Nuclear physics consolidated grants 2026

Opportunity status: Open Funders: Funding type: Grant Publication date: 6 November 2025 Opening date: 6 November 2025 9:00am UK time Closing date: 12 March 2026 4:00pm UK time Last updated: 18 November 2025 - Apply for funding to support . The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) nuclear physics programme supports research in four areas: nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics, hadronic physics and theory. You must be employed by a UK research organisation eligible for STFC funding. Awards must start on 1 October 2027 and will run for four years. STFC will fund 80% of the full economic cost (FEC). The funding opportunity opens on 6 November 2025 and closes on 12 March 2026. This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. . Who is eligible to apply To lead a project, you must be based at an eligible organisation. This funding opportunity is open to all members of the nuclear physics research community based at UK research organisations eligible for UKRI funding. For full details, visit . All applications are expected to fall with STFC’s . Additional information on STFC funding can be found here: . 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 STFC’s nuclear physics consolidated grant programme provides funding for the nuclear physics research community within the UK. It delivers long-term funding for research groups to support a coherent programme of research within a department or institution, enabling researchers to plan and execute their work more effectively. By providing funding for four years, research groups can plan their projects with greater confidence and stability, allowing for more ambitious and comprehensive research agendas. The consolidated grant programme aims to collectively enhance the effectiveness and impact of nuclear physics research funded by STFC, ensuring that the UK remains internationally competitive and able to contribute to advancements in the field. Scope This grant round takes place every four years to support nuclear physics research within the UK. Activities funded within this funding opportunity must fall within . In addition they should align with and the . We will take note of international reports for example, the for European Nuclear Physics, to help set the context for the proposed work. Funding is available from 1 October 2027 to 30 September 2031. Only one consolidated grant can be awarded to an eligible research organisation or consortium. However, awards may consist of multiple, distinct scientific themes. Consortium grants Groups from different institutions working collaboratively in the same well-defined research area may apply for a consolidated research grant as a consortium. This is intended to allow members of such consortia the opportunity to bid for shared resources, that they might not otherwise be able to secure on their own, perhaps due to the size or scope of their activity. A single application covering all collaborating organisations should be submitted on behalf of the entire consortium by the lead institution. All funds are awarded directly to the lead consortium institution. It will be the responsibility of the lead institution to channel agreed funds to their consortium partners. Please note that this will require a collaboration agreement that includes provision for institutional transfer of funds, to be in place prior to a collaborative application starting. For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the Additional information section. Duration The duration of this award is four years. Projects must start on 1 October 2027. Funding available The grant funding opportunity is being launched prior to the outcome of the UK government comprehensive spending review, therefore the budget is not currently known. It is anticipated that the budget for the programme will be constrained, in comparison with previous years. You must therefore ensure that all requested funds are appropriate and fully justified. Due to constrained budgets we aim to prioritise exploitation of previous investments and support the training and development of future talent. Capital equipment items may be applied for, however unless there is strong justification and a recognised need, it is likely that the grants panel will deprioritise these. STFC will fund 80% of the FEC. What we will fund We will fund: staff costs travel maintenance and operations consumables and equipment (see new ) What we will not fund We will not fund: research that falls outside of our nuclear physics remit doctoral studentships 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. , including where applicants can find additional support. Changes since the previous (2023) consolidated grants round Whilst the key principles of the Nuclear Physics Consolidated Grants (NPCG) programme remain unchanged from previous rounds, some significant changes to the application process have been introduced for 2026. These changes have been made to better align the consolidated grants with UKRI’s Funding Service. UKRI Funding Service This funding opportunity is being run through the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. More details on this can be found in the ‘How to Apply’ Section. Assessment criteria This round of NPCG will use UKRI’s standard grants question set and assessment criteria. Whilst these cover the same broad areas as previous NPCG rounds, the wording and structure is different. Details of the assessment criteria that will be used for this round are provided in the ‘How we will assess your application’ section below. Financial requirements form To capture the level of detail needed to assess a consolidated grant application, a separate Financial requirements form must be completed. A copy of this form can be found here: . Once completed, an Excel (.xlsx) version of this form must be submitted via email to STFC before the application closing date of12 March 2026. Expert review In line with new UKRI policy, this funding opportunity will not have a separate, written expert/peer review stage. Expert review will be undertaken by the Nuclear Physics grants panel with additional international members. Equipment policy Applications to this funding opportunity must adhere to UKRI’s new , introduced on 1 April 2025, which states: single items costing £25,000 and over will be considered capital expenditure, an increase from the previous equipment capital threshold of £10,000. items of equipment will be funded at 80% of their full economic cost (80% FEC). However, awards for instrument development may (at the panel’s discretion) be funded at 100% FEC. in the Funding Service individual items of £25,000 and over should be included under the equipment heading, items under £25,000 should be included as Other Directly Incurred. Staff roles With the introduction of the Funding Service, the number of available staff roles has been expanded. Details can be found in the ‘How to Apply’ Section below. Form X You are not required to provide a Form X for this funding opportunity. Instead, all requested staff time and FTE should be recorded within your Vision and Approach document and the ‘Resources and Cost’ section of the Funding Service. Studentships Doctoral studentships will not be funded through Nuclear Physics Consolidated Grants. All studentships should now be funded through our . Consortia funding As detailed above, and in line with current UKRI policy, all funding for consortia awards will be paid by UKRI to the lead (award holding) institution. That institution will be responsible for distributing the funding allocated to each consortium partner, including any STFC laboratory partners. Such a consortium should establish collaboration agreements before the grant start date, in order to facilitate the transfer of funds between partner institutions. STFC laboratory costs All costs relating to STFC laboratories who are consortium partners should be clearly identified and entered into the Funding Service in-line with other partner costs. It is essential that all costs associated with STFC laboratories can be clearly identified. 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. Confirm you are the project lead. 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. 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 we will assess your application section on this Funding finder page. Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office. Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing. 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. 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 may 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 policy on the use of . Deadline STFC must receive your application by 12 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. Personal data Processing personal data STFC, 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 ‘NPCG26; sensitive information; [your Funding Service application number]’ in the subject line. 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 the 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. 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. 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.