R&D MAP Creative Content Exchange pilot: Early Adopters fund (Grant)

Who is eligible to apply

This opportunity is open to UK-based organisations with standard or non-standard eligibility.

The criteria for non-standard eligibility is that your organisation must be one of the following:

• charity

• non-governmental organisation

• government department

• third sector organisation

• ocial enterprise

• other educational establishment (for example, a college that does not usually undertake research activities)

You will need to go through checks before being given funding. You can apply for funding before these checks take place. We may ask you to start the checks before your application is successful.

This is a targeted support fund designed to accelerate the onboarding of early content providers to the CCE platform.

For this phase of the pilot, we are particularly targeting content from large cultural organisations, including but not limited to, galleries, libraries, archives and museums.

‘Content’ includes all and any content ( for example, video, audio, images, text or mixed media) and data sets.

Who is not eligible to apply

If you received funding from the ‘Launch Partners Fund: (invite-only)’ opportunity, then you are not eligible to apply for this funding opportunity.

International researchers

International applicants based outside the UK are not eligible to apply to this opportunity in any capacity.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are committed to achieving equality of opportunity 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

UKRI can offer disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.

Demand management

Demand management is not currently being applied to this funding opportunity. However, should the level of interest exceed what can be managed within the assessment process, UKRI may introduce limits on the number of applications that can be submitted. Further details will be clearly communicated where this is the case.

UKRI encourages organisations to support applicants in preparing well-planned, high-quality applications that are competitive for funding relative to the funding opportunity.

Aim

The UKRI Research and Development Missions Accelerator Programme is running a pilot as part of the CCE Challenge. The pilot runs until mid-2027. This funding is a targeted support mechanism designed to accelerate the onboarding of early content providers to the CCE platform within the pilot timeframe. It covers activities specified in the Technical Readiness Checklist (see the ‘Related content’ section), including specific legal, technical, and operational barriers to onboarding.

Scope

This fund is focused exclusively on activities that enable timely participation in the CCE pilot. Fund support must materially accelerate delivery versus business-as-usual activities. It requires that funded activities deliver demonstrable impact within the pilot timeframe, with the aspiration to onboard relevant content to the CCE platform no later than 30 April 2027.

The term ‘content’ includes any and all content (for example, video, audio, images, text or mixed media) and data sets. The proposed content must be of sufficient quality and structure to support meaningful participation.

The Technical Readiness Checklist, which can be found in the Related content section below, gives an indication of the work involved in onboarding content to the CCE platform. You do not need to fill this in as part of your application, but it is provided as context to help you understand what onboarding involves. It will be completed as part of the onboarding process for successful applicants with support from the CCE pilot team.

Successful applicants will be required to sign the CCE platform terms and conditions as a condition of funding (please see the link to the CCE Platform Terms and Conditions under the Related Content section). If you are successful, you must sign and return these to UKRI no later than 4pm on 4 September 2026. Further details will be provided to successful applicants on how to email this document back to us. If you do not sign the CCE platform terms and conditions by the requested date, your award will be terminated.

Successful applicants must provide updates to the CCE team every 3 months on the key milestones and activities associated with the investment. Failure to provide this evidence may result in the investment being reduced, suspended, terminated or recovered.

Duration

The duration of this award is up to 9 months, with funded activities delivering demonstrable impact, including onboarding and content availability, by 30 April 2027 at the latest.

Once outcomes have been confirmed, key activities will be required to start as soon as possible, and no later than 1 September 2026.

Grant extensions will not be permitted except in specific circumstances in line with the Equality Act 2010.

Funding available

The FEC of your project can be up to £125,000. UKRI will fund 100% of the FEC.

