Getting funding for international collaboration

We offer many funding opportunities to support international collaboration. These include:

  • travel and subsistence grants for UK researchers
  • exchanges and networking schemes for doctoral students and researchers
  • schemes to support international research collaborations
  • innovation support for businesses working with overseas partners.

You can find out more about participating in EU-funded projects.

You can also find out more about the kinds of international opportunities created by UKRI through the:

Before you apply

To help plan your application, you can check what’s been funded in the past. You can:

Applying as an international researcher

Some UKRI funding opportunities are open to international researchers.

Eligibility is different for each funding opportunity. For example, for some grants the principal investigator must be based in the UK – but you could be part of the bid as a co-investigator or another team member. For certain grants, the principal investigator could be from a developing country.

Check funding opportunities to find out if you’re eligible for opportunities from UKRI.
You can also find out more about getting a visa to work on research in the UK.

Collaborate with researchers in Norway.

Applying for joint funding

UK and international research collaborators may be able to apply for joint funding. Many of our collaborative opportunities are jointly funded by UKRI and its partner funders around the world, for example:

  • our partners in Newton Fund countries
  • the US National Science Foundation (NSF)
  • the Research Council for the State of São Paulo (FAPESP), Brazil
  • Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR), Luxembourg
  • the international partners of our research councils.

The process for applying for joint funding is different for different opportunities.

Search funding opportunities and get information about how to apply.

Our research council’s international partners

You can find out more about the international agreements of UKRI’s research councils:

Last updated: 25 April 2023

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback.