Area of investment and support

UKRI cross research council responsive mode pilot scheme

Completed area of investment and support

This area is complete and will have no future activity.

The UKRI cross research council responsive mode (CRCRM) pilot scheme was developed in 2023 to support emerging ideas from the research community that transcend, combine or significantly span disciplines, to ensure all forms of interdisciplinary research have a home within UKRI. It supported ideas which are not routinely funded, or perceived not to be funded, through existing UKRI responsive mode schemes.

• Budget: £65 million, funding 68 projects across two rounds. Projects could have a full economic cost of between £200,000 and £1.2 million.
• Duration: Funded projects will last a maximum of two years. Round 1 was launched in May 2023 and awards were announced in June 2024. Round 2 opened in September 2024 and awards were announced in March 2026.
• Partners involved: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Medical Research Council (MRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)

The scope and what we're doing

The CRCRM scheme aimed at funding new, high-quality and creative interdisciplinary ideas emerging from the research community outside current disciplinary boundaries.

The scheme complemented the existing individual research council responsive mode schemes by funding excellent bottom-up ideas that spanned disciplinary boundaries without a natural lead council to apply to.

It aimed to fill an identified gap in the UKRI funding portfolio and to ensure we can fund the best ideas without disciplinary or domain constraints.

The scheme was designed to support projects that spanned at least two research council disciplinary remits.

The scheme used a novel assessment approach that moves away from traditional ‘written’ peer review to avoid each disciplinary element being assessed individually, which can disadvantage interdisciplinary proposals.

A trained Interdisciplinary Assessment College (IAC), comprising members with experience of working in or supporting interdisciplinary research, was appointed for the assessment of applications to the scheme.

Through this novel assessment process, we identified and supported new interdisciplinary research projects that, through current routes, may have struggled to secure support.

In making the funding allocations under the Spending Review 2026 to 2029 the UKRI Executive Committee decided not to continue the scheme beyond the pilot rounds. The news of the SR allocations can be found on the UKRI website with the full details in this explainer.

Interdisciplinary research is important and will continue to be funded through the Council applicant-led funding opportunities and strategic programmes looking to fund research using an interdisciplinary approach. Research spanning the remits of more than one council will continue to be supported through the Cross Council Remit Agreement (CCRA).

UKRI will review CCRA and assessment processes in UKRI applicant-led modes to reflect learnings from CRCRM.

Why we invest in this area

We implemented this innovative pilot scheme as part of the UKRI corporate plan 2022 to 2025 and our dedication to breaking down silos in interdisciplinary research.

Interdisciplinary research is about reciprocity across the disciplines, with the disciplines involved being changed or transformed by working together. This requires genuine collaboration and co-creation of the research and should not have people or disciplines ‘bolted on’ at the end of the project development.

Learn more about the benefits of interdisciplinary research (YouTube) and why it’s vital to support it (YouTube).

UKRI already supports interdisciplinary research through:

• strategic funding opportunities where interdisciplinary research addresses a specific challenge area
• responsive mode schemes where interdisciplinary research is within the boundaries of a single council
• responsive mode schemes with a cross-research council remit agreement involving interdisciplinary research across two or more council remits with a clear lead council

However, the 2015 Nurse Review and the 2022 Grant Review identified a potential gap in UKRI funding for projects that significantly span the remits of different research council disciplines. The need to identify a lead research council and the difficulties in fairly assessing interdisciplinary research through traditional peer review can be barriers in applying for interdisciplinary research funding.

Through this pilot we assessed demand and refined our processes to further develop programmes for interdisciplinary research.

The scheme was evaluated as it was delivered, including continual feedback from the applicants and members of the Interdisciplinary Assessment College after each stage of the assessment process for both rounds.

Opportunities, support and resources available

There is no further research funding available from the UKRI Cross research council responsive mode scheme.

Throughout the pilot scheme, we published a series of supporting documents, including guidance for applicants and research organisations.

We conducted an equality impact assessment for the scheme.

Past events

We held a webinar in September 2024 for the opening of the round two opportunity.

Watch the opportunity webinar recording on YouTube 

This included general advice about developing effective interdisciplinary research approaches, particularly from the 10:45 timestamp.

View the opportunity webinar slides and a questions and answers document.

Past projects, outcomes and impact

We received 979 outline applications to round one, invited 175 applications through to full stage and awarded 36 projects. After implementing demand management for round two, we received 576 outline applications, invited 175 applications to the full stage and awarded 32 projects.

We have created a booklet with summaries of all projects awarded in rounds one and two.

Feedback has been collated from the Interdisciplinary Assessment College Chairs who were involved in assessment discussions.

A summary of key features of both strong and weaker applications has been summarised, as well as recommendations for preparing future applications.

See generalised feedback on CRCRM applications.

Evaluation

An evaluation of the pilot scheme was conducted by third party evaluators, Technopolis and the Innovation Research Caucus (IRC).

The evaluation found that the CRCRM pilot successfully met its objectives:

• CRCRM provided a unique opportunity to support research that previously had not been supported by UKRI funding mechanisms
• CRCRM applications and projects have higher interdisciplinarity and novelty compared to other UKRI interdisciplinary research funding schemes
• CRCRM developed assessment innovations and processes that are of high-quality, efficient and effective in the assessment of IDR applications
• the CRCRM pilot supported applications across a diverse range of fields

View the evaluation reports.

Governance, management and panels

The UKRI Interdisciplinary Responsive Mode (IRM) team was responsible for the operational delivery of this scheme.

The UKRI Interdisciplinary Responsive Mode Project Board was responsible for establishing, maintaining and ensuring there was effective governance, leadership and direction of the UKRI CRCRM pilot scheme. It was chaired by Professor Alison Park, former Deputy Executive Chair, ESRC.

The UKRI CRCRM Working Group was responsible for the efficient and effective set-up, delivery and evaluation of the pilot scheme. It was chaired by IRM Strategic Lead, Dr Alexandra Amey, and had representation from all seven research councils.

Interdisciplinary Assessment College

UKRI had an open call for members for an Interdisciplinary Assessment College (IAC) who were responsible for assessing applications to the scheme. We had an extremely positive response from the community with over 1,300 applications. We appointed 302 members, including 70 members of the Chair and Rover Pool for round one. We refreshed the college for round two, bringing the total college membership up to 313. The college currently consists of 313 members, comprised of 73 members of the Chair and Rover Pool and 240 panel members.

All appointed college members have a high level of experience in working on interdisciplinary research or supporting interdisciplinary research. The college membership reflected the breadth of disciplines and subjects across UKRI, including those working in new and emerging areas to help respond to the potential demand and breadth of applications.

All members of the college were appointed to either a Chair pool or the panel member pool. They received tailored training to assess interdisciplinary applications and to mitigate against the viewing of applications through the lens of a single discipline. They are therefore best placed to identify and assess excellence in interdisciplinary ideas.

See the list of IAC-appointed members.

Last updated: 13 August 2026