Transformative sustainable AI technologies (Grant)

Apply for funding for projects focused on speculative and high-risk research with the potential to deliver high rewards and a step change in the sustainability of future AI systems. Projects should consider technological innovations across the AI stack. You must be: • based at a UK research organisation eligible for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding • in a role that meets the individual eligibility requirements The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £602,500. UKRI will fund 80% of the FEC. 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 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 delivered under the flagship UKRI IS8 AI Programme. Funding for this opportunity is subject to full business case approval. It is hoped to be the first in a broader programme of activities designed to ensure the UK is at the forefront of ensuring future AI systems are sustainable by design. The opportunity utilises the same approach as the parallel Next Generation AI pilot focusing support on speculative and high-risk research with the potential to deliver high reward. Artificial intelligence is transforming research, industry and public services at an unprecedented pace. Yet the rapid growth in the computational requirements of AI is increasing energy demand, resource consumption and environmental impacts. There is an urgent need to develop sustainable AI systems that minimise these costs while maintaining performance and societal benefit. Inherently more sustainable hardware, algorithms, software and system design, could all be examples of routes to improved efficiency. Such advances in sustainable AI could strengthen national resilience, reduce costs and unlock new economic opportunities for the UK. We are investing up to £10 million over two years into speculative and high-risk research projects with the potential to deliver a step change in the sustainability of future AI systems. We will fund research that fundamentally improves the efficiency, robustness, reliability and long-term maintainability of AI systems, ensuring future AI is sustainable by design with reduced environmental impacts. This opportunity aims to: • support potentially transformative, highly novel technologies and tools with the potential to deliver a step change in the sustainability of future AI systems • develop the foundations of sustainable technologies for the future societal, economic and technological benefits, including new market opportunities for the UK • strengthen the UK’s capability to design and deploy bold, ambitious sustainable AI technologies, ensuring AI contributes positively to both economic growth and environmental sustainability • 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 Projects should: • aim to disrupt existing areas of sustainable AI research or create new ones • deliver research with the potential to lead to radically new and disruptive technologies and a step change in the sustainability 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 appropriate breadth and depth of expertise required to achieve the research objectives Projects are not expected to: • produce tangible outcomes (for example, new AI models or spinouts) within two years • succeed in all 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 encourage the makeup of applicant teams to represent team science as this will lead to a diversity of research excellence, creativity and approaches from across the landscape to enable more transformative outcomes. 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 befor

This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible . UKRI individual eligibility rules apply. For full details, visit UKRI’s eligibility page . Who is eligible to apply This funding opportunity is open to research groups and individuals. For this funding opportunity we welcome applications led by research technical professionals (RTPs), including research software engineers, involved in the delivery of digital research infrastructure who meet the eligibility criteria. Digital RTPs may apply as either project lead or project co-lead. 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. 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 application 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. 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/OPP1305/apply/1335 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. • 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