Frequently Asked Questions
The overall aim of the Phase 2 EPIC Futures NI Policy commissioning call is to build a robust evidence base around key themes that contribute to a more inclusive and sustainable labour market in Northern Ireland, particularly for people who are not in, or do not have access to, suitable paid employment or self-employment. It seeks to fund innovative projects that provide insights to advance theory, policy, and practice.
Together, we aim to create evidence-based solutions to fair and inclusive employment across Northern Ireland.
The call opens on Tuesday 5th August 2025 at 5pm and closes on Tuesday 9th September 2025 at 5pm.
We will fund different types of research that provides insight to advance theory, policy and practice which contributes to a more inclusive and sustainable labour market in Northern Ireland. Particularly for people who are not in, or do not have access to, suitable paid employment or self-employment.
We are open to explorative approaches including pilot projects with a strong research framework, policy analysis, research addressing evidence gaps and the piloting or study of a new approach (or existing approaches in new places). We also are interested in the development of innovative methods and tools which can aid data collection/analysis/reporting and/or which can be used to target groups facing significant barriers to employment and traditionally defined as ‘marginalised.’ We wish to fund studies which can demonstrate impact in various ways. The focus of all applications should be the output / outcomes which will inform policy in Northern Ireland.
Research led projects e.g., scoping studies, policy analysis, empirical data collection (quantitative and qualitative), data modelling and analysis.
Action led projects e.g., pilot projects with a strong evaluation and/or research framework.
Demonstrator led projects e.g. pilot projects which test, showcase and evaluate a new technology, model, or approach in a real-world setting. These must be accompanied by a strong evaluation and/or research framework.
Applications for projects which have the potential to develop proprietary technology, tools, or other potentially commercialisable outputs will be subject to a further discussion at assessment stage to determine the support required from the University’s technology transfer office. Arrangements for the disclosure, protection and commercialisation of intellectual property arising from successful projects will be discussed in good faith, in consideration of the administrative and intellectual contributions of the University and its obligations under UK subsidy control.
Both small and large awards are available as part of this phase 2 funding scheme.
Small awards: These are projects which are in the range of £10,000 - £30,000. These projects must be completed by 30th June 2026.
Large awards: These are for projects which are in the range of £30,001 to £100,000. These projects must be completed by 30th September 2026.
Route 1 via the open call: The call will cover 8 key themes that have been identified through consultation with expert academic and policy stakeholders.
Route 2 via the Policy Priority call: Five defined projects have been developed in Partnership with the Government policy leads in Northern Ireland. Please read the guidance document for details of each priority project.
All themes have an option to propose projects where a strong justification is provided of the relevance to EPIC Futures NI and for policy and practice for Northern Ireland.
Route 1 via the open call can cover multiple themes/research questions. You should clearly outline if your project covers more than one theme. This is at the discretion of the applicant and there is no specific preference or priority given to the number of themes covered by an applicant through the open call. The scope and impact of projects should be reflected in the size of the award being applied for.
Route 2 via the policy priority call has five pre-defined projects. Applicants should aim to achieve the brief of the defined project area however there is slight flexibility in the scope to bring in expertise and innovative approaches to tackling the research questions and generating data. We will aim to fund 1 project in each of the 5 defined areas if suitable applications are received which are deemed to be of suitable quality.
Yes, all projects must generate transferrable learning and insights that will have impact beyond academia. Applicants should consider how their work will contribute to wider engagement and policy development. Please consider how your project might have impact in various ways.
The ESRC gives guidance on what constitutes impact:
https://www.ukri.org/councils/esrc/impact-toolkit-for-economic-and-social-sciences/defining-impact/.
Applications must be submitted via the EPIC Futures website (https://epicfuturesni.org). The online form asks for key pieces of administrative data related to the lead applicant, research summary, partnership support, budget, and eligibility.
The scored submissions for assessment will be uploaded to the online form in .pdf, .doc, .docx format.
A PDF document with the online form questions has been provided for preparation purposes only at https://www.epicfuturesni.org. . All supporting documentation should be attached to the online application and submitted by the closing date, or the application will be considered ineligible.
A five-stage process will be adopted for assessment. Read the Governance and Management of EPIC Futures Grant Document for further details.
Yes, for the Phase 2 Policy Commissioning Call applicants can be part of more than one call. However, organisations can only be a lead applicant for 1 submission within each category.
