Research England’s Collaboration for a Sustainable Future programme sets out to identify barriers and opportunities to institutional collaboration across universities within the research and innovation system in England for a sustainable cost-effective future.
This programme will identify where Research England can deliver longer-term evidence-based interventions that make the most difference for sustained joint working.
We are interested in structured and strategic collaborations that are led by universities, span multiple institutions, involve wider non-university partners as appropriate and deliver cost-effective solutions.
We are interested in practical, ambitious and a diverse range of ideas.
Through this programme we will:
- identify opportunities that impact delivery across multiple universities and partners as appropriate
- share learnings and solutions for institutional collaboration
- test new ideas and models for institutional collaboration (for example collaborations underpinned by formal multi-institutional contractual-based agreements)
- draw on learnings and best practices from across higher education, geographies, industries, charities, international and wider communities to inform future approaches to collaboration
Some examples of institutional collaborations which we have or are supporting include:
- Research England’s shared technology transfer office pilot: see Evaluation: Shared Technology Transfer Office Pilot Programme
- Research England-funded Cambridge-Manchester pilot: see The Cambridge × Manchester Partnership
We are expecting to hear from those who can identify and enable joint working across higher education providers such as professional services.
Collaborative research projects are not within the scope of this programme. Environmental and other types of sustainability are out of scope.
At this stage, £19.75 million will be made available across two investment opportunities launching October 2026:
- investment to enable groups to be brought together in order to identify, create and publish barriers, challenges and potential solutions to collaboration
- investment to enable pilots across England which test new models, and funding to seed innovation partnerships across the UK
In addition to the funding opportunities, we are gathering views on barriers and opportunities to institutional collaboration through survey input at UKRI Engagement Hub.
See the UKRI funding finder for more detail on open funding opportunities within this programme.