Opportunity status:
Open
Funders:
, ,, ,,, ,
Funding type:
Other
Publication date:
21 November 2025
Opening date:
21 November 2025 9:00am UK time
Closing date:
21 December 2025 4:00pm UK time
Apply for between 200,000 and 1,000,000 graphics processing unit (GPU) hours on the Isambard-AI and Dawn supercomputers for artificial intelligence (AI) related research and development projects.
This research opportunity:
* offers compute resource aligned with AI for Science priority areas, including material science, nuclear fusion, medical research, engineering biology, quantum technologies, and AI-driven research and scientific discovery
* encourages the formation of broader research teams and partnerships, fostering multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral innovation
You must be a UK-based researcher from academia, industry or other organisations.
Your project can use GPU hours over a six-month project.
No funding is provided.
Who can apply
This opportunity is open to eligible researchers from across the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) remit.
To be a project lead, you must have a contract (of longer duration than your proposed project) with your organisation.
Project leads for academic-led projects must be employees at lecturer or equivalent level.
Your organisation must be one of the following:
* UK registered business, with a Companies House registration number
* * charity
* not for profit
Find out about the different types of organisation in our .
There is no limit to the number of applications from any one organisation.
We welcome collaborative projects.
You can only be project lead on one application to this opportunity.
We consider research technical professionals, including research software engineers, as academic employees.
They are eligible to be a project lead or co-lead under the same terms as traditional researchers.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity for all applicants.
We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone.
What we're looking for
This opportunity invites research proposals for the use of computational resources to drive AI-centred scientific research in the UK’s priority domains.
It represents the first mission-driven scientific research opportunity, aligned with the strategic vision set out in the UK Compute Roadmap.
By offering access to national-tier systems through the AIRR programme to users across academia, industry and individual research, we aim to shape the scientific landscape in the UK in the age of AI.
The AIRR programme is putting its weight behind transformative, large-scale research, particularly projects and programmes that deliver real-world impact and deliver breakthroughs that change lives and grow the economy.
It encourages the formation of broader research teams and partnerships, fostering multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral innovation.
Priority research areas
Through the AI for Science strategy, government has set out key actions to establish UK leadership in AI-centred science and ensure the UK retains its position of global scientific leadership.
While the UK is genuinely world leading in many areas, we must accept that cannot be true in every domain.
As such, we are targeting domains that have been identified on the basis of existing UK strength, alignment with wider UK strategy (including the Modern Industrial Strategy) and opportunities for AI-driven progress:
* material science
* nuclear fusion
* medical research
* engineering biology
* quantum technologies
We are also inviting proposals in AI-driven research and scientific discovery.
These projects focus on development of new AI models and virtual systems that will enable future automated and autonomous scientific discovery, a strategic objective of the AI for Science strategy.
Within these priority areas, we are particularly keen to hear from projects that contribute to delivering against the government’s five missions:
* growing the economy
* an NHS fit for the future
* safer streets
* opportunity for all
* making Britain a clean energy superpower
This route covers activities that fall into the following categories:
* fundamental research
* feasibility studies
* industrial research
* experimental development
See more on .
Resources available
This opportunity has an indicative budget of 8,000,000 GPU hours across the two AIRR services.
Each application can request between 200,000 and 1,000,000 GPU hours on either of Dawn or Isambard-AI, to be used over a six-month project.
This application process is purely for compute resource.
No funding is available.
Trusted research and innovation
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is committed in ensuring that effective collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks.
is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector.
It will enable partnerships to be as open as possible and as secure as necessary.
Our set out UKRI’s expectations of projects awarded through this route in relation to due diligence for UK and international collaboration.
Subsidy control and state aid where applicable
All AIRR access routes provide awards in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022.
See, including the relevant support ratios.
How to apply
You can use the AIRRPortal to apply to use AIRR.
Guidance on how to apply to the Innovator route can also be found at .
If your application does not follow this guidance, it may be rejected.
