Funder Strategies & Opportunities

When preparing a grant application, it is crucial to ensure that it aligns with the strategy and priorities of the research funder.

Alignment with funding agency goals

Funders are motivated by specific visions and objectives, and they seek applications that align closely with their own goals. To increase your chance of success as an applicant, you must ensure that your research objectives are in harmony with the agency's mission and priorities. This involves clearly explaining how the proposed research aligns with the agency's goals, and may require reshaping (or re-focussing) your research question to fit the call for proposals.

Understanding potential future funding opportunities

Funding agencies develop new funding calls based on their strategies. If you are familiar with these strategies you will be better able to understand the context and rationale of theme-based funding calls, and to understand potential future opportunities.

Click on the information below to learn more about the funder strategies in your research area:

UKRI

These follow the recent budget allocations. The new UKRI strategy replaces the previous UKRI 'Transforming Tomorrow Together' strategy (2022 to 2027). It also acts as a combined strategy for each of the research councils. As such individual research councils will not separately publish new strategies.

UKRI is moving away from input-based, discipline-led allocations towards a more cross-disciplinary, outcome-focused, programmatic approach.

The new UKRI strategy is designed to deliver greater impact by focusing investment on three priority R&D buckets: 

1. Curiosity-driven, foundational research 

2. Strategic government and societal priorities 

3. Supporting innovative companies to start, scale and stay in the UK

Funding for talent, infrastructure, institutes and facilities spans across the three R&D priority buckets.

The 2026-27 Delivery Plan sets out the first year of implementation, including reforms to funding processes, new cross-UKRI priority programmes aligned with the Industrial Strategy, stronger support for commercialisation and business growth, and measures to accelerate research funding decisions.

New UKRI Priority Programmes

A key feature of UKRI's new Delivery Plan is the introduction of cross-UKRI Priority Programmes, bringing together expertise and investment from across UKRI's councils to support the government's Industrial Strategy and deliver greater impact at scale. 

Rather than multiple separate funding schemes, these programmes will provide a more coordinated approach to investment in areas of strategic importance to the UK economy and society. Priority areas include:

  • Advanced Manufacturing 
  • Agritech
  • Clean Growth & Energy
  • Creative Industries 
  • National Security & Defence
  • Digital & Technologies
  • Engineering Biology
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Quantum Technologies
  • Semiconductors and advanced comms
  • Financial and Professional and Business Services
  • Life Sciences

Wider Priorities also include:

  • Space
  • Adaptation & Resilience (Climate & Env)
  • Plant & Animal Health

In addition the government has a number of mission areas. These include: 

  • Make Britain a clean energy superpower
  • Safer streets
  • An NHS fit for the future
  • Break down barriers to opportunity
  • Kickstart economic growth
     

Research Council priorities

EPSRC

EPSRC has more than 100 research areas in its portfolio. Within those areas, they fund research that contributes to the following themes:

They also have thematic areas which develop strategy across the breadth of EPSRC’s remit, which influence the future shape of their portfolio and reflect evolving priorities:

EPSRC strategic priorities

  • the physical and mathematical sciences powerhouse
  • frontiers in engineering and technology
  • digital futures
  • engineering net zero
  • artificial intelligence, digitisation and data: driving value and security
  • transforming health and healthcare
  • quantum technologies
  • ensuring an effective ecosystem for engineering and physical sciences.

STFC have recently undertaken a prioritisation process to identify priority areas of spending and to reduce costs. 

Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) funds research in these core areas:

The following science challenges in frontier physics help to guide what STFC invest in across their research portfolio:

  • how did the universe begin and how is it evolving?
  • how do stars and planetary systems develop and how do they support the existence of life?
  • what are the basic constituents of matter and how do they interact?

Explore STFC’s science challenges.

NERC’s current programmes include:

In 2025, NERC published its first Forward Look for environmental science.  Developed in collaboration with the community and stakeholders, NERC’s Forward Look sets out their research and innovation priorities and how they will support the underpinning capabilities needed to deliver environmental science over a ten-year horizon.  NERC has identified three R&I priorities: 

  • Green Growth
  • Environmental Security
  • Responsible Innovation 

These priorities will be delivered through key capabilities: National Capability, Frontiers of Knowledge and Partnerships which together underpin our world-leading environmental science.  

NERC Forward Look

BBSRC’s priorities fall under bioscience discovery and strategic challenges

Priorities for ‘Advancing the frontiers of bioscience discovery’ are:

Priorities for ‘Tackling strategic challenges’ are:

In 2025, BBSRC also published its Forward Look, which sets out BBSRC’s ambition to power bioscience to deliver a healthy, sustainable and resilient future.

BBSRC Forward Look

ESRC fund research in the following areas:

  • area and development studies
  • demography
  • economic and social history
  • economics
  • education
  • environmental planning
  • human geography
  • international relations
  • linguistics
  • management and business studies
  • politics
  • psychology
  • science and technology studies
  • social anthropology
  • social policy
  • social statistics, methods and computing
  • social work
  • socio legal studies
  • sociology

MRC’s five research boards have strategic priorities that help guide the research they invest in. Their research boards are:

Other funders

Other funders will also have strategies which inform their funding opportunities. Examples include:

  • ARIA - ARIA funds breakthrough R&D in underexplored areas. 'Opportunity spaces' include:
    • Sculpting Innate Immunity
    • Scalable Neural Interfaces
    • Bioenergetic Engineering
    • Extending Our Perception
    • Trust Everything, Everywhere
    • Mathematics for Safe AI
    • Nature Computes Better
    • Collective Flourishing
    • Scoping Our Planet
    • Programmable Plants
    • Engineering Ecosystem Resilience
    • Future Proofing Our Climate and Weather
    • Smarter Robot Bodies
    • Manufacturing Abundance
  • Wellcome Trust
    • ‘Discovery Science’
    • Challenge led priorities in Mental health, climate change and infectious diseases
  • Royal Academy of Engineering Strategy 2030: Engineering Better Lives
  • Royal Society
    • The Royal Society strategic plan 2022–2027 centres around five key areas of work:  The Fellowship, Foreign Membership and beyond; Influencing in the UK and globally; Research system and culture; Science and society; Corporate and governance

UK Government Strategies & Reviews

As well as funder strategies, there have been many recent UK Government Strategies & Reviews including: