Digitise UK natural science collections (Grant)

To lead a project, you must be based at an eligible organisation. Check if your organisation is eligible. If you are interested in leading a digitisation hub but are not currently eligible for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding, please get in touch via the infrastructure mailbox infrastructure@ahrc.ukri.org.

Who is eligible to apply

Any organisation that holds significant natural science collections can be involved in a digitisation hub application. You can participate in an application in the following capacities:

• as a project lead; the project lead must be based at an organisation eligible for AHRC funding and standard project lead eligibility rules apply

• as a project co-lead; project co-leads do not need to meet the standard institutional eligibility criteria and can be from organisations that are either eligible or ineligible for AHRC funding.

• as a subcontractor organisation; any organisation can be involved as a subcontractor organisation

Organisations that do not hold natural science collections may also participate. However, they should be supporting collections holding organisations in some capacity. There is no restriction on the number of applications any one organisation can be involved in, but you should have sufficient capacity to deliver all of the proposed work, if all the applications you are involved in were successful.

Who is not eligible to apply

Collections organisations not based in the UK are not within the scope of this funding opportunity, including UK overseas territories. If you would like to participate in the wider programme without applying for funding, please get in touch via the infrastructure mailbox infrastructure@ahrc.ukri.org.

DiSSCo UK does not currently cover:

• living collections or observational data

• library collections

• archive collections

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.

Aim

This is the first funding opportunity for mass digitisation of natural science collections (NSCs) to deliver the DiSSCo UK research infrastructure. This infrastructure will unlock the enormous potential of NSCs to support research on climate change and biodiversity loss, whilst delivering a step change in the capability and capacity of the UK collections sector.

This funding opportunity aims to deliver a balance between mass digitisation and building capacity in the sector. This will be done by:

• establishing a network of digitisation hubs across the UK, with significant digitisation taking place in all four UK nations

• delivering a programme of mass digitisation for botanical and entomological specimens, that will unlock scientific research and growth

• providing guidance, leadership, and support to other collections organisations through a hub and nodes model, to build capacity in the sector

Scope

This funding opportunity is for establishing the first set of digitisation hubs for NSCs. To be in scope, applicants will need to:

• deliver a programme of mass digitisation at scale and pace

• demonstrate support to the wider community by building capacity for future digitisation

• include organisations that hold significant NSCs within their applications

The collections in scope are botanical (plant) collections pressed on flat sheets and entomological (insect) collections mounted on pins.

If you wish to include other types of material, your application should provide reasons for doing so. Costs for other materials should be limited to around 5% of the relevant digitisation cost total. Reasons for including additional material might include, for example:

• if you have additional plant and insect preparation types

• if you have other material suited to the same workflows

• if you are working with a partner with very small collections and do not want to stop at a subset of their digitisation

This funding is for the specific purpose of building the DiSSCo UK digital research infrastructure. Research and engagement activities focusing on natural science collections are not in scope.

Hub and node model

It is generally expected that applications will follow a hub and node model. This means the project is led by an organisation acting as a digitisation ‘hub’, working with at least one other participating organisation, known as a ‘node’. The only exception to this expectation of a ‘hub and nodes’ model is for organisations that are involved in supporting other collections-holding organisations at a DiSSCo UK programme level.

There is no set structure for the hub and node model. You are encouraged to develop your own structure for how your project will work, in close collaboration with your partners. Definitions of ‘hubs’ and ‘nodes’ are provided as follows as general guidance and should not be treated as rigid categories.

‘Hubs’ are any organisations who lead (or co-lead with specified responsibilities) a digitisation application under this funding opportunity. They would typically hold substantial collections themselves, and must have:

• leadership commitment

• suitable space available

• suitable human resources, finance and legal support

They must be able to manage working with partners, sub-contractors or both, and disbursing funds to those organisations.

Hubs are expected to set out how they will work with and support other collections organisations, to ensure that they are supporting the delivery of DiSSCo UK as a wider research infrastructure, and not just digitising their own collections.

‘Nodes’ includes organisations that hold NSCs – that may be at a smaller scale than a hub. Nodes are either partners or sub-contractors in applications but do not themselves have any specified leadership responsibilities.

Capacity building

Hubs are expected to set out how they will work with and support other collections organisations, to ensure that they are supporting the delivery of DiSSCo UK as a wider research infrastructure, and not just digitising their own collections.

