Next generation artificial intelligence (AI): explainable AI (Grant)

Apply for funding for projects focused on speculative and high-risk fundamental research with the potential to deliver high reward and a step change in the explainability of future artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Applications are particularly welcomed from early and mid-career UK researchers. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding. The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £602,500. UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC (£482,000). Projects must start on 1 February 2027 and last for up to 24 months. Demand management Demand management is not currently being applied to this funding opportunity. However, should the level of interest exceed what can be managed within the assessment process, UKRI may introduce additional limits on the number of applications that can be submitted. Further details will be clearly communicated where this is the case. UKRI encourages organisations to support applicants in preparing well-planned, high-quality applications that are competitive for funding relative to the funding opportunity. Aim This funding opportunity is the first to be delivered under the flagship UKRI IS8 AI Programme. It is a pilot and the first in what is hoped to be (subject to budgets) a series of next-generation AI funding opportunities spotlighting emerging priorities in response to the UKRI AI Strategic Framework, societal and governmental needs. Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming research, industry and public services, but progress is not universal across sectors. Increasing AI explainability could unlock a further wave of innovation with the potential to advance safety, reliability and responsible use. This could underpin the next generation of AI technologies and create new market opportunities. We are investing up to £10 million over two years into speculative and high-risk fundamental research with the potential to deliver high reward by enabling a step change in the explainability of future AI systems. The opportunity aims to: • support potentially transformative, highly novel, fundamental research with the potential to deliver a step change in the explainability of future AI systems. This would lay the foundations for future societal, economic and technological benefits, including new market opportunities for the UK • strengthen the UK’s capability to design, develop and deploy explainable AI technologies • broaden access to strategic AI funding, particularly for new entrants and early and mid-career researchers in the UK • enable small-scale, rapid projects that generate foundational insights which can be built on in the future • deliver a faster process compared to current standard funding routes, whilst maintaining robust decision making that is proportionate to the level of risk This opportunity is intended to stimulate creativity within the research community and give researchers time and space to test out speculative ideas. Applicants are advised to strongly consider whether their research idea is truly speculative, high-risk and could potentially offer high reward before applying. Projects should: • aim to disrupt existing areas of explainable AI research or create new ones, delivering research with the potential to lead to radically new and disruptive technologies and a step change in explainability of future AI systems • adopt a risk tolerant approach utilising ways of working that encourage and enable transformative outcomes rather than incremental advances • support an ambitious and capable project team with the appropriate breadth and depth of expertise required to achieve the research objectives Projects are not expected to: • produce tangible outcomes, such as new AI models or spinouts, within two years • succeed in all of their research goals, especially the most risky and ambitious • avoid failure; approaches that do not work as intended can still generate important learning and valuable knowledge for the wider research community We encourage you to be as adventurous as possible in your thinking. We will support creative and potentially unconventional ways of working. We particularly encourage applications from a broad and diverse range of researchers, including early- and mid-career researchers, to help capture a wider diversity of research excellence, creativity and approaches from across the community to enable more transformative outcomes. Interdisciplinary approaches are welcome. However, we aim to support research that is working towards a demonstrable impact on AI technology and build the UK’s capacity to design and deploy explainable AI technologies. We will not fund applications that consist of majority non-technical research such as purely social science, legal, policy or ethical studies. We will not support incremental work lacking ambition to push the boundaries of AI explainability, nor the continuation of existing projects. We expect applicants to explain why their proposed research

This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible . Funding for this opportunity is subject to full business case approval. Who is eligible to apply To apply you must meet the standard eligibility requirements for UKRI . Applications are particularly welcome from early and mid-career researchers. The inclusion of researcher co-leads is encouraged where they have made a substantial intellectual contribution to the development of the application and will be engaged with the ensuing research. Given the short-term nature of the grant and fixed start date, the project lead (PL) may choose to contribute a greater proportion of their time to the project than is standard. This should be justified and proportional to the activities set out in the proposal. In line with our equality, diversity and inclusion principles, joint leadership of projects will be allowed. Applicants must agree an administrative lead from an eligible UK research organisation to be the project lead on the application form, and their institution will be responsible for submitting the grant application. You may be involved in no more than two applications submitted to this funding opportunity. Only one of these can be as project lead. International researchers International researchers can only apply as ‘project co-lead (international)’ as part of an applications making use of the UKRI-RCN Money Follows Cooperation agreement or the UKRI-IIASA agreement. You should include all other international collaborators (or UK partners not based at approved organisations) as project partners. Resubmissions We will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UKRI or any other funder. Find out more about EPSRC’s resubmissions policy . Equality, diversity and inclusion We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers and organisations. We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes: • career breaks • support for people with caring responsibilities • flexible working • alternative working patterns UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

Click here to start your application on the UKRI Funding Service https://funding-service.ukri.org/OPP1297/apply/1328 We are running this funding opportunity on the new 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. • 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 underneath it in the text box (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit). • insert each new image onto a new line. • use files smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format. Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words. The following are not permitted, and your application will be rejected if you include: • sentences or paragraphs of text • tables • excessive quantities of images A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column. 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 References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application. Hyperlinks