Apply for Research Hub Grants: EPSRC Research and Partnership Hubs for a Healthy Society — Up to £12.5M (2026 Guide)

If you lead big-picture research and want to move beyond a single lab or a one-off project, this opportunity could change the scale of what you can achieve. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is inviting multidisciplinary teams to establish large research hubs that bring together engineering, physical sciences and health research to support healthier lives and prevent ill health. This is a call for systems thinking, long-term partnerships, and projects designed to deliver population-level benefits.

A few facts up front: this is an invite-only competition. Only teams that pass an outline stage and receive an invitation from EPSRC can submit a full proposal. The hub funding is significant: projects can request up to £12.5 million full economic cost (FEC), and EPSRC will cover 80% of that cost. The total pot across all successful hubs is expected to be between £37.5 million and £62.5 million FEC, which means multiple large hubs will be funded across the UK.

This guide walks you through what the opportunity actually offers, who should apply, how to shape your bid, and a realistic timeline to get a submission that reviewers will take seriously. If you want to run a hub that combines engineering, data science, physical sciences and health research to materially reduce disease risk or improve wellbeing at scale, read on.

At a Glance

Why this funding matters (Introduction)

Big public-health problems rarely yield to a single-discipline approach. Whether you are tackling long-term conditions, preventing disease at scale, or designing environments that promote healthier behavior, the solutions sit at the intersection of engineering, physical sciences and health research. EPSRC’s hub funding is expressly designed to move projects from clever proofs-of-concept into large-scale programmes with the partnerships and capacity to deliver real change.

Think of a hub as a small ecosystem: academics, industry partners, NHS or public-health bodies, community groups, and funders, all working within an agreed governance structure. The money is big enough to hire permanent staff, invest in data infrastructure, fund trialling at scale, and build enduring partnerships. It’s the sort of award that can define a research agenda for a decade.

But scale brings complexity. Successful hubs demonstrate tight project management, clear pathways to impact, evidence of genuine co-design with end users, and the ability to manage legal, ethical and data-sharing hurdles. This guide is designed to help you meet that bar.

What This Opportunity Offers

This funding offers three kinds of value: financial capacity, partnership infrastructure, and credibility.

Financial capacity: With awards up to £12.5M FEC (with EPSRC covering 80%), you can create a sustained programme rather than a time-limited pilot. Use the money to recruit multidisciplinary staff, develop and maintain secure data platforms, run large cohort studies or pragmatic trials, and underwrite longer development timelines that are often necessary for public-health interventions.

Partnership infrastructure: EPSRC expects hubs to be partnership-driven. The award allows you to formalize relationships with the NHS, local authorities, industry partners and community organisations. That means contracts, data-sharing agreements, and dedicated roles for translation and implementation — things that normally stall smaller projects.

Credibility and scale: A hub funded at this level signals to other funders and partners that your work is ready for bigger collaborations. Successful hubs often secure matched funding from partners, attract industry investment, or are able to catalyse policy pilots at local or national levels.

Beyond cash, the award offers the platform to embed training and capacity building. You can fund PhD studentships, fellowships, and placements that develop the next generation of researchers who work across physical sciences and health.

Who Should Apply

This is not for an individual investigator running a single lab. The ideal applicants are institutions and leaders who can demonstrate both scientific excellence across multiple disciplines and the managerial sophistication to run a large programme.

Suitable applicants include:

• Universities or research organisations with demonstrable strengths in engineering, physical sciences and health research, and with institutional commitment to host a long-term hub.
• Consortia that include clinical partners (NHS bodies or public health authorities), local government, and non-academic stakeholders such as charities, civic organisations, and industry partners.
• Teams with prior experience managing multi-million-pound grants or complex consortia, or those who include senior staff with that experience.

Concrete examples:

• A university-led consortium combining materials scientists, mechanical engineers and public-health researchers aiming to redesign housing stock to improve respiratory outcomes at scale.
• A multi-institution partnership that uses engineering sensors, AI analytics and behavioural science to prevent falls among older adults, in partnership with NHS trusts and local councils.
• A collaboration where data scientists, clinicians and social scientists co-develop a regional prevention service that integrates wearables data, primary care records and community interventions.

Eligibility note: Only organisations eligible for EPSRC funding can host the grant, and full proposals are only accepted from teams invited after a successful outline application.

Insider Tips for a Winning Application

Getting invited is the first hurdle — converting an invitation into funding is all about rigour, clarity and proof of partnership. Here are seven granular tips to sharpen your bid.

