Future Connectivity Hubs Evolution Programme: Invite only is sponsored by EPSRC. Funding to enable the UK to be a world-leader in advanced connectivity technologies.

Future Connectivity Hubs Evolution Programme: Invite only – UKRI Funding opportunity: Future Connectivity Hubs Evolution Programme: Invite only Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) 27 March 2026 9:00am UK time 13 May 2026 4:00pm UK time Apply for funding to enable the UK to be a world-leader in advanced connectivity technologies. You must be an invited hub organisation to apply for this EPSRC funding.

The Future Connectivity Hubs collectively must address the three objectives and the eight big challenges identified in the scope. For research grants, the full economic cost (FEC) can be up to £24,725,000 for JOINER, £22,088,000 for CHEDDAR, £22,088,000 for HASC, £22,088,000 for TITAN, £6,638,000 for FTH. EPSRC will fund 80% of the FEC.

Funding can be requested for up to three and a half years. This funding is subject to business case approval. Details of additional funding for doctoral training are stated within the ‘Funding available’ section.

You can only apply for this funding opportunity if we have invited you to do so. This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible .

If you are including funding for doctoral training, the application must include an organisation with degree awarding powers within the consortium. EPSRC standard eligibility rules apply. For full details, visit EPSRC’s eligibility page .

The UKRI-RCN Money Follows Cooperation Agreement or the UKRI-IIASA agreement do not apply to this funding opportunity. As such grants submitted to this funding opportunity cannot include an IIASA or a Norway-based Project Co-Lead (international). You should include all international collaborators (or UK partners not based at approved organisations) as project partners.

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.

In UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan highlights that by 2035, advanced connectivity technologies are estimated to deliver a £14. 6 billion benefit to the UK’s gross domestic product through productivity gains to the economy.

The Industrial Strategy ambitions aim at: driving greater advanced connectivity technologies development in the UK through a four year targeted research programme providing UK ACT firms with the facilities they need to grow by strengthening our world-class lab infrastructure support availability of spectrum to ACT deepening our international collaborations with other leading ACT developing countries This UK Future Connectivity Evolution Programme is a major investment through partnership between EPSRC and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to achieve the ambitions outlined in the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy.

This investment is not a continuation of programme spend but a significant evolution of capability stewardship for the UK to develop world-leading research base, support greater domestic commercialisation and promote advanced connectivity technologies internationally.

The evolution must address the key challenges and characterise the UK’s communications systems vision with global-leading, integrated, resilient and energy-efficient technologies by 2030.

We will fund research and innovation which addresses the UK’s advanced connectivity technologies missions and priorities as outlined in the modern Industrial Strategy, through a reinvestment in EPSRC’s five hubs: Hubs in All-Spectrum Connectivity (HASC) Platform Driving the Ultimate Connectivity (TITAN) Communications Hub for Empowering Distributed clouD computing Applications and Research (CHEDDAR) Joint Open Infrastructure for Networks Research (JOINER) Federated Telecommunications Hub (FTH) This UK Future Connectivity Evolution Programme will enable hubs to work flexibly in order to network with, and leverage support from, the existing communication systems landscape.

Over three and a half years, we are asking hubs to position the UK as a global leader in future communication systems by demonstrating their capability to meet the following three objectives: develop system integration and connection across the programme to strengthen the whole ecosystem demonstrate strategic indispensability by prioritising capabilities and challenges improve the level of commercialisation in UK communication systems research and innovation, increasing the industry partnership And to collectively address the following eight big challenges, aligning to the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy ambitions: resilient, secure and trusted communications infrastructure sustainable, energy-efficient and climate responsible networks AI-native, autonomous and end-to-end connectivity technologies for networks integrated and converged communication systems new spectrum, waveforms and physical layer frontiers integrated sensing, communications and computing (ISAC) open, experimental and programmable research infrastructure translation, standards and global leadership The Future Connectivity Hubs Evolution Programme 2026 to 2030 objectives and challenges are defined within the wider context of UK’s 10-year Modern Industrial Strategy.

When addressing the objectives and challenges in the applications, you are advised to integrate the government priorities and sectors including but not limited to transport, semiconductors, quantum, cybersecurity, healthcare, finance, agriculture, energy and so on.

This funding opportunity does not allow for flexible pots of cash or unassigned funds, instead applications should clearly state what the planned funding is for at the start of the programme and all activities should be clearly costed. Ecosystem integration, strategic indispensability and improved commercialisation are defined as the three overarching objectives the 2026 to 2030 Evolution Programme for the Future Connectivity Hubs.

Application requirements for the three objectives: CHEDDAR, HASC, JOINER, TITAN and FTH are invited to address objective one as one coordinated application statement each hub will submit a hub specific application statement for objective two to demonstrate the strategic indispensability of its role in the national and international landscape CHEDDAR, HASC, JOINER, TITAN and FTH are invited to address objective three as one coordinated application statement Objective one: Ecosystem integration You are expected to develop system integration and connection across the programme to strengthen the whole ecosystem.

This includes: developing a shared and embedded skills and training programme to increase and sustain skills pipeline on future communications systems that serves the UK a shared infrastructure and systems strategy with sustainability plans for UK communications system to evolve and remain at the cutting edge building deeper links to national and international stakeholders, articulating the international ambitions and opportunities for FTH via the integration of research themes across all hubs addressing convergences with other frontier technologies such as AI, cybersecurity, engineering biology, quantum technologies and semiconductors.

a sustainable leadership succession and governance framework For the skills and training programme, a detailed doctoral training statement is available within this section including EPSRC’s expectations and requirements. The skills and training programme is only applicable to CHEDDAR, HASC, JOINER and TITAN. FTH is requested to focus on commercialisation ambitions and should enter ‘N/A’ for skills and training questions.

Objective two: Strategic indispensability You are expected to demonstrate strategic indispensability by prioritising capabilities and challenges, including: a clearly articulated national role and a strategy for prioritisation projects and users to meet persistent national needs ownership of at least one hard capability supporting integrated, resilient and energy-efficient technologies prioritised research areas and technologies selection to meet the UK’s ACT research and development programme objectives Objective three: Improved commercialisation You are expected to increase technological and commercialisation readiness levels and improve commercialisation of UK’s future communications systems.

This includes: enhancing translation of early-stage research to standards, patents and exports leading on international standards, including own, collaborate and lead on 6G, 7G and beyond growing and diversifying governance functions to allow for industry technology adoptions improving sector mobility and increase partnership across academia, industry and government Applications should include expertise or understanding across the breadth of the scope, where appropriate, to better enable the interface with the wider community.

You must align to business and government needs in the areas and seek to connect with the existing funding landscape, where appropriate. This investment will be funding national-level missions instead of research areas, delivered by connected hubs partnerships. In this Future Connectivity Hubs programme, applications are asked to meet the three defined objectives and address the eight big challenges identified below.

The UK’s future communications landscape faces complex, multi-dimensional challenges that require coordinated research, infrastructure development, embedded skills programme, sustainable leadership framework and policy alignment. In the following is a list of challenges that applications are asked to address to sustain UK’s global competitiveness in future communications systems.

Challenge one: Resilient, secure and trusted communications infrastructure Ensure future communications systems are secure by design, resilient to disruption, and trusted nationally and internationally, under extreme and adversarial conditions.

Priority research topics for this challenge include: security architectures for highly distributed, software-defined networks zero-trust networking at national infrastructure scale confidential computing for networking and communications resilience to cyber, physical, climate and geopolitical threats post-quantum and quantum-safe communications verification, validation and assurance of complex adaptive systems supply-chain security and system provenance Challenge two: Sustainable, energy efficient and climate responsible networks Deliver exponential growth in connectivity while achieving step-change reductions in energy use and environmental impact.

Priority research topics for this challenge include: ultra-low-energy and climate-resilient network architectures and protocols efficient mobile network design and materials for power carbon-aware and energy-aware networks and protocols energy-aware AI and control algorithms lifecycle sustainability of network hardware and materials integration of communications with energy systems and smart grids metrics, models and benchmarks for sustainable connectivity Challenge three: AI-native, autonomous and end-to-end connectivity technologies for networks Transition from human-managed networks to AI-native, self-optimising systems that can adapt in real-time.

Priority research topics for this challenge include: AI or machine learning embedded within and across the network stack (“AI by design”) autonomous network control, optimisation and fault recovery learning across distributed, multi-domain networks trustworthy, explainable and verifiable AI for critical infrastructure data-efficient learning under real-world constraints co-design of AI algorithms with network hardware and protocols communications, computing co-design edge computing and real-time distributed systems Challenge four: Integrated and converged communication systems Move beyond fragmented network layers and technologies to architect fully integrated, end-to-end future communications systems.

