Call for Outline Expressions of Interest for Pilot Study proposals under the EPSRC UK-India Future Networks Initiative (UKI-FNI)

Closing date for EoI applications: 4:00p.m. Tuesday 30^th September 2025

Submissions should be made on the EoI Form below which will be automatically sent to Prof Gerard Parr- Project PI at g.parr@uea.ac.uk

Summary

The EPSRC UK-India Future Networks Initiative is running a two-stage process to solicit applications for short‐term pilot research study funding in the domain of Future Telecoms between both countries.

The process will run in stages as :-

Stage 1 – Two Page Expression of Interest outline proposals- deadline 30^th Sept 2025 which will be reviewed by the UKI-FNI Management Team and members of the Project Advisory Board.

Stage 2 – Selected EoIs will be invited to submit Full Proposals by 31^st October 2025.

Stage 3 – Successful Applicants will be notified by 9^th January 2026.

Projects are expected to start on 1^st April 2026 subject to contracts and completed by 30^th September 2026.

Background

The EPSRC UK-India Future Networks Initiative is a priority collaboration with India under the EPSRC Future Communications Theme. These pilot studies will be no longer than 6 months in duration and are intended to develop new ideas or create novel linkages between research teams in UK and India to explore new challenge areas in Future Telecoms. The number of pilot projects that will receive funding will be subject to the quality of the proposals we receive and the amount of Flexible Funding available.

The priority areas for applications are as follows:

Research that develops our understanding of impact and opportunities linked to vendor and service diversification of digital telecommunications infrastructure, in particular Open-RAN, drawing upon the recommendations of the recent Government Report on Telecommunications Supply Chain Diversification[1]
Design of scalable architectures for Integrated SLA-Deployments over next generation of Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial communications networks.
Research that deepens our understanding and demonstrates applications of Open-RAN for Industry in areas such as new 6G network design and infrastructure planning, service deployments, network management and control, interoperability with legacy systems in mobile and fixed-line networks.
Regulatory and Legal aspects of managing future networks that co-exist with major vendor deployments.
Data Trust and governance of future network systems and their impact on service provider business models

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/telecoms-supply-chain-diversification-report-and-recommendations/telecoms-supply-and-diversification-independent-report-and-recommendations

We are seeking applications that also consider other cross-cutting themes relating to the digital telecommunications sector in UK and India, namely:

Ensuring Cyber Security and Resilience of Future Networks Systems
Monitoring end-to-end QoS and SLAs across Open-RAN and legacy networks
Contribution to Net Zero- Energy Efficiency of future Vendor-agnostic converged networks
Network-enabled AI real-time resource allocation and management across Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial control layers
Service and Application specific Feasibility projects
Reducing energy consumption in Routers, base stations and exchanges
Intelligent FCAPS with increased Network-enabled AI Systems and Services
Improved support for mobile edge AI compute and storage
Reduced congestion and bandwidth consumption between edge- core networks using Network Slicing
Procurement policies to avoid vendor lock in
Identification of Scalable Use-Cases that demonstrate the need for Future Networks
Plans for Joint testbed experiments to benefit UK researchers for system scaling and regulation using existing Surrey-IISc Testbed
Improved mobility of researchers between academia and industry

Note – All the pilot proposals should indicate how they will contribute to the on-going development of a Future Telecoms Research & Innovation Roadmap that will be collated by the UKI-FNI Team on behalf of EPSRC. Version One available to request here: https://www.ukifni.org/roadmap-request/

Assessment Criteria

Individual projects can request up to £32,000 total grant funding (total spend up to £40,000 as per FEC with 80% funding as per EPSRC costing principles). Applicants will be awarded 80% of the full cost, and when invoices are submitted they should be for 80% and a statement should also be submitted showing the full cost.
Full Projects are expected to last for a maximum of 6-months duration and need to be completed by 30^th September 2026
Projects should be interdisciplinary in nature and should preferably involve more than one institution or organisation. Interdepartmental collaboration is the minimum acceptable level of interdisciplinary.
The engagement of external academic partners in India e.g. industry, is strongly encouraged and proposals should indicate how this engagement is supported.
Projects should articulate how this funding is an important precursor in seeking to secure continuation funding from funders.
Funding is for academic research teams led by UK Universities and only UK-based University salary costs will be covered. Funding for reasonable travel by UK-India collaborators in support of the project can be included in accordance with EPSRC policies.
Applicants must be eligible for EPSRC funding. A list of eligible organisations to apply to EPSRC is provided at: https://www.ukri.org/councils/epsrc/guidance-for-applicants/check-if-you-are-eligible-for-funding/ As this call is a targeted funding opportunity provided via EPSRC funding, higher education institutions, and some research council institutes and independent research organisations are eligible to apply.
In the full proposal, applicants need to demonstrate GDPR compliant policies and Data Processing Agreements between the applying institution and the University of East Anglia. If these cannot be agreed within a certain timeframe, we reserve the right to abandon the contract process and select another proposal.
Full Proposals also need to demonstrate how they adhere to EPSRC guidelines for RRI[1], ED&I[2] and Trusted Research[3].
Where the full proposals involve third parties including academic/industrial partners from India, appropriate Due Diligence linked to Trusted Research should be completed for such partners by the respective UK Institutional Research Office prior to the start of the project and the evidence provided on submission.

[1] https://www.ukri.org/who-we-are/epsrc/our-policies-and-standards/framework-for-responsible-innovation/

[2] https://www.ukri.org/what-we-do/supporting-healthy-research-and-innovation-culture/equality-diversity-and-inclusion/epsrc/

[3] https://www.ukri.org/manage-your-award/good-research-resource-hub/trusted-research-and-innovation/

Expression of Interest Applications must be made on the UKI-FNI application form below. This form will be sent to Professor Gerard Parr for processing by the UKI-FNI Management Team and members of the Project Advisory Board:-

Further Information

For further information please contact Professor Gerard Parr- PI of UK-India Future Networks Initiative on g.parr@uea.ac.uk