Doctoral focal award: chip design and verification (Grant)

Apply for funding to establish a doctoral focal award in chip design and verification. This supports interdisciplinary training in very large-scale integration design and systems-on-chip. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for EPSRC funding. Funding will initially be available to support for two cohorts of students. Funding for further cohorts may be available in future. As a non-full economic cost award, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will fund 100% of eligible costs listed in the opportunity. Estates and indirect costs will not be funded. Demand management Demand management is being applied to this funding opportunity. As outlined in the ‘Who can apply’ section, organisations can submit one application as lead. Aim The successful doctoral focal award will address the UK Government AI Hardware Plan by: • training a pipeline of doctoral-level very large-scale integration chip design and advanced compute specialists, building capability in AI accelerators, hardware-software co-design and energy-efficient systems, strengthening industry-academia collaboration, and establishing a national centre of excellence in semiconductor design • delivering interdisciplinary, cohort-based doctoral training in integrated circuit design, systems-on-chip, verification, and system-level capability • training cohorts of doctoral researchers with deep, industry-relevant design expertise, leading to physical demonstrators such as tape-out and so on • anchoring UK capability in areas critical to AI hardware and advanced compute Given the importance of this area to the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy , sector plans and AI Hardware Plan , UKRI is making this investment to ensure graduates have the desired skills needed to support economic growth and productivity in key areas of strength in the UK semiconductor sector. Scope This funding opportunity will fund doctoral focal awards to train the next generation of UK researchers and innovators. Doctoral focal awards provide support for areas that require a concentration of studentships in combination with a highly tailored training programme.Semiconductors are a critical component of the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, specifically within the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan. The primary aim is to build upon the UK’s existing, globally recognised, research strengths in areas such as chip design, and application with photonic integrated circuits and compound semiconductors, rather than developing new capabilities from scratch, and to translate these strengths into industrial impact.Currently, while EPSRC provides doctoral training in other semiconductor areas, there are no doctoral focal awards specifically covering chip design. The recent eFutures UK research landscape report (PDF, 37.8MB) highlights the need for further doctoral training provision in the semiconductor sector. Furthermore, the UK Government AI Hardware Plan mandates a new doctoral focal award in chip design to strengthen the long-term talent pipeline, supporting advanced research and early-stage innovation. Remit The successful doctoral focal award will deliver interdisciplinary, cohort-based training. Your proposal must cover the following core technical competencies: • preparing chip designs suitable for a wide range of AI and future compute applications, including carrying out AI workloads and inference tasks efficiently • chip design expertise, including hands-on application of industry-standard electronic design automation (EDA) tools, validation, and verification methodologies. This also includes expertise in chiplets, photonic backplanes, and heterogeneous integration to push the boundaries of system-level performance • a comprehensive understanding of modern compute architectures, including memory integration and emerging paradigms such as neuromorphic computing • application of design principles to optoelectronics, optical interconnects, and photonic integrated circuits, taking advantage of the low power, low heat, and high-speed properties of optical backplanes. This must also include compound semiconductors for high-efficiency power electronics • training on assembly capabilities, packaging, and the integration of novel substrates targeting current and future manufacturing possibilities • as an additional element, you may wish to include projects exploring chip design assurance and verification to understand how chip designs map onto the actual manufactured product What is out of remit The following are out of remit: • proposals that do not have chip design, systems-on-chip, verification methods and advanced compute as their primary focus • research focused solely on foundational materials science without a direct application to hardware design or advanced compute • software-only AI algorithm development that does not involve hardware co-design or physical implementation Match funding and industry expectations Industry partners must be integrated into the delivery of the progr