Priority research topics for this challenge include: unified network architectures spanning terrestrial, non-terrestrial (LEO/MEO/HAPS and space-based connectivity), optical, wireless and wired networks, including the technologies and standards for seamless integration convergence of optical fibre, optical wireless communications (OWC), RF and sub-THz/THz systems (integration of electronic wired and optical CPO, used for Network for AI and data centres) cross-layer co-design (devices, waveforms, protocols, platforms, cloud, applications) system-level integration of communications, computing, storage, memory and control scalable system orchestration across heterogeneous infrastructures open, modular and interoperable system architectures (beyond Open RAN) Challenge five: New spectrum, waveforms and physical-layer frontiers Expand and exploit new physical resources to deliver extreme performance.

Break current limits on capacity, latency, reliability and precision.

Priority research topics for this challenge include: sub-THz and THz communications systems advanced modulation, coding and multiple-access techniques photonic, quantum and hybrid electronic–photonic systems ultra-low-latency and ultra-high-reliability communications massive-scale MIMO and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces spectrum sharing and dynamic spectrum access Challenge six: Integrated sensing, communications and computing (ISAC) Exploit communications infrastructure as a national-scale sensing and perception platform, providing real-time interaction with the physical world.

Priority research topics for this challenge include: joint waveform and hardware design for sensing and communications distributed, scalable and cooperative sensing across networks fusion of sensing data with AI and edge or cloud computing applications for transport, environment, security, health and industry performance limits, trade-offs and system-level optimisation privacy, ethics and governance of pervasive sensing systems Challenge seven: Open, experimental and programmable research infrastructure Provide the UK with world-leading experimental capability that accelerates discovery, translation and skills.

Priority research topics for this challenge include: federated, open experimental platforms spanning lab-to-national scale digital twins for design and validation of networks and systems experimentation across real-world, at-scale deployments reproducibility, benchmarking and shared datasets unification of technologies co-design of infrastructure with industry and regulators Challenge eight: Translation, standards and global leadership Convert scientific excellence into international influence, standards leadership and economic impact.

Priority research topics for this challenge include: early-stage research linked to standards and international frameworks UK leadership in global standards bodies (for example, 6G, ISAC, NTN, IETF) interoperability and exportable system designs research that enables UK supply chains and small-medium enterprises policy-aware technology design and regulation-by-design international collaboration while protecting strategic advantage We identified there is a growing skills gap within the sector, accompanied by persistent challenges in making the field more attractive to prospective talent.

The term ‘telecommunications’ is often perceived as less appealing, particularly when compared with the prominence and career opportunities associated with artificial intelligence. In addition, the increasing average age of researchers and professionals responsible for managing critical networks highlights the urgent need for succession planning and workforce renewal.

Addressing this issue requires a comprehensive approach that spans the entire talent pipeline, beginning with early education. While the establishment of EPSRC Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) in telecommunications is a positive development, the current provision makes progress in this area with scope to invest further, subject to budget availability.

A coordinated effort will be necessary to ensure the sustainability and competitiveness of the UK’s telecommunications research and innovation capacity. To support the development of a shared and integrated skills and training programme, we are requesting that the Future Connectivity Hubs collaborate with the existing EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Open SecuRe NeTworks (CDT-FORT).

Together, these applicant consortiums should design a coordinated training framework that addresses the skills required for future communications systems. The four hubs, CHEDDAR, HASC, JOINER and TITAN, alongside CDT-FORT, are expected to work collectively to streamline training provision, minimise duplication, and ensure that investments deliver maximum value.

This collaborative approach will help to build a coherent national skills ecosystem that effectively supports the UK’s future communications research and innovation landscape. This funding opportunity provides funding for at least 12 and no more than 16 doctoral students in total. Each of the four hubs can request at least three and no more than four doctoral students.

We welcome project partner leverage on studentships funds to enhance the student’s experience. This offers an exciting opportunity for students to train and acquire skills that support the development of a healthy, diverse, and inclusive future communications talent pipeline.

Students will benefit from the drawing together of vibrant, balanced teams which combine doctoral and postdoctoral research and build leadership for the future connectivity systems in the UK. The inclusion of doctoral studentships must add value to the proposed research, and to the student compared to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s existing training grant routes.

Students must be provided with a clear opportunity for a distinct and independent course of enquiry and receive any additional training that would be useful for their research but is not available through existing programmes. Universities are free to choose the type of research doctoral qualification that is offered to students; for example PhD or EngD.

The hubs must be viable without the studentships, with distinct objectives that are not reliant upon the studentships. In your application, you should clearly explain how the students will benefit from being part of the research team. The host organisation(s) must have a track record of training doctoral students.

