Focal award: EPSRC and MHCLG Fire Engineering Skills Hub (Grant)

Apply for funding for a skills hub to deliver high quality, cohort based doctoral training, and design of high-quality postgraduate level taught programmes in fire engineering EPSRC have up to £5.9 million funding available for this funding opportunity. As a non-full economic cost award, EPSRC will fund 100% of eligible costs listed in the funding opportunity. Estates and indirect costs will not be funded. To apply, an expression of interest must be completed by 1 October 2026 at 4:00pm UK time. Demand management Demand management is being applied to this funding opportunity. Organisations can only apply as the lead organisation on one submitted application. Aim The Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report makes a number of recommendations relating to the fire engineering profession, which the government has accepted in full, including establishing an independent body to regulate the profession in title and function and to take urgent steps to increase the number of places on master’s level courses. The government is acting to implement these recommendations. In December 2025, it published the Fire Engineers Advisory Panel’s Authoritative Statement , setting out the knowledge and skills expected of a competent fire engineer. Alongside this, it published the Next steps on fire engineering profession reform setting out the next steps we will take to implement the recommendations concerning fire engineers. These next steps include how it will increase the fire engineering workforce. In March, we announced £15 million that will make a significant contribution to building the pipeline into the profession. As part of this package, this funding opportunity provided by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) aims to strengthen the capacity and capability of the fire engineering profession through both education provision and research capability. EPSRC are one of two delivery partners secured by MHCLG to deliver fire engineering skills development and training. The funding will be distributed by each partner as detailed below: • Royal Academy of Engineering will manage the provision of scholarships for taught Master’s level, innovative routes for future recruitment and other campaigns to enhance the recognition of fire engineering as a profession and attract entrants to the profession • EPSRC is leading the coordination of the allocation of funding for the development of level 7 including continuing professional development (CPD) programmes and doctoral studentships through a skills hub model A skills hub will develop the skills and capabilities of the next generation of fire engineering practitioners, researchers and innovators. It will address the skills gaps and differing levels of training provision across the UK Fire Engineering community and adjacent professions. It will provide leadership in research, through the funding of new doctoral studentships, and will coordinate and support the development of new and updated level 7 provision for training master’s students, doctoral students and supporting the wider continuing professional development of the UK fire engineering community. Scope The funding is provided as part of the UK Government Building Workforce programme designed to increase capacity and capability of safety critical professions which includes fire engineering. There are three elements for the skills and training provided by this funding: • a doctoral training programme to support the next generation of researchers in fire engineering through a cohort based, highly tailored training programme • the development of taught postgraduate (level 7) development programmes for the fire engineering community with innovative modes of study to cater for a range of audiences • the development of level 7 fire engineering continuing professional development training for the wider fire engineering community and adjacent professions wishing to upskill or re-train into fire engineering You must deliver all the above elements. We welcome applications from multi organisational consortia which bring together expertise in fire engineering. Consortia can be new collaborations, as well as applications that expand on existing doctoral training investments. Cohesion across the consortium must be demonstrated in the application, including a clear case for the given size of their consortia. You will be expected to work in collaboration with the ongoing work: • to underpin future regulation and reform of the fire engineering profession • of the regulator responsible for the accreditation of education programmes You are expected to: • deliver specialist fire engineering teaching capacity with recognition given to the government’s commitment to fire safety strategy being the central, protected function of the profession • provide emphasis on the ethical practice fundamental to ensuring life safety • demonstrable fire engineering research capability sufficient to support research-led teaching, dissertati

This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible . UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) individual eligibility rules apply. For full details, visit UKRI’s eligibility page . Who is eligible to apply This funding opportunity is only open to higher education institutions. Organisations can only apply as the lead organisation on one submitted application. However, organisations can be a collaborating organisation or project partner 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 doctoral student per year of intake for this funding opportunity Identification of the project lead should not be interpreted as recognition as the dominant partner, where the majority of funds are deployed or where the majority of doctoral 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. EPSRC expects lead organisations to join with additional organisations, forming a consortium, in which other organisations could also host doctoral students or support delivery of the wider skills hub. You are encouraged to engage effectively with other organisations to ensure the: • development of the level 7 (or equivalent) training courses, including continuing professional development training for members of the consortium and potentially shared more widely • delivery of a truly interdisciplinary training environment and experience for doctoral 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 More information is available on roles in funding applications . 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 can make direct or indirect contributions to the grant and cannot receive funds from it. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government do not require financial contributions from project partners in this funding opportunity but encourage you to develop new or existing links and partnerships with the fire engineering industry and public sector organisations. 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 application • 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 Your application must demonstrate that there is significant added value from any project partners you choose to form part of your consortium. Examples include: • hosting work experience, placements, venture building activities or similar • 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, venture creation or 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 organisations you may include within your application. However, each member of the consortium must make meaningful contributions to the delivery of the training provision, as set out in your application. International researchers The UKRI-RCN Money Follows Cooperation Agreement does not apply to this funding opportunity. As such grants submitted to this fu

Click https://funding-service.ukri.org/OPP1364/apply/1390 in the UKRI Funding Service to apply. Expression of interest (EoI) This funding opportunity has a mandatory EOI stage. This will enable EPSRC to prepare for the assessment process. Any applications without an EOI will be rejected. Please submit your EOI via Citizen Space . The deadline for submission of an EOI is 1 October 2026 at 4:00pm UK time. The EOI should include: • contact details for the project lead • contact details for others involved in the application, including a contact for the lead organisation’s research office • the title of your proposed fire engineering skills hub • other organisations that are expected to be involved in delivering the skills hub, including the lead organisation and any confirmed or likely collaborating organisations • the thematic areas your training programme will cover (approximately 200 words) Only the lead organisation should submit an EOI. Universities must discuss with their university research office before submitting an EOI. Your EOI will not be assessed externally. It will be used by EPSRC to plan the assessment process. We will only contact you if we require any clarifications or have any concerns about whether the proposed work is in scope and remit for this funding opportunity. We intend to publish the details of the project lead, lead institution, institutions involved in the consortium and the summary provided of each expression of interest. Only applications that have submitted an EOI will be permitted to submit a full application. Full proposals stage 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. Please refer to the eligibility sections on the UKRI website to ensure that your organisation and applicants are eligible for UKRI funding. Check if your organisation is eligible. To apply 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 appli