Small awards – 1 submission as Lead Applicant
Large Awards – 1 submission as Lead Applicant
Policy Priority projects – 1 submission as Lead Applicant
However, a lead applicant can also form part of a partnership on another application.
If applicants are involved in more than one application, they need to be able to demonstrate capability to deliver and this should be flagged in the call guidance and if relevant, justification for resources section.
The case of support should include details related to the lead/team, experience, and collaboration. This is not always clear to judge from CVs. This information will be assessed alongside the review of applicant CVs for the scoring process. Information from all parts of the application will be used to inform the scoring process.
Applications are welcome from all types of organisations as noted below as either lead applicants or as collaborators, providing they fulfil all the eligibility criteria identified in this call specification/guidance and in the call governance document:
International Research Organisations can only apply to EPIC Futures NI Policy Commissioning Call if they form part of a Research Led Lead Applicant pathway. The costs must not form more than 30% of the Full Economic Costs (FEC). Their overheads are capped at 20% of directly incurred staff salary costs. International non-research organisations which are based outside the UK are not eligible to be a named collaborator.
International Non-Research Organisations (under the Lead Applicant, Research Led Pathway) are permitted to be engaged through a subcontracted procurement route of the relevant lead partner. These costs will be at 80% FEC of their costs (with the rule of 30% of non-research organisation applying, as noted above). The corresponding research organisations procurement rules should be followed. (Please read full details ESRC research funding guide for the UKRI Funding Service – UKRI).
The EPIC Futures NI Policy Commissioning Call is defined as a secondary funding scheme administered by Ulster University. The primary funder is UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Economic and Research Council (ESRC), Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Innovate UK. Therefore the guidance and rules of the primary funder must be upheld across the EPIC Futures NI project. This has resulted in different pathways and funding rules depending on who the lead applicant is.
Lead Applicant - Research Led Pathway
This pathway is for projects which are led by an institution recognised by the UKRI as a research institutions. Costs should be charged at 80% Full Economic Costing (FEC) for eligible costs, other than ‘exceptions’, which if relevant, can be charged at 100% FEC. These projects are encouraged to include non-academic partners to help bring in lived experiences, business and community perspectives. These organisations can claim 100% FEC, however, the percentage of costs which can go to these partners are capped at 30% of the total proposed project FEC.
Lead Applicant - Partner Led PathwayThis pathway is for projects which are led by non-UKRI recognised research organisations/other types of organisations, as identified above. These types of organisations are eligible for 100% FEC of eligible costs, Academics are eligible to be part of these projects, however, their costs can still only be charged at 80% FEC of eligible costs and are capped at 25% of the total proposed project FEC.
As noted, projects which involve the collection of data from human participants need to include an academic collaborator who can secure institutional ethical approval, therefore for these types of projects, you may wish to follow the Lead Applicant Research Led Pathway, unless the academic institution is content to secure ethics, without them being a lead partner.
UK Status. The Lead Applicant must be based in the UK.
Ability to Fund. The Lead Applicant must declare at application and provide evidence during the pre-award due diligence checks that they can fund the first three month claim period and ongoing contributions for claiming quarterly in arrears.
Ethics. The Lead Applicant must declare ethical requirements and provide the name of the University and Lead Academic for processing ethical approval at application stage. The letter of support from the academic should include confirmation that ethical approval can be achieved within the required timeframe. A letter of confirmation after award, ideally during the Project Initiation Phase, will be required to demonstrate that ethical requirements have been met. For projects involving a vulnerable population, a date can be set for the achievement of ethics, where payments cannot be claimed until this is met.
Conflict of Interest. Individuals who are an investigator on EPIC Futures NI are not eligible to apply for this funding. However, other individuals within their respective organisations are eligible to apply, with a strict conflict of interest process being followed during review and assessment processes.
Yes, applications can be resubmitted for Phase 2. However, each applicant will need to assess if their proposal topic is reflected in the themes for Phase 2 by reading the guidance document and considering how their application can be adapted and/ or improved.
A member of the team does not need to have a PhD. However, the team needs to show experience and capability to deliver on high quality work on time and within budget. As noted in the scoring criteria, there are marks awarded for the methodology and team.
Each applicant will need to consider if having someone who has a PhD will strengthen the application (depending on the nature of the proposed work). We strongly encourage collaboration with partners to bring together skill sets that will strengthen each application.
If an application is collecting data from human participants, the team must have an academic capable of gaining ethical approval through university ethics procedures.