Doctoral students supported through the hubs must be provided with the opportunity to develop their substantive research skills as well as with broader professional development opportunities. Evidence of an appropriate training environment that meets UKRI’s expectations for doctoral training must be provided in your application.

A cohort approach to training through peer-to-peer learning should be provided throughout the lifetime of students’ doctoral training programmes. We welcome innovative approaches to the recruitment of students and delivery of doctoral training. Studentships should be four years full time-equivalent in duration.

Part-time studentships are allowed. Studentships must start in the 2027/28 academic year. Careful consideration should be given to the overall staff resource on the application and the balance between the different types of staff resource available.

To ensure that postdoctoral researchers have sufficient time to support and train students alongside their research, funding should be requested for a minimum of the full time equivalent of two research and innovation associates to support the number of doctoral students requested. You should ensure there are a sufficient number of supervisors, and that each has sufficient time to supervise students.

This time cannot be charged to the grant. Given the strategic nature of this doctoral funding for UK national capability, UKRI’s EU and international eligibility for UKRI studentships from 2021 will not apply. All students funded through this funding opportunity must have home fee status.

You should discuss with EPSRC further if this requirement cannot be met. We aim to maximise the impact of this funding opportunity through strong engagement, collaboration, and co-creation with academia, industrial, government and wider innovation ecosystem.

The Future Connectivity Hubs should have a clear strategy for building credible and strategic partnership that contributes to the UK’s critical capabilities across the advanced connectivity technologies landscape. You should set out a clear ambition to attract industrial investment and funding from other sources of funding, alongside EPSRC funding.

You should demonstrate how stakeholder partnerships will enable the programme to grow additional support over time. The hubs should also develop a diverse portfolio of high-value partnerships to maximise programme impact. You should outline how you will engage with both established and emerging collaborators, and how these relationships will evolve and expand over the lifetime of the grant.

We expect the hubs to leverage substantial contributions from private sector and project partners, including both financial and in-kind support. You should set out a clear ambition to attract industrial investment alongside EPSRC funding and demonstrate how stakeholder partnerships will enable the programme to grow additional support over time.

The level of leverage should be appropriate to the sector involved; for example, SMEs would not be expected to contribute at the same level as large multinational organisations. However, you should demonstrate credible plans for increasing levels of engagement and contribution as the programme develops. Stakeholder engagement should be embedded within the programme’s governance and delivery structures.

You should describe how stakeholder perspectives will inform programme direction, decision-making and strategic priorities. Governance arrangements should support the development of a diverse and expanding user community, increasing both the number of stakeholders engaged and the value of their contributions to the programme over time.

The research and innovation landscape for advanced connectivity technologies spans a broad range of sectors and stakeholders across the UK. In recognition of the national role that the Future Connectivity Hubs will play within the EPSRC portfolio, you should demonstrate how you will engage and collaborate with partners across the UK research and innovation ecosystem.

The Future Connectivity Hubs are expected to help stimulate significant follow-on private sector investment into advanced connectivity technologies. This includes strengthening pathways to commercialisation and supporting increased private investment in research, development and innovation as a result of hub activities. To evidence strong partnerships, you must include at least one project partner letter (or email) of support.

You may include up to six project partner letters (or emails) of support for your hub application. These letters should come from project partners who will have a substantial role in the hub’s activities. Monitoring and evaluation The programme-level evaluation will monitor the extent to which the Future Connectivity Hubs programme has achieved its objectives and to inform key stakeholders on the impact of the funding.

An impact evaluation and a light touch process evaluation are proposed to assess impact of the fund and how the delivery approaches have been used to bring together elements of the programme to bring collective benefits, outcomes and impact.

For the Federated Telecommunications Hub (FTH), mid-term review and final evaluation processes will be used for assessing the progress against the key performance indicators across the benefits envisioned by the programme.

For All-Spectrum Connectivity (HASC), Platform Driving the Ultimate Connectivity (TITAN), Communications Hub for Empowering Distributed clouD computing Applications and Research (CHEDDAR) and Joint Open Infrastructure for Networks Research (JOINER), we reserve the right to conduct a mid-term review depending on progress made.

We will be seeking for each applicant to identify key results, key performance indicators (KPIs) and milestones by which to track the progress of the hub research programmes. Key results, KPIs and milestones should be outlined on an annual cycle, and updates will be collated by EPSRC on an annual basis.

As this investment aligns with the new UKRI IS-8 priority programme in advanced connectivity technology (ACT), there may be additional monitoring and evaluation requirements which arise as a result. The funded hubs will be required to comply with these requirements and a grant condition will be added to each hub accordingly. The duration of the award for hubs research grants is three years and six months.

