Opportunity status:
Open
Funders:
Funding type:
Grant
Total fund:
£40,000,000
Maximum award:
£9,400,000
Publication date:
2 March 2026
Opening date:
2 March 2026 9:00am UK time
Closing date:
31 March 2026 4:00pm UK time
Last updated: 5 March 2026 -
Apply to lead a strategic research lab dedicated to advancing the UK’s position in fundamental artificial intelligence (AI) development. This funding opportunity is open to consortia that can demonstrate a track record of world leading fundamental AI research.
The full economic cost (FEC) of the initial 18 month research grant can be up to £7.5 million (we will fund up to 80% of FEC). A six year training grant will also be awarded. The FEC of the training grant will be up to £1.9 million ( EPSRC will fund up to 100% of FEC). Grants will start 1 May 2026.
Subject to a stage gate review the successful awardee will receive up to £32 million extending the investment to a six year programme.
If you intend to apply to this funding opportunity, your research organisation must complete this survey by 16 March 2026.
If you intend to apply as a lead applicant, your research organisation must complete the intent to submit survey by 4pm 16 March 2026. You will not be permitted to apply to the funding opportunity if your research organisation has not completed the survey.
This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility, .
Who is eligible to apply
To apply you must:
* meet EPSRC standard eligibility rules that apply for this funding opportunity. Applicants in the UK must meet the EPSRC eligibility requirements. For full details,
* be at a research organisation which has completed an intent to submit survey by 4pm on 16 March 2026
* ensure the application includes an organisation with degree awarding powers within the consortium
Researchers may only be named on a single bid.
Lead organisations must be able to demonstrate:
* a considerable track record of world-leading expertise in advancing fundamental AI research as evidenced by a clear track record of outputs and outcomes
* an established research environment and capability to set up at pace and lead a strategic lab of this scale
* a defined AI strategy
* an existing supportive training environment
* evidence of ability to secure partnership or leverage from industrial partners
Lead organisations are only permitted to submit a single bid as lead institution.
This is expected to be a highly competitive process which will make a single award. Organisations are encouraged to consider the funding opportunity guidance carefully and only apply if they feel they fully meet the criteria.
Who is not eligible to apply
You cannot apply if you:
* are not hosted by an eligible research organisation
* are solely based in an industrial establishment
* are at a research organisation who has not completed the intent to submit survey by 4pm on 16 March 2026
* we will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) or any other funder.
* are a consortium who does not include an organisation with degree awarding powers
International researchers
As EPSRC is a lead funder for this funding opportunity, international researchers can only apply as ‘project co-lead (international)as part of an application making use of the or the .
You should include all other international collaborators (or UK partners not based at approved organisations) as project partners.
Resubmissions
We will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UKRI or any other funder.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
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
for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.
Aim
Through this strategic investment, EPSRC aims to support the formation of a strategic research lab dedicated to truly novel AI research which advances the UK’s position in fundamental AI development.
The investment will directly address key outcomes in the. It will support research with the potential to shape the trajectory of AI model development targeting areas not currently pursued by commercial AI labs due to its early stage or high-risk nature.
This funding aims to:
* secure the UK’s stake in the next generation of AI systems
* strengthen the UK’s talent pipeline, including attracting leading researchers internationally
* build a critical mass of world leading activity, bolstering collaborative networks across the UK’s academic institutions to enable this
* grow UK research capacity cementing the UK as a global leader in AI
* attract inward investment from frontier labs, multinational investment, and private capital
Scope
To ensure the next generation of AI technologies can meet the demands of real-world applications, it is increasingly clear advancements are needed to overcome the structural limitations of current systems.
These advancements will not simply emerge from scaling models, but from innovative research regarding their design. In that context, there is an enormous opportunity for the UK to establish leadership within the field by developing the theoretical foundations of AI and overcoming methodological barriers.
