Scope

The focus of this funding opportunity is to deliver the next generation of innovative and disruptive manufacturing technologies, processes, products, and systems to enable the manufacture of the products needed to drive a productive, resilient, prosperous, and sustainable UK future.

We want to support the development of technologies, products and processes which allow us to make new products that cannot currently be manufactured at scale but will be needed for the UK to address future challenges, such as the transition to net zero.

We are looking for applications that focus on the evolution of manufacturing technologies and processes, to grow and transform manufacturing sectors in areas where the UK can lead and be more productive.

We expect the next generation technologies, processes, products, and systems developed to be more sustainable than the current state-of-the-art.

We aim to fund projects focused on the innovative development of technologies that build upon existing manufacturing systems to deliver a step change in functionality (as opposed to entirely novel emerging manufacturing processes, see ‘what we will not fund’, below). This could include:

• innovation to reimagine existing technological solutions to solve new or different manufacturing problems
• enabling the manufacture of products that can currently be manufactured, but the product or system will need to change to meet the challenges of the future, such that the existing manufacturing process will no longer be suitable. For example, new manufacturing processes to enable production of wind turbine blades of the future designed for a longer use life and end of life recycling
• evolving processes and technologies to utilise recycled feedstocks (products, or materials produced by recycling of waste, which can be used as resources for the manufacture of new products)
• evolution of an existing manufacturing technology in order to produce products that don’t currently exist (for example, the new products we will need to enable the green revolution) or products that cannot yet be manufactured at sufficient scale for them to be adopted

All proposals are expected to prioritise environmental sustainability including resource efficiency, waste reduction and lower emissions, across the life cycle of both the manufacturing technology and the product to be manufactured to support a more sustainable manufacturing sector and a greener UK economy.

This strategic EPSRC investment will bring together UK world leading capabilities in manufacturing research. Harnessing the opportunity to accelerate the delivery of new solutions, knowledge, and potential commercial applications, supporting our frontiers in engineering and technology and engineering net zero priority ambitions. Find details of this in our strategic delivery plan.

The successful projects will address our strategic aims by delivering against the following objectives:

• deliver world leading and impactful manufacturing research that will enable delivery against national UK priorities including Net Zero
• strengthen the UK manufacturing sector through innovative development of new and existing manufacturing technologies with potential for commercialisation
• maximise quality and impact of the programme through collaborative approaches and co-creation with new and existing stakeholders
• embed careful consideration of environmental sustainability in all proposed project outputs and outcomes, research approaches and programme operations throughout the lifetime of the programme

Potential for commercialisation

You must place your research in the context of the UK manufacturing industry and broader economy. Applications should articulate the market gap; technology need or user driver for the research proposed.

You should highlight how the project was informed by or co-created with stakeholders and potential beneficiaries and your plans to collaborate and engage with them during the project to inform the research programme and support the future commercialisation of the project outcomes.

At the application stage you are not expected to have already developed a route to commercialisation, but you should:

• have identified potential end users and demonstrated how your project meets their needs
• articulate how the project could lead to the development of new, improved or more sustainable manufacturing technologies, processes and systems that could not be made using the current established technologies
• demonstrate that the research will contribute to a resilient and prosperous UK green economy

By the end of the project, you should have a clearer idea of the translation pathway and identified next steps to progress along it.

Stakeholder engagement

We expect you to engage with stakeholders and potential beneficiaries of the expected research outputs in the conception and implementation of the proposed projects to maximise research impact where appropriate. These can include:

• industrial partners including UK manufacturers, product developers and retailers
• policymakers
• research institutes
• third sector organisations

Environmental sustainability

UKRI’s environmental sustainability strategy lays out our ambition to actively lead environmental sustainability across our sectors. This includes a vision to ensure that all major investment and funding decisions we make are directly informed by environmental sustainability, recognising environmental benefits as well as potential for environmental harm.

In alignment with this, UKRI is tackling the challenge of environmental sustainability through our ‘building a green future’ strategic theme. This aims to develop whole-systems solutions to improve the health of our environment and deliver net zero, securing prosperity across the whole of the UK.

Environmental sustainability is a broad term but may include consideration of such broad areas as:

• reducing carbon emissions
• protecting and enhancing the natural environment and biodiversity
• waste or pollution elimination
• resource efficiency and a circular economy

EPSRC (on behalf of UKRI) expects programmes to embed careful consideration of environmental sustainability at all stages of the research and innovation process and throughout the lifetime of the grant.