Research grants must start by 1 October 2026 and must end on 31 March 2030. The duration of the award for doctoral students is four years. Training grants must start by 1 April 2027 and must end on 31 March 2031.

We will fund the delivery of UK’s advanced connectivity technologies missions and priorities through five hubs and a CDT.

These are: Communications Hub for Empowering Distributed clouD computing Applications and Research (CHEDDAR) Hubs in All-Spectrum Connectivity (HASC) Joint Open Infrastructure for Networks Research (JOINER) Platform Driving the Ultimate Connectivity (TITAN) Federated Telecommunications Hub (FTH) EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Open SecuRe NeTworks (CDT-FORT) The FEC of the research grants for each hub can be up to: EPSRC will fund 80% of the FEC of research grants.

This funding is subject to business case approval. This budget is indicative and subject to final budgetary allocations. This research grant budget includes indexations.

The UKRI default indexation rate from 1 April 2026 is set as 2. 48%. You should consider the indexation rate in your response to the ‘Resources and cost justification’ question.

Each hub (CHEDDAR, HASC, JOINER, TITAN) can apply for a training grant within the application, requesting up to £560,000 for at least three and no more than four doctoral students over the funding period. This funding is subject to business case approval.

For CHEDDAR, HASC, JOINER and TITAN, you should work with Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Open SecuRe NeTworks (CDT-FORT) in your application to include answers to the applicant questions on ‘Doctoral Students’ and ‘Doctoral Students – Resources and cost justifications’. For FTH, please entre ‘N/A’ for these two applicant questions.

Hubs are asked to provide a clear plan on how they will work with CDT-FORT to maximise the capability and skills agenda to benefit the UK nations as a whole. In total, at least 12 and no more than 16 doctoral students can be funded across all Hubs. The funding for the doctoral students will be coordinated via CDT-FORT.

The coordination will be funded via a direct award of up to £400,000 to CDT-FORT, allowing the design of a coordinated training framework and associated activities. £400,000 coordination budget includes the UKRI default indexation rate at 2. 48% from 1 April 2026.

This funding is subject to business case approval. The four training grants and the £400,000 direct award for coordination are separate awards to the research grants within this funding opportunity. UKRI will fund 100% of eligible costs related to doctoral students.

All funding for doctoral studentships should be excluded from the ‘Resources and cost’ section of your application on the UKRI Funding Service. This funding will ultimately be issued as a separate training grant at the award stage. All applicants are required to complete the template for doctoral studentship costings and submit with their application.

This training grant budget excludes indexations due to the student fees and stipends rise rate difference to the default UKRI indexation rate. You should cost the training grant at October 2026 rate, and each hub should enter a maximum of £560,000 cost in the doctoral studentship costing template table.

Extensions to the separate training grant will only be considered under exceptional circumstances, in line with the UKRI training grant terms and conditions . Funding cannot be transferred between the research grant and the training grant. Fees charged to UKRI cannot be higher than the fee charged by the university for home funded students on similar programmes.

The UKRI minimum rate for 2026/27 is £5,238. The stipends must be at least at the minimum rates published by UKRI; for 2026/27, this is £21,805. We will not cover additional college fees.

You may request funding for enhanced stipends, where justified in the context of the area of research and training and UK skills need. A top-up may be achieved through using project partner or other leverage rather than requesting further UKRI funding.

Research training support grant (RTSG) This covers items for individual students such as travel, consumables, and facility access where this is linked to conducting the research of the project, or specialised training such as a summer school only being attended by a student due to their project. Costs associated with student supervision, estates and indirect costs are not eligible costs on the training grant.

Equipment (between £25,000 to £400,000 per item) can be requested within the 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. For details of how to include equipment in your application see Equipment on research grants .

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. You can only apply for this funding opportunity if we have invited you to do so following a successful stage one application. The start application link will be provided via email: 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. Please be aware that research office and finance teams undertake checks on hosting arrangements and financial eligibility.

The ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with all opportunity requirements lies with the applicant. Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

When including images, you must: provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit) insert each new image onto a new line use files smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words.

The following are not permitted, and your application will be rejected if you include: sentences or paragraphs of text excessive quantities of images A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column.

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 References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application. Hyperlinks can be used in reference information.

When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that: references are easily identifiable by the assessors references are formatted as appropriate to your research persistent identifiers are used where possible General use of hyperlinks Applications should be self-contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information.

You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision. Generative