UKRI
UK Research and Innovation
UKRI is the UK's national funding agency, spanning the seven research councils (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC) plus Innovate UK and Research England, with a budget of roughly £8.8bn. Key schemes for academics include the cross-UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships and each council's responsive-mode grants and fellowships.
Evaluation Criteria
- 1Since April 2025, a harmonised assessment model via the UKRI Funding Service: written expert review, an applicant response (rebuttal), then a moderating panel; targeted calls use assessment panels directly
- 2Excellence of the research vision and approach, judged against the specific call criteria
- 3Capability to deliver: the team, track record, and environment
- 4Value for money, "lavish costings are unlikely to find favour", but a proposal that promises the earth at remarkably low expense is treated with equal caution
Proposal Structure
- •Applications are built section-by-section in the UKRI Funding Service (vision, approach, capability to deliver, resources and cost justification), with strict per-section length limits
- •Costing on the full economic cost (fEC) model: UKRI pays 80%, the host institution covers the remainder
- •Fellowships (e.g. Future Leaders) fund the fellow's salary and have no project co-lead, they fund an individual
- •No links to external web resources to extend the application, assessors are not required to open them
Common Mistakes
- ×Failing to communicate how a good idea becomes an achievable plan, UKRI's own guidance names this the most common failure, not weak ideas
- ×Breaking call rules: unrealistic start dates, exceeded section limits, missing revision notes on invited resubmissions, these are rejected without review
- ×Padded costings, or suspiciously cheap ones, both score down on value for money "even when the science may be excellent"
- ×Submitting an uninvited resubmission where the council forbids it (BBSRC bans them outright, including projects previously submitted to other funders)
- ×Ignoring the rebuttal stage or answering reviewers with generalities
Success Tips
- ✓Write the plan-of-action as concretely as the ideas: milestones, methods, and who does what
- ✓Cost honestly and justify every line, panels respect a well-argued budget at any size
- ✓Check your council's resubmission policy before a first submission, in several councils you effectively get one shot per project
- ✓For fellowships, evidence a trajectory to independence, the renewal-gated structure (e.g. FLF 4 years + 3) rewards a credible long arc
Frequently Asked Questions
+Who can apply for UKRI funding?
You apply through an eligible UK research organisation on UKRI's register. There is no nationality requirement, but fellows must be based at their UK host for the fellowship's duration. International project co-leads are possible on many calls, capped at 30% of overall project cost.
+What is the 80% fEC model?
UK grants are costed at full economic cost (including overheads and investigator time), and UKRI pays 80% of that figure, the host institution absorbs the rest. Your research office prepares the fEC costing.
+What are UKRI success rates?
There is no single figure. Principal-investigator award rates ran around 32-33% in 2023-24 across UKRI, but scheme-level rates vary enormously, some AHRC applicant-led schemes have run at 5-7%. Check the specific opportunity's recent statistics.
+Can I resubmit a rejected proposal?
It depends on the council: ESRC allows invited resubmissions only, BBSRC does not accept uninvited resubmissions at all, MRC moved to invited-only for applications from April 2026, and EPSRC requires substantial changes and applies a repeatedly-unsuccessful-applicants policy.
+What are UKRI's open access rules?
In-scope research articles submitted from 1 April 2022 must be immediately open access (CC-BY version of record, or zero-embargo author accepted manuscript deposit). Monographs came into scope from January 2024.
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