We are not specifying research priorities for the lab beyond the need to focus on novel fundamental AI development. This is due to the breadth of potential research, and the importance of investing in approaches that can address both current and future needs of AI technologies.
The lab must build on UK strengths, focusing on areas of UK opportunity, which do not duplicate areas of emphasis in industrial frontier AI labs.
In total, the successful applicant will, subject to stage gating, receive up to £40 million of funding. This sits alongside a guarantee of 2 million Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) hours of compute per year through the AI Research Resource (AIRR).
This initial funding opportunity will award two grants. These are:
* an 18-month research grant at up to £7.5 million FEC (EPSRC will fund 80% of the FEC which is up to £6 million) along with 3M GPU hours via the AIRR
* a six year training grant to support a minimum of 10 students at up to £1.9 million FEC (EPSRC will fund 100% of the FEC)
All utilisation of compute resource via the AIRR is subject to scheduling prioritisation to ensure system use aligns with His Majesty’s government (HMG) objectives, such as responding to national crises or enabling large-scale research for public benefit. Where this prioritisation disrupts the grant’s planned work, advance notice will be given and support provided to reschedule usage promptly.
The successful awardee will be expected to work closely with EPSRC and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to develop and set up the research lab, building their strategic vision and plan.
At approximately six months after the start of the grant, the awardee will submit a detailed application for a five year research grant starting 1 May 2027. The assessment process and timeline for the review will be confirmed but is expected to involve submission of a full proposal covering all aspects of the lab for review by an expert interview panel.
We will aim to confirm outcomes of the stage gate review by the start of February 2027. Further details on this stage gate process will be communicated to the successful applicant.
Expectations
Over the lifetime of the investment the lab should:
* bring together partners and institutions around an independent research agenda and a single vision with the potential to shape the trajectory of AI model development targeting areas not currently pursued by commercial AI labs
* deliver world class fundamental research in AI, building capability and capacity and delivering a wide range of outputs and impact for the UK society and economy
* ensure that the fundamental developments can be translated towards market and utilisation, where possible through open sourcing and by actively enabling industry take up, directly realising benefit for the UK
* use the flexibility offered by the long-term funding to deliver high impact research, adapting to an ever-evolving landscape and remaining at the forefront of fundamental AI development
* strengthen the UK’s talent pipeline, building on a clear track-record of doctoral training and support for postdoctoral researchers, as well as evidenced potential to attract international experts to the UK
* attract substantial match funding and resource from industry or other partners building towards sustainability by the end of the award
* genuinely integrate research and skills aspects of the award to deliver against the strategic aims of the funding opportunity
* be inclusive and open to collaboration and growth through working with new partners
* give consideration to the advancement and training of those engaged in the lab from every career stage and support the development of a healthy, diverse, and inclusive AI talent and skills pipeline
* build in ongoing monitoring and evaluation processes which use an outcomes focus and ensure active engagement with an independent advisory board
* demonstrate a commitment to making data, code, and implementation as open as possible
The lab should be a leader within the landscape, driving forward the national and international AI research agenda.
At this initial stage applicants are expected to have:
* an ambitious independent research agenda and a single vision with the potential to shape the trajectory of AI model development, targeting areas not currently pursued by commercial AI labs
* an initial plan for how, over the first six months of the award they will bring together partners and institutions and build a flexible long-term centre of research excellence which address the expectations detailed above
* a delivery plan for the initial 18 month grant including how this will be managed flexibly and strategically as the lab is set up
* a plan for how students’ engagement in the investment will help to support a sustainable AI ecosystem and prepare globally competitive researchers for a range of sectors and careers
Successful applicants to this initial funding opportunity will need to demonstrate:
* world-leading expertise in fundamental AI as evidenced by a clear track record of outputs and outcomes
* transformational leadership and management experience of the set up and operation of large, complex programmes
* excellence in delivering training and people development
* a realistic approach to managing the funds available within the fixed timeline and a clear risk management plan and mitigations to avoid slippage
We do not expect or require any project partners to be added to this initial application.