Applications are strongly encouraged to form partnerships with a range of other collections organisations, including those not typically eligible to apply directly for UKRI funding. Such organisations may be included as either project co-leads, or subcontractors, as set out in the ‘Who can apply’ section.

The level of support provided for the wider community, and the strength of any partnerships will form one of the key assessment criteria. However, this is the first DiSSCo UK funding opportunity, and there is both a smaller amount of funding and a shorter timeframe available than there will be for subsequent funding opportunities. To reflect this, it is both possible and permissible that:

• hubs may choose to include a smaller number of ‘node’ organisations and other relevant support activities. You should outline how the activities and partnerships formed will provide a basis for more expansive and inclusive applications to future funding opportunities

• hubs may choose to include a wider range of ‘nodes’, but specimen digitisation might not necessarily begin at all of them during the first two years. Activities like collections-level digitisation, documentation and preparation are eligible in this funding opportunity

• hubs may choose to bring in node partners incrementally over the course of the funding period. For example, specimen digitisation at nodes might only start to take place in the second year

Digitisation

Digitisation should make up the bulk of cost in your application. The majority of roles should be digitiser roles but may also include combined or equivalent collections assistant roles for staff who are preparing collections.

You may also want to consider data management or quality assurance and how projects will be supervised. Further guidance on possible roles and template job descriptions are available in the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance.

In this context, digitisation will mean data and image capture following standardised workflows and to agreed standards of outputs, including always applying a unique identifier. Relevant consumables, such as barcodes should also be included in your applications. More guidance on workflows and outputs is available in the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance.

As part of your application, you should provide an estimate for how many specimens your project will digitise. In order to help calculate that estimate, the rates following have been provided as a very broad indicator:

• rates for herbarium sheet digitisation may range from 250 to 450 sheets per person per day

• rates for digitising pinned insects suitable for a multi-camera workflow (ALICE) without removing labels may range from 400 to 600 per person per day. For more information please see guidance on ALICE in the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance

• rates for digitising pinned insects using a label removal workflow may range from 80 to 250 per person per day. This includes for example, lepidoptera, whose wings typically cover labels

Applications should specify which rates they have used to produce their estimate and the reasons why. For example, if they are based on previous experience or testing.

These estimates are for the purpose of assessment and will not be binding if your application is successful. It is acknowledged that rates of digitisation vary widely between different collection types and because of the conditions and specifics of particular sub-collections.

We also recognise that rates tend to be slower at the start of projects and while staff are being trained and gaining experience.

As a very general guideline, it is expected that an application for £1 million to this funding opportunity would be aiming to deliver somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 total digitisations.

This should be treated as being roughly scalable, so, for example, an application twice as large should aim to deliver twice as many. An application half of the size, half as many, and so on and so forth.

In selecting collections for digitisation, the UKRI FAIR data policy applies and all data and images created through DiSSCo UK funded projects will be openly published. Exceptions can be applied in line with the Natural History Museum (NHM) Open Information and Exceptions Policy, but are not expected to encompass more than 5% of material digitised by the project.

The DiSSCo UK programme

All projects funded through this funding opportunity will be part of the DiSSCo UK programme, and will be subject to additional terms and conditions, and additional reporting requirements. They will be required to work closely with both the Central Programme Delivery team, based at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, and with AHRC, to ensure delivery of the DiSSCo UK infrastructure.

The central DiSSCo UK team will provide training in digitisation and data mobilisation. An outline of what this includes is provided in the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance. You do not need to include training costs in your application unless you require additional training beyond what is already included, in order to deliver your project.

Applications do not need to include costs for centralised cloud storage for images and data generated as part of funded projects, including derivative images. This is provided by DiSSCo UK.

Your application should specify an estimate of the volumes of images and data you will produce. The application must include how this estimate has been reached.

You will need to be able to store data reliably and safely for the time it takes to move it to either the central DiSSCo UK storage or other relevant long-term storage. Your application should account for this requirement and include the necessary costs.

It is strongly recommended that data is regularly transferred to either the central DiSSCo UK storage or other relevant long-term storage, ideally daily or at the least weekly. DiSSCo UK cannot usually cover costs for your own organisation’s long-term storage or that of any node organisations involved in your bid, but please discuss with us if this is a concern or you believe you have a case for an exception.

