disciplinary-specific compute systems, to a more holistic set of compute resources made up of diverse architectures to suit multiple community needs at the system level. Therefore, to make effective use of the NCRs and ensure there is professional service support and a wide-ranging support offer to users, UKRI is providing funding to establish CCEs.

CCEs will deliver the ambitions of the UK Compute Roadmap 2025 by providing user-centred support, resources, expertise and community coordination, while enabling challenge-driven communities to address strategic cross-disciplinary research and innovation challenges through focused, outcome-oriented collaboration.

CCEs will embed specialist skills and expertise within research and innovation communities, provide clear pathways into the NCRs, and help create an inclusive, sustainable and impactful national compute ecosystem that combines leading-edge national compute capabilities with coherent and effective community support.

The CCEs will coordinate and support our research and innovation communities, enabling researchers and innovators to maximise the use and value of the NCRs. Together, they will form a key component of the UK’s digital research infrastructure (DRI) landscape, helping to ensure that investments in the NCRs deliver maximum research, societal and economic impact.

We intend to fund a network of CCEs that collectively provide user support through:

professionalising and facilitating access to the NCRs by lowering barriers to access for new and emerging users (including beyond academia) as well as supporting experienced users
growing and broadening the NCR user base
distributing a proportion of NCR compute to research and innovation communities in an open, transparent, equitable and inclusive manner that maximises utilisation and benefits from the NCR portfolio
helping users utilise the NCRs and accelerating the adoption of emerging computational methods through providing specialist technical expertise and support
acting as community stewards, coordinating and translating evolving user needs and priorities into requirements that reflect technological developments and emerging opportunities
developing, maintaining and deploying compute-related capabilities and resources, including workflows, practices and tools, across the portfolio that benefit NCR users and addresses their requirements
facilitating the integration of data, compute, software and workflows across the NCR portfolio to accelerate research and innovation
providing structured guidance and training to enable effective use of the NCRs that are complementary to those offered by the NCR host providers
driving knowledge transfer and adoption of best practice across NCR user communities
embedding user support, professional skills, and software engineering expertise within the national compute ecosystem

This funding opportunity will establish an initial portfolio of CCEs as part of our longer-term vision for a national network of community support and expertise around the NCRs. We expect the network to evolve over time and may introduce future opportunities to support additional CCEs, subject to strategic priorities and the availability of funding.

Scope

We envisage awarding a diverse portfolio of CCEs that serve different communities and strategic objectives across the UK research and innovation landscape.

CCEs may vary in size and operate at different scales. However, they are all expected to provide added value to the national compute ecosystem in both strategic and operational ways, from stewardship and coordination of user communities, to growing the NCR user base, providing user support and facilitating access to the NCRs.

CCEs may be structured in different ways, for example, around a specific research field, multiple research fields, shared computational approaches, technologies, workflows, resources, or research challenges.

While CCEs focused on a specific research field are within scope, you must demonstrate how you will share expertise, training, and support to benefit users beyond your immediate community to maximise their value. CCEs should identify opportunities to enable knowledge exchange and share best practice across communities, so users facing similar computational challenges or needs can benefit, even where their research applications differ.

The requested cost of a CCE must be proportionate to the size, scale and breadth of the proposal.

CCEs must provide three core functions. These are:

stewardship of NCR user communities
to provide services to support NCR users
resource provision, facilitating access and allocation of compute capacity to maximise the benefit and utilisation of the NCR portfolio

The balance between these functions should reflect the needs of the communities being served. You must clearly state the objectives of your proposed CCE in the Vision section and how the core CCE functions will be delivered.

Applications must clearly justify their proposed focus, demonstrate how it will contribute to the overall aim of CCEs and provide a clear justification of how the CCE provides benefits beyond those provided through direct access to the portfolio through other access routes.

CCEs must demonstrate how they will broaden access and engage users in an inclusive manner. This should include supporting researchers and innovators from different research fields and application areas who may benefit from the CCE’s expertise, tools, methods or workflows.

There are three core CCE functions as follows.

Stewardship of NCR user communities

CCEs will act as stewards of NCR user communities in research and innovation and are expected to demonstrate professional community management.

CCEs will identify current and future compute and data needs, coordinate priorities, help communities make effective use of available compute capabilities and represent community requirements with evidence-based insight, balanced with market drivers, to UKRI and infrastructure providers. UKRI will consider those insights within the context of the wider DRI landscape.

