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.
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. We recommend embedding your project plan or Gannt chart as images in the relevant sections of your application.
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 13 May 2026 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.
UKRI will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) so that they can participate in the assessment process. See more information on how Defra uses personal information.
Sensitive information
If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email poc@ukri.org
Include in the subject line: [UKRI Proof of Concept; 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, beyond the standard 20% FEC. 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
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.
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:
- the user needs and market opportunity your project addresses
- the aims and objectives and how you are addressing this challenge
- the proposed route to application(s) and markets
- the benefit(s) to potential users or customers
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
- project lead (PL)
- project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
- specialist
- grant manager
- professional enabling staff
- research and innovation associate
- technician
- visiting researcher
- researcher co-lead (RcL)
Only list one individual as project 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.
Application questions
Classification of your proposed project
Word limit: 100
Which areas of research and commercialisation pathway does your proposed work include?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Classification areas may include research areas, and appropriate commercial proposition.
To help UKRI identify panel members to assess your application, please enter a minimum of two and no more than four keywords from the list provided in the ‘Additional information’ section, separated by semi-colons.
Please ensure that you use the precise codes and wording of the research areas as provided in the list (we suggest you use the copy and paste functions).
You are permitted one free text keyword or phrase, reserved only for where your proposed commercialisation pathway is not represented by the keywords provided. Please use the code ‘FREE’ as a pre-fix if you include a free text keyword.
Please put this keyword or phrase at the end of your list.
Opportunity and market analysis
Word limit: 2,000
What is the opportunity you are looking to exploit or what challenge will your project address?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how your proposed work:
- has the potential to address a business need, technological challenge, or exploit a market opportunity
- could lead to the development or deployment of a new or improved product, service, or technology
- is timely given current trends and context
- meets the needs of potential users or customers
- is resilient to changing external circumstances and consumer behaviours
- impacts positively on society, the economy or the environment
Within this section we also expect you to identify the potential direct or indirect benefits and who the beneficiaries might be.
Route to market
Word limit: 1,200
How would your proposed project progress the innovation towards its intended user(s) or market(s)?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Explain how you have designed your approach so that it:
- includes plans for the innovation to reach its intended market or users
- is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives
- is feasible and is supported by technical, research or scientific evidence
- comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed
- if applicable, summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed
- will maximise translation of outputs into outcomes and impacts
- identifies any support required post-award to deliver the solution such as access to other networks or further funding
Within the Route to market section we also expect you to:
- demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposal
- provide a detailed and comprehensive project plan, including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar (additional one-page A4)
- describe how the proposed work will inform or deploy the product, service or technology using the most appropriate route to market
Intellectual property (IP) management and communication
Word limit: 1,200
What is your IP exploitation plan?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Evidence of your plans to:
- manage the outputs of the project, including any intellectual assets and intellectual property and its protection (if applicable)
- have freedom to operate
- protect the foreground IP or market position
- disseminate and communicate the outputs of your project in a timely manner without compromising future IP protection
- access potential future investments, if required
Applicant and team capability to deliver
Word limit: 1,650
Why are you the right individual or 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:
- the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
- the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
- the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
- contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community
- describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, innovation environment (in terms of the place, its location, reputation, and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
The word limit for this section is 1,650 words: 1,150 words to be used for Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) modules and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.
Use the R4RI format to showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.
Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed. Use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI. You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:
- contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge
- the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships
- contributions to the wider research and innovation community
- contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit
Additions
Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences, or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).
Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.
References may be included within this section.
UKRI research councils will no longer accept dual roles in applications. This means that an organisation which appears on the application as a project partner, should not also be a subcontractor for the project. This is to ensure that research organisations can agree access to award outputs and intellectual property rights between the relevant parties, in line with subsidy control regulations.
In specific instances, UKRI will continue to allow some project partners to request minor funding on an award, for example for travel and subsistence.
The roles in funding applications policy has descriptions of the different project roles.
Resources and cost justification
Word limit: 2,000
What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:
- project staff
- significant travel for field work or collaboration (but not regular travel between collaborating organisations or to conferences)
- any equipment that will cost more than £25,000
- any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
- all facilities and infrastructure costs
- all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’
You can request costs associated with reasonable adjustments where they increase as a direct result of working on the project. For further information see Disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders.
Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. Overall, they want you to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:
- are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
- represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
- maximise potential outcomes and impacts
Ethics and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI)
Word limit: 500
What are the ethical and RRI considerations, 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 and RRI considerations, including both the research or topic area itself and the design and delivery of the project
- the wider implications of the proposed work, and how you will maximise the positive societal, environmental, and economic benefits arising from the project, while minimising unintended negative impacts, such as research misuse or accidental harm
- how you will manage these considerations throughout the lifecycle of the project and how any potential negative impacts are mitigated
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
You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.
Please refer to the UKRI position statement on funding ethical research and Responsible innovation for more information around our expectations on ethical and responsible research and innovation.
Your organisation’s support
Word limit: 500
Provide details of support from your research organisation. Organisational support for your proposed application will be a key aspect considered as part of the assessment, and this should include a technology transfer office (TTO), if your organisation has one. We recognise that in some instances, this support may be provided by the TTO or equivalent, the research office, or a combination of both.
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide a statement of support from your research organisation detailing how they will support you, as the applicant, and your proposed commercialisation activities. This should include details of any additional support that might add value to the work.
Assessors will be looking for a strong statement of support from your research organisation. This information should have been approved for submission by an appropriate institutional authority.
You must also include the following details:
- a significant person’s name, their position and office or department, or all
- office address or web link
Upload details are provided within the Funding Service on the actual application.
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.
Data management and sharing
Word limit: 500
How will you manage and share data collected or acquired through the proposed research?
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.
Facilities
Word limit: 1,000
Does your proposed research require the support and use of a facility?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
If you will need to use a facility, follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Ensure you have prior agreement so that if you are offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on your project.
For each requested facility you will need to provide the:
- name of facility, copied and pasted from the facility information list (DOCX, 42KB)
- proposed usage or costs, or costs per unit where indicated on the facility information list
- confirmation you have their agreement where required
Facilities should only be named if they are on the facility information list above. If you will not need to use a facility, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)
Word limit: 100
Does your proposed work relate to UKRI’s Trusted Research and Innovation principles?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Demonstrate how your proposed work relates to UKRI’s Trusted Research and Innovation principles including:
- list any dual-use (both military and non-military) applications to your research
- if this project is relevant to one or more of the 17 areas of the UK National Security and Investment (NSI) Act, please list the area(s)
- please read the academic export control guidance and confirm if an export control licence is required for this project and the status of any application(s)
- if your project involves any items or substances on the UK strategic export control list, please provide a list
We may ask you to provide additional TR&I information later, in line with UKRI TR&I principles and funding terms and conditions (RGC 2.6.2, 2.7.1 and 2.7.2).
International collaboration
Word limit: 100
Does the proposed work involve any international collaboration or engagement? If so, what are the benefits to the project?
What the assessors are looking for in your response
Provide details about your expected international collaboration or engagement, including:
- a list of the countries your international project partners, visiting researchers, or other collaborators are based in
- details of any subcontractors or service providers
- Justification that the international resource or expertise does not exist in the UK
If your proposed work does not involve international collaboration or engagement, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.