Yes, if the Lead Applicant is based in the UK, and fulfils the eligibility criteria other members of the team can be based in other countries. In line with the funder rules, international co-investigators are permitted to form a maximum of 30% of the Full Economic Costing (FEC) of the funding proposal. Only proposals which have a lead applicant from the UK, who meets all eligibility criteria can be awarded funding.
Please read the EPIC Future NI guidance document for full details.
If your project is solely reviewing literature or secondary data, then ethical approval is not required. For some secondary data, checks need to be made that you can use the data for other purposes and that the participants were aware that the data may be used in different ways and/or shared with third parties.
Phase 2 projects that involve the collection of data with human participants must have an academic that has confirmed with their University Institution that the ethics application can be processed through the ethics committee. Ethical requirements will be reviewed as part of the stage 1 assessment (eligibility screen). The Lead Applicant must declare ethical requirements and provide the name of the University and Lead Academic for processing ethical approval at application stage. This is a pass/ fail process at eligibility screen therefore it is essential to consider and agree the approach to ethics as early as possible during the development of your application. The letter of support from the academic should include confirmation that ethical approval can be achieved within the required timeframe. A letter of confirmation after award, during the Project Initiation Phase will be required to demonstrate that ethical requirements have been met.
We encourage all proposals to consider if there are ethical or responsible research and innovation (RRI) implications and issues relating to the proposed work and this should be clearly outlined in the grant submission. If you do not think that the proposed work raises any ethical or RRI issues, you should explain why as part of your proposal.
The EPIC Futures NI team cannot submit ethics on behalf of funded projects for the Phase 2 Policy Commissioning call. In any instance that projects have declared they have a mechanism to gain ethical approval from a university institution and are then unable to achieve this, the funding will be withdrawn.
Proposals which involve the collection of data from young people under the age of 18 and individuals who could be viewed as being vulnerable can require a lengthy ethics process through university research ethics and governance channels. This can take between 8-16 weeks to achieve, depending on nature of the project and the university. Some universities may be able to achieve this in a shorter time but this needs checked with the relevant academic partner which you collaborate with. Individuals engaged in the conduct and assessment of projects involving vulnerable and all other human participants should note the provisions of Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
Not all projects involving people as subjects or participants may need consideration under a full research ethics and governance framework. For example, analysis of some types of existing anonymised data, low impact questionnaire surveys e.g. opinion polls or evaluation data. However, informed consent is essential if data is being collected and all data must be managed in line with GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act 1998. Applicants should assess their own proposals honestly and conduct an appropriate risk assessment. Applicants should be prepared to submit relevant data collection materials for review prior to starting data collection if there is any possibility of harm or upset or any concern about the vulnerability of anyone involved in the research.
Ethical approval needs to be gained in the country which the research is being conducted. If the research is being conducted in the UK, then a UK based institution needs to approve the ethics. If research is being conducted in other countries, then an appropriate institution in that country will approve the ethics needed for the proposal. If it is a cross-country study, then ethics may need to be gained in each country depending on the nature of the research. This is standard for all projects which involve the collection of data and aligns with Ulster University’s Governance and Ethical Standards. Any successful applicant who is collecting new data will be required to provide documentation that appropriate ethical approvals have been granted prior to any funding being able to be claimed.
Yes, UK government departments are permitted to be a partner on both the Open Call and Policy Priority Call, but the costs they can claim are more constrained, with only travel and subsistence expenses permitted.
If you wish to involve a government department from outside the UK as a co-lead, this would only be possible in the Lead Applicant, Research Led Pathway, if they are intending to claim expenses (travel and subsistence).
If you wish to engage with government departments from outside the UK in the Lead Applicant, Partner Led Pathway, you could include reference to them and provide evidence of their role/support via the partner letters attachment but they would not be able to claim expenses and so could not be considered a ‘co-lead’.
Directly Incurred (DI) costs are expenditure that is to be directly incurred for a project and only that project and is supported by an auditable record.
Directly Allocated (DA) costs are the costs of resources including services used by a project that are shared by other activities. The project’s use of the resource or service will be estimated and not based on direct usage.
The costs which are eligible are dependant upon your organisation type. You can check the funder guidance here: ESRC research funding guide – UKRI
In line with UKRI funding guidelines, government organisations are limited regarding the costs which can be claimed. They may only recoup money for travel and subsistence and cannot claim staff salaries, overheads, and other indirect costs on any element of the award.
