Opportunity status:
Upcoming
Funders:
Funding type:
Grant
Total fund:
£1,000,000
Award range: £150,000 - £200,000
Publication date:
27 November 2025
Opening date:
2 February 2026 9:00am UK time
Closing date:
9 April 2026 4:00pm UK time
Apply for funding to combine design-led interventions with arts and humanities methodologies to make positive contributions to the green transition.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funding.
Design Generators connect directly with the wider Future Observatory: Design the Green Transition Programme.
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £200,000. AHRC will fund 80% of the FEC.
These awards can be between nine to 12 months in duration.
This is a pre-announcement and the information may change. The funding opportunity will open on 2 February 2026. More information will be available on this page then.
This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility. .
Who is eligible to apply
Applications are welcomed from researchers across all career stages, from early career to established researchers.
Project leads must be actively engaged in postdoctoral research and be of postdoctoral standing. This means you must have a doctorate or can demonstrate in your application that you have equivalent research experience or training. You must have a level of skills, knowledge and experience that is appropriate to your proposed project.
You must either be:
employed by the research organisation submitting the application
have an existing written formal arrangement with the research organisation confirming that you will be able to carry out the research as if you were an employee
scheduled to move to the research organisation before the proposed start date of the application
Project co-leads are supported by this funding opportunity, see for further information.
We expect the project lead and any project co-leads time commitment to be proportionate and relative to the project that they are proposing. There is no minimum or maximum requirement.
Every project must have a non-academic partner. These partners can include, but are not limited to, businesses, public sector organisations, third sector, civil society or community organisations. The non-academic partner should be a relevant stakeholder that is equipped to support the proposed activities and has the capacity to commit to delivering impact. Non-academic partners must be listed as co-investigators provided that they meet the criteria set out in our guidance, which can be found in the Supporting Documents section.
There are no restrictions on the types of organisations, and any non-academic partner may be involved in more than one application as capacity and strategic alignment allow. However, non-academic partners must declare if they are involved in another UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) grant so that AHRC can determine whether it would be appropriate to also apply for this opportunity.
The lead research organisation may make a total of two applications for this programme, but each application must be substantively different in both partnership team and project objectives. The project team may participate in only one application for this programme.
The overall portfolio of proposed activities must be at least 50% within .
Who is not eligible to apply
We cannot support job shares within this funding opportunity.
We do not support project studentships (funding PhD study) within this funding opportunity. Subcontractors and research and innovation associates are also not eligible within this funding opportunity.
Individuals who are based at a non-UK based organisation or do not have an organisational affiliation (freelancers and independent consultants) are not eligible within this funding opportunity.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We are 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 during the application and assessment process.
Aim
Design is a discipline that applies user, customer, citizen or community-centred approaches to creativity and invention to ensure more successful outcomes. These may include the built environment, physical products, digital or other services and systems that underpin how we live. Success in this context may mean economic, social, environmental, or a combination of all three.
The Design Generators aim to fund innovative, design led research projects that contribute to the green transition. They seek to generate new arts and humanities-based approaches and methodologies that harness design to address environmental sustainability, decarbonisation, circular economies, policy design and regenerative practices. Funding will be provided to:
co-develop interventions with a non-academic partner to assist sustained impact beyond the life of the grant
engage collaboratively with communities or stakeholders, ensuring relevance and responsiveness to lived experience
promote green transition-supportive behaviour change, either through deliberative policymaking and (de)regulation or through ‘nudging’
highlight the value of academic design research in addressing real-world, locally relevant challenges arising along the journey to net zero and a green economy
This is the first of two rounds and both rounds will focus on creating interventions within existing systems. These systems may include, but are not limited to, healthcare, food networks, governance structures, financial infrastructures, and other societal frameworks. We are particularly interested in projects that approach these systems from a community perspective and use design thinking and creative methodologies to identify leverage points for positive change.