Programmes should ensure that environmental impact and mitigation of the proposed research approaches and programme operations, as well as the associated project outputs and outcomes, is considered.

Programmes must also seek opportunities to influence others and leave a legacy of environmental sustainability within the broader operations of their academic and industry partners. Programmes approach, deliverables or outputs are expected to exceed the current state-of-the-art in terms of environmental sustainability.

Duration

The duration of this award is a maximum of 36 months.

Projects should aim to start between 1 April and 30 June 2025.

Funding available

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £1,700,000.

EPSRC will fund 80% of the FEC.

What we will fund

• equipment costs (up to £400,000 per item) are permissible as part of an 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.

What we will not fund

• projects where the majority of the research is outside of our remit we will reject applications deemed to have a majority remit within another UKRI council. EPSRC reserves the right to make such remit decisions without reference to peer review
• completely novel manufacturing technologies and processes not evolved from existing systems
• incremental capability building of very established technologies and processes or iterative improvements on existing technologies, products, and processes where there are no disruptive step changes in functionality

If this funding opportunity is oversubscribed, we reserve the right to alter the peer review process potentially including a sift stage based on fit to opportunity criteria.

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.

International collaboration

If your application includes international applicants, project partners or collaborators, visit UKRI’s trusted research and innovation for more information on effective international collaboration.

Find out about getting funding for international collaboration.

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.

To apply

Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page.

1. Confirm you are the project lead.
2. Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org
   Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service.
3. 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.
4. Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
5. Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
6. Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.

Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You should:

• use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
• insert each new image onto a new line
• provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
• ensure files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format

Watch our research office webinars about the new Funding Service.

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

Applications should be self-contained, and hyperlinks should only be used to provide links directly to reference information. To ensure the information’s integrity is maintained, where possible, persistent identifiers such as digital object identifiers should be used. Assessors are not required to access links to carry out assessment or recommend a funding decision. Applicants should use their discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.

References should be included in the appropriate question section of the application and be easily identifiable by the assessors for example (Smith, Research Paper, 2019).

You must not include links to web resources to extend your application.

Deadline

EPSRC must receive your application by 4.00pm UK time on 23 October 2024.

You will not be able to apply after this time.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.

Following the submission of your application to the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected. If an application is withdrawn prior to peer review or office rejected due to substantive errors in the application, it cannot be resubmitted to the opportunity.

Personal data

Processing personal data

EPSRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.

We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our privacy notice.

Publication of outcomes

We expect to release outcomes by end of March 2025.

EPSRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at UKRI Gateway to Research.

If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.

Core team

List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:

• project lead (PL)
• project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
• project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
• specialist
• research and innovation associate
• technician
• visiting researcher
• researcher co-lead (RcL)

Only list one individual as project lead.

• The project co-lead (international) (PcL (I)) role should only be used for applications making use of the UKRI-RCN Money Follows Cooperation agreement or the UKRI-IIASA agreement. EPSRC does not otherwise accept project co-lead (international) applicants.

Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.

Summary

Word limit: 550

In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.

We usually make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. Make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:

• opinion-formers
• policymakers
• the public
• the wider research community

Guidance for writing a summary

Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:

• context
• the challenge the project addresses
• aims and objectives
• potential applications and benefits to the UK manufacturing sector

Vision and Approach

Create a document that includes your responses to all criteria. The document should not be more than six sides of A4, single spaced in paper in 11-point Arial (or equivalent sans serif font) with margins of at least 2cm. You may include images, graphs, tables. References may be included but should not exceed one page of your document. You can have an additional page for a diagrammatic work plan.

For the file name, use the unique Funding Service number the system gives you when you create an application, followed by the words ‘Vision and Approach’.

Save this document as a single PDF file, no bigger than 8MB. Unless specifically requested, do not include any sensitive data within the attachment.

If the attachment does not meet these requirements, the application will be rejected.

The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.

What are you hoping to achieve with and how will you deliver your proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

For the Vision, explain how your proposed work:

• is of excellent quality and importance within or beyond the field(s) or area(s)
• has the potential to advance current understanding, generates new knowledge, thinking or discovery within or beyond the field or area
• is timely given current trends, context and needs
• impacts world-leading research, society, the economy or the environment

Within the Vision section we also expect you to articulate:

• how the programme will support and grow a productive and sustainable UK manufacturing sector and deliver towards other UK national priorities

For the Approach, explain how you have designed your work so that it:

• is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives
• is feasible, and comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed
• if applicable, uses a clear and transparent methodology
• if applicable, summarises the previous work and describes how this will be built upon and progressed
• describes how your, and if applicable your team’s, research environment (in terms of the place, and relevance to the project) will contribute to the success of the work

Within the Approach section we also expect you to:

• demonstrate access to the appropriate services, facilities, infrastructure, or equipment to deliver the proposed work
• provide a project plan including milestones and timelines in the form of a Gantt chart or similar (additional one-page A4)

References may be included within this section.