Duration

The maximum duration of this award is up to two years, and all projects must have finished by 31 March 2028.

The earliest projects will be able to begin is 1 April 2026, but this is subject to business case approvals, and the actual earliest start dates could be later.

Funding available

The FEC of your project can be up to £2.5 million. The minimum application for this round is £200,000.

When determining the total FEC of your project, you should consider both:

• the guidance under the previous Digitisation sub-heading concerning the expected range of digitisations per funding amount

• the maximum duration of your project (two years)

The total FEC of your project will therefore be determined primarily by what is feasible to deliver within the two years of funding, rather than the maximum total award of £2.5 million. It is anticipated that most projects funded through this funding opportunity will be smaller than the maximum allowed FEC.

The full budget for the opportunity is £6.5 million, The majority of the funding will not be available until the second year and this should be considered when planning your project.

In total, £2.26 million is available in 2026/27 and £4.24 million available in 2027/28.

What we will fund

• people, including digitisation and associated roles such as project management and hub coordination. Please see the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance for more detail

• digitisation equipment. Please see the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance for more detail

• recruitment advertising

• digitisation consumables, for example, barcodes and labels

• transport of collections for digitisation (if relevant)

• travel and subsistence for DiSSCo UK staff

• relevant licences or subscriptions

• relevant estates and indirect costs: these are not permitted to exceed 50% of the total directly incurred and directly allocated staff costs in total (see note following)

What we will not fund

• physical refit of spaces

• most costs related to your collections management system or other IT infrastructure, unless directly related to and essential for the delivery of digitisation

• most types of conservation or physical collections management costs

• costs ordinarily associated with a research project, such as publication of research outputs, conference attendance, or doctoral studentships and postdoctoral research roles

• estates or indirect costs that are greater than 50% of combined directly incurred and directly allocated staff costs (please see note following)

Estates and indirect costs

Due to the unique nature and aims of this infrastructure programme the combined estates and indirect costs of your project cannot exceed 50% of the combined directly incurred staff and directly allocated staff costs.

Supporting skills and talent

Where applicable, 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.

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.

Panel

We will invite experts to assess the quality of your application and rank it alongside other applications. The panel will then make a funding recommendation.

When assessing the applications, the panel, in consultation with AHRC, will be looking to support a balanced portfolio of digitisation projects, which:

• establish at least one digitisation hub within each of the four UK nations

• delivers an overall programme of mass digitisation at a suitable scale to ensure successful delivery of the DiSSCo UK infrastructure

• builds significant capacity for digitisation in the wider collections sector

The final cohort of projects funded in this first round will thus be based not solely on the panel scores, but also on achieving a suitable balance between geographic coverage, mass digitisation, and capacity building.

Timescale

We aim to complete the assessment process within two months of receiving your application.

Successful outcomes are conditional upon the business case approvals process for the wider DiSSCo UK programme, and no funding decisions can be authorised until that process is complete.

Feedback

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. 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:

• Vision

• Approach

• Applicant and team capability to deliver

• Resources requested

• Ethical and responsible research and innovation considerations

• Collections

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

Webinar for potential applicants

We will hold two webinars one on 22 July and one in mid-late August (date to be confirmed). These will provide more information about the funding opportunity and a chance to ask questions. A registration link will be provided in due course.

Click 

https://funding-service.ukri.org/OPP1026/apply/1058 on the UKRI Funding Service to apply.

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. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org 

Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.

1. 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.

2. Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.

3. Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.

4. Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.

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 may 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.

Watch our research office webinars about the Funding Service.

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

AHRC must receive your application by 16 September 2025 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 the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. 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.

Once applications have been assessed and outcomes communicated, they will be shared with the Natural History Museum, London to facilitate the central co-ordination and delivery of the DiSSCo UK programme. If you have any concerns about any elements of your applications being shared post-assessment, please do contact us on infrastructure@ahrc.ukri.org

Sensitive information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email infrastructure@ahrc.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.

Publication of 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:

• its context within the wider DiSSCo UK programme

• the role it will play as a regional/national hub

• the partnerships involved and the capacity it will build in the sector

• the collections that will be digitised

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

• professional enabling staff

• technician

Only list one individual as project lead.