What we will fund

We will fund costs relating to:

• legal and rights clearance, including due diligence, review, or refinement of licensing templates and contractual terms required for participation in the CCE platform

• metadata enhancement and content structuring

• pricing strategy development, content valuation analysis, or commercial modelling required to enable CCE platform participation

• integration-related improvements or data environment-related improvements to make content available through the CCE platform

• time-bound operational, product, engineering, project management, or staffing resource (including temporary or fixed-term roles) directly required to support onboarding to the CCE platform

• indemnity insurance or extension of existing insurance for a trading arm of a public body, subject to certain restrictions set out below

If you are funding insurance costs, these can cover up to £1 million of liability arising out of or in connection with any of the following:

• any claim or allegation made by a third party that platform data or Content submitted by a content provider to the platform infringes the intellectual property rights of a third party

• any claim or allegation made by a third party or any governmental or regulatory authority that platform data submitted by a content provider to the platform breaches data protection laws or any applicable laws governing confidential, secret or classified information

• use of or allowing access to platform technology outside of the scope permitted by this contract

In respect of any open materials, this indemnity shall be limited to passing on to the platform the benefit of any indemnity in the applicable open license.

What we will not fund

This opportunity is not a general investment or digitisation fund. Long term digitisation or transformation programmes are out of scope. Applications must provide clear evidence that the funding is necessary and will have material impact within the grant period.

Supporting skills and talent

We encourage you to follow the principles of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and the Technician Commitment.

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 TR&I Principles 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.

See further guidance and information about TR&I, including where applicants can find additional support.

Assessment process

We will assess your application using the following process.

Internal assessment

Applications received to this funding opportunity will be assessed by an internal assessment panel comprising UKRI staff and with potential input from the CCE pilot team.

For more information on how we prioritise applications for funding please visit How we make decisions.

UKRI will make the final funding decision.

Timescale

We aim to issue funding outcomes by the end of July 2026.

Feedback

If unsuccessful, we will give feedback with the outcome of your application.

Principles of assessment

We support the San Francisco declaration on research assessment and recognise the relationship between research assessment and research integrity.

Find out about the UKRI principles of assessment and decision making.

Using generative artificial intelligence (AI) in expert review

Reviewers and panellists are not permitted to use generative AI tools to develop their assessment, including to correct language, spelling, grammar and formatting. Using these tools can potentially compromise the confidentiality of the ideas that applicants have entrusted to UKRI to safeguard.

For more detail see our policy on the use of generative AI.

We reserve the right to modify the assessment process as needed.

Assessment areas

The assessment areas we will use are:

• appropriateness of approach

• appropriateness of applicant & team capability to deliver

• ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)

• resources and cost justification

Find details of assessment questions and criteria under the ‘Application questions’ heading in the ‘How to apply’ section.

Click here to start application on the UKRI Funding Service: https://funding-service.ukri.org/OPP1289/apply/1316

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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:

• how applicants use the Funding Service

• how research offices use the Funding Service

• how reviewers use the Funding Service

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 generative AI in application and assessment.

Deadline

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) must receive your application by 30 June 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

AHRC, 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 privacy notice.

Sensitive information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email gabriela.nava@esrc.ukri.org

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, read UKRI’s privacy notice.

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. 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.

Publication of outcomes

AHRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at Board and panel outcomes.

If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the UKRI Gateway to Research.

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.

Find out more about UKRI’s core team roles in funding applications.

Application questions

Approach

Word limit: 1,500

Describe:

• what barriers to engaging with the CCE platform you propose to address with this work (legal technical, operational, commercial, or other)

• how you propose to address these barriers with the funded activities

• how the proposed activities will ensure that content of sufficient quality is ready for onboarding to the CCE platform by 30 April 2027

• why this funding is needed to accelerate material delivery as opposed to business-as-usual activities

• your delivery plan in narrative form, demonstrating how you will achieve all milestones and benefits by the project end date

• how you will manage and mitigate risks to delivery, including any dependencies or external factors, both known and unknown, that might affect your proposed activities

You should include a workplan in the form of a Gantt chart, clearly outlining specific activities, deliverables and milestones.