Applicants should read ESRC research funding guide – UKRI and carefully check each organisation type’s eligible costs to make sure that only allowable costs are requested.
In line with UKRI funding guidelines, applicants from business may only claim staff salaries, travel, and subsistence. They cannot claim overheads and other indirect costs on any element of the award.
Applicants should read ESRC research funding guide – UKRI and carefully check each organisation type’s eligible costs to make sure that only allowable costs are requested.
In line with UKRI funding guidelines, staff from third sector organisations may claim travel, subsistence, staff salaries, overheads, and other indirect costs.
Applicants should read ESRC research funding guide – UKRI and carefully check each organisation type’s eligible costs to make sure that only allowable costs are requested.
VAT Inclusive amounts should be submitted using the justification of resources template (Appendix 1 of EPIC Futures NI Policy Commissioning Call Guidance).
Organisations that are not registered for VAT can include VAT incurred within their costs. Academic participants and industry partners can legitimately claim irrecoverable VAT incurred as part of their costs.
As per UKRI rules, academics/research organisations (who are categorised as UKRI research organisations) will be paid at 80% of Full Economic Costing. UKRI categorised non-research organisations/other organisations will be paid at 100% FEC if they are co-lead applicants on a proposal. Please refer to the call specification and funder guidance.
For example. The total budget for a small award is £30,000 Full Economic Costs (FEC). Costs cannot go over this amount. For academic institutions who are applying without any partners, they will receive 80% FEC, which means they would receive £24,000 and their institution will be expected to cover the other 20% of costs.
If there is a partnership approach with an academic institution and UKRI categorised non-research partner/other organisation whose costs are £9,000 (to fulfil the 30% guidelines for the research led pathway), they will get £9,000 at 100% FEC. This leaves the academic organisation to have maximum costs of £21,000 (to reach the budget of £30,000). If the academic organisation submit costs for £21,000, they will get £16,800 (which is 80% FEC). This is normal practice for research organisations to receive 80% FEC for projects which are funded by UKRI/ESRC and other related funders.
The funder does not set specific guidance related to a percentage of overheads for academic institutions however, there is some guidance for other types of organisations. International academic institutions can claim a flat rate of 20%. Table 1 of the call specification notes that Government, Business and the Community and Voluntary sector who are in receipt of a subsidy can not claim overheads. Please check the full funder guidance on eligible costs which are in line with your type of organisation. The call specification notes that the full cost of the proposed project (including estates and indirect costs) will be considered when assessing the justification of resources. As noted in the EPIC Futures NI Commissioning Call Guidance, reviewers will consider the appropriateness of costs alongside their eligibility. Value for money will be a consideration, where many projects score over the threshold. Academics applying for smaller grant awards may wish to speak to their universities/research management departments if set overhead costs may constrain activities to consider what may be appropriate for the nature of the project being proposed. If a project is recommended for funding and all costs are not considered appropriate/ are not eligible, a reduced budget may be awarded.
University staff can allocate a percentage of their time to the project, which is normal practice for research project applications funded by UKRI and ESRC. This does not usually require a redeployment arrangement however, each university will be required to consider how this is managed within their own policies and procedures. Academic’s will need to ensure they can allocate the percentage of time which they include in the proposal alongside any other duties during the 6- 9-month delivery period. Extensions beyond 30th September 2026 will not be granted and an inability to fulfil outputs may result in payment not being made. The justification of resources needs to justify all costs sought. Reviewers will consider the appropriateness of costs in their assessment. The call guidance notes examples of eligible costs and under ‘Directly Incurred’ costs it is noted that Investigators (Principal and co-investigators time charge) is permitted. As per UKRI rules, academics/research organisations will be paid at 80% Full Economic Costing. Academic time should not be costed as consultancy. Non-research organisations will be paid at 100% FEC.
Research assistants/casual staff can be employed and costed in however, consideration is needed on how they will be recruited within the lifetime of the award since it will not be possible in most cases to externally recruit and deliver projects within the specified time frame. Casual Staff employed by a Research Organisation must be costed under the subheading 'Directly Incurred (DI) Other' and not 'DI Staff'.
Your time should be costed in and your university can then use the funding for any teaching buy out as relevant. In the UKRI guidelines, they don’t state teaching buy out as a specific eligible cost, but staff buy out of time is – which is effectively the same. Teaching buy out should be discussed with your head of school/research management department before submission of grants as it is generally an internal process of your academic institution where they use staff buy out time to cover teaching (if relevant) to allow you to deliver on a research project.
