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With this funding, we aim to support collaborations established within the Symposium, bringing together researchers, practitioners, and innovators in the UK, Japan and beyond to tackle key challenges and advance research aligned with global priorities, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is a chance for groups of two or more Symposium delegates to explore something new. The projects must be interdisciplinary, pilot-stage and challenge-based.

The Frontiers programme is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology under the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF).

Key information

  • Award value: up to £20,000.
  • Deadline: 17 February, 11.00am (GMT).
  • Projects must start on 10 March 2026.
  • Projects must be no longer than 12 months and finish on or before 10 March 2027.
  • The lead applicant must provide a letter (declaration) from the organisation confirming that the application is acceptable in principle to the lead organisation/ research institution/ university and that all internal authorisations have been received. Please see the details and mandatory text in the application guidance. 
  • See the guidance notes in the grants system for details on eligibility.

The funding could support, but is not limited to, the following activities:

    • Gaining preliminary data for a new project between two or more Frontiers symposium participants.

    • Developing a further consortium or workshop between two or more Frontiers symposium participants, plus additional participants who did not attend the event.

    • Acquiring data by supporting graduate students to work within the research groups of two or more participants.

    • Developing a prototype or exploring a new partnership between two or more symposium participants.

Application Process

  1. Register and create a profile via the grant system.
  2. Read the Applicant Guidance notes available in the grants system.

Register and apply

Contact us

If your question is not covered in the FAQ page please contact the Frontiers team:

[email protected]

 

Eligibility criteria – who can apply for funding?

      • The team should have at least two members (including the lead applicant) who attended the Symposium in February 2026.
      • The team must include at least one member based in the UK and at least one member based in Japan, with one of them being the project lead. Once this eligibility is met, the team may include people from other countries.
      • The team should be a newly formed partnership. Its members should not have worked on the proposed project together before.
      • The project must foster collaboration between researchers, practitioners, and innovators based in the UK and Japan. Once this criterion is met, teams may also include members from other countries and conduct project activities anywhere in the world.
      • The project must be interdisciplinary, pilot-stage and challenge-based.
      • The project must progress towards one or more of the SDGs.
      • Projects must not harm gender equality, and where possible promote it (even when impacting gender equality is not the primary research or innovation objective). This will be considered in the application review.
      • The lead applicant must be affiliated with an organisation, based in the UK or Japan, that can administer the funding on their behalf.

Project budget

Projects may be awarded up to £20,000 per award. The total project budget may exceed the maximum funding participants can request under this scheme. Participating institutions or other sources must cover additional costs. If this is the case, the contribution of each institution/source should be stated.

Eligible expenses include the following:

    • Staff costs for lead applicants, co-applicants and collaborators.
    • Small stipends, typically not exceeding 5% of the total grant, can cover expenses that enable people to engage in the project. This might include, for example, local community groups, indigenous people, women, young people, or students. It should not usually cover costs for project team members, which should be included as staff costs. 
    • Travel and subsistence. Subsistence costs should reflect the normal rates applied at the host institution/s. All other costs should be based on the best value option. Exchanges can include breaks between visits, which should not be considered when calculating the requested funding.
    • Consumables, including project-specific costs of small equipment, computer software licenses or publication costs. No single item may cost more than £10,000.
    • ‘Other costs’, which include conferences and seminar fees.
    • Necessary service provisions related to the project, such as translation or IT services.
    • The host institution(s) can include up to 10% of the grant as a contribution to project management, administrative and other running costs. The award funds can be dispersed to different project partners as appropriate for the project activities.

The following costs are not eligible:

    • Funding activities outside of the project objectives and scope.
    • Funding activities contrary to the values of the Royal Academy of Engineering. 
    • Loans, further grants or revolving funds.
    • Infrastructure, buildings, large physical assets and vehicles over the value of £10,000
    • Facilities, such as air conditioning units, office buildings, furniture, etc.
    • The funding cannot cover any indirect costs or overheads related to staff costs.

Assessment of applications

Applicants will be evaluated by a panel including Academy Fellows and experts from relevant disciplines. All applications will be assessed against the following criteria:

    • The project's quality. Reviewers will assess the proposed project's quality and its objectives' feasibility, applicants’ approach to monitoring and evaluation.
    • The outcome and impact. Reviewers will assess the extent to which outcomes and impact are reasonable, tangible, feasible, and sufficiently ambitious.
    • Budget suitability. Reviewers will assess how suitable, realistic and clear the budget is. Whether the project demonstrates value for money

Diversity and Inclusion

The Royal Academy of Engineering is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes applications from all underrepresented groups across engineering. It is the Academy’s policy to ensure that no applicant is disadvantaged or receives less favourable treatment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. 

Before you commence your application, you will be asked a few diversity monitoring questions to help the Academy monitor and assess our progress on diversity and inclusion in Academy programmes. It will only be used for statistical purposes with access restricted to staff involved in processing and monitoring the data. No information will be published or used in any way that identifies individuals. The Academy will retain personal information as per our Data Retention Policy in line with the General Data Protection Regulations 2018. 

The information will be treated as strictly confidential, nonattributable and will not be seen by anyone involved in any selection processes.  You will need to complete the diversity monitoring section before you can submit the grant application form, but can choose “prefer not to say” as responses. 

Subsidy control

The UK subsidy control regime began on 4 January 2023. As part of this regime, the Academy is required to report to the UK Government on how award funding is being used when applications collaborating with commercial enterprises are awarded. The regime determines the lawfulness of monetary awards made using public sector resources when given to businesses and other organisations that are engaged in economic activity.