We expect CCEs to have staff dedicated to deliver this function, for example, a community coordinator, manager, development manager, or strategist.

CCEs as a minimum are expected to:

deliver a proactive engagement and outreach programme that reaches existing, new and prospective users. This includes having an active presence both online and at relevant events (this includes not only compute events but targeted events at new and potential users through for example trade shows), with a clear and easy to understand entry point for users (for example: LUMI AI Factory) and a competent service catalogue (for example: AI:AT Service Catalogue)
future proof the community by identifying and monitoring emerging technology trends and market developments through engagement with vendors and other stakeholders, helping communities prepare for and adopt evolving computational capabilities, while providing strategic insight to UKRI to inform future phases of NCRs and wider DRI investments
work with other CCEs to develop and maintain a training catalogue consisting of useful sources of information and opportunities, including but not limited to mentoring, coaching, bespoke training, in person, hybrid and online events
ensure CCE success stories are captured and demonstrate the value of the CCE to new users, and other stakeholders
enable collaboration, knowledge exchange and the sharing of expertise within and between communities, helping users learn from one another while working closely with other CCEs to maximise opportunities, build complementary capabilities and deliver a coherent, efficient and impactful CCE network

Provide services to support NCR users

CCEs will provide specialist expertise, support and skills development to enable effective use of the portfolio of NCRs through the development of tools, workflows, practices, knowledge transfer, upskilling and so on. This may include Research Software Engineering (RSE), software optimisation, code deployment and porting, data curation, workflow development, DevOps support, training, onboarding and user support.

Communities are typically composed of a broad spectrum of users from novice researchers to computational leaders. Effective CCEs will provide tailored and bespoke (where necessary) support, training, tools and engagement models for all types of users depending on their needs. For example, for some NCR users it will be necessary to develop a bespoke plan for them and their project to take advantage of compute, data and other relevant resources.

Applications should explain clearly how it will support all types of users as shown in the additional document.

CCEs should demonstrate how they will provide specialist expertise relevant to the communities they serve and facilitate the integration of data, compute, software and workflows across the NCR portfolio and multiple domains to accelerate research and innovation.

CCEs should use their understanding of community data assets and requirements to promote good data management practices, including supporting FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data, advocating for appropriate data sharing and reuse, and support the effective management, storage and movement of data within the wider digital research infrastructure ecosystem.

Resource provision, facilitating access and allocation of compute capacity to maximise the benefit and utilisation of the NCR portfolio

CCEs will support access and allocation to the NCRs and are expected to:

provide guidance to users to help them select the most appropriate NCR for their needs and utilise the breadth of capabilities within the NCR portfolio
support new entrants and emerging communities by providing clear pathways into NCRs, guidance on allocation processes, and support to reduce barriers to access and use
distribute a proportion of NCR compute to research and innovation communities in an open, transparent, equitable and inclusive manner that maximises utilisation and benefits from the NCR portfolio and supports high-quality research and innovation
administer transparent allocation processes and open application routes
deliver assessment and peer review activities that align with UKRI’s peer review principles and standards
implement transparent governance arrangements and clear policies for allocation panel membership and decision-making
help their communities make effective use of the NCRs to support high-quality research and innovation
demonstrate how they will help users take advantage of other computational resources beyond NCRs that UK users have access to, for example, EuroHPC
CCEs must demonstrate that they add value to the compute landscape as allocators by ensuring that NCR resources are distributed in a manner that reflects evolving community needs, supports emerging users and maximises the impact of UKRI’s compute investments.

Compute allocation must only be distributed and allocated to researchers and innovators who are eligible for UKRI funding, including industrial users conducting collaborative pre-competitive research.

CCEs must ensure that appropriate compliance checks are completed before allocating compute resources. These checks include verification of user eligibility, trusted research and innovation requirements and ethics and responsible research and innovation considerations.

UKRI will provide successful CCEs with further guidance on the compliance requirements and processes expected for the allocation of NCR compute resources.

The three core functions describe the roles a CCE will perform. These functions may be delivered through a range of operating models, including but not limited to community-focused centres, specialist service providers and challenge-driven collaborations.