1. Tell a tight narrative about impact from day one. Reviewers are looking for a clear problem statement and a credible pathway from activities to measurable health outcomes. Map your theory of change early in the document: what you will do, for whom, and how success will be judged.

2. Show genuine co-design, not just letters. Letters of support are useful, but concrete evidence of co-design is stronger: signed memoranda of understanding, completed pilot collaborations, joint governance structures, or commitments to host pilots in real-world settings.

3. Spell out governance and risk management. Large hubs live or die on their governance. Include a governance diagram, roles and responsibilities, decision-making processes, and a risk register with mitigation strategies. Be explicit about intellectual property, data stewardship and dispute resolution.

4. Budget for the non-research essentials. Funders expect you to pay for project management, data engineers, legal support for data-sharing agreements, and public engagement. If these costs are missing, reviewers will worry your hub cannot operate.

5. Prioritise measurable early wins. Hubs that promise a ten-year revolution often fail the feasibility test. Build in early deliverables within 12–24 months that demonstrate momentum — e.g., a completed feasibility study, deployment of a data platform, or an initial policy brief adopted locally.

6. Demonstrate multidisciplinary integration, not co-location. It is not enough to list disciplines. Explain how teams will work together: shared work packages, cross-disciplinary secondments, joint supervision of students, and integrated evaluation metrics.

7. Make the case for value for money. With big budgets reviewers will scrutinise what the money buys. Show unit costs, justify staffing levels, and present phased budgets that align spending with deliverables. If partners will contribute cash or in-kind resources, document that clearly.

Application Timeline (Working Back from 17 March 2026)

Start early. Very early.

• March 17, 2026 — Full proposal deadline (16:00 UK time). Submit at least 48 hours early to allow for technical problems and institutional sign-off.
• February 2026 — Final internal reviews and sign-off. Circulate the near-final draft to all senior partners and the host organisation for institutional approvals.
• December 2025 – January 2026 — Complete full draft and begin formal re-write. Secure final letters of support and finalize budget tables.
• October – November 2025 — Develop full management plan, governance arrangements, and risk register. Put legal and data teams on notice to draft MOUs and data-sharing agreement templates.
• August – September 2025 — Solidify partnerships and roles. Run joint workshops or mock governance meetings to demonstrate working relationships.
• June – July 2025 — Prepare the outline application (if this is not already done). Collect initial letters and conduct stakeholder mapping. Start drafting the case for support and the impact pathway.
• April – May 2025 — Secure institutional buy-in and identify your senior administrative contacts (research office, finance, contracts).
• Before April 2025 — If you are at pre-application stage, assemble your core leadership team and begin building external partnerships.

Allow several weeks for institutional approvals; most universities have internal deadlines well before the funder’s deadline.

Required Materials (What You Must Prepare)

Full proposals will require a comprehensive set of documents. Prepare these early and give your partners plenty of time to provide accurate inputs.

• Case for Support / Project Narrative: The heart of the application. Describe objectives, research programme, methodology, expected outcomes, and evaluation plans. Use figures and a theory-of-change diagram.
• Detailed Budget and Justification: Break down costs by work package and year. Show what EPSRC funding will cover and what partners will contribute in cash or in-kind.
• Management and Governance Plan: Include governance structures, advisory boards, project management approach, and a risk register.
• Partnership Agreements / Letters of Support: Letters should be specific about commitments (e.g., “We will provide NHS site access and 0.5 FTE clinician time for X months”).
• Data Management Plan: Explain data collection, storage, access, security and stewarding arrangements, especially if linking health records.
• Pathways to Impact and Exploitation Plans: Show how outcomes will be adopted by services, industry or policy-makers.
• Environment, Ethics and Regulatory Approvals: Outline foreseeable ethical issues and regulatory requirements, and how you will address them.
• Staff CVs / Biographies: For senior leads and key personnel, include concise CVs highlighting relevant experience in multidisciplinary leadership and large programme delivery.
• Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE): Evidence of PPIE involvement in design and governance.
• Letters confirming host institution support: The host must commit to supporting the hub (space, facilities, institutional oversight).

Prepare draft legal documents early: MOUs, data-sharing frameworks, and consortia agreements are time-consuming to negotiate.

What Makes an Application Stand Out

Reviewers look for both ambition and grounded realism. The standout bids have a few common traits.

First, a clear value proposition: the hub addresses a well-defined health problem and lays out how engineering and physical sciences add essential capabilities. It answers the question: why does this need to be a hub rather than a sequence of projects?

