Funding Opportunities

SEPTEMBER

Digital Catapult: Digital Twin Adoption Accelerator 2026 - Innovate UK Business Connect

Nine-month programme that supports partnerships between UK technology SMEs and industry adopters to accelerate the adoption of digital twin technologies.

OCTOBER

Doctoral focal award plus: innovating in data-driven research – UKRI

Deadline 14 October, Single award max £5.75M

Demand management process applies.  Applicants must inform RIS of their intention to submit.

Next generation artificial intelligence (AI): explainable AI – UKRI

Deadline 20 October, 20 awards, max award £602,500

Applications are particularly welcomed from early and mid-career UK researchers.

NOVEMBER

Transformative sustainable AI technologies – UKRI

Deadline 10 November, Award range £500K - £1.5M, max 12 awards

Focused on speculative and high-risk research with the potential to deliver high rewards and a step change in the sustainability of future AI systems.

UK Obesity Research Institute: full application – UKRI / BHF

Deadline 19 November, total fund £72M

Exemplar research themes include; Data driven discovery: large scale use of biomedical and health data to develop new methods and tools, including AI and machine learning

Unlocking advanced capabilities in conservation and heritage science – UKRI

Deadline 25 November, Award range £500K - £1.5M, max 12 awards

Particularly interested in consortium applications focused on embedding and extending of AI and computational methods that drive efficiency and streamline processes

ONGOING / ACCESS

Access EuroHPC supercomputers for AI development (AI Factories) – UKRI

Isambard-AI and Dawn AIRR supercomputers: Gateway route – UKRI

Isambard-AI and Dawn AIRR supercomputers: Rapid Access route – UKRI