AIRR compute opportunity: AI open access

Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)Innovate UKMedical Research Council (MRC)Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Ongoing

Funding

Contact funder

Location

England

Applications

Rolling (always open)

Overview

This grant provides free access to the Isambard-AI supercomputer for AI research projects. You can get between 50,000 and 1.4 million GPU hours for your artificial intelligence work. The grant is open to UK researchers and AI developers from universities, businesses, and public sector organisations. There is no cash funding, but you get valuable computer time instead. Applications appear to be on a rolling basis with no set deadline. You must be based in the UK to apply. This could save your organisation thousands of pounds in computing costs.

Eligibility

Who can apply:

academiclimited companypublic sector

Key requirements:

  • Must be UK-based
  • Must have AI research or development project
Who is this for?

This is for UK-based researchers and AI developers working on artificial intelligence projects. You could be from a university, business, public sector organisation, or other groups. You need an AI research or development project that requires significant computing power.

Regions

Full details from Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)Innovate UKMedical Research Council (MRC)Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)

Apply for between 50,000 and 1,400,000 graphics processing unit (GPU) hours on the Isambard-AI supercomputer for artificial intelligence (AI) related research and development projects.Open to UK-based researchers and AI developers from academia, industry, public sector or other organisations.

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Last updated: 19 June 2026