Applicant and team capability to deliver

Word limit: 1,650

Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Evidence of how you, and if relevant your team, have:

• the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work
• the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work
• the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others
• contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

The word count for this section is 1,650 words; 1,150 words to be used for R4RI modules (including references) and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.

Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you and, if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on) have and how this will help deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.

Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed. Use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI. You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:

• contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge
• the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships
• contributions to the wider research and innovation community
• contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit

Additions

Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences, or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).

Complete this as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.

References may be included within this section.

UKRI has introduced new role types for funding opportunities being run on the new Funding Service. For full details, see Eligibility as an individual.

Fit to opportunity

Word limit: 500

How does your proposed work deliver against the scope of this opportunity?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Explain how your proposed work:

• meets the scope of this funding opportunity
• embeds appropriate stakeholder engagement throughout the lifetime of the project and is driven by a stakeholder informed manufacturing challenge
• delivers a disruptive step change(s) from the state-of-the-art
• will embed considerations of environmental sustainability through the proposed research and operations
• will maximise translation of outputs into potential outcomes and impacts

Within this section you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. You should:

• use images sparingly and only to convey important information that cannot easily be put into words
• insert each new image onto a new line
• provide a descriptive legend for each image immediately underneath it (this counts towards your word limit)
• ensure files are smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format

Your application may be rejected if images are provided without a descriptive legend in the text box, or are used to replace text that could be input into the text box.

References may be included within this section.

Application questions

Potential for commercialisation

Word limit: 500

What is the opportunity you are looking to exploit or what challenge will your project address?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Explain how your proposed work:

• has the potential to address future strategic UK manufacturing needs or technological challenges
• could lead to the development or deployment of a new or improved product, processes, service, or technology
• is timely given currently foreseen future trends and context
• meets the needs of potential users or customers
• is resilient to changing external circumstances and consumer behaviours
• impacts society, the economy or the environment

Within this section we also expect you to:

• identify the potential direct or indirect benefits and who the beneficiaries might be

Resources and cost justification

Word limit: 1000

What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:

• project staff
• significant travel for field work or collaboration (but not regular travel between collaborating organisations or to conferences)
• any equipment that will cost more than £10,000
• any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities
• all facilities and infrastructure costs
• all resources that have been costed as ‘Exceptions’

Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. Overall, they want you to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:

• are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified
• represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes
• maximise potential outcomes and impacts

Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)

Word limit: 500

What are the ethical or RRI implications and issues relating to the proposed work? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why.

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:

• the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations
• how you will manage these considerations

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

If you are collecting or using data, identify:

• any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing or storing the data including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical considerations and, in particular, strategies to not preclude further re-use of data
• formal information standards with which your study will comply

Additional sub-questions (to be answered only if appropriate) will be included in the Funding Service. These will ask about numbers, species/strain and justification about:

• genetic and biological risk
• research involving the use of animals
• conducting research with animal overseas
• research involving human participation
• research involving human tissues or biological samples

Project partners

Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.

A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities.

Add the following project partner details:

• the organisation name and address (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable)
• the project partner contact name and email address
• the type of contribution (direct or in-direct) and its monetary value

If a detail is entered incorrectly and you have saved the entry, remove the specific project partner record and re-add it with the correct information.

For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

Project partners: letters (or emails) of support

Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the Project Partner section. These should be uploaded in English or Welsh only.

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box, or if you do not have any project partners enter N/A. Each letter or email you provide should:

• confirm the partner’s commitment to the project
• clearly explain the value, relevance, and possible benefits of the work to them
• describe any additional value that they bring to the project
• the page limit is two sides A4 per partner

The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply. If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.

Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the contributions template.

For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

Do not provide letters of support from host and project co-leads’ research organisations.

Facilities

Word limit: 250

Does your proposed research require the support and use of a facility?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

If you will need to use a facility, follow your proposed facility’s normal access request procedures. Ensure you have prior agreement so that if you are offered funding, they will support the use of their facility on your project.

For each requested facility you will need to provide the:

• name of facility, copied and pasted from the facility information list (DOCX, 34.9KB)
• proposed usage or costs, or costs per unit where indicated on the facility information list
• confirmation you have their agreement where required

If you will not need to use a facility, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.