In addition to the core functions described above, CCEs may also support challenge-focused, time-limited collaborations that bring together researchers, innovators, industry and public-sector partners to address a defined research or innovation challenge that spans disciplinary boundaries. These collaborations should have clear objectives, milestones and timelines, and proactively work towards delivering measurable outcomes.

CCEs are expected to evolve in response to changing community needs and technological developments. CCEs established to address a specific challenge or need should have a defined lifecycle and conclude once their objectives have been achieved, the identified need no longer exists or there is insufficient evidence of continued demand or progress. Where there is an ongoing need and subject to the availability of funding, we may consider extending support for a CCE.

Governance and management

Applications can be from a single organisation or in partnership across multiple organisations. Applications may include project partners. You should consider the structure of your proposed CCE to ensure it can successfully deliver the aims of the funding opportunity.

The CCEs will be expected to work closely with the UKRI Digital Research Infrastructure team to ensure coherence across the CCE network and successful delivery of the CCE objectives and functions. The CCEs will be expected to report to UKRI on their activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts as well as any key challenges or concerns.

Unsuccessful applications declined at the outline stage cannot be resubmitted unless invited by the panel.

For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the Additional information section.

Duration

The duration of this award is a maximum of three years.

Projects must start by 1 June 2027.

Funding available

The FEC of your project can be up to £2 million.

UKRI will fund 100% of the FEC (up to £2 million).

In addition to funding, you should provide in your application an indicative amount of compute allocation on the UKRI National Compute Resources to support your proposed CCE. The estimated compute allocation over the lifetime of your proposed CCE should be based on your projected user base. Requested allocations should be carefully considered and justified within the application.

Please see the additional document for information on the services within the UKRI NCR portfolio.

The successful CCE cohort is expected to initially have access to approximately 40 to 60% of UKRI’s total NCR capacity. Initial allocations will be agreed with successful applicants following award and may differ from those requested.

Compute allocations to CCEs will be reviewed regularly and adjusted where required, taking into account usage patterns and demand for compute resources through other NCR access routes. CCEs should therefore remain flexible and be prepared to adapt to any potential changes in compute availability, which may increase or decrease over the lifetime of the award.

We reserve the right to alter and adjust the compute allocations at any time based on the available resource. This includes moving CCE allocations between the NCRs and delaying the start dates of projects where circumstances require.

You are encouraged to engage with NCR providers during proposal development to ensure that the proposed CCE complements existing NCR activities, capabilities and user support provision.

Please see the websites of the services for further information on the NCRs. The NCR websites are:

What we will fund

We will fund:

salaries and staff costs
community management
training and outreach, including workshops, events, dissemination and communication activities
knowledge exchange activities
travel and subsistence
research software engineering
data preservation, data sharing and dissemination costs
governance and administration
estates and indirect costs
challenge-led activities that build community capability, coordination, methods, or tools, around a defined research or innovation challenge that spans disciplinary boundaries

What we will not fund

We will not fund:

applications that do not align with the three CCE core functions
procurement of computing hardware or major infrastructure
the operation of new computing facilities or services
maintenance of research software
activities that duplicate existing NCR capabilities or services, or other UKRI digital research infrastructure investments
standalone research projects where the primary purpose is generating research outputs rather than delivering community benefit, capability, expertise, access or support to the NCRs or NCR users

Project partners

You may include project partners that will support your CCE through cash or in-kind contributions, such as:

staff time
access to equipment
sites or facilities
the provision of data
software or materials

Each project partner must provide a statement of support.

Who cannot be included as a project partner

Any individual included in your application with a core team role cannot also be a project partner.

Any organisation that employs a member of the application core team cannot be a project partner organisation. This includes other departments within the same organisation.

If you are collaborating with someone in your organisation, consider including them as project co-lead, or specialist. They cannot be a project partner.

Supporting skills and talent

We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has a long-standing and continuing commitment to supporting and enabling safe and effective collaboration in research and innovation. UKRI is equally committed to ensuring that this takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks.

Our Principles and expectations set out the principles that UKRI applies to TR&I and our general expectations of the research organisations (including businesses, research institutes, and research technical organisations) that we support. Organisations supported by UKRI should be able to provide evidence that their internal controls and processes meet these expectations.

See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.

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.

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 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.
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.