What the assessors are looking for in your response

The assessors are looking for appropriateness of approach, including:

• the importance and relevance of the identified barriers in the context of ensuring that content of sufficient quality is ready for onboarding to the CCE platform

• the extent to which the proposed activity will ensure the content has been onboarded to the platform by 30 April 2027

• the extent to which the funding will materially accelerate delivery beyond the organisation’s business-as-usual activities

• delivery confidence in achieving all benefits by the project end date

• the appropriateness and achievability of your proposed workplan

• its feasibility, and how it comprehensively identifies any risks to delivery and how they will be managed

• how it is timely given current trends, context, and needs

• how it is effective and appropriate to achieve your objectives

References may be included within this section.

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Applicant and team capability to deliver

Word limit: 750

Describe how the aim of the CCE pilot is relevant to your organisation, and how your organisation provides the right environment in which to contribute to this aim.

Why are you the right individual or team to successfully deliver the proposed work?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

You should explain the appropriateness of applicant and team capability to deliver, including:

• the relevant experience (appropriate to career stage) to deliver the proposed work

• the right balance of skills and expertise to cover the proposed work

• the appropriate leadership and management skills to deliver the work and your approach to develop others

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

The roles in funding applications policy has descriptions of the different project roles.

Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)

Word limit: 500

What are the ethical and RRI considerations, implications and issues relating to the proposed work? If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, explain why.

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Demonstrate that you have identified and evaluated:

• the relevant ethical and RRI considerations, including both the research or topic area itself and the design and delivery of the project

• the wider implications of the proposed work, and how you will maximise the positive societal, environmental, and economic benefits arising from the project, whilst minimising unintended negative impacts, such as research misuse or accidental harm

• how you will manage these considerations throughout the lifecycle of the project

If you are collecting or using data, you should identify:

• any legal and ethical considerations of collecting, releasing and storing the data (including consent, confidentiality, anonymisation, security and other ethical considerations and, in particular, strategies to not preclude further reuse of data)

• formal information standards that your proposed work will comply with

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.

Please refer to the UKRI position statement on funding ethical research and Responsible innovation for more information around our expectations on ethical and responsible research and innovation.

Animal Involvement and “3Rs”

You must complete this section about how your proposed project will involve or impact animals.

If your project does not involve or impact animals, you must confirm this on the next page.

You may be asked about:

• What animals you are involving

• The severity of the procedures you are using

• Where the procedures will take place

• Welfare standards you aim to meet

• The relevance of your project to the development, validation or dissemination of the 3Rs

You may also need to download, complete, and upload at least one set of additional questions. You will be told how to do this towards the end of this section.

To complete this section and check whether your project is in the scope of the questions, refer to the UKRI policy for research and innovation involving animals.

What counts as an animal

UKRI policy relates to all animals in the Kingdom Animalia, including vertebrates and invertebrates.

Genetically modified organisms and biological risk

You must complete this section if your project will include genetically modified organisms or genetic technologies.

If you project does not involve genetically modified organisms or genetic technologies, you must confirm this on the next page.

You may be asked about:

• The type of organism your project will involve and the procedures your project will include

• The intended use of the organism or genetic technology

• The genetic, biological and environmental risks of your project

For more information, see UKRI’s guidance on genetic technologies.

Human Participation in Health-related Research

You must complete this section about whether your project will include human participation.

If your project does not involve human participation, you must confirm this on the next page.

You may be asked about:

• What type of human participation your project includes

• The project design for human participation

• The phase of the clinical trial

• Whether the project will be in an NHS setting, if so how the project will be registered

• Whether diversity and inclusion will be considered

For more information, see UKRI’s guidance for human participants in research.

