EPSRC Programme grant full proposal is sponsored by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). EPSRC Programme grant full proposal. Funding opportunity from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

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EPSRC Programme grant full proposal – UKRI Funding opportunity: EPSRC Programme grant full proposal Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 4 March 2025 9:00am UK time Last updated: 7 October 2025 - see all updates Programme grants provide flexible funding to world-leading research groups addressing significant major research challenges.

Funding should bring together a team of internationally recognised scientists or engineers to focus on one strategic research theme. Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) sees programme grants as critical mass investments, which cover a diverse engineering and physical sciences portfolio. They benefit UK research through the concentration of high-performing talent.

This funding opportunity is only for invited applicants. Funding can be awarded for up to six years. You must be based at an eligible UK research organisation.

You can only apply for this funding opportunity if we have invited you to do so following a successful outline application. To lead a project, you must be based at an eligible organisation. Check if your organisation is eligible EPSRC standard eligibility rules apply.

For full details, visit EPSRC’s eligibility page . The project co-lead (international) (PcL (I)) role should only be used for applications making use of the UKRI-RCN Money Follows Cooperation agreement or the UKRI-IIASA agreement . EPSRC does not otherwise accept project co-lead (international) applicants.

We will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UKRI or any other funder. Find out more about EPSRC’s resubmissions policy . Equality, diversity and inclusion We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants.

We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers. We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes: support for people with caring responsibilities alternative working patterns UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

Programme grants provide flexible funding to world-leading research groups seeking to address significant research challenges across the EPSRC remit. We expect most successful applications to be interdisciplinary and collaborative, but they can also address key challenges in a single discipline. They are not just large grants, they must be strategic in nature.

Find out more about our research areas and themes .

We are looking for proposals that: bring together the best researchers to tackle bigger, more open-ended challenges in a coherent and holistic way build partnerships between universities and promote cross-disciplinary working provide freedom to conduct feasibility studies, cross-fertilise ideas and build up new skill sets create greater visibility nationally and internationally among other researchers and industry help to bring in other researchers, attract more funding and promote UK science allow early career researchers in the team to be given greater independence and responsibility, and promote their career development offer grant holders flexibility to allocate resources between different projects and respond quickly to new challenges Key features of a programme grant A programme grant is seen as a scheme that attracts best with best and allows researchers to tackle bigger, more open-ended problems, tackled through a more coherent or holistic approach.

The stability in tackling a longer range vision helps motivate teams, provides the freedom required to take risks, and enables longer term planning. The scale of activity is seen to create stronger links between the universities involved and greater visibility at a national and international level.

The size of programme grants allows for the assembly of the best team and collaborators, all with complementary expertise leading to the development of effective multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary working. The duration of programme grants allows investment by the team in building effective collaborations.

The scale of a programme grant leads to industry interest beyond the original project partners and greater input from the wider community, including industry, resulting in more external visibility on the research direction for the area. The programme grant mechanism provides freedom to scope new opportunities, allows the team to cross-fertilise ideas, and build up new skills sets.

This allows the team to develop new themes, and to trade ideas and resources. The stability of the grant allows early career researchers (ECRs) in the team to express their creativity and pose ideas for investigation. In addition, the grant holder is able to concentrate on the science challenges rather than grant writing.

Programme grants are seen to have greater visibility and recognition within the universities involved and the relevant research communities at both a national and international level. This gives the programme grant team more influence than smaller scale research activities. They are able to attract more visits and engagement with high quality researchers and external stakeholders, leverage other funding, and influence wider strategies.

The visibility also enhances the opportunities for outreach and advocacy, promoting UK science. Programme grants are seen as a good environment for ECRs with longer term career development. The flexibility and longer durations allow the investigators to empower junior team members giving them greater independence through more responsibility and leadership over activities.

Postdoctoral staff gain a broader experience due to the breadth of experience and expertise in the team and there are greater opportunities for secondments, mentoring and involvement in management. This makes programme grants an attractive employment prospect leading to higher quality recruitment. PhD students are often aligned to programme grant teams, also benefiting from interacting with a team of broader expertise and activity.

The flexibility programme grant holders are afforded is seen as a real strength of the scheme. The flexibility enables a more dynamic allocation of resources and a nimble approach to recruitment or the individual projects being undertaken.