Applicants should propose research that is collaborative, community-engaged, and scalable. Projects must be grounded in arts and humanities disciplines, drawing on methodologies including, but not limited to, design research, ethnography, and visual arts. We encourage researchers to work closely with communities, stakeholders and system actors to co-develop interventions that are contextually sensitive and have the potential to be scaled up.
These interventions could be scaled up to benefit larger populations, influence policy, or be applied to parallel systems. The aim is to generate new knowledge and prototypes that not only respond to systemic challenges but also reimagine how systems could function more equitably, sustainably, and creatively.
Scope
Projects can be single discipline, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary. The majority of the disciplinary focus of the project must fall within AHRC’s subject remit, see section 7 of the for our remit coverage. Practice-based and practice-led research is supported by this scheme.
Partnerships and collaboration are supported. Applications should articulate how collaborative activity will be conducted, considering good practice in equitable partnerships. Further guidance is available in the .
This is the first of two rounds, and the systems theme will remain across both rounds. The same individuals or teams may submit applications to each round. However, applicants cannot submit an unsuccessful first round application to the second round. If applicants choose to submit proposals to both rounds, each application should be markedly different.
For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the Additional information section.
Duration
The duration of these awards can be between nine to twelve months.
Projects must start by 1 September 2026.
Funding available
The FEC of your project can be between £150,000 and £200,000.
AHRC will fund 80% of the FEC.
What we will fund
Design Generators may support activities that include but are not limited to:
design research and innovation that prototypes and explores products, services and systems with users
creation of multidisciplinary design research capabilities that can respond to needs and challenges
exploration of circular, cyclical, or regenerative business models
strengthening resilience in third sector and community organisations
supporting skills transition across sectors and disciplines
developing policymaking strategies for a green and regenerative economy
providing training and development opportunities
facilitating public participation in the research process
conducting outreach activities to involve individuals or organisations outside academia in shaping ideas and research
Please note that applications should be specific about the details of the proposed activities, be these coordinated programme activities or a standalone activity.
Projects should demonstrate clear pathways to measurable outcomes of benefit to stakeholders both within the project lifetime and beyond.
An eligible cost would be paying participants for their time to help remove barriers to engagement. Any related costs will be subject to assessment on value for money and appropriateness by assessors. These costs should be listed under Other – Directly Incurred.
Please note that each eligible research organisation can only submit two applications to this round of funding. AHRC will not enter discussions with any research organisations regarding demand management and how to prioritise their submissions to this round of funding.
What we will not fund
Applications that are not primarily rooted within the design discipline. Applications must comprise, and evidence at least 50% design discipline coverage.
Projects that do not engage directly with the theme or seek to develop a generic approach to a wider green transition challenge will be considered outside the scope of this funding opportunity.
Any costs that do not have a clear rationale or link to the proposed activities, such as vague consultancy fees and unrelated overheads.
Any individuals, organisations or activities that are based outside of the UK.
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 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.
See , including where applicants can find additional support.
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.
Confirm you are the project lead.
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
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.
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.
Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
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.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
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 .
Deadline
AHRC must receive your application by 9 April 2026 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 this funding opportunity , your application cannot be changed, and submitted applications will not be amended. 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 .
AHRC, as part of UKRI, will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with Future Observatory so that they can view the application documents and observe the assessment panel.
Sensitive information
If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email
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 .
Institutional Matched Funding
There is no requirement for matched funding from the institutions hosting the project lead, project co-leads or other staff employed on the application, beyond the standard 20% FEC. Expert reviewers and panels assessing UKRI funding applications must not consider levels of institutional matched funding as a factor on which to base recommendations. Direct and in-kind contributions from third party project partners are encouraged.
This policy does not remove the need for support from host organisations who must provide the necessary research environment and infrastructure for award -specific activities funded by UKRI. For example, research facilities, training and development of staff.
Publication of outcomes
AHRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at the .
If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the .
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:
context
the challenge the project addresses
aims and objectives
potential applications and benefits
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
project lead (PL)
project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
professional enabling staff
doctoral student
technician
visiting researcher
Only list one individual as project lead.
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.
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