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 organisations with real-world problems, followed by applications from researchers and other specialists to participate in a collaborative sandpit. Selected challenge owners will work with a multidisciplinary community to shape benchmark opportunities, while selected sandpit participants will form teams to develop project proposals. Funded teams will build open multimodal AI benchmarks that enable the wider community to develop, evaluate and compare solutions to important real-world problems. OMAIB (pronounced “Oh-Maybe”) is a major implementation strategy of UKOMAIN, supporting open, interdisciplinary and deployment-centric multimodal AI aligned with Tomorrow’s Engineering Research Challenges (TERCs). We define multimodal AI broadly as the integration of two or more types of data, including images, text, audio, time series, graphs, tabular, spatial, sensor, and omics data. Round 3 will select up to three real-world challenges and fund up to three benchmark-development projects.
Online briefing: A briefing webinar will be held on 6 October 2026, 12:00–13:00 UK time, to introduce the key features of the round and answer community questions. Register now for the briefing webinar.
This call is open to academic researchers based at UK institutions eligible for UKRI funding. Following the EPSRC individual eligibility guideline, fixed-term researchers (e.g. PDRAs) are also 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. We strongly encourage applications from:
In addition to the typical eligibility above, proposals must meet the following scope expectations:
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/
These questions were raised during the OMAIB Round 1 launch webinar on 11 July 2025. They cover common queries about the funding scope, eligibility, proposal process, and more. Click on a question below to view the answer.
Yes. There is no restriction on the number of proposals a PI may submit.
Yes. International collaborators, including researchers and industry partners outside of the UK, are welcome to participate. However, only UK-based applicants (PIs and Co-Is) and institutions are eligible to receive funding under this call.
PI or Co-I roles must meet EPSRC eligibility rules (see the call document). Visiting researchers who want to be a PI or Co-I must seek clarification and support from their line manager and institution (typically research office or equivalent).
PIs must meet EPSRC eligibility. Full-time PhD students cannot be PIs. Please refer to the EPSRC eligibility guidance in the call document for further details. For part-time PhD students, it depends on their employment status and institutional policies. However, they are welcome to contribute to the project as team members, either in partially funded (part-time) or unfunded roles.
They do not necessarily need to deliver something directly, but should be actively engaged and contribute meaningfully to the project. This could include providing data, resources, expertise, feedback, validation, or other technical input. Their involvement should enhance the project’s relevance and impact.
Industry partners are one type of stakeholder. Stakeholders can include any other relevant parties, such as policy makers, NGOs, or community groups.
Yes, indirect costs are eligible. Please refer to the call document for details on eligible costs.
Three rounds are planned in total.
No. The essential requirements outlined for EOI screening must be satisfied. Full proposals will then be assessed against a broader set of qualitative criteria listed in the call document. These are not numerically weighted but considered holistically in shortlisting and final decisions.
The eight TERC challenge domains are: Space, Transportation Systems, Materials, Health and Wellbeing, Robotics and AI, Responsible Engineering, Nature-based Engineering, and Global Engineering Solutions. Please refer to the Tomorrow’s Engineering Research Challenges document for more details.
It means engaging with the wider multimodal AI community, including researchers, practitioners, end users, and other stakeholders to shape your project and its outputs for maximum impact. This can involve sharing your work openly (e.g. on GitHub), engaging with the community through open discussions, and ensuring your project addresses real-world needs and challenges that are relevant and meaningful to them.
Yes, as long as it aligns with the call’s goals and demonstrates clear relevance to real-world applications. All proposals will be assessed based on the criteria outlined in the call document, including their potential impact and feasibility within the funding period.
For further details, please refer to the full call document provided above.
UKOMAIN is funded by EPSRC (UKRI396).