We expect DiSSCo UK applications should include the following types of role (see the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance for details)

• digitiser or collections assistant

• senior digitiser

• project manager

• data management and QA

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

Vision

Word limit: 1,100

What are you hoping to achieve with the proposed infrastructure?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Explain how the proposed infrastructure will:

• offer training opportunities

• enhance, benefit and complement the existing landscape

• support innovation in research

• enhance the UK’s research and innovation capabilities through local and or regional activity.

• build capacity and provide strategic support to Node institutions, enabling collections-level preparation and, where appropriate, digitisation

• contribute to the development of a more sustainable, inclusive and digitally mature natural science collections sector

• sustain mutually beneficial partnerships with Node organisations.

You should show how your proposed infrastructure (i.e. your regional or national hub) will help to deliver a nationwide step-change in the UK’s capability and capacity to digitise its world-class collections, transform access, and strengthen the sector. You should outline any partnerships in this section and how you will help build capacity for digitisation.

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.

Approach

Word limit: 2,750

What are your plans to manage and deliver the proposed infrastructure?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

We expect you to show how your approach includes:

• a credible management plan including strategic and operational matters

• details of governance

• a project plan for beginning and scaling up mass digitisation of your collections, including an evidenced estimate of how many specimens your project will digitise

• feasibility of the project plan including a work plan, milestones, and deliverables in the form of a Gantt chart or similar

• identification of risks and appropriate mitigation in the form of key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine the delivery of outputs and outcomes

• a description of the working environment

• identification of how accessibility and inclusiveness have been incorporated into the design of the project

• alignment with an institutional strategy that supports open access and equitable usage

• description and appraisal of digitisation space(s), including readiness and scalability

Contextual information

Please use the guidance provided under the Digitisation sub-heading of the ‘What we are looking for’ section, and the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance when devising your project plans for digitisation.

Please use this section to outline how your proposed project will deliver a programme of digitisation that will generate collections data to the required scale and standard.

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: 1,650

Why are you the right team to deliver and manage the proposed infrastructure?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Evidence of how your team, have:

• the relevant experience, appropriate to career stage

• the right balance of skills and expertise

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

• contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community

• the capability to recruit and manage a digitisation project team, including specialist and technical staff, in line with additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance

• demonstrated a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)in recruitment, team development, and project culture

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

The word limit for this section is 1,650 words: 1,150 words to be used for R4RI modules (including references) and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.

Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you, and if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on), have and how this will help to deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.

Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed below. You should use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI. You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:

• contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge

• the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships

• contributions to the wider research and innovation community

• contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit

Additions: Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).

You should complete this section as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.

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 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 or responsible research and innovation considerations

• how your digitisation work will address potential ethical issues relating to colonial provenance and acquisition of specimens, including contested ownership or lack of provenance data

• how your digitisation work will address potential ethical issues relating to the release of data on rare, endangered, or commercially valuable species, which may pose a risk to conservation efforts (for example, through poaching, habitat disturbance, or illegal trade)

• whether and how benefits from your digitisation (for example, data, capacity-building) will be shared with originating communities or countries, particularly where specimens have colonial origins

• how you will manage these considerations

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

Resources and cost justification

Word limit: 1,100

What will you need to deliver and manage the proposed infrastructure and how much will it cost?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:

• project staff

• any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities

• all facilities and infrastructure costs

• if applicable, disposal or decommissioning costs

• if applicable, subscription costs

• if applicable, licence costs

• costs associated with supporting Node partners, including subcontracting or devolved funding models

• any additional training and professional development required for digitisation teams and technical staff

• travel or transportation costs for moving staff or collections

• digitisation equipment costs

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.

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

Collections

Word limit: 1,650

What collections do you propose to digitise and why are these the most suitable for funding in this round?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Assessors want to see:

• that the botanical and entomological collections you are proposing to digitise are critically important for research.

• that the identified collections are both ready and suitable for digitisation to the required scale and standard

• that the current physical state of the collections and any impacts on or imperatives for immediate digitisation have been considered

• that the collections will help address the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change and inform sustainable policy and investment

• any evidence of user demand for these collections

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

References may be included within this section.

Project partners

Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.

A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities. Project partners may be in industry, academia, third sector or government organisations in the UK or overseas, including partners based in the EU.

