Guidance

AIRR Innovator route (UKRI guidance)

Updated 7 November 2025

1. Summary

Designed for researchers from academia, industry, or other UK organisations, this route builds upon the existing Gateway route by supporting:

• larger, more ambitious projects
• research teams and partnerships
• the UK Compute Roadmap’s goal of scaling capability, enhancing accessibility, and strengthening collaboration across the UK compute landscape.

Eligible activities include: ^{[footnote 1]}

• fundamental research (research organisations only)
• feasibility studies
• industrial research
• experimental development

For more information, please see the UKRI guidance on categories of research and development.

Resources available:

Between 50,000 and 150,000 GPU hours on AIRR services, to be used within six months of project start.

The closing date for applications to this route is 4pm on 16 January 2026.

Project start dates can be between 16 February and 13 March 2026.

Accessibility and inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone.

You must read this guidance fully before you start your application.

You can contact us at airr@ukri.org to ask for guidance not addressed in the guidance document.

2. Eligibility

Who can apply

Your organisation must be one of the following:

• UK registered business of any size and have a Companies House registration number.
• Charity
• Not for profit organisation
• Research organisation eligible for UKRI funding including:
  • Higher education providers
  • Research institutes
  • NHS bodies
  • Public sector research establishments
  • Independent research organisations
  • Catapult centres

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules and Research organisations eligible for UKRI funding.

There is no limit to the number of applications from any one organisation.

Previous awards

To prove your intended use of AIRR is feasible and scalable, we expect you to have already applied for and used an AIRR Gateway award.

If not, the first month of any Innovator award will be treated as a similar assessment period.

The full award of GPU hours will not be released until the intended use of AIRR is proven feasible and scalable.

Subsidy control (and State aid where applicable)

All AIRR access routes provide awards in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Further information about the Subsidy requirements can be found within the Subsidy Control Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk).

EU State aid rules now only apply in limited circumstances. Please see the Windsor Framework to check if these rules apply to your organisation.

In the ‘Lead organisation details’ section of your application you will be asked questions to indicate if State Aid or Subsidy applies to your organisation, including your subsidy history.

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

You must always make sure that the resources awarded to you are compliant with all current Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom.

Project finances

Project applications from:

• businesses, or
• non-academic organisations undertaking feasibility studies, industrial research or experimental development projects

will need to state all eligible project costs. Academic organisations do not need to provide this information.

Please remember that no funding is available through this route, only compute resource. The information on project costs is required to ensure awards are made in in line with the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

For an overview on what costs you can include in your project, see Costs guidance for non-academic organisations. Note this is general guidance. You can also view our application finances video.

The AIRR programme would welcome the following project costs as aligning to the policy objectives:

• software development
• staff training related to AI.

Support ratios

Project applications from:

• businesses, or
• non-academic organisations undertaking feasibility studies, industrial research or experimental development projects

will need to ensure that the balance between your total eligible project costs and the amount of compute resources awarded is funded by your organisation. Academic organisations are not subject to this requirement.

For feasibility studies and industrial research, the maximum percentage of the overall eligible project costs that can be compute resources awarded through this route are:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium-sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

For experimental development, the maximum percentage of the overall eligible project costs that can be compute resources awarded through this route are:

• up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 35% if you are a medium-sized organisation
• up to 25% if you are a large organisation

For more information on company sizes, please refer to the company accounts guidance.

If you are applying for an award funded under State aid Regulations, the definitions are set out in the European Commission Recommendation of 6 May 2003.

3. Scope

The Innovator route offers an open and adaptable pathway for accessing computational resources, available to users across academia, industry and individual research, within the broad remit of the AIRR programme. It builds upon the existing Gateway route by supporting larger, more ambitious projects, that continue to explore emerging areas of AI.

This route is designed to help build capacity across the UK’s compute ecosystem for AI research through experimentation, cross-sector collaboration and skills development. It encourages the formation of broader research teams and partnerships, fostering multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral innovation, while maintaining a focus on new users, disruptive thinking and early-stage innovation.

Potential AI-related research topics include, but are not limited to:

• Development of novel algorithms and software tools
• Exploring AI-assisted workflow
• AI-driven data collection, production, and synthesis
• early-stage development of AI products.

Within these novel and developing areas, we are particularly keen to hear from projects that contribute to delivering against the government’s five missions:

• growing the economy
• an NHS fit for the future
• safer streets
• opportunity for all
• making Britain a clean energy superpower

This route covers activities that fall into the following categories (see categories of research and development – UKRI):

• fundamental research
• feasibility studies
• industrial research
• experimental development

4. How to apply

Before submitting, it is the lead applicant’s responsibility to ensure that:

• all information provided in the application is accurate
• the proposal meets the eligibility and scope criteria for the chosen access route

Important notes

Self-contained applications only: do not include links to external web resources. Applications containing such links will be deemed ineligible.

Use of generative AI tools: you may use generative AI to help prepare your application. However, please exercise caution and ensure the content remains accurate and appropriate. For more details, refer to the UKRI policy on the use of generative AI in application and assessment.

Application structure

The application consists of the following components:

1. AIRRPortal online form, with 3 sections (not scored by assessors)
   
   a. Project details (which includes the ‘Upload supporting documentation’ option, where the attachments requested below are to be uploaded)
   b. Resource requests
   c. Project team
   
   

2. Supporting documentation to be uploaded, templates for both attachments are available on the AIRRPortal call details page
   a. Further project and organisation details, including compliance and project costs and subsidy history (not scored by assessors)
   b. Assessment questions (scored by assessors).

Processing personal data and data sharing

UKRI will need to collect some personal information to manage your application.

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.

UKRI will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) so that they can participate in the assessment process.

For more information on how DSIT uses personal information, visit DSIT Privacy Policy.

5. How your project will be assessed

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

Gateway applications will be subject to peer review by two reviewers drawn from the AI and high-performance computing community. Following assessment, applications will be allocated to one of three tiers.

Resources will be allocated to the applications in the top tier as priority, using partial randomisation as required. Applications in the middle tier may be recommended for resources using partial randomisation. Resources are allocated until the budget is exhausted throughout the middle tier.

Assessment by experts remains the mainstay of the process and applications must pass a certain threshold to be deemed competitively strong against the assessment criteria. Therefore, only highly competitive applications will be considered via randomisation.

The UKRI or Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Delivery Team will make the final allocation decision.

Your application will be assessed against the following areas:

• are the project objectives in scope for the AIRR programme?
• has the project demonstrated how it has the potential to advance current understanding of AI research and innovation, and impact world-leading research, society, the economy or the environment?
• has the project demonstrated how it will contribute to building capacity across the AI ecosystem?
• has the project demonstrated that the AIRR resources requested are appropriate and justified?
• has the project demonstrated that it has identified and evaluated the relevant ethical or responsible research and innovation considerations, including how to manage these considerations?

6. What happens if you receive an award offer

If your project application is successful, UKRI will send the project lead a formal offer letter, which will contain the award Terms and Conditions, any subsidy notice required and a link to the online equality monitoring form.

When you confirm the equality monitoring form has been completed, the project lead will be emailed a project link from the AIRRPortal.

By logging in to the AIRRPortal and accessing the compute resources, you will have accepted the UKRI terms and conditions.

1. AIRR Gateway route (UKRI guidance) ↩