Please be aware that research office and finance teams undertake checks on hosting arrangements and financial eligibility. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with all opportunity requirements lies with the applicant. 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 will 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

UKRI must receive your application by 12 January 2027 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 this funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and submitted applications will not be amended. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.

Personal data

Processing personal data

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 DRI@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.

Institutional matched funding

There is no requirement for matched funding from the institutions hosting the project lead, project co-leads or other staff employed on the application. Expert reviewers and panels assessing UKRI funding applications must not consider levels of institutional matched funding as a factor on which to base recommendations. Direct and in-kind contributions from third party project partners are encouraged.

This policy does not remove the need for support from host organisations who must provide the necessary research environment and infrastructure for award-specific activities funded by UKRI. For example, research facilities, training and development of staff.

Publication of outcomes

UKRI will publish the outline stage outcomes of this funding opportunity on the UKRI website.

If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.

Application questions

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
what the CCE will offer
aims and objectives
intended outcomes 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
grant manager
professional enabling staff
research and innovation associate
technician
visiting researcher
researcher co-lead (RcL)

Only list one individual as project lead.

The team proposed at the full application stage should be broadly consistent with that described in the outline application. We recognise that some roles, including grant manager and professional enabling staff, may not be identified at outline stage. Changes to team membership are permitted where justified, but the overall leadership, expertise and objectives of the proposed CCE should remain substantially unchanged unless feedback from the outline stage assessment process indicates otherwise.

If the application is for a CCE to be delivered in partnership by two or more eligible organisations, then the project lead must be from the organisation which will lead the partnership. List other leadership team members as project co-lead or international project co-lead.

All host organisations must be represented by an eligible co-lead.
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.

Outline vision

Word limit: 750

What are you hoping to achieve with your proposed CCE?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Describe and explain:

how your proposed CCE meets the aim of the funding opportunity
the users the CCE will serve, including an indication of their expected scale and how this has been estimated
the need, opportunity or challenge(s) that the CCE will address
the objectives of your proposed CCE
the intended balance between the three core CCE functions and how it reflects the needs of the community or communities being served
how the CCE will broaden access to and maximise the value of the National Compute Resources (NCRs)
how the CCE complements and avoids duplication of existing NCR and wider UKRI digital research infrastructure activities

If a full stage proposal is invited, it is expected that the high-level objectives will appear unchanged unless feedback from the outline stage assessment process indicates otherwise.

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.

Outline approach

Word limit: 750

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:

the three core CCE functions will be met
it is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives with a clear list of proposed activities and how they will be delivered
users and communities, including different types of users (first-time, regular, advanced and expert users) and new, emerging or interdisciplinary communities will be engaged and supported
access and allocation processes will operate in a transparent, equitable and inclusive manner
management, governance and leadership arrangements are appropriate
the proposed CCE will work effectively with NCR providers, across the CCE portfolio and the wider digital research infrastructure ecosystem
key risks to delivery will be monitored and managed, with appropriate mitigations

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.

Outline applicant and team capability to deliver

Word limit: 500

Why are you the right 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:

relevant experience, expertise, and skills to establish and deliver the proposed CCE
skills and experience of leading, coordinating or supporting research and innovation communities relevant to the proposed CCE and ability to identify individual and community requirements
skills and experience of delivering services, infrastructure support, training, capability development or community coordination activities relevant to the proposed CCE
planned to identify and embed additional expertise where gaps in the team exist

The core leadership team should consist of the project lead and the project co-leads identified on the outline proposal. There will be scope to expand this team and include new collaborators on the full application, and you will be able to add further detail.

Showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project lead and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help deliver the proposed work.

Outline costs

What are the expected costs of the proposed work?

Provide the approximate total values in GBP (£) for the expected directly incurred, directly allocated, indirect costs and exceptions. View the guidance on the costs you can apply for.

UKRI National Compute Resources

Word limit: 250

What are the estimated compute allocation requirements for your proposed CCE across the UKRI National Compute Resources (NCRs)?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Describe:

how your proposed CCE plans to utilise compute resources across the NCR portfolio
the estimated compute allocation required over the lifetime of the award based on your projected user base (using core hours or GPU hours as the units, where appropriate)
how you have estimated the requested allocation
any engagement with relevant NCR providers to assess the suitability of the requested resources and ensure alignment with existing NCR activities

Project partners

Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.

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.