You can cost in ‘casual staff’ which support the research, which if you look at the excel cost builder, there is a note which states - Casual Staff employed by a Research Organisation must be costed under the subheading 'Directly Incurred (DI) Other' and not 'DI Staff'. You may in theory use that casual staff to help with teaching but in the UKRI guidance ‘teaching buy out’ is not listed.
The hiring of therapists or support workers for interviews can be done through procurement/subcontracting and included as a cost, providing you are applying via the research-led pathway. Alternatively you may wish to have a community/voluntary partner as part of your team who can provide this as part of their role.
Yes you can include reasonable renumeration for participants in your research costs however, please note that renumeration is usually given in the form of vouchers depending on the status of the participant to avoid impacting benefit status and not encountering any GDPR issues regarding bank payments. You also may need to consider any ethical implications around the use of renumeration for certain groups, depending on your topic.
Phase 2 policy commissioning call projects should start in January 2026.
We encourage projects that can be achieved in a shorter timeframe to communicate findings in real time which may have relevance for policy.
Please note that if a small award project is collecting data from a vulnerable population, where extra time may be required to go through ethical review processes, then a case can be made for those projects to seek extra time, up until the 30th of September. This needs to be justified in the case for support.
The funding is paid quarterly in arrears. The Lead Applicant must declare at application and provide evidence during the pre-award due diligence checks that they can fund the first three month claim period and ongoing contributions for claiming quarterly in arrears.
Yes, subcontracting is allowed for the Lead Applicant, Research Led Pathway. However, you must outline in the justification of resources how this arrangement will be completed using internal procurement processes and allow delivery within the specified time. The lead applicant manages all subcontracting processes and must ensure that deliverables are met to receive payment for the project. The Research Led applicant will be permitted to claim 80% FEC of subcontracted services. Subcontracting is not permitted under the Lead Applicant, Partner Led Pathway and all partners must be named in the proposal and their CVs, and partner letters included.
All funded projects must sign a data sharing agreement. Both applicants and EPIC Futures NI will act as independent data controllers, and datasets must be shared. Projects must meet UKRI open access requirements, allowing new data to be assessed for deposit in repositories like the UK Data Service: https://ukdataservice.ac.uk.
All outputs must acknowledge EPIC Futures NI, ESRC, AHRC, Innovate UK, and UKRI funding. A branding and communications toolkit will be provided to successful projects.
EPIC Futures NI views funded projects as collaborators. Projects and key individuals will be featured on our website and social media.
Projects must provide annual updates on any multiplier impacts for up to 5 years post-award. Lead applicants will be contacted each February by email. Please keep your contact information up to date by emailing: epicfutures@ulster.ac.uk.
Stakeholder engagement activities included in your case for support which form part of the project/ data collection do not require formal EPIC Futures involvement however, if relevant we can promote them and try to have a representative at them (if resources permit)..
In terms of dissemination events related to the findings/outputs of funding projects, please inform EPIC Futures NI of these since EPIC Futures NI have the rights to release outputs first from any funded projects.
All projects are expected to present at the EPIC Futures Commissioning Fund Conference (late October/early November 2026). Project findings should not be shared publicly before then unless early communication is approved by EPIC Futures NI (e.g. due to early completion and policy relevance).
EPIC Futures NI need to be aware of dissemination events to support promotion and funder reporting. Where appropriate, these should be held in collaboration with EPIC Futures NI.
Successful applicants will receive guidance and work closely with EPIC Futures’ communications and engagement officer.
As noted above, all projects must provide annual updates on multiplier impacts for 5 years post-award.
The EPIC Futures NI website has an area to submit research for policy impact. This offers an interim solution until the Labour Market Observatory (LMO) is launched. Explore and share research for policy impact - Epic Futures NI
The Labour Market Observatory (LMO) will be launched in 2026. This will provide one central location to showcase research which has been commissioned by EPIC Futures NI, partners and other organisations that wish to extend the reach of their research.
Yes, we welcome partners promoting this funding call on our behalf. Please contact EPICFutures@ulster.ac.uk to request promotional guidance or re-share one of the EPIC Futures posts on LinkedIn.
Unfortunately we are unable to connect different organisations and academics together for projects however, we have set up a LinkedIn Group as a pilot mechanism to allow individuals/organisations to network for the purposes of this commissioning call. Please follow the group rules Join the EPIC Futures Phase 2 Networking LinkedIn Group