Structure of the lab
We are not being prescriptive with regards to the structure of the lab but suggest sensible aspects will include:
* a virtual or physical centre which is multi-institutional where appropriate but based around a ‘lead’ research organisation
* a lab director (academic) with a proven track record of managing large groups and excellence within fundamental AI
* a training lead with a proven track record of delivering postgraduate training (they may also be named as project lead for the training grant during the award stage)
* a wider leadership team, representative across the different disciplines involved in the lab, from varying career stages
* a small coordinating management body (which includes a lab manager, a technical lead, a finance lead, a monitoring and evaluation lead, an equality, diversity and inclusion lead) and an operations team that will ensure that the lab runs efficiently
* postdoctoral research assistants (PDRAs) and students distributed across the lab
* appropriate advisory and governance structures (see relevant section) including, as a minimum, an independent advisory board
At this initial stage you should detail your planned approach to standing up the lab and a proposed steady state structure. We recognise this structure is likely to evolve and will be reviewed again at the stage gate.
Governance
For this grant, there will be additional conditions to the standard research grant conditions. There will also be additional conditions to the standard training grant conditions. These will be confirmed at the point of award.
Running up to the stage gate review the successful awardee will be expected to work closely with EPSRC and DSIT to develop and set up their research lab, meeting at least monthly.
Once up and running the successful applicant team will be expected to engage with EPSRC and DSIT in the following ways (this list is not exhaustive):
* include EPSRC on their leadership board
* convene an independent advisory board that meets quarterly and covers industry, DSIT and academia
* have active and regular engagement with a UKRI officer
Monitoring and evaluation
The lab will be required to provide key monitoring information as part of the award. The mandatory monitoring will be confirmed at the start of the award but will include:
* six monthly updates focused on key outputs and outcomes
* annual reports focused on progress against lab aims, key outputs, outcomes, impacts, future plans and financial reporting
* final report detailing key outputs, outcomes, and impacts
* standard Researchfish reporting
* regular reviews likely at the three year and five year marks
* completion of the UKRI studentship data portal
* UKRI training grant annual monitoring
During the first six months of the award, the lab will be expected to work with EPSRC to develop a logic model and theory of change which will be expected to underpin the labs’ own monitoring and evaluation approach.
Stakeholder collaboration
Due to the scale of the lab, significant collaboration and leverage (cash or in-kind) will be expected from project partners (for example, business, public sector, third sector) over the lifetime of the investment. This may include models such as endowing chairs, supplemention of academic salaries or hosting academics within facilities.
It is expected that the leadership team of the lab should contain a demonstrable track record of engagement of this type. However, inclusion of project partners on an application is not expected or permitted at this initial stage. Where applicants have substantive relevant partnerships, these can be detailed in the application text.
The successful awardees will be expected to build broader partnerships and include project partners at the stage gate.
We expect collaborations to build a mutually beneficial two-way relationship based on:
* expertise
* secondments in both directions
* products
* infrastructures
In addition, partnerships with stakeholders should support the lab to remain at the forefront of AI development building awareness of current trends and commercial needs and priorities.
Clear plans for engaging with new and existing collaborators during the set up of the lab should be detailed in application text. Please see the application guidance section for more information.
We expect bidders to demonstrate how they will engage and collaborate with stakeholders across all parts of the UK. This is in recognition of the diverse nature of the research and innovation landscape for AI across the UK, and the national role that the lab will play in the EPSRC portfolio.
Equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)
As a leader in the community, the lab will be expected to embed EDI in all their activities throughout the lifetime of the investment.
If funded, this will include identifying the specific EDI challenges and barriers in their own environment and developing a strategy to address these, with reference to our published expectations for EDI.
The lab must ensure that they request appropriate resources to develop and deliver their EDI strategy effectively. This must include at least one costed staff post with responsibility for EDI (the lab EDI lead).
