Now open: New funding opportunity for DARE UK real-world research exemplars

DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK) is inviting applications for funding to support real-world research exemplar projects that will use, evaluate and influence new capabilities within and between Trusted Research Environments (TREs).

These short, impactful research projects will demonstrate how innovations assembled as part of TREvolution under the DARE UK Transformational Programme can be applied in practice to deliver real-world impact.

Projects can request between £365,700 and £609,500, with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding 80% of the full economic cost (fEC). Awards will run for a maximum of 12 months, with projects required to start by April 2026.

This call is being run by UKRI. For full details on the call and to apply please refer to the UKRI website.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to research teams from across all UKRI research council remits.

To be eligible:

• Project leads must be based at an eligible UK research organisation.
• Applicants must demonstrate their ability to conduct cross-domain research using capabilities developed through the DARE UK programme.
• All projects must include a workstream on Public Involvement and Engagement (PIE) (see DARE UK PIE Guidelines) and on legal, ethical and governance considerations, and align with UKRI’s Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) principles.

Individuals may lead only one application but can participate as co-leads on multiple projects. International applicants can participate as project co-leads, subject to certain restrictions. More information on eligibility is available on the UKRI website.

Scope of the call

This funding opportunity complements DARE UK Early Adopters by enabling research and data science teams to test and shape the development of key new TRE capabilities, including:

• Data federation: securely accessing approved data across multiple TREs.
• Analytics federation: running computational jobs in remote TREs against approved data.
• Semi-automated disclosure controls, including for AI and machine learning outputs.

What we’re looking for

We particularly welcome applications for research projects looking to:

• scale populations beyond datasets available in one TRE (Wales + England, for example).
• enrich original cohorts with additional attributes from other datasets (health + education, for example).
• augment individual-level data with complex reference data (geographical and environmental, for example).
• assess the disclosure risks around the export of trained Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML) models from one or more UK TREs.

Projects should both test the robustness of these technologies and showcase their potential in addressing challenging, real-world research questions.

To support applicants and their TRE partner(s) with the conceptualisation of their proposed work, some examples could be:

• a research study that requires or would benefit from a federated analysis pipeline across two or more SATRE-compliant TREs
• a research study that requires or would benefit from a federated analysis pipeline across two or more SATRE-compliant TREs, where the analysis is embedded in the ACRO tool. The workflow proceeds through the SACRO output checker for disclosure control and produces a provenance record that can be published across partner TREs
• a research study using traditional analytics workflows, existing federated analysis pipelines or machine learning (ML) models in one or more TREs, that would benefit from the use of enhanced SACRO disclosure control features. Outcome of study to provide feedback on new tooling such as researcher-facing user interfaces and tools for managing research sessions, amongst others
• a research study that requires or would benefit from a partner TRE(s) deploying and testing the K8TRE reference implementation and providing feedback on its use as a production TRE. Or a study assessing existing TRE(s) for compliance with the K8TRE specification and piloting relevant component integrations to support the research study
• a research study that requires or would benefit from a partner TRE(s) evaluating themselves against the SATRE specification, sharing that evaluation if possible and providing feedback to help improve the SATRE specification

What we can fund

Applicants may request funding for:

• Contributions to staff costs (project leads, co-leads, research, technical staff).
• Research consumables, cloud computing, and small equipment (under £25,000).
• Data preparation, provision, preservation and sharing.
• Travel and dissemination activities.
• Costs to support open-source software development.
• Public involvement and engagement activities, including payments to contributors.

Note: Certain costs, such as studentships, large equipment, and NHS research costs, are not eligible.

How to apply

Applications must be submitted through the UKRI Funding Service. You cannot apply via Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S) system. Full application guidance will be available on the Funding Service when the opportunity opens. Please ensure your organisation is registered on the new platform in advance.

DARE UK applicant webinars

We have organised two sessions to share more information to assist applicants in preparing and submitting their application:

• Applicant webinar: DARE UK real-world research exemplars funding call – Tuesday, 30 September (11:00 – 12:00)
• Drop-in session: DARE UK real-world research exemplars funding call – Thursday, 23 October 2025 (11:00 – 12:00)

These sessions will provide an overview of the funding opportunity, including eligibility, application guidance, and requirements for public involvement and engagement. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions directly to the DARE UK Delivery Team. Click the links above to sign up.

TREvolution collaboration café

Join the TREvolution team for an interactive online collaboration café designed to help prospective applicants explore potential partnerships and strengthen their applications.

• Building collaborations for the DARE UK Research Exemplars funding opportunity – Thursday, 2 October 2025 (13:30 – 14:30)

By the end of the session, applicants will have identified opportunities for collaboration and gained deeper insights into TREvolution and how their projects could support its work and outputs. Click the link above to sign up.

Deadline

Applications to this funding opportunity close on Wednesday, 5 November 2025 at 4:00 PM.

For enquiries about this funding opportunity, please send an email to informatics@mrc.ukri.org.