Opportunity status:
Open
Funders:
Funding type:
Grant
Maximum award:
£125,000
Publication date:
18 May 2026
Opening date:
12 May 2026 9:00am UK time
Closing date:
30 June 2026 4:00pm UK time
Apply for funding support to accelerate onboarding of early content providers to the Creative Content Exchange (CCE) platform, including legal, technical and operational support to prepare the content.
The CCE Challenge is developing a platform aimed at creating a trusted marketplace for selling, buying, licensing and enabling permitted access to digitised cultural and creative assets.
The full economic cost (FEC) can be up to £125,000 for up to nine months’ duration (end date 30 April 2027). UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will fund 100% of the FEC.
Who is eligible to apply
This opportunity is open to UK-based organisations with or non-standard eligibility.
The criteria for non-standard eligibility is that your organisation must be one of the following:
* charity
* non-governmental organisation
* government department
* third sector organisation
* ocial enterprise
* other educational establishment (for example, a college that does not usually undertake research activities)
You will need to go through checks before being given funding. You can apply for funding before these checks take place. We may ask you to start the checks before your application is successful.
This is a targeted support fund designed to accelerate the onboarding of early content providers to the CCE platform.
For this phase of the pilot, we are particularly targeting content from large cultural organisations, including but not limited to, galleries, libraries, archives and museums.
‘Content’ includes all and any content ( for example, video, audio, images, text or mixed media) and data sets.
Who is not eligible to apply
If you received funding from the ‘Launch Partners Fund: (invite-only)’ opportunity, then you are not eligible to apply for this funding opportunity.
International researchers
International applicants based outside the UK are not eligible to apply to this opportunity in any capacity.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We are 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 during the application and assessment process.
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
The is running a pilot as part of the CCE Challenge. The pilot runs until mid-2027. This funding is a targeted support mechanism designed to accelerate the onboarding of early content providers to the CCE platform within the pilot timeframe. It covers activities specified in the Technical Readiness Checklist (see the ‘Related content’ section), including specific legal, technical, and operational barriers to onboarding.
Scope
This fund is focused exclusively on activities that enable timely participation in the CCE pilot. Fund support must materially accelerate delivery versus business-as-usual activities. It requires that funded activities deliver demonstrable impact within the pilot timeframe, with the aspiration to onboard relevant content to the CCE platform no later than 30 April 2027.
The term ‘content’ includes any and all content (for example, video, audio, images, text or mixed media) and data sets. The proposed content must be of sufficient quality and structure to support meaningful participation.
The Technical Readiness Checklist, which can be found in the Related content section below, gives an indication of the work involved in onboarding content to the CCE platform. You do not need to fill this in as part of your application, but it is provided as context to help you understand what onboarding involves. It will be completed as part of the onboarding process for successful applicants with support from the CCE pilot team.
Successful applicants will be required to sign the CCE platform terms and conditions as a condition of funding (please see the link to the CCE Platform Terms and Conditions under the Related Content section). If you are successful, you must sign and return these to UKRI no later than 4pm on 4 September 2026. Further details will be provided to successful applicants on how to email this document back to us. If you do not sign the CCE platform terms and conditions by the requested date, your award will be terminated.
Successful applicants must provide updates to the CCE team every 3 months on the key milestones and activities associated with the investment. Failure to provide this evidence may result in the investment being reduced, suspended, terminated or recovered.
Duration
The duration of this award is up to 9 months, with funded activities delivering demonstrable impact, including onboarding and content availability, by 30 April 2027 at the latest.
Once outcomes have been confirmed, key activities will be required to start as soon as possible, and no later than 1 September 2026.
Grant extensions will not be permitted except in specific circumstances in line with the Equality Act 2010.
Funding available
The FEC of your project can be up to £125,000. UKRI will fund 100% of the FEC.
What we will fund
We will fund costs relating to:
* legal and rights clearance, including due diligence, review, or refinement of licensing templates and contractual terms required for participation in the CCE platform
* metadata enhancement and content structuring
* pricing strategy development, content valuation analysis, or commercial modelling required to enable CCE platform participation
* integration-related improvements or data environment-related improvements to make content available through the CCE platform
* time-bound operational, product, engineering, project management, or staffing resource (including temporary or fixed-term roles) directly required to support onboarding to the CCE platform
* indemnity insurance or extension of existing insurance for a trading arm of a public body, subject to certain restrictions set out below
If you are funding insurance costs, these can cover up to £1 million of liability arising out of or in connection with any of the following:
* any claim or allegation made by a third party that platform data or Content submitted by a content provider to the platform infringes the intellectual property rights of a third party
* any claim or allegation made by a third party or any governmental or regulatory authority that platform data submitted by a content provider to the platform breaches data protection laws or any applicable laws governing confidential, secret or classified information
* use of or allowing access to platform technology outside of the scope permitted by this contract
In respect of any open materials, this indemnity shall be limited to passing on to the platform the benefit of any indemnity in the applicable open license.
What we will not fund
This opportunity is not a general investment or digitisation fund. Long term digitisation or transformation programmes are out of scope. Applications must provide clear evidence that the funding is necessary and will have material impact within the grant period.
Supporting skills and talent
We encourage you to follow the principles of the and the .
Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)
UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.
As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.
See, including where applicants can find additional support.
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.
1. Confirm you are the project lead.
2. Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password.
3. 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.
4. Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
5. Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
6. 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 on 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:
* * *
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 the application.
Hyperlinks can be used in reference information. When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that:
* references are easily identifiable by the assessors
* references are formatted as appropriate to your research
* persistent identifiers are used where possible
General use of hyperlinks
Applications should be self-contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information. You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI)
Use of generative AI tools to prepare funding applications is permitted, however, caution should be applied.
For more information see our .
Deadline
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) must receive your application by 30 June 2026 at 4:00pm UK time.
You will not be able to apply after this time.
Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.
Following the submission of your application to this funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and submitted applications will not be amended. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.
Personal data
Processing personal data
AHRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.
We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our .
Sensitive information
If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email
Include in the subject line: [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].
Typical examples of confidential information include:
* individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)
* declaration of interest
* additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section
* conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection
* the application is an invited resubmission
For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read .
Institutional matched funding
There is no requirement for matched funding from the institutions hosting the project lead, project co-leads or other staff employed on the application. Expert reviewers and panels assessing UKRI funding applications must not consider levels of institutional matched funding as a factor on which to base recommendations. Direct and in-kind contributions from third party project partners are encouraged.
This policy does not remove the need for support from host organisations who must provide the necessary research environment and infrastructure for award-specific activities funded by UKRI. For example, research facilities, training and development of staff.
Publication of outcomes
AHRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at .
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the .
Summary
Word limit: 550
In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.
We usually make this summary publicly available on external-facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. Make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example:
* opinion-formers
* policymakers
* the public
* the wider research community
Guidance for writing a summary
Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of:
* context
* the challenge the project addresses
* aims and objectives
* potential applications and benefits
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
* project lead (PL)
* project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
* specialist
* grant manager
* professional enabling staff
* research and innovation associate
* technician
* visiting researcher
* researcher co-lead (RcL)
Only list one individual as project lead.
UKRI has introduced a new addition to the ‘Specialist’ role type. Public contributors such as people with lived experience can now be added to an application.