Doctoral focal award: chip design and verification (Grant)

Apply for funding to establish a doctoral focal award in chip design. This supports interdisciplinary training in very large-scale integration design and systems-on-chip. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for EPSRC funding. Total funding: £6 million Maximum award: £6 million Location: National Who can apply: Public Sector, Non-profit, Private Sector Closing date: 2026-12-02 16:00 (UK time) Eligibility Who is eligible to apply This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible.Organisations eligible to apply include: - higher education institutions - research council institutes - eligible independent research organisations and Catapult centres - public sector research establishments (PSREs) Check if you’re eligible for funding.PSREs wishing to be involved in an application are required to choose whether they wish to do so either as a project lead or project co-lead, where they will provide the principal base (host) for students, or as a project partner. An organisation cannot perform both roles within one application.If your organisation is not currently listed as an eligible organisation you can apply to become an eligible organisation.Organisations can only apply as the lead organisation on one submitted application. However, organisations with project co-leads or industrial project partners may appear on any number of applications.The lead organisation: - will play a strategic leadership role in shaping the vision, skills priorities, and delivery model - will lead submission of the application - will act as the training grant holder if you are successful - does not require doctoral research degree awarding powers, but an organisation with these powers must be present within your consortium - must provide the principal base (host) for a minimum of one student per year of intake for this funding opportunity. Identification of the project lead should not be interpreted as recognition as the dominant partner Summary Apply for funding to establish a doctoral focal award in chip design and verification. This supports interdisciplinary training in very large-scale integration design and systems-on-chip. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for EPSRC funding. Funding will initially be available to support for two cohorts of students. Funding for further cohorts may be available in future. As a non-full economic cost award, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will fund 100% of eligible costs listed in the opportunity. Estates and indirect costs will not be funded. Objectives Demand management Demand management is being applied to this funding opportunity. As outlined in the ‘Who can apply’ section, organisations can submit one application as lead. Aim The successful doctoral focal award will address the UK Government AI Hardware Plan by: - training a pipeline of doctoral-level very large-scale integration chip design and advanced compute specialists, building capability in AI accelerators, hardware-software co-design and energy-efficient systems, strengthening indus Dates Assessment process We will assess your application using the following process. Panel We will invite experts to use the evidence provided in the proposal to assess the quality of your application and rank it alongside other applications. We reserve the right to sift proposals at this stage based on panel comment and fit to wider strategy in relation to semiconductor research.For more information on how we prioritise applications for funding please visit How we make decisions. Interview For short How to apply Click here to start an application on the UKRI Funding Service: https://funding-service.ukri.org/OPP1365/apply/1391 Expression of interest (EOI) You must submit a mandatory EOI in the form of an email sent to [email on the official page] by 5 November 2026 at 4:00pm UK time. This is for planning and organisational purposes and will not form part of t