The lab should include information on EDI resources (including the mandatory costed staff post for the EDI lead and any other resources, for example mentoring schemes, training, workshops and data exercises) in the justification of resources document.
Responsible innovation and trusted research
We are fully committed to developing and promoting responsible innovation and trusted research.
Research has the ability to not only produce understanding, knowledge and value, but also unintended consequences, questions, ethical dilemmas and, at times, unexpected social transformations.
We recognise that we have a duty of care to:
* promote approaches to responsible innovation that will initiate ongoing reflection about the potential ethical and societal implications of the research that we sponsor
* encourage our research community to do likewise
The lab will be required to embed principles of responsible innovation and those of trusted research throughout their activities and will be expected to engage with the relevant regulatory bodies where concerns may arise under the National Security and Investment Act. Aspects of bias, privacy, security and ethics should be considered where appropriate.
Sustainability
UKRI’s environmental sustainability strategy lays out our ambition to actively lead environmental sustainability across our sectors. This includes a vision to ensure that all major investment and funding decisions we make are directly informed by environmental sustainability, recognising environmental benefits as well as potential for environmental harm.
Environmental sustainability is a broad term but may include consideration of such broad areas as:
* reducing carbon emissions
* protecting and enhancing the natural environment and biodiversity
* waste or pollution elimination
* resource efficiency and a circular economy
EPSRC expects the lab to embed careful consideration of environmental sustainability at all stages of the research process and throughout the operations of the lab.
Doctoral studentships
The Fundamental AI Research Lab funding opportunity provides funding for at least 10 doctoral students. This is in recognition of the lab representing an exciting opportunity for students to train and acquire skills that support the development of a healthy, diverse, and inclusive AI talent pipeline.
The students will also benefit from the drawing together of vibrant, balanced teams which combine doctoral and postdoctoral research and build leadership for the future of AI in the UK.
The inclusion of doctoral studentships must add value to the proposed research, and to the student compared to UKRI’s existing training grant routes. Students must be provided with a clear opportunity for a distinct and independent course of enquiry and receive any additional training that would be useful for their research but is not available through existing programmes.
The lab must be viable without the studentships, with distinct objectives that are not reliant upon the studentships. In your application, you should clearly explain how the students will benefit from being part of the research team.
The host organisation should have a track record of training doctoral students. Doctoral students supported through the lab must be provided with the opportunity to develop their substantive research skills as well as with broader professional development opportunities.
Evidence of an appropriate training environment that meets UKRI’s should be provided in your application.
A cohort approach to training through peer-to-peer learning should be provided throughout the lifetime of a student’s doctoral training programme. UKRI also expects that other doctoral students aligned with the research programme, but funded from other sources, would have the same training environment and opportunities as those students funded by the lab.
We welcome innovative approaches to the recruitment of students and delivery of doctoral training.
The successful applicant will be expected to engage with other key actors in the UK AI research and innovation landscape to share best practice for training and maximise the value of the investment.
Studentships should be four years in duration (full-time equivalent) – part-time studentships are allowed. Studentships may start in the 2026 to 2027 and 2027 to 2028 academic years.
Careful consideration should be given to the overall staff resource on the lab and the balance between the different types of staff resource available. To ensure that postdoctoral researchers have sufficient time to support and train students alongside their research, funding should be requested for a minimum of the full time equivalent of six research and innovation associates to support the 10 or more doctoral students.
You should ensure there are a sufficient number of supervisors, and that each has sufficient time to supervise students. This time cannot be charged to the grant.
will apply. Due to the strategic nature of this funding opportunity, a maximum of 50% of the individuals funded by UKRI through this grant may be international students.
Duration
The duration of the training grant is six years; the duration of the initial research grant is 18 months.
Projects are expected to start on 1 May 2026.
Funding available
The FEC of your research grant can be up to £7.5 million. The FEC of your training grant can be up to £1.9 million.
We will fund 80% of the FEC of the research grant and up to 100% of the FEC of the training grant.
