Japan-UK Joint call for collaborations in Advanced Connectivity Technologies (Grant)
UK Research & Innovation, Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, NICT
Award
Up to £1.12m
Total fund Up to £3.36m
Deadline
Closes 6 October 2026
Where
UK-wide
Summary
Apply for funding to form world-leading partnerships with collaborators in Japan for your research into Advanced Connectivity Technologies. UK applicants must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for EPSRC funding. Japanese applicants must be eligible for NICT funding.
Who can apply
For support under this funding opportunity, applicants and organisations must be eligible to apply for funding from their respective country’s funding agency. To be eligible for funding from this opportunity, you must have a project partner from Japan. For UK applicants, this opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. Check if your organisation is eligible . Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) eligibility EPSRC standard eligibility rules apply to this funding opportunity, applicants in the UK must meet the EPSRC eligibility requirements. For full details, visit EPSRC’s eligibility page . National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) eligibility Applicants in Japan must meet the NICT eligibility requirements (PDF, 3.2MB) . For further details, please refer to the forthcoming press release on the launch of the Call for applications; Fund Project for Beyond 5G/6G (PDF, 3.2MB) . The application should be submitted by one or more research institutions seeking to undertake the commissioned work. For applications submitted by universities or other academic institutions, submission in the form of an industry-academia consortium is recommended. To apply researchers and research institutions must register via the Cross-Ministerial Research and Development Management System (e-Rad) prior to application. Please follow NICT application guidelines in addition to this funding opportunity template before applying. To use e-Rad, the research institution must complete its registration in advance. At the time of application, the representative applicant must be affiliated with a registered institution, while co-applicants are not necessarily required to do so. Please note that the institution’s registration process in e-Rad may take several days. We therefore recommend allowing at least two weeks to complete all submission procedures. Should an application be declined for funding, you should refer to each participating agency’s individual resubmission policies. Who is not eligible to apply project team members who are not eligible for EPSRC and NICT funding Please note: applicants may act as the project lead in only one application, but may participate in additional applications in other roles (for example, co-lead) only for UK applicants: project partners (industry) can be part of the application and can provide in-kind or costed support but cannot receive funding from this funding opportunity International researchers The UKRI-RCN Money Follows Cooperation Agreement does not apply to this funding opportunity. As such grants submitted to this funding opportunity cannot include a Norway-based international co-project lead. Resubmissions We will not accept uninvited resubmissions of projects that have been submitted to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) or any other funder. Find out more about EPSRC’s resubmissions policy . 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.
Full details
Apply for funding to form world‑leading partnerships with collaborators in Japan in the field of Advanced Connectivity Technologies. Your application must involve researchers from both Japan and UK. UK applicants must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for EPSRC funding. Japanese applicants must be eligible for NICT funding. You may request up to £897,000 (80% full economic cost (FEC)) for the UK component from EPSRC and up to ¥200 million for Japan components from NICT. The duration of the award can be up to a maximum of three years. If you intend to submit a joint UK-Japan proposal to this funding opportunity, it is strongly encouraged to submit an Expression of interest .