The scheme does not allow for flexible pots of cash or unassigned funds, instead funding should be provisionally assigned at the start of the project (for example, to post-doctoral research assistants or consumables). This funding can then be reallocated and redeployed subject to project needs.

The independent advisory boards are seen as a crucial element of identifying what projects should be shut down, freeing up resources for other strands. The resulting agility allows the team to undertake aggressive triage if necessary and respond more quickly to new and evolving challenges. Management and monitoring Programme grants should have effective management and monitoring arrangements for the investment.

This should include a risk management strategy and a strategy for how the flexibility of resources will be managed. We expect all programme grants to establish and run an independent advisory board, or equivalent body, to provide advice and recommendations on the strategic scientific and research direction and activities (such as impact, advocacy and outreach) of the programme grant.

This independent advisory board must meet at least annually. This group should have at least 50% independent membership and an independent chair. We strongly encourage you to consider costing in project management and other administrative support such as employing a full-time equivalent project manager, and not relying on the principal investigator for these duties.

We are fully committed to develop and promote responsible innovation. Research has the ability to not only produce understanding, knowledge and value, but also unintended consequences, questions, ethical dilemmas and, at times, unexpected social transformations.

We recognise that we have a duty of care to promote approaches to responsible innovation that will initiate ongoing reflection about the potential ethical and societal implications of the research that we sponsor and to encourage our research community to do likewise.

Responsible innovation creates spaces and processes to explore innovation and its consequences in an open, inclusive and timely way, going beyond consideration of ethics, public engagement, risk and regulation. Innovation is a collective responsibility, where funders, researchers, interested and affected parties, including the public, all have an important role to play.

You are expected to work within the EPSRC framework for responsible innovation . Programme grant holders should look to consider the sustainability of the research activities during the lifetime of the programme grant and following the end of the programme grant. Consideration should be given to all available funding mechanisms.

The duration of this award is up to six years. The funding available depends on the theme of your project. You should have discussed the funding for your project at the outline stage.

If your proposed budget has changed since the outline stage, you should discuss this with your programme grant contact . Equipment (up to £400,000 per item) Individual items of equipment costing between £25,000 and £400,000 may be requested on a Programme Grant application.

Quotes for equipment do not need to be included in your application, but please retain quotes for equipment costing more than £138,000 as we may ask for these at post-panel stage before releasing funds. Find out about how to include equipment on research grants . For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the Additional information section.

Supporting skills and talent We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment . Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks.

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our TR&I Principles set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks. See further guidance and information about TR&I , including where you can find additional support.

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. Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page. Confirm you are the project lead.

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. Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

You should: use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words insert each new image onto a new line provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit) ensure files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format Watch our research office webinars about the Funding Service .

For more guidance on the Funding Service, see: how applicants use the Funding Service how research offices use the Funding Service how reviewers use the Funding Service Applications should be self-contained, and hyperlinks should only be used to provide links directly to reference information. To ensure the information’s integrity is maintained, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers should be used.

Assessors are not required to access links to carry out assessment or recommend a funding decision. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application. References should be included in the appropriate question section of the application and be easily identifiable by the assessors for example (Smith, Research Paper, 2019).

You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. 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 .

Due to systems requirements a closing date will appear on the Funding Service approximately 12 months from the publication of this funding opportunity. Please do not wait for this date to submit your application, you must apply by the date provided to you by email.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines and please contact your research office to make them aware of your deadline for the full proposal stage when you are invited to submit. Following the submission of your application to the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment.

If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected. If an application is withdrawn prior to peer review or office rejected due to substantive errors in the application, it cannot be resubmitted to the funding opportunity. EPSRC, as part of 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 . If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email tfschangeepsrc@epsrc.

ukri. org Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; 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) 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.

EPSRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at EPSRC Funding Applications Outcomes If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research . 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: the wider research community Guidance for writing a summary Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of: the challenge the project addresses potential applications and benefits List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following: project co-lead (UK) (PcL) project co-lead (international) (PcL (I)) professional enabling staff research and innovation associate 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 .

Vision, Approach and Additionality Create a document that includes your responses to all criteria. The document should not be more than 22 sides of A4, single spaced in paper in 11-point Arial (or equivalent sans serif font) with margins of at least 2cm. You may include images, graphs, tables.