Assessment process

We will assess your application using the following process.

If this funding opportunity is oversubscribed, we reserve the right to amend the process.

Peer review

We will invite peers to review your application independently, against the specified criteria for this funding opportunity.

You will not be able to nominate reviewers for applications on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. Research councils will continue to select expert reviewers.

We are monitoring the requirement for applicant-nominated reviewers as we review policies and processes as part of the continued development of the new Funding Service.

Panel

Following peer review, we will invite experts to use the evidence provided by reviewers and your applicant response to assess the quality of your application and rank it alongside other applications after which the panel will make a funding recommendation.

Feedback

No further feedback beyond the reviewers’ comments will be provided after the panel.

Principles of assessment

We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.

Find out about the UKRI principles of assessment and decision making.

We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.

Assessment criteria

The criteria we will assess your application against are:

• Vision and Approach
• Applicant and team capability to deliver
• Fit to opportunity
• Potential for commercialisation
• Resources and cost justification
• Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)

Find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section.

Get help with your application

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page

Important note: The Helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the Helpdesk will triage and prioritise those queries with an imminent opportunity deadline or a technical issue. Enquiries raised where information is available on the Funding Finder opportunity page and should be understood early in the application process (for example, regarding eligibility or content/remit of an opportunity) will not constitute a priority case and will be addressed as soon as possible.

Contact details

For help and advice on costings and writing your proposal please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

For questions related to this specific funding opportunity please contact manufacturingandce@epsrc.ukri.org

Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications through the Funding Service should be directed to the helpdesk.

Email: support@funding-service.ukri.org
Phone: 01793 547490

Our phone lines are open:

• Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm
• Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

To help us process queries quicker, we request that users highlight the council and opportunity name in the subject title of their email query, include the application reference number, and refrain from contacting more than one mailbox at a time.

Find more information on submitting an application.

Sensitive information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, please contact tfschangeepsrc@epsrc.ukri.org

Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].

Typical examples of confidential information include:

• individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)
• declaration of interest
• additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section
• conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection
• the application is an invited resubmission

For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read UKRI’s privacy notice.

Background

The EPSRC Manufacturing and the Circular Economy (M&tCE) theme has recently refreshed its priorities, with input from numerous members of the manufacturing research and innovation community. The topic of ‘next generation manufacturing’ has emerged as one of the theme’s updated research priorities.

In 2023 M&tCE held two strategic community engagement workshops to explore the future manufacturing and circular economy research and innovation landscape and examine potential future strategic opportunities within the UK and globally.

The emerging topics were subsequently refined, with significant input from the M&tCE Strategic Advisory Team (SAT), and series of roundtable consultations with industry professional.

During the workshops and the consultations, the importance of innovative manufacturing approaches that prioritise resource efficiency and waste reduction while delivering new technologies was strongly reaffirmed.

This was envisioned to cover novel research required to enable the production of new and innovative products, which cannot be manufactured using current processes and technologies, ensuring a productive and sustainable UK of the future.

To address UKRI’s strategic themes, such as building a green future, new technologies and products will be needed. It may not be possible, however, to utilise existing technologies to manufacture the products of the future, which would be a fatal barrier to their adoption. This priority focuses on the innovative and disruptive manufacturing research that will be needed to deliver these innovative products and grow and evolve new and existing manufacturing sectors where the UK could lead and be more efficient.

In the context of climate change, new products and manufacturing processes will need to prioritise resource efficiency, waste reduction and lower emissions, however the ability to develop new green manufacturing technology will be key in unlocking a sustainable, productive future.

Success in this priority area would deliver new manufacturing technologies and methods to enable us to manufacture the products that we will need for a productive and sustainable future UK. These technologies will also allow us to make new products that can’t currently be manufactured at scale but will be needed for the UK to address future challenges, such as the transition to net zero.

New manufacturing technologies will prioritise resource efficiency, waste reduction and lower emissions, leading to a more sustainable manufacturing sector. Innovative manufacturing will create new products and new markets, growing manufacturing sectors in areas where the UK can lead and be more productive.

Find out more about the manufacturing and the circular economy priorities: Manufacturing and the circular economy theme.

Additional disability and accessibility adjustments

UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process if required.

Research disruption due to COVID-19

We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:

• breaks and delays
• disruptive working patterns and conditions
• the loss of ongoing work
• role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic

Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant and their wider team to deliver the research they are proposing.

Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.

Supporting documents

Equality Impact Assessment (DOCX, 67KB)