Second, deep partnerships with implementation partners. Hubs that include NHS trusts, local authorities or industry partners who are committed to trialling or adopting outputs score highly. Tangible commitments to host pilots, share data, or adopt protocols matter more than general statements of interest.

Third, demonstrable capacity to manage complexity. Evidence of prior large grants, experienced programme directors, and an explicit plan for programme management reassures reviewers that the hub can deliver.

Fourth, inclusivity and equity in design. Projects that show attention to health inequalities, representative recruitment, and accessible engagement activities indicate broader societal benefit.

Finally, clarity on measurement and evaluation. Define outcome metrics, interim progress indicators, and how you’ll assess cost-effectiveness or health-service impact. Without measurement, big ambitions remain untestable.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Large proposals often fall over on avoidable errors. Watch for these pitfalls.

1. Under-budgeting core operational costs. Many teams focus on research activities and forget the day-to-day costs of running a hub (project managers, data engineers, legal support). Solution: build a realistic operations line and justify it.

2. Weak partnership evidence. Generic support letters without specific commitments are red flags. Solution: get concrete letters stating resources, timelines and named contacts.

3. Overpromising and under-delivering. Ambition is good, but unrealistic timelines or outcomes undermine credibility. Solution: include staged goals with early deliverables and contingency plans.

4. Neglecting data governance. Hubs that plan to link health records or deploy digital monitoring devices without clear data stewardship plans are risky. Solution: consult your institution’s data protection and legal teams early; draft DSAs and describe security measures.

5. Poorly articulated interdisciplinary integration. Listing disciplines is not the same as showing how they will integrate daily. Solution: describe cross-cutting work packages, joint supervision, and shared metrics.

6. Late institutional sign-off. Many proposals miss internal approvals or institutional costing deadlines. Solution: identify your research office contacts early and confirm institutional deadlines.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can international partners be included? A: Yes. International partners can participate and add expertise, but the host organisation and the primary award must be with a UK research organisation eligible for EPSRC funding. Clarify funding flows — EPSRC will not directly fund overseas partners unless routed appropriately through the host’s contracts.

Q: What does EPSRC funding 80% of FEC mean in practice? A: EPSRC will fund 80% of the full economic cost. The remaining 20% must be covered by the host institution or through partner contributions (cash or in-kind). Demonstrate how you will meet that 20% gap in your budget justification.

Q: Is preliminary data required? A: You don’t need exhaustive pilot data, but you should provide evidence of feasibility and any initial work that justifies the approach. Pilots or feasibility studies strengthen applications, especially where novel technology or integrations are proposed.

Q: Who writes the letters of support and what should they say? A: Letters should come from partners (NHS trusts, local authorities, industry partners, charities) and be specific. They should outline the nature of the commitment (e.g., data access, staff time, pilot sites), named contacts, timelines and any cash contributions.

Q: Will the hub be expected to run beyond the funded period? A: Funders typically expect hubs to plan for sustainability, whether through partner adoption, additional funding, or commercialisation. Include realistic sustainability plans and potential routes to extend impact after the funding ends.

Q: Is community engagement required? A: Yes. Public and patient involvement (PPIE) is central for health-related work. Detail how users will be engaged in design, governance and dissemination.

Q: How competitive is this award? A: This is a major strategic funding call aimed at supporting a small number of substantial hubs. Competition will be strong and reviewers will expect high-quality partnership evidence, management capacity, and clear impact pathways.

Next Steps / How to Apply

If this fits your ambitions, take these immediate actions:

1. Read the official call page and guidance: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/research-and-partnership-hubs-for-a-healthy-society/
2. Confirm your organisation’s eligibility for EPSRC funding.
3. Assemble a core leadership team with experience in large consortia and programme management.
4. Register interest with EPSRC and use the listed contact emails for clarifications: support@funding-service.ukri.org, tfschangeepsrc@epsrc.ukri.org, healthcare@epsrc.ukri.org.
5. Start building partnership agreements and draft MOUs; begin work on data governance and ethical approvals early.
6. Draft a realistic timeline and budget, and lock in institutional sign-off dates so you don’t miss internal deadlines.

Ready to apply? Visit the official opportunity page for full guidance and to access the application process: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/research-and-partnership-hubs-for-a-healthy-society/

If you want, I can help you brainstorm a hub concept, draft a high-level theory of change, or prepare templates for letters of support and governance diagrams.