References may be included but should not exceed two pages of your document. The 22 sides should include up to two sides for a diagrammatic work plan. For the file name, use the unique Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Vision and Approach’.

Save this document as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB. Unless specifically requested, do not include any sensitive data within the attachment. If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.

The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply. What are you hoping to achieve with and how will you deliver your proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response For the Vision, explain how your proposed work: is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the field(s) or area(s) has the potential to advance current understanding, generates new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area is timely given current trends, context and needs impacts world-leading research, society, the economy or the environment For the Approach, explain how you have designed your work so that it: is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed if applicable, uses a clear and transparent methodology 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 describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place, and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work For the Additionality, explain how you have designed your project to show: added value and need for supporting this research as a coherent programme of interrelated research activities and not a number of smaller research grants need for the added flexibility of resources and the longer term nature of the grant to achieve the proposed research goals References may be included within this section.

Applicant and team capability to deliver Why are you the right 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 appropriateness of the track record and international benchmarking of the applicants 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 intend to develop and promote the careers of all its team members, including investigators, research assistants, technicians, and aligned students the ability to lead and manage a large, complex investment with sufficient support, infrastructure and resources for the day-to-day running of the programme grant You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

Further details are provided in the Funding Service. The word count for this section is 2200 words; 1,700 words to be used for R4RI modules (including references) and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.

Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (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 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. The roles in funding applications policy has descriptions of the different project roles.

A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of 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 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 (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities.

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 in-direct) 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. Project partners: letters (or emails) of support Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the Project Partner section. These should be uploaded in English or Welsh only.

What the assessors are looking for in your response Enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box, or if you do not have any project partners enter N/A.

Each letter or email you provide should: confirm the partner’s commitment to the project clearly explain the value, relevance, and possible benefits of the work to them describe any additional value that they bring to the project the page limit is two sides A4 per partner The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.

If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service. Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the contributions template. For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

Do not provide letters of support from host and project co-leads’ research organisations. 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. Resources and cost justification 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: 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’ 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 What is your strategy for managing and monitoring your programme grant?

What the assessors are looking for in your response In the text box, set out your strategy for how you will: use the flexibility of the resources (both for staff and finances) to manage the day-to-day strategy for ensuring individual research projects meet the overall vision for the programme seek external advice, including plans for any independent advisory boards monitor the flexible resources, including at the major decision points, and how this will be used to reassess the direction of the research programme fulfil an advocacy role of the engineering and physical sciences You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

Further details are provided in the Funding Service. Your organisation’s support Provide details of support from your research organisation. 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 activities.

This should include details of any matched funding that will be provided to support the activity and 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. Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI) What are the ethical or RRI 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 or responsible research and innovation considerations how you will manage these considerations You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Additional sub-questions (to be answered only if appropriate) will be included in the Funding Service.

These will ask about numbers, species/strain and justification about: genetic and biological risk research involving the use of animals conducting research with animal overseas research involving human participation research involving human tissues or biological samples How we will assess your application We will assess your application using the following process.

We will invite peers to review your application independently, against the specified criteria for this funding opportunity. You will not be able to nominate reviewers for applications on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. Research councils will continue to select expert reviewers.

We are monitoring the requirement for applicant-nominated reviewers as we review policies and processes as part of the continued development of the new Funding Service. We will review the reviewer comments and scores for each application. Shortlisted applications will go to a panel who will make a funding recommendation.

If your application is shortlisted, you will have 14 days to respond to reviewers’ comments. For shortlisted applications, an expert interview panel will conduct interviews with applicants after which the panel will make a funding recommendation. We will let you know when your interview is at least eight weeks ahead of the date.

EPSRC will make the final funding decision. We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity. Find out about the UKRI principles of assessment and decision making .

Using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in peer review Reviewers and panellists are not permitted to use generative AI tools to develop their assessment. Using these tools can potentially compromise the confidentiality of the ideas that applicants have entrusted to UKRI to safeguard. For more detail see our policy on the use of generative AI .

The criteria we will assess your application against are: Applicant and team capability to deliver Resources and cost justification Your organisation’s support Ethics and responsible research and innovation Find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section.

Get help with your application If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page IMPORTANT NOTE: The Helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the Helpdesk will triage