These awards will provide the initial funding from a large programme in Fundamental AI. If successful, you will be invited to apply for a subsequent five year research grant opportunity of up to £40 million at 100% FEC. If successful, you will receive the equivalent of up to 2 million GPU hours of in kind AIRR compute time per year.
Research grant
This includes all eligible costs at 80% FEC, except for doctoral studentships.
Resources may be used for research expenses including but not limited to:
* UKRI-funded research facilities. Please note that if you plan to use a major facility in your research, such as those funded centrally by EPSRC or a European facility, contact the facility before applying to EPSRC to check if your proposed research is feasible, and obtain a technical assessment if the Joint Electronic Submission (Je-S) system marks it as required
* travel
* research technical support including research software engineers, data scientists, postdoctoral research assistants and fellow salaries
* roles recognised as a professional research investment and strategy manager (PRISM) positions that enable the research delivery and support the research environment
* training
* other standard expenses
smaller items of equipment, individually under £25,000, and consumables should be in the ‘Directly Incurred – Other Costs’ heading.
Resources may also be used for activities that initiate, grow, and maintain collaborations with stakeholders (for example academia, business, government, third sector) such as:
* secondments
* staff exchanges
* regular travel
Training grant
UKRI will fund 100% of eligible costs related to doctoral students. Funding is available for at least 10 doctoral students.
Please note: all funding for doctoral studentships should be excluded from the ‘Resources and Cost’ section of your application on UKRI’s Funding Service. This funding will ultimately be issued as a separate training grant at the award stage. All applicants are required to complete the following and submit with their application.
Eligible costs vary between UKRI training grants, so please check the lists below for full details. All doctoral student costs requested in applications should be calculated at your chosen rates for the 2026 to 2027 academic year with no addition made to consider inflation over the length of the funding period. This includes the appropriate fee rate for your institution, stipend rates at or above the UKRI minimum and research training support grant (RTSG) costs.
UKRI will include an allowance for fee and stipend indexation at the final funding stage.
Extensions to the separate training grant will only be considered under exceptional circumstances, in line with. Funding cannot be transferred between the research grant and the training grant.
Tuition fees
Fees charged to UKRI cannot be higher than the fee charged by the research organisation for home funded students on similar programmes. The UKRI minimum rate for 2026 to 2027 is £5,238.
Stipends
The stipends must be at least at the minimum rates published by UKRI; for 2026 to 2027, this is £21,805. We will not cover additional college fees. You may request funding for enhanced stipends, where justified in the context of the area of research and training and UK skills need. A top-up may be achieved through using business leverage rather than requesting further UKRI funding.
Research training support grant (RTSG)
This covers items for individual students such as travel, consumables, and facility access where this is linked to conducting the research of the project, or specialised training such as a summer school only being attended by a student due to their project.
Management
This covers costs for the development, delivery and management of activities specific to the doctoral students funded through this grant. This should total no more than £350,000. Costs associated with student supervision may not be included.
What we will not fund
Equipment over £25,000 in value (including VAT) is not permitted on this initial grant.
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. 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.
, including where you can find additional support.
If you intend to apply to this funding opportunity, your lead research organisation must complete this survey by 16 March 2026:
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 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. If your organisation is not listed, email
Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this Opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.
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.
Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.
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.
When including images, you must:
* provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit).
* insert each new image onto 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 .
Deadline
EPSRC must receive your application by 31 March 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.
If an application is withdrawn prior to peer review or office rejected due to substantive errors in the application, it cannot be resubmitted to the funding opportunity.
Personal data
Processing personal data
EPSRC, 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, .
EPSRC may share the application and any personal information that it contains with DSIT. For more information on how DSIT uses personal information, visit .
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, .
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 this initial application, beyond the standard 20% FEC. Expert reviewers and panels assessing UKRI funding applications must not consider levels of institutional matched funding as a factor on which to base recommendations.
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
EPSRC, 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)
* project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))
* 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.