Project partners: letters (or emails) of support

Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner 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, or if you do not have any project partners enter ‘N/A’. 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 1 sides A4 per partner

The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.
If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.

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.

Trusted research & innovation (TR&I)

TR&I is the protection of the UK’s intellectual property, sensitive research, people, and infrastructure from potential theft, misuse, and exploitation.

Organisations receiving UKRI funding are obliged to act in line with UK government legislation. They are also expected to undertake appropriate due diligence assessments of organisations involved in research partnerships, collaboration agreements, and commercial contracts.

You will be asked about:

which areas of the National Security and Investment (NSI) Act your project relates to
who you intend to collaborate with and how
if your project requires an export control licence

Your answers may affect the T&Cs of your funding agreement if you are successful. We may use your answers to determine that our current T&Cs are sufficient or if additional T&Cs are required.

How we will assess your application

Assessment process

We will assess your application using the following process.

UKRI reserve the right to modify the assessment process and timeline to ensure effective demand and resource management.

Outline stage

All applications will be examined to ensure they meet the eligibility criteria and scope of the funding opportunity. If your application is deemed to be outside the scope of the funding opportunity you will be advised by email, and your application will be rejected. We aim to notify you of a rejection around four weeks after the closing date of the funding opportunity.

An UKRI internal staff panel will review and score your application against the assessment criteria for the outline stage. The panel will then decide on which applications to be invited to submit a full proposal.

Please note that your outline application will be assessed by UKRI staff. Your outline application should be aimed at a generalist audience instead of a technical or specialist community.

Following assessment of outline proposals, UKRI reserves the right to invite applicants with complementary proposals, expertise or communities to work together in developing a full proposal where this could maximise community benefit and the coherence and value of the CCE portfolio. Applicants invited to the full application stage will be expected to engage constructively with such requests.

If your outline proposal is successful, you will be provided with guidance on submitting your full proposal on the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service.

Full proposal stage

If you are invited to submit a full proposal, we will assess your application using the following process.

Expert review panel

We will invite experts to review your application independently, against the specified criteria for this funding opportunity.

You will have 14 days to respond to the expert reviewers’ comments.

You will not be able to nominate reviewers for applications on the Funding Service. UKRI will continue to select expert reviewers.

The panel of experts will use the evidence provided in your application and your applicant response to assess the quality of your application and rank it alongside other applications after which the panel will make a funding recommendation.

The final funding decision is based on the outcome of the assessment process and taken by the relevant budget holder, which may include consideration at a moderation panel, budget available, and appropriate balancing of the portfolio.

For more information on how we prioritise applications for funding please visit How we make decisions.

Feedback

At the outline stage, feedback will be provided to the applicants.

At the full proposal stage, no further feedback beyond the reviewers’ comments will be provided after the panel.

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.

Using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in expert review

Generative AI may only be used for the purpose of language refinement during application assessment. When using generative AI to refine the language of a review, expert reviewers and panellists must ensure that:

no part of the application being assessed is entered into a generative AI tool
no personal information from the application is disclosed
generative AI is not tasked with understanding, summarising or evaluating the application’s content

Expert reviewers and panellists must also:

comply with relevant intellectual property and data protection legislation
not take into account or speculate within their assessment whether generative AI has been used to develop the application

For more detail see our policy on the use of generative AI.

Assessment areas

The assessment areas we will use are:

outline vision
outline approach
outline applicant and team capability to deliver
outline costs
UKRI National Compute Resources

Find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section.

Contact details

Get help with your application

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

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, content or remit of a funding 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 application 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 DRI@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 more efficiently, 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

The UK Compute Roadmap 2025 sets out the UK’s ambition to create a world-leading national compute ecosystem, underpinned by the Next National Supercomputing Service (NNSS) and a growing portfolio of National Compute Resources (NCRs).

Realising the full value of these investments requires not only world-class infrastructure, but also the communities, expertise, software, skills and support needed to enable effective use of these resources.

Community Centres of Excellence (CCEs) are intended to address this need by providing coordination, expertise, user support and community stewardship across the national compute ecosystem. They will connect researchers and innovators with the NCRs, support the adoption of advanced computational approaches, and help ensure that investments in national compute infrastructure deliver maximum impact.

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 on 11 November 2026 at 11:15 am UK time. This will provide information about the funding opportunity and a chance to ask questions.