Resources and cost justification

Word limit: 750

What will you need to deliver your proposed work and how much will it cost?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Justify the application’s more costly resources, including but not limited to:

• legal and rights clearance, including due diligence, review, or refinement of licensing templates and contractual terms required for participation in the CCE platform

• metadata enhancement and content structuring

• pricing strategy development, content valuation analysis, or commercial modelling required to enable CCE platform participation

• integration-related improvements or data environment-related improvements to make content available through the CCE platform

• time-bound operational, product, engineering or project management directly required to support onboarding to the CCE platform

• project staff

• indemnity insurance or extension of existing insurance for a trading arm of a public body, subject to certain restrictions set out in the ‘What we are looking for’ section.

You can request costs associated with reasonable adjustments where they increase as a direct result of working on the project. For further information see Disability and accessibility support for UKRI applicants and grant holders. Where a funding limit is imposed on the opportunity, requested costs for reasonable adjustments may exceed the maximum funding amount.

Assessors are not looking for detailed costs or a line-by-line breakdown of all project resources. Overall, they want you to demonstrate how the resources you anticipate needing for your proposed work:

• are comprehensive, appropriate, and justified

• represent the optimal use of resources to achieve the intended outcomes

• maximise potential outcomes and impacts

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

Trusted Research and Innovation is the protection of the UK’s intellectual property, sensitive research, people, and infrastructure from potential theft, misuse, and exploitation.

Organisations receiving UKRI funding are obliged to act in line with UK government legislation. They are also expected to undertake appropriate due diligence assessments of organisations involved in research partnerships, collaboration agreements, and commercial contracts.

You will be asked about:

• Which areas of the National Security and Investment (NSI) Act your project relates to

• Who you intend to collaborate with and how

• If your project requires an export control licence

Your answers may affect the T&Cs of your funding agreement if you are successful. We may use your answers to determine that our current T&Cs are sufficient or if additional T&Cs are required.

Research and innovation impact

Impact can be defined as the long-term intended or unintended effect research and innovation has on society, economy and the environment; to individuals, organisations, and the wider global population.

Research disruption due to COVID-19

We recognise that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused major interruptions and disruptions across our communities. We are committed to ensuring that individual applicants and their wider team, including partners and networks, are not penalised for any disruption to their career, such as:

• breaks and delays

• disruptive working patterns and conditions

• the loss of ongoing work

• role changes that may have been caused by the pandemic

Reviewers and panel members will be advised to consider the unequal impacts that COVID-19 related disruption might have had on the capability to deliver and career development of those individuals included in the application. They will be asked to consider the capability of the applicant and their wider team to deliver the research they are proposing.

Where disruptions have occurred, you can highlight this within your application if you wish, but there is no requirement to detail the specific circumstances that caused the disruption.

Supporting documents

CCE technical readiness checklist (PDF, 143KB)

CCE platform terms and conditions (PDF, 291KB)

Related content

• £380 million boost for creative industries to help drive innovation, regional growth and investment

• UKRI policies and standards

• AHRC policies and standards

This funding opportunity is part of:

• R&D Missions Accelerator Programme

Get help with your application

If you have a question and the answers aren’t provided on this page

The helpdesk is committed to helping users of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service as effectively and as quickly as possible. In order to manage cases at peak volume times, the helpdesk will triage and prioritise those queries with an imminent opportunity deadline or a technical issue. Enquiries raised where information is available on the Funding finder opportunity page and should be understood early in the application process (for example, regarding eligibility, content or remit of a funding opportunity) will not constitute a priority case and will be addressed as soon as possible.

Contact details

For help and advice on costings and writing your application please contact your research office in the first instance, allowing sufficient time for your organisation’s submission process.

For questions related to this specific funding opportunity please contact gabriela.nava@esrc.ukri.org

Any queries regarding the system or the submission of applications through the Funding Service should be directed to the helpdesk.

Email: support@funding-service.ukri.orgPhone: 01793 547490

Our phone lines are open:

• Monday to Thursday 8:30am to 5:00pm

• Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm

To help us process queries more efficiently, we request that users highlight the council and opportunity name in the subject title of their email query, include the application reference number, and refrain from contacting more than one mailbox at a time.

For further information on submitting an application read How applicants use the Funding Service.