Add the following project partner details:

• the organisation name and address (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable)

• the project partner contact name and email address

• the type of contribution (direct or indirect) and its monetary value

If a detail is entered incorrectly and you have saved the entry, remove the specific project partner record and re-add it with the correct information.

For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

Project partners: letters (or emails) of support

Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the project partners section. These should be uploaded in English or Welsh only.

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box, or if you do not have any project partners enter ‘N/A’. Each letter or email you provide should:

• confirm the partner’s commitment to the project

• clearly explain the value, relevance, and possible benefits of the work to them

• describe any additional value that they bring to the project

• have a page limit of 2 sides A4 per partner

The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.

If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.

Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the project partners’ section.

For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

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. If your organisation is not listed, email support@funding-service.ukri.org 

Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.

1. 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.

2. Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.

3. Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.

4. Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.

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 may 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.Watch our research office webinars about the Funding Service.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

AHRC must receive your application by 16 September 2025 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 the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. 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.Once applications have been assessed and outcomes communicated, they will be shared with the Natural History Museum, London to facilitate the central co-ordination and delivery of the DiSSCo UK programme. If you have any concerns about any elements of your applications being shared post-assessment, please do contact us on infrastructure@ahrc.ukri.org

Sensitive information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email infrastructure@ahrc.ukri.orgInclude 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.

Publication of outcomes

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

Summary

Word limit: 550In 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:

• its context within the wider DiSSCo UK programme

• the role it will play as a regional/national hub

• the partnerships involved and the capacity it will build in the sector

• the collections that will be digitised

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

• professional enabling staff

• technician

Only list one individual as project lead.We expect DiSSCo UK applications should include the following types of role (see the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance for details)

• digitiser or collections assistant

• senior digitiser

• project manager

• data management and QA

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

Vision

Word limit: 1,100What are you hoping to achieve with the proposed infrastructure?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Explain how the proposed infrastructure will:

• offer training opportunities

• enhance, benefit and complement the existing landscape

• support innovation in research

• enhance the UK’s research and innovation capabilities through local and or regional activity.

• build capacity and provide strategic support to Node institutions, enabling collections-level preparation and, where appropriate, digitisation

• contribute to the development of a more sustainable, inclusive and digitally mature natural science collections sector

• sustain mutually beneficial partnerships with Node organisations.

You should show how your proposed infrastructure (i.e. your regional or national hub) will help to deliver a nationwide step-change in the UK’s capability and capacity to digitise its world-class collections, transform access, and strengthen the sector. You should outline any partnerships in this section and how you will help build capacity for digitisation.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.

Approach

Word limit: 2,750What are your plans to manage and deliver the proposed infrastructure?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

We expect you to show how your approach includes:

• a credible management plan including strategic and operational matters

• details of governance

• a project plan for beginning and scaling up mass digitisation of your collections, including an evidenced estimate of how many specimens your project will digitise

• feasibility of the project plan including a work plan, milestones, and deliverables in the form of a Gantt chart or similar

• identification of risks and appropriate mitigation in the form of key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine the delivery of outputs and outcomes

• a description of the working environment

• identification of how accessibility and inclusiveness have been incorporated into the design of the project

• alignment with an institutional strategy that supports open access and equitable usage

• description and appraisal of digitisation space(s), including readiness and scalability

Contextual information

Please use the guidance provided under the Digitisation sub-heading of the ‘What we are looking for’ section, and the additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance when devising your project plans for digitisation.Please use this section to outline how your proposed project will deliver a programme of digitisation that will generate collections data to the required scale and standard.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: 1,650Why are you the right team to deliver and manage the proposed infrastructure?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Evidence of how your team, have:

• the relevant experience, appropriate to career stage

• the right balance of skills and expertise

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

• contributed to developing a positive research environment and wider community

• the capability to recruit and manage a digitisation project team, including specialist and technical staff, in line with additional DiSSCo UK Funding Guidance

• demonstrated a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)in recruitment, team development, and project culture

