The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK’s largest public funder, by budget, of engineering, physical sciences, mathematics, and digital technology research. It is one of the seven discipline-based research councils that sit inside UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the umbrella body that also includes Innovate UK and Research England. This guide covers EPSRC’s role within UKRI, its main funding routes and schemes, and how it differs from neighbouring UKRI councils.
EPSRC’s role within UKRI
UKRI comprises nine constituent organisations: seven research councils (AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, EPSRC, MRC, NERC, STFC), Innovate UK, and Research England, formed as a single body in April 2018. Before that, EPSRC operated as a separate legal entity under its own Royal Charter, established in 1994 when the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) was split into discipline-specific successor bodies. Particle physics, nuclear physics, and astronomy were carved out into what is now the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), leaving EPSRC with engineering, the physical sciences, and (later) digital/AI research — which is why “physical sciences” in EPSRC’s name excludes astronomy and particle physics, a common point of confusion.
Like the other six UKRI research councils, EPSRC does not run separate application or costing infrastructure from the rest of UKRI. Applications and award management go through the UKRI Funding Service (the successor to the older Je-S system), grants are costed on a full economic costing (fEC) basis and funded at UKRI’s standard 80% of fEC rate under the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) methodology, and funded projects are reportable annually through Researchfish. The council-specific distinctions are in scheme names, panel composition, and subject-matter eligibility — not in the underlying administrative systems.
What EPSRC funds
EPSRC’s remit spans:
- Engineering, from manufacturing and materials to civil, chemical, and electrical engineering
- The physical sciences: chemistry, physics (excluding particle and nuclear physics, which sit with STFC), and materials science
- Mathematical sciences
- Digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, robotics, and computer science
Interdisciplinary proposals that combine EPSRC’s remit with another council’s — health, environment, or social science — are common and are often routed through cross-council calls or co-funded studentships rather than EPSRC funding alone.
Main funding routes and grant types
EPSRC’s funding opportunities are managed on a continuous basis and should always be checked against the live UKRI funding finder before applying, but the recurring categories include:
Standard Grants (responsive mode)
EPSRC’s core investigator-led scheme, open to any topic within remit. Standard Grants are flexible in scale — from small, short-term awards to multimillion-pound research programmes — with no fixed ceiling on grant size or project length, funded at 80% of fEC. Unlike some other UKRI councils’ responsive-mode schemes, EPSRC does not publish fixed closing dates for Standard Grants; applications are batched and assessed on a rolling basis, and applicants are encouraged to apply when the proposal is ready rather than against a fixed deadline. Submission is through the UKRI Funding Service.
Programme Grants
Larger, longer-term “critical mass” awards aimed at world-leading research groups tackling a significant, strategic research challenge, bringing together internationally recognised researchers around a single strategic theme rather than a narrow project. Programme Grants can run for up to six years and give grant holders flexibility to reallocate resources between sub-projects and respond to emerging findings as the work progresses, rather than being locked to a fixed plan set at the outset. Awards valued above £3,000,000 at full economic cost receive a fixed start date; individual equipment items of roughly £25,000 to £400,000 may be requested within a proposal. There is no single stated maximum award size — available funding depends on the research theme, and applicants are expected to discuss budget expectations with EPSRC at the outline stage before submitting a full proposal.
Early-career schemes
EPSRC funds researchers transitioning to independence through the EPSRC New Investigator Award (NIA), a smaller, shorter, self-contained award (typically 1–3 years, funding 10–35% of investigator time) reserved for applicants who have not yet led a grant of significant scale. The NIA is explicitly not an alternative to a fellowship or to standard-mode funding — see the dedicated NIA guide for eligibility detail, including EPSRC’s specific thresholds for what counts as a disqualifying prior grant.
Fellowships
Alongside project funding, EPSRC funds career-stage fellowships that support a much larger share of an investigator’s time over a longer, structured career-development period than the NIA, aimed at researchers building an independent research programme and track record over several years.
Doctoral training
EPSRC funds postgraduate training principally through Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), which train cohorts of PhD students in a specific engineering or physical-sciences discipline, following the same doctoral-training model used across UKRI’s other research councils. EPSRC has historically funded a large share of UKRI’s CDT portfolio, reflecting the scale of its overall budget relative to the other six research councils.
How EPSRC differs from UKRI’s other research councils
All seven UKRI research councils share the same overarching application system, fEC/TRAC costing model, and Researchfish reporting requirement, but each has a distinct subject remit:
- EPSRC — engineering, physical sciences, mathematics, and digital technology
- MRC — medical, biomedical, and clinical research
- BBSRC — biotechnology and biological sciences
- ESRC — economic, social, behavioural, and human data science research
- AHRC — arts and humanities
- NERC — environmental and natural sciences
- STFC — physics, astronomy, particle physics, and large research facilities
Research spanning EPSRC’s remit and a neighbouring council’s — for example engineering and health (EPSRC/MRC), or physical sciences and environment (EPSRC/NERC) — is often jointly funded or co-badged across councils, reflecting UKRI’s cross-council funding model rather than forcing a proposal into a single council’s remit.
Where to find current EPSRC funding opportunities
Because deadlines, award values, and open/closed status change frequently — and EPSRC in particular runs Standard Grants without fixed published rounds — treat any specific figures in secondary sources, including this guide, as indicative rather than current. The authoritative, continuously updated sources are:
- UKRI funding finder (ukri.org/opportunity/) — searchable by council, filterable to EPSRC-led and EPSRC-co-funded calls
- EPSRC’s own council pages (ukri.org/councils/epsrc/) — remit, priorities, and funding category overviews
- UKRI Funding Service — where EPSRC applications are actually submitted and managed through to award closeout
Frequently asked questions
Is EPSRC the same as UKRI?
No. EPSRC is one of UKRI’s seven discipline-based research councils, not UKRI itself. UKRI is the umbrella body formed in April 2018 that comprises EPSRC, six other research councils (AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC), Innovate UK, and Research England.
What percentage of costs does EPSRC fund?
Like other UKRI research councils, EPSRC funds most grants at 80% of full economic cost (fEC), calculated using the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) methodology, with the host institution expected to find the remaining 20%.
Does EPSRC have fixed application deadlines?
Not for its core Standard Grant (responsive mode) scheme — EPSRC batches and assesses these on a rolling basis rather than publishing fixed closing dates, which is a departure from the round-based responsive-mode model used by some other UKRI councils. Other EPSRC schemes, including the New Investigator Award and Programme Grants, do use defined submission and assessment timetables; always confirm current arrangements on the live ukri.org opportunity listing.
What is the difference between an EPSRC Standard Grant and a Programme Grant?
A Standard Grant is EPSRC’s core investigator-led responsive-mode scheme, open to any topic within remit and flexible in scale. A Programme Grant is a larger, longer-term (up to six years) “critical mass” award intended for established, internationally recognised research groups tackling a strategic research theme, with more flexibility to reallocate resources across sub-projects as the work develops.
Where do I apply for EPSRC funding?
Through the UKRI Funding Service, the shared application and award-management platform used across all seven UKRI research councils, which replaced the older Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system.
