The UKRI grant tracker — officially named Gateway to Research (GtR) — is UKRI’s public, post-award database of funded projects, while Funding Finder is the pre-award tool for discovering open competitions. Use GtR to see what has already been funded and by whom; use Funding Finder to find and apply for a live opportunity. Confusing the two wastes time at both ends of the grant lifecycle.
Gateway to Research is UKRI’s searchable record of research and innovation projects it has already funded, spanning UKRI’s seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK.
- What is the UKRI grant tracker (Gateway to Research)?
- What is UKRI Funding Finder and how does it differ?
- Which tool should you use at each stage of the grant lifecycle?
- Where does the UKRI Funding Service fit in?
- Common questions about UKRI’s grant tools
- Key takeaways for research administrators
What Is the UKRI Grant Tracker (Gateway to Research)?
Gateway to Research (GtR), hosted at gtr.ukri.org, is UKRI’s public gateway onto publicly funded research. It is a retrospective, analytical tool, not a submission portal: researchers, administrators and journalists use it to look up who has already received UKRI funding, for what, and with which collaborators.
GtR supports structured search syntax rather than a simple keyword box. Search terms can be combined with capitalised Boolean operators — AND, OR, and by implication exclusion logic — and exact phrases can be isolated by wrapping them in quotation marks (for example, “big data”). This makes GtR closer to a bibliometric research tool than a funding-opportunity search engine, and it is the correct destination when the underlying question is “who funds this kind of work” rather than “how do I apply for funding.”
- Records cover projects across all seven UKRI research councils, Research England and Innovate UK.
- Each project record can include the funded organisation, the named investigators, and linked outputs where reported.
- GtR is read-only: it has no application or sign-in function, and cannot be used to submit a bid.
What Is UKRI Funding Finder and How Does It Differ?
UKRI Funding Finder, at ukri.org/opportunity, is the live, forward-looking search tool for current and upcoming funding competitions. Where GtR looks backwards at what has already been awarded, Funding Finder looks forwards at what can still be applied for. Each listing states eligibility criteria, assessment approach, and — increasingly — whether the call is open to all applicants or restricted to invited organisations.
At the time of research for this article, Funding Finder listed 124 open opportunities across UKRI’s councils, spanning fields from quantum computing hardware to obesity research and zero-emission vehicle manufacturing. Listings can be sorted by publication date, opening date or closing date, and results can be followed via an RSS feed for teams monitoring a discipline continuously. Opportunities that closed before 20 September 2020 are not held on the live site; UKRI directs users to the UK Government Web Archive for that historical record — a detail that matters for administrators auditing older award terms.
Which Tool Should You Use at Each Stage of the Grant Lifecycle?
The two tools map cleanly onto opposite ends of the grant lifecycle. Funding Finder belongs to the pre-award, opportunity-scouting stage; GtR belongs to the post-award, evidence and landscape-analysis stage. Treating them as interchangeable is the single most common source of wasted searches reported by research office staff.
| Grant lifecycle stage | Correct tool | Primary purpose | Typical user |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scoping a new proposal | Funding Finder | Find open competitions, deadlines, eligibility | Principal investigators, research development staff |
| Benchmarking success rates or prior awards in a field | Gateway to Research (GtR) | Analyse what UKRI has already funded and where | Research strategy and analysis teams |
| Preparing and submitting an application | UKRI Funding Service | Complete, submit and track an application through assessment | Applicants and research office administrators |
| Identifying potential collaborators or reviewers | Gateway to Research (GtR) | Search funded projects by investigator or organisation | Principal investigators, partnership teams |
| Reporting institutional funding landscape to leadership | Gateway to Research (GtR) | Extract award data and trends across councils | Research administrators, PVC Research offices |
In practice, a full application cycle touches all three UKRI digital services in sequence: Funding Finder to find the call, the UKRI Funding Service to submit and monitor the application, and GtR afterwards — both to check the eventual public record of the award and to inform the next round of proposal scoping.
Where Does the UKRI Funding Service Fit In?
The UKRI Funding Service, at funding-service.ukri.org, is a third, distinct property that is frequently conflated with both GtR and Funding Finder. It is the sign-in application portal: the system used to prepare, submit and monitor a funding application once a suitable opportunity has been identified via Funding Finder.
Administrators searching for uk research and innovation ukri funding service are usually trying to reach this sign-in and case-tracking system, not the public search tools. This is a navigational query, and getting the destination wrong at this stage delays submission rather than discovery — a costlier mistake than a slow search on GtR or Funding Finder.
- Funding Finder — discover the opportunity (no account needed).
- UKRI Funding Service — sign in, complete the form, submit, and track assessment status (account required).
- Gateway to Research — see the public record once the award is live (no account needed).
Common Questions About UKRI’s Grant Tools
What is the UKRI grant tracker used for?
The UKRI grant tracker, Gateway to Research, is used to look up already-funded projects across UKRI’s councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Research offices use it for landscape analysis, benchmarking prior awards in a field, and identifying named investigators or partner organisations before submitting a related proposal.
Is UKRI Funding Finder the same as Gateway to Research?
No. Funding Finder lists open, forward-looking competitions for researchers still seeking funding, while Gateway to Research is a retrospective public database of projects UKRI has already awarded. They serve opposite ends of the same lifecycle and are maintained as separate services with separate URLs.
How do I track a UKRI grant after it has been awarded?
Once a grant is live, its public record — including the funded organisation and lead investigator — typically appears on Gateway to Research. Day-to-day case management, reporting obligations and correspondence for an active award are instead handled through the UKRI Funding Service account, not GtR.
Do I need an account to search UKRI Funding Finder?
No account is required to browse or search Funding Finder listings, including filtering by opening or closing date. An account on the separate UKRI Funding Service is only required at the point of actually starting, saving or submitting an application.
Key Takeaways for Research Administrators
The practical rule is straightforward: search Funding Finder for what can still be won, consult Gateway to Research for what has already been won, and use the UKRI Funding Service to actually submit and manage the application in between. Bookmarking all three separately — rather than treating “the UKRI grant tracker” as a single catch-all site — removes the single most common navigation error research offices report when supporting first-time applicants.
As UKRI continues to consolidate its digital services, research administration teams should expect closer integration between these platforms, but the underlying separation of pre-award discovery, application management and post-award transparency is unlikely to disappear, since each serves a distinct statutory and operational purpose. Institutions building internal guidance for applicants — as part of broader research administration support — should signpost all three tools explicitly rather than defaulting to whichever one appears first in a search engine.