Pre-announcement: Open-source semiconductor security platform development

Overview

This pre-announced EPSRC grant will fund one-year research projects that support an open-source hardware security research platform. The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) is funding the platform, and the money comes from its Semiconductors Unit. Projects should produce research that feeds directly into the design of the first version of the platform, before its first tape-out. Topics could include semiconductor security vulnerabilities, attacks and mitigations, security-aware electronic design automation (EDA) tools, and hardware security design methodologies. Other approaches that improve the security of semiconductor systems could also fit. The full economic cost of your project can be up to £300,000. EPSRC will fund 80% of that, up to £240,000. The total fund is £2,500,000, and projects will run for 12 months. This suits UK research organisations that are eligible for EPSRC funding. Your project must be led by a project lead who meets EPSRC standard eligibility rules. The opportunity is scheduled to open in October 2026, but the opening and closing dates are still to be confirmed. The page says the information may change. Applications will run on the UKRI Funding Service, not Je-S, so make sure your organisation is registered. One practical caveat: because of the short timeframe, EPSRC expects all staff to be named on the application and to be existing employees of an eligible organisation. Uninvited resubmissions are not accepted. Official source: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/open-source-semiconductor-security-platform-development/. Last checked by GrantMatch on 15 October 2026.