What are Prosperity Partnerships
Prosperity Partnerships are collaborative research partnerships that focus on important industry challenges. They are funded jointly by UK businesses and the UK government, primarily through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and other UKRI councils.
While the partnerships focus on ambitious fundamental (early-stage) research, they offer many tangible benefits. Businesses can develop new and better products, improve services, and increase efficiency. Prosperity Partnerships create long-term prosperity for the UK, bringing jobs and revenue growth, and addressing broader societal and sustainability issues.
The funding for these partnerships comes from both sides: businesses and government both contribute 50% of the costs. This funding strengthens and deepens existing research relationships between businesses and academia, turning them into valuable, long-lasting partnerships.
Prosperity Partnerships are typically funded for 2-5 years, and grant values typically range from £ 500,000 to £ 3.5 million (EPSRC contribution at 80% full economic cost). Examples of previously funded projects can be viewed on Gateway to Research.
Why apply for a Prosperity Partnership
Prosperity Partnerships provide an opportunity for businesses to invest in ambitious, early-stage research at a scale that might be considered too risky without government support. Also by having a significant financial stake in the partnership, businesses can take a leading role in setting the direction of the research.
EPSRC has funded one hundred Prosperity Partnerships since 2017, involving some of the UK’s top performing research universities and key UK based businesses. They have created growth and prosperity, and delivered breakthroughs across the scientific and industrial landscape, from solar cells to hybrid autonomous systems, rapid prototype manufacturing and new medical imaging technologies to name a few.
The vast majority of these partnerships lead to new products, services and new processes to be adopted. Typically, businesses will continue to progress the technologies beyond the partnership, leading to sustained long-term growth in jobs, revenue and productivity improvements, and these partnerships can help draw investment from non-UK sources within the parent company.
Academic institutions benefit from working together with businesses as equal partners on real-world challenges, accelerating the transformative potential and impact of their research, and ensuring their skills, knowledge and expertise contribute to UK prosperity.
Who can apply
We welcome applications from any UK business and university partnership, across any scientific discipline, provided that the majority of the research sits within EPSRC’s remit. The business can be a small, medium, large or multinational UK-based company.
The primary business partner must be UK-based or have significant research activity within the UK. They must be a private sector organisation or be an organisation with a commercial arm which generates independent revenue.
The primary academic partner must be a UK-based university or research organisation which is eligible for UKRI funding. The collaborative partnership between the primary business and academic partners needs to have been established for at least one year.
In addition to the two primary partners, the partnerships may include additional project partners as part of a consortium, to ensure the appropriate resources, investment, skills and experience are brought onboard to deliver the research programme.
Match funding: how it works
Prosperity Partnerships are a co-investment opportunity. We expect business partners to at least match the cash investment made by EPSRC. All business partners may contribute to the match funding requirement, but the value of the primary business partner’s cash contribution must be the greatest among all the business partners on an application.
Further non-cash or ‘in-kind’ contributions can also be made, such as:
- data
- software
- management time
- facilities access
Academic partners may make cash and ‘in-kind’ contributions if desired, but this is not a requirement, and their contributions will not count towards the required minimum business contribution.
How to apply
The next round of Prosperity Partnerships will be launched in 2026, and we expect the funding opportunity to go live in February. Keep an eye on the UKRI funding opportunity pages for updates by searching for “prosperity partnerships”.
If you are considering submitting an application, we recommend that you approach your potential partners as early as possible to discuss it. The application will be submitted by the primary academic partner.
More detail about the application and assessment process will be provided when the funding opportunity goes live.
After the opportunity goes live, EPSRC will run a webinar which will give a chance for potential applicants to ask questions.