UK Research and Innovation
UKRI
The umbrella body for the seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England, and the largest public funder of UK research. Runs cross-cutting schemes in its own right, including Future Leaders Fellowships and the strategic themes, and operates the Funding Finder that lists every council opportunity.
- Kind of funder
- Research council
- Where it funds
- UK-wide
- Indicative award size
- £50k+No stated ceiling
- Approx. annual research spend
- £8bn
- Who can apply
- Universities, Research institutes, SMEs, Large businesses, Charities & NGOs, Public sector
- Career stages
- Postdoctoral, Early career, Established researcher
Spans small pump-priming grants to multi-centre programmes worth tens of millions.
Research areas
Named schemes (10)
Expression of interest: Small-satellite missions sandpit ↗
Apply to attend an interdisciplinary sandpit to develop challenge-led small satellite Earth observation mission concepts. Projects should deliver sovereign capability for national security and defence, societal benefit, and economic growth. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding.
Open25 Nov 2026£1.9m total fundpulled from UKRI 2026-10-22UKRI Enabling AI adoption across science and engineering ↗
Apply for funding for ambitious and exploratory projects bringing together AI and domain expertise. Projects will have the potential to unlock new opportunities for applying AI to research challenges in priority science and engineering disciplines. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding.
Upcoming1 Dec 2026up to £250k per award£5m total fundpulled from UKRI 2026-09-17Manufacturing Scale-up Network Plus ↗
Opportunity to build a Network Plus to accelerate the scale-up of manufacturing innovation, driving growth across aerospace, automotive and wider UK advanced manufacturing frontier industries. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding.
Open9 Dec 2026£5.6m total fundpulled from UKRI 2026-10-14Manufacturing Scale-up Research and Innovation: Automotive and Aerospace ↗
Apply for funding to address manufacturing scale-up challenges for new technologies and processes, accelerating innovation and driving UK business growth in the automotive and aerospace sectors. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding.
Open9 Dec 2026£18m total fundpulled from UKRI 2026-10-14Growth Roundtable ↗
Apply for funding to establish a leading applied policy research initiative to generate evidence on the barriers, opportunities and conditions for economic growth. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funding or eligible under the non-standard eligibility criteria.
Open7 Jan 2027£3m total fundpulled from UKRI 2026-11-05UK Compute Roadmap – Community Centres of Excellence (outline stage) ↗
Apply for funding to establish a Community Centre of Excellence that will provide a world class service layer for researchers and innovators to utilise the UKRI National Compute Resources. You must be based at an organisation eligible for UKRI funding. Standard & non-standard eligibility rules apply.
Open12 Jan 2027up to £2m per award£20m total fundpulled from UKRI 2026-11-03Arctic frontier: accelerating innovation in ocean autonomy ↗
Apply for funding to develop technological solutions to address the challenges of operating marine autonomous vehicles in remote and exceptionally harsh environments. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UKRI funding.
Upcoming2 Feb 2027£1.2m total fundpulled from UKRI 2026-11-04Future Leaders Fellowships ↗
Seven-year support (four years plus a three-year renewal) for early-career researchers and innovators establishing independence, in universities or businesses. One of the most substantial career awards available in the UK.
Rolling / recurringCheck funder site for current round£800k – £1.5m per awardchecked 2026-05-01Pre-announcement: Engineering Biology Programme: foundational technology hubs ↗
Apply for funding to establish a flagship interdisciplinary engineering biology programme aimed at developing transformative foundational technologies and platforms that tackle design-build-test-learn bottlenecks and accelerate innovation. You must be based at an organisation eligible for UKRI funding.
UpcomingCheck funder site for current roundup to £12m per awardpulled from UKRI 2026-10-17Pre-announcement: Engineering Biology Programme: mission hubs ↗
Apply for funding to pursue a flagship applied research and innovation programme aimed at harnessing engineering biology to address major industrial and societal challenges through a mission focus. You must be based at an organisation eligible for UKRI funding.
UpcomingCheck funder site for current roundup to £15m per awardpulled from UKRI 2026-10-19