EPSRC Network Plus

EPSRC Network Plus: Materials Innovation Programme Coordination

Supports United Kingdom materials innovators through networked collaboration and shared innovation roadmaps.

⚠ This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.

The EPSRC Materials Innovation Programme Coordination Network Pluses call funds the establishment of strategic research networks aligned to four themes of the National Materials Innovation Strategy (NMIS). Each successful Network Plus will bring together and coordinate new research communities to identify and develop emerging challenges in one of the four themes: materials for energy solutions; materials for future healthcare; materials for advanced surface technologies; and materials for next-generation electronics, telecommunications and sensors. A maximum of one network will be funded per theme. The total fund is £5.7 million, with a maximum award of £1.38 million per application. EPSRC funds 80% of FEC. Project duration is up to 3.5 years (42 months), with a mandatory start by October 2026. The call opened 23 March 2026 and closed 27 May 2026 at 4:00pm UK time.

Eligibility is limited to UK research organisations eligible for EPSRC funding — in practice, UK higher education institutions, research council institutes, and UKRI-approved independent research organisations. For-profit companies cannot lead. A key constraint is that one individual may only participate in a single application across all four themes. Each funded Network Plus must partner with Innovate UK Business Connect as part of its network structure to unite research and industrial stakeholders. Up to 50% of the award may be designated as flexible funding for feasibility studies distributed through the network. Norway-based project co-leads are explicitly excluded.

The Network Plus model is a strategic, coordination-focused investment rather than a direct research delivery grant; successful applicants are expected to catalyse collaboration rather than conduct primary research themselves. Winning proposals must show a credible plan to identify and mobilise a broad research community around one NMIS theme, demonstrate the complementary industrial stakeholder connections enabled through the Innovate UK Business Connect partnership, and present a governance structure capable of managing the flexible feasibility funding sub-pot. Organisations targeting a future call should note that EPSRC issues Network Plus calls thematically, and next calls under the Materials Innovation Programme have not yet been announced.