UKOMAIN Call for Proposals Round 3
For any questions regarding the call, please email us at omaib-ukomain-group@sheffield.ac.uk.
The UK Open Multimodal AI Network (UKOMAIN) invites challenge proposals from real-world problem owners, followed by applications from researchers to attend a collaborative sandpit to co-design, develop, and pitch innovative project ideas for funding. Selected sandpit teams will receive funding to build open benchmarks that help the community develop and compare solutions to measure progress.
Open Multimodal AI Benchmark (OMAIB) supports open, interdisciplinary and deployment-centric multimodal AI. We define multimodal AI broadly as the integration of two or more types of data, including images, text, time series, graphs, tabular, spatial, sensor and omics data. Round 3 will select up to four challenges and fund up to four benchmark-development projects. A selected challenge may have no or multiple projects funded.
Online briefing: A briefing webinar was held on 6 October 2026, 12:00–13:00 UK time, to introduce the key features of the round and answer community questions. Video recording now available.
Challenge owners
We welcome companies, national laboratories, research institutes, charities, NHS and care providers, public bodies, regulators, standards bodies, Catapults and other organisations with a real-world problem. Universities and university-hosted facilities are also welcome where they hold a genuine problem and relevant resources. An existing UKOMAIN partnership is not required; overseas organisations may apply with an accountable UK-based co-owner. Challenge proposals should identify real-world users or beneficiaries and explain the owner’s practical responsibility for, or involvement in, the problem, beyond a research interest in it.
Complete the challenge proposal Google Form by 16:00 on 6 November 2026. Short answers about the problem, data, benefit, expertise sought, and your involvement are sufficient. Complete the designated public fields ready for publication, with permission to use them as the selected challenge brief.
Sandpit applicants and funded teams
The sandpit is an in-person event in Sheffield for UK-based applicants; remote participation is not available. We welcome researchers, research engineers and domain or evaluation specialists, including ECRs and suitably experienced students. Applicants must be able to attend both days and contribute afterwards. Selection will prioritise applicants eligible to lead or co-lead a funded project, alongside participants offering complementary expertise. With their consent, UKOMAIN will share selected participants’ names, affiliations and interests with one another to support team formation. Teams may begin forming beforehand and will develop their proposals at the sandpit.
Each funded project must have one Principal Investigator (PI) based at a UK institution eligible for UKRI funding. Following the EPSRC individual eligibility guideline, fixed-term employees, such as Postdoctoral Research Associates (PDRAs), are eligible as a PI if they can obtain support from their organisation (e.g., line manager approval) and the term of employment extends beyond the duration of the proposed research project. At least one PI or Co-I must have relevant open-source or benchmark-development experience. Cross-institutional teams are welcome; non-UK collaborators or UK collaborators ineligible for funding may contribute as unfunded partners.
Challenge owners and funded teams have separate roles. The challenge owner’s organisation and its representatives cannot be lead applicants or co-applicants for project funding to address their own challenge. The funded project must be led by a different organisation. Challenge owners serve as project partners, providing domain expertise and support data access, while UKOMAIN makes funding decisions independently.
For the two-day sandpit, UKOMAIN will cover reasonable approved travel within the UK, accommodation and subsistence for selected UK-based sandpit participants and UK-based challenge-owner representatives, normally including one hotel night. International travel is not funded. Additional accessibility, caring or UK travel needs can be discussed. Please wait for booking guidance issued with invitations.
The project proposal template will be available before the sandpit. Potential PIs should check staffing availability, eligibility and indicative costs with their institution before the sandpit.
Updated: 7 October 2026 - These answers provide practical guidance alongside the call document.
Academic groups can propose a challenge where they have a genuine real-world problem, relevant resources and the commitment to support another organisation’s funded team; connect suitable problem owners from their clinical, experimental, industrial or other networks; or apply to participate in benchmark development through the sandpit application opening on 20 November. Researchers whose main contribution is AI methods, software or evaluation should consider the sandpit route. The challenge owner’s organisation cannot receive project funding for its own challenge.
You can help bring a useful benchmark into your research area and strengthen connections around a shared problem. A resulting open benchmark can support your own method development, comparisons and applications, even if your group is not funded to build it. You may also contribute to its development as an unfunded collaborator, by agreement with the funded team. Funding remains competitive.
Yes. Early discussions with existing or potential collaborators can help clarify the problem, available resources and expertise needed. Researchers can subsequently apply for the sandpit, where teams may develop or expand. UKOMAIN selects participants and projects against the published criteria, so these discussions do not reserve places or funding for a particular team.
Yes. Existing work can provide a useful starting point and evidence of feasibility. Explain what it already enables and what additional open benchmarking capability is needed, such as reusable evaluation protocols, baselines or testing under realistic conditions. The proposed work should add value rather than repeat work already completed or funded. A prototype is not required to submit a challenge.
Yes. Assessment focuses on the team’s ability to deliver a strong benchmark, rather than the number of institutions represented. Cross-institutional teams are also welcome, but the £50,000 maximum applies to the whole project, not each institution. In either case, the challenge owner must be from a different organisation from the funded applicants for that challenge.
Round 1 funding call: The first round of the OMAIB call is available at https://multimodalai.github.io/omaib-r1/
Round 2 funding call: The second round of the OMAIB call is available at https://multimodalai.github.io/omaib-r2/
UKOMAIN is funded by EPSRC (UKRI396).