General guidance on using the AIRRPortal can be found at .
Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to ensure that:
* all information provided in the application is accurate
* all project information details requested have been provided
* the application meets the eligibility and scope criteria for the chosen access route
* the application contains the additional documents requested in the guidance (templates for the documents to be uploaded are available on the AIRRPortal)
What to include in your application
The application consists of two components.
AIRRPortal online form
The form has three sections, not scored by assessors:
* project details (basic project information), which includes the ‘Upload supporting documentation’ option, where the supporting attachments should be uploaded
* resource requests
* project team (only include the project lead)
Supporting documentation
The AI for Science application form should be uploaded, which includes:
* assessment questions (scored by assessors)
* project details (not scored by assessors) including organisational information, team members, trusted research and innovation, project costs, and subsidy history
The template for the application form is available on the AIRRPortal.
Processing personal data and data sharing
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will need to collect some personal information to manage your application.
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 .
UKRI will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) so that they can participate in the assessment process.
See more information on .
How we will assess your application
Assessment process
Eligibility and remit
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will check applications for eligibility and remit.
Expert review
Applications will be subject to peer review by two appointed independent panellists of AI and scientific researchers, and high-performance computing experts.
Allocating resources
Following assessment, applications will be allocated to one of three tiers.
Resources will then be allocated to the applications in the top tier as priority, using partial randomisation as required.
Applications in the middle tier may be recommended for resources using partial randomisation.
Resources are allocated until the budget is exhausted throughout the middle tier.
Assessment by experts remains the mainstay of the process and applications must pass a certain threshold to be deemed competitively strong against the assessment criteria for the opportunity.
Therefore, only highly competitive applications will be considered via randomisation.
The UKRI and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Delivery team will make the final allocation decision.
Assessment areas
Your application will be assessed against the following areas:
* alignment to the priority areas and highly credible research outcomes
* the project has a high degree of ambition or there is a significant opportunity that would not be possible without access to the AIRR, or both
* previous use of GPU compute and demonstration that progress of research is contingent on scaling up access to compute resource
* ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations
We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.
What happens if you receive an award offer
If your project application is successful, UKRI will send the project lead a formal offer letter, which will contain:
* the award terms and conditions
* any subsidy notice required
* a link to the online equality monitoring form
When you confirm the equality monitoring form has been completed, the project lead will be emailed a project link from the AIRRPortal.
By logging in to the AIRRPortal and accessing the compute resources, you will have accepted the UKRI terms and conditions.
Important notes
We will not accept requests to significantly delay the award start date.
UKRI and DSIT reserve the right to pause your access to AIRR to allow high priority projects and urgent national requirements to access AIRR.
We will provide as much notice as possible should this occur and work with you to reschedule work appropriately.
Contact details
Get help with your application
For guidance, email:
Additional info
Background
The AIRR programme intends to address the significant shortage of publicly available computing resources in the UK.
In January 2025, the government announced expanding AIRR capacity, by at least 20 times by 2030, as part of the .
The government has committed to spending an extra £1 billion to scale up our compute power by a factor of 20, giving Britain the power to become an AI leader.
AIRR is a partnership between:
* UK government
* UK Research and Innovation
* University of Cambridge
* University of Bristol
* Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
* Nvidia
* Intel
* Dell
AIRR compute clusters
The government is investing significantly in the Isambard-AI and Dawn AIRR clusters and will have invested over £350 million by 2030.
Isambard-AI (University of Bristol)
The Isambard-AI facility is the UK’s most powerful public compute facility.
It is made up of 5,448 Nvidia GH200 Grace-Hopper superchips (supplied by HPE) and operated by the University of Bristol at Bristol’s National Composites Centre.
.
Dawn (University of Cambridge)
The Cambridge Dawn facility is made up of 1,024 Intel Data Centre GPU Max 1550 GPUs.
It is a close partnership between Cambridge, Intel and Dell at the Cambridge Open Zettascale Lab.
.