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.The word limit for this section is 1,650 words: 1,150 words to be used for R4RI modules (including references) and, if necessary, a further 500 words for Additions.Use the Résumé for Research and Innovation (R4RI) format to showcase the range of relevant skills you, and if relevant, your team (project and project co-leads, researchers, technicians, specialists, partners and so on), have and how this will help to deliver the proposed work. You can include individuals’ specific achievements but only choose past contributions that best evidence their ability to deliver this work.Complete this section using the R4RI module headings listed below. You should use each heading once and include a response for the whole team, see the UKRI guidance on R4RI. You should consider how to balance your answer, and emphasise where appropriate the key skills each team member brings:

• contributions to the generation of new ideas, tools, methodologies, or knowledge

• the development of others and maintenance of effective working relationships

• contributions to the wider research and innovation community

• contributions to broader research or innovation users and audiences and towards wider societal benefit

Additions: Provide any further details relevant to your application. This section is optional and can be up to 500 words. You should not use it to describe additional skills, experiences or outputs, but you can use it to describe any factors that provide context for the rest of your R4RI (for example, details of career breaks if you wish to disclose them).You should complete this section as a narrative. Do not format it like a CV.The roles in funding applications policy has descriptions of the different project roles.

Ethics and responsible research and innovation (RRI)

Word limit: 500What are the ethical and RRI 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 or responsible research and innovation considerations

• how your digitisation work will address potential ethical issues relating to colonial provenance and acquisition of specimens, including contested ownership or lack of provenance data

• how your digitisation work will address potential ethical issues relating to the release of data on rare, endangered, or commercially valuable species, which may pose a risk to conservation efforts (for example, through poaching, habitat disturbance, or illegal trade)

• whether and how benefits from your digitisation (for example, data, capacity-building) will be shared with originating communities or countries, particularly where specimens have colonial origins

• how you will manage these considerations

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

Resources and cost justification

Word limit: 1,100What will you need to deliver and manage the proposed infrastructure and how much will it cost?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Justify the application’s more costly resources, in particular:

• project staff

• any consumables beyond typical requirements, or that are required in exceptional quantities

• all facilities and infrastructure costs

• if applicable, disposal or decommissioning costs

• if applicable, subscription costs

• if applicable, licence costs

• costs associated with supporting Node partners, including subcontracting or devolved funding models

• any additional training and professional development required for digitisation teams and technical staff

• travel or transportation costs for moving staff or collections

• digitisation equipment costs

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.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

Collections

Word limit: 1,650What collections do you propose to digitise and why are these the most suitable for funding in this round?

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Assessors want to see:

• that the botanical and entomological collections you are proposing to digitise are critically important for research.

• that the identified collections are both ready and suitable for digitisation to the required scale and standard

• that the current physical state of the collections and any impacts on or imperatives for immediate digitisation have been considered

• that the collections will help address the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change and inform sustainable policy and investment

• any evidence of user demand for these collections

You may demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant. Further details are provided in the Funding Service.References may be included within this section.

Project partners

Add details about any project partners’ contributions. If there are no project partners, you can indicate this on the Funding Service.A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities. Project partners may be in industry, academia, third sector or government organisations in the UK or overseas, including partners based in the EU.Add the following project partner details:

• the organisation name and address (searchable via a drop-down list or enter the organisation’s details manually, as applicable)

• the project partner contact name and email address

• the type of contribution (direct or indirect) and its monetary value

If a detail is entered incorrectly and you have saved the entry, remove the specific project partner record and re-add it with the correct information.For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

Project partners: letters (or emails) of support

Upload a single PDF containing the letters or emails of support from each partner you named in the project partners section. These should be uploaded in English or Welsh only.

What the assessors are looking for in your response

Enter the words ‘attachment supplied’ in the text box, or if you do not have any project partners enter ‘N/A’. Each letter or email you provide should:

• confirm the partner’s commitment to the project

• clearly explain the value, relevance, and possible benefits of the work to them

• describe any additional value that they bring to the project

• have a page limit of 2 sides A4 per partner

The Funding Service will provide document upload details when you apply.If you do not have any project partners, you will be able to indicate this in the Funding Service.Ensure you have prior agreement from project partners so that, if you are offered funding, they will support your project as indicated in the project partners’ section.For audit purposes, UKRI requires formal collaboration agreements to be put in place if an award is made.

Related content

• Corporate policies and standards

• AHRC policies and standards

• The Distributed System of Scientific Collections UK (DiSSCo UK)

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 infrastructure@ahrc.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.org

Phone: 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 quicker, 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.