PSDI Funding Call

PSDI is an integrated Data Infrastructure for the Physical Sciences. We aim to accelerate research in the physical sciences by providing a data infrastructure that brings together and builds upon the various data systems researchers currently use.

We are pleased to announce our first PSDI funding call. Applicants are invited to apply for short‐term pilot study funding from the PSDI. These pilot studies will be no longer than 6 months in duration and are intended to accelerate physical sciences research by implementing new ideas for data related resources for the physical sciences community that can be made available through PSDI.

PSDI does not have a restriction to specific focus areas for this call, however, we are currently undertaking work in the areas of computational workflows, catalysis, polymers and metallurgy and are looking to supplement our work in other areas of the physical sciences. While applications in our existing work areas are not prohibited, any applications would need to enhance our existing work in that area, if you are proposing any work in those areas we advise you speak to the PSDI team when preparing your proposal.

Areas of interest for PSDI include creation and availability of high-value community data collections; integration of data across the research data lifecycle; tools/services supporting data publication; surfacing data generated by institutes, facilities and hubs; tools/services to support aggregation and linking of data sources.

Projects are expected to be able to produce tangible outputs within the pilot duration e.g. data collections, software tools/ services, guidance and training resources. However, subject to future funding available to PSDI successful applicants may be invited to apply for additional funding to extend their work.

You can find out information about the resources that we already provide on our ‘What we provide’ page on our website https://resources.psdi.ac.uk/ and on the PSDI Knowledge Base. You can find out more about our current collaborators on our website.

• Individual projects can request up to £56,000 funding (at 80% FEC, total spend up to £70,000). Applicants will be awarded 80% of the full cost, and the institution receiving the award is responsible for the remaining 20%.
  Please note equipment purchase costs are ineligible. For further details on costing’s and overheads see EPSRC’s guide on costs you can apply for https://www.ukri.org/councils/epsrc/guidance-for-applicants/costs-you-can-apply-for/.
• Projects must be finished (including reports) by 31st March 2026.
• Projects are expected to engage with PSDI and research communities to seed, validate or test ideas and development of tools.
• Projects can include a mixture of staffing time and resources to facilitate community engagement through events etc. Projects must be able to demonstrate how beneficiaries will be engaged, and how the likelihood of impacts can be increased.
• Projects should be able to demonstrate reasonable prospects of further funding or continued support of project outputs beyond this initial funding.
• Project’s research is required to be at least 75% within EPSRC remit: https://www.ukri.org/councils/epsrc/remit-programmes-and-priorities/
• Applications must be made on the PSDI application form, and must not exceed 8 pages
• Applicants must be eligible for EPSRC funding. For information on the eligibility of organisations and individuals to receive this funding, see the EPSRC Funding Guide: https://www.ukri.org/councils/epsrc/guidance-for-applicants/ As this call is a targeted funding opportunity provided via EPSRC funding, higher education institutions, and some research council institutes and independent research organisations may be eligible to apply. A list of eligible organisations to apply to EPSRC is provided at: https://www.ukri.org/apply-for-funding/how-to-apply/check-if-you-are-eligible-for-research-and-innovation-funding/eligibility-as-an-individual/#contents-list.
• We require agreements to be made on GDPR compliant policies and Data Processing Agreements between the applying institution and their collaborators (if applicable). If these cannot be agreed within a certain timeframe we reserve the right to cease the contract process and choose another application.

Proposals will be assessed in two stages:

Stage 1: PSDI team sift.
The PSDI Team will perform an initial review of the applications against the criteria e.g. relevance to PSDI and correct completion of the application form.

Stage 2: Peer Review of selected proposals:
The reviewers will be made up of members of the PSDI Team, and carefully selected external reviewers who have expertise in the project area. All reviewers will have declared any conflicts of interest up front, and will only be assigned to review calls that can be judged impartially. Each application will receive at least 2 reviews from impartial reviewers. Calls will be judged on the following:

• Suitability for the call:
  • Is the project in scope for PSDI?
  • Has the problem and the proposed work been clearly articulated? (What makes this project stand out?)
  • Does the project have tangible outputs? (This may be a service, tool etc.)
  • Does the project have a significant level of community engagement?
  • How will the project help grow and sustain the PSDI?
• Standard EPSRC assessment criteria will also be considered: Quality; Importance; Impact; the applicant’s ability to deliver the proposed project within budget and in time.

The PSDI coordinator Dr Nicola Knight will oversee liaison between the PSDI investigators and the successful projects. The project team will be required to keep the PSDI team informed of progress, at a minimum this includes participation in monthly reporting meetings and provision of a mid-point and final report. In addition, project members may be invited take part in PSDI events as appropriate to the project. Projects will need to submit a report on the activities and outcomes of the projects, along with their invoice within a month of the end of the pilot project.

The funding will be awarded via a PSDI Award agreement from the University of Southampton with the Research Organisation that leads on the proposal, which will specify the agreed terms. You can find a copy of the expected terms on this page. If the application includes more than one research organisation and/or other project partners, the main applying Research Organisation must have their own formal collaboration agreements in place to set out the basis of collaboration including ownership or intellectual property and rights to exploitation.

With regards to intellectual property, each party shall own the intellectual property generated solely by that party. However, it is required that the results of any project are made available to PSDI and can be used for non-commercial academic research and teaching purposes

Any publications and other outputs/dissemination resulting from work carried out under this grant must include acknowledgement of the PSDI funding by including the statement “This work has been supported by the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI), which has been funded by EPSRC under grant numbers: EP/X032701/1, EP/X0326631 and EP/W032252/1”. These publications (including the required project report) must adhere to UKRI Open access requirements, and any software produced should be open source where possible and made available.