Who is eligible to apply This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible .Organisations eligible to apply include: • higher education institutions • research council institutes • eligible independent research organisations and Catapult centres • public sector research establishments (PSREs) Check if you’re eligible for funding .PSREs wishing to be involved in an application are required to choose whether they wish to do so either as a project lead or project co-lead, where they will provide the principal base (host) for students, or as a project partner. An organisation cannot perform both roles within one application.If your organisation is not currently listed as an eligible organisation you can apply to become an eligible organisation.Organisations can only apply as the lead organisation on one submitted application. However, organisations with project co-leads or industrial project partners may appear on any number of applications.The lead organisation: • will play a strategic leadership role in shaping the vision, skills priorities, and delivery model • will lead submission of the application • will act as the training grant holder if you are successful • does not require doctoral research degree awarding powers, but an organisation with these powers must be present within your consortium • must provide the principal base (host) for a minimum of one student per year of intake for this funding opportunity. Identification of the project lead should not be interpreted as recognition as the dominant partner or where the majority of studentships will be hosted.While only one individual can be included as project lead on the UKRI Funding Service, UKRI welcomes applications that reflect flexible and joint leadership models.Lead organisations may join with additional organisations which will also host students or support delivery of the training programme. You are encouraged to engage effectively with other organisations to ensure delivery of a truly interdisciplinary training environment and experience for students. Any organisations hosting students must be named as collaborating organisations on your application.Project co-leads are welcome at either the lead organisation or collaborating organisations. Project leads and co-leads may include: • research technical professionals • innovation and commercialisation professionals • research software engineers • professional training and programme managers, where they play an integral role in programme delivery Project partners Organisations may also act as project partners on your application. Unlike collaborating organisations or subcontractors who can receive funds from the grant, project partners make direct or indirect contributions to the grant and cannot receive funds from it.More information is available on roles in funding applications .Information regarding the nature of these collaborations must be included within your application in the ‘Project partners’ section. Any organisation acting as a project partner may do so on any number of applications, as long as they are able to support them all if funded.An organisation cannot on the same application act as a project partner and as a lead or collaborating organisation.We welcome applications to include a wide range of project partner organisations contributing to research and skills training. This can include, but is not limited to: • universities that are not leading or co-leading the proposal • businesses of all scales • public sector organisations, such as public sector research establishments and government at all levels, including devolved administrations • third sector organisations • other key stakeholders across the research and innovation landscape We encourage you to consider opportunities to attract leverage from non-UKRI sources over the lifetime of the programme, to strengthen the financial sustainability, ambition and real-world relevance of the programme. This may include approaches at the programme level or in support of individual doctoral programmes, where appropriate. You should describe how your programme will create the conditions for attracting such investment.Your application must demonstrate that there is significant added value from any project partners you choose to form part of your consortium. Examples could include but are not limited to: • financial commitments to partially, or fully, fund additional studentships • hosting work experience or placements • co-supervision or mentoring • training for students, programme staff, or both • access to facilities, infrastructure, data, customers or markets • delivery of training, including on entrepreneurship and commercialisation • commitment to cover the costs of access to facilities or training that cannot otherwise be provided • strategic links to an important stakeholder or user • supporting employees into doctoral study There is no limit to the total number of

Click here to start an application on the UKRI Funding Service: https://funding-service.ukri.org/OPP1365/apply/1391 Expression of interest (EOI) You must submit a mandatory EOI in the form of an email sent to ict.theme@epsrc.ukri.org by 5 November 2026 at 4:00pm UK time. This is for planning and organisational purposes and will not form part of the assessment. The email should indicate: • that you intend to apply for the funding opportunity • who the lead applicant will be • any planned collaborating institutions Applications may be developed and expanded with more (or fewer) collaborators prior to submission, and this will not affect your application. You may appear in more than one EOI, but an individual institution and individual applicant can only be the lead of one application. Applications to this funding opportunity will not be considered if: • you do no submit an EOI • you submit your EOI after 5 November at 4:00pm (UK time) • you submit more than one EOI as a lead applicant. You should consult your research office to avoid multiple applications inadvertently being submitted • institutions submit more than one application as a lead To apply 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. Select ‘Start application’ near the beginning of this Funding finder page. • Confirm you are the project lead. • Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. • 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. • Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office. • Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing. • Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI. Please be aware that research office and finance teams undertake checks on hosting arrangements and financial eligibility. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with all opportunity requirements lies with the applicant. Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. When including images, you must: • provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately und