Video Games and Gambling-Related Harms
Supports research in the United Kingdom on video game design and gambling impacts through applied development.
The Video Games and Gambling-Related Harms 2026 funding call is a cross-council UKRI initiative led by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Medical Research Council (MRC), and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) participating as co-funders. The programme funds interdisciplinary research into the intersection of video gaming and gambling mechanics, covering phenomena such as esports betting, loot boxes, social casinos, regulatory frameworks, and the commercial determinants of gambling-related harm in digital environments.
The total fund is £5,000,000, with a maximum award of £1,000,000 per project at 80% full economic cost (FEC). Projects must start by 1 January 2027 and run for a maximum of 36 months. Applications are accepted from UK research organisations eligible for UKRI funding; international researchers may join as project co-leads funded from the UK budget. UK-based businesses, third sector organisations, and government bodies may also co-lead, with the explicit exclusion of gambling industry entities and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The deadline for applications is 23 July 2026 at 4:00pm UK time, submitted via the UKRI Funding Service.
Applicants must form genuinely interdisciplinary teams addressing the full causal chain from game design mechanics to gambling harm outcomes. AHRC's involvement signals that humanities and social science perspectives on design, narrative, user behaviour, and regulation are as valued as clinical or economic approaches. Strong proposals will combine methodological breadth with a clear public-health or policy-change pathway. The gambling industry exclusion is firm, so non-commercial research bodies and academic-led consortia with health, legal, or behavioural science expertise are the intended applicant pool.
Esports betting, loot boxes, social casinos, regulatory frameworks, commercial determinants, user engagement, treatment/prevention.
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