Transformative sustainable AI technologies (Grant)

Transformative Sustainable AI Technologies is the sustainability arm of EPSRC's Next Generation Artificial Intelligence programme, funding speculative and high-risk research on making AI systems sustainable, which the call defines as developing systems that maximise long-term economic and societal value while minimising environmental harm. The total fund is 12,050,000 pounds sterling, the maximum award is 602,500 pounds at full economic cost funded at 80 per cent by UKRI, the opportunity opened on 24 August 2026 and closes on 10 November 2026 at 4pm UK time, projects start on a fixed date of 1 February 2027 and run for up to 24 months. Priority areas are energy-efficient algorithms and system architecture, smaller task-specific models as an alternative to scaling, optimisation of AI for resource-constrained environments, hardware-software co-design, and repairable and recyclable hardware. The call draws a firm scope boundary: applications must be technology-led and cannot consist predominantly of social science, environmental, legal, policy or ethical study, which distinguishes it from the large body of AI-and-climate funding that supports governance and assessment work. Assessment is by distributed peer review with applicants reviewing peer proposals and up to eight reviews informing each decision, and the criteria are vision and approach, applicant and team capability, ethics and responsible research and innovation, resources and cost justification, and risk and reward. Research technical professionals including research software engineers are named as eligible team members.