Give your feedback on our ideas

Welcome to the UKRI Engagement Hub.

Open Activities

  • Membership to STFC Advisory Bodies and Peer Review Panels - Call 2025

    Every year, a number of vacancies become available on the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) advisory bodies and peer review panels. These bodies perform a vital function for STFC, providing advice and guidance that aids our strategic direction and supports our decision-making...

    Closes 18 May 2025

  • EPSRC-Defra Circular Economy Workshop

    The broad remit of circular economy requires diverse inputs from across academic and user communities in many disciplines and sectors, and it is important that the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is able to provide support to individuals working on a broad set of research...

    Closes 19 May 2025

  • Have Your Say: RSS Report

    This survey seeks to gather reflections on the statistical analysis of EPSRC's portfolio undertaken by the Royal Statistical Society. The report is linked on this webpage Collecting and analysing diversity data – UKRI

    Closes 22 May 2025

  • AIBIO-UK 2025 annual meeting participant survey

    BBSRC is seeking input from the participants of the AIBIO-UK annual meeting (19-20 May 2025) to help inform our forward plans in support of artificial intelligence (AI) for biosciences.

    Closes 23 May 2025

  • UKRI International Jamboree Site Visit Feedback 2025

    Please provide us with some feedback on your recent site visit.

    Closes 23 May 2025

  • NQCC Quantum Programming Residency 2025: Final feedback

    We are contacting you as you are one of the participants of the Quantum Programming Residency organized by NQCC. We are collecting feedback through this survey to aid evaluation as well as improve future programmes of activities. The information collected through this survey would be used for...

    Closes 23 May 2025

  • UKRI International Jamboree Side Event Feedback 2025

    Thank you for attending one of our side events this year. In order to improve on this experience next year, please fill out the following survey.

    Closes 23 May 2025

  • UKRI International Jamboree Away Day Feedback 2025

    Please provide feedback for the International Away Day 2025.

    Closes 23 May 2025

  • NQCC Quantum Applications Showcase: Event registration

    We are pleased to invite you to the NQCC Quantum Applications Showcase on 5th June 2025 at the Harwell Campus. This event will highlight the impact and diversity of the NQCC’s SparQ application-focused portfolio. It offers a unique opportunity to explore the breadth of projects supported by the...

    Closes 25 May 2025

Forthcoming Consultations

  • BBSRC Committee A and C Chair and Deputy Chair: Expression of Interest

    BBSRC Committee A and C Chair and Deputy Chair: Expression of Interest Thank you for your interest in applying to join BBSRC Committees A and C as Chair or Deputy Chair. Please read the role profiles and expertise requirements for the positions and provide evidence of how...

    Opens 28 May 2025

  • BBSRC Strategy Advisory Panel Member 2025

    BBSRC Strategy Advisory Panel Member 2025 Thank you for your interest in applying to join BBSRC’s Strategy Advisory Panels. Please read the role profiles and expertise requirements for the positions and provide evidence of how your expertise and experience address these criteria....

    Opens 3 June 2025

Closed Activities

  • Your Voice, Our Future

    Welcome to the UKRI People Survey Pulse Check 2025. This survey offers a quick, convenient, and anonymous way to share your feedback on your experiences within UKRI. Following feedback from the UKRI People Survey 2024, an Action Plan was developed with three key themes. This pulse survey will...

    Closed 16 May 2025

  • PAL Wellbeing Survey Vouchers

    Thank you for completing the 2025 Wellbeing Survey!

    Closed 15 May 2025

  • 2025 Postdoc Association Wellbeing Survey

    Dear postdocs, We have put together a survey to explore the wellbeing of postdocs within the LMB. We welcome input from postdocs at any level in their career. Responses from this will be presented to the LMB Executive Committee in May and will also determine the types of...

    Closed 15 May 2025

  • ROCG Funding Policy Team Survey

    We are conducting this survey to gather your valuable feedback on the performance of the Funding Policy Team. Your responses will help us improve our services and better support you.

    Closed 14 May 2025

  • BBSRC Away Day June 16th - Registration and Requirements

    Please complete all fields to register your attendance to the BBSRC Away Day at The STEAM on Monday 16th June 2025.

    Closed 14 May 2025

We Asked, You Said, We Did

See what we've consulted on. See all outcomes

We asked

In January 2024, we asked for feedback on the Medical Research Council’s (MRC's) draft public partnerships strategy. The strategy was drafted following a process of co-development and sets out MRC’s ambition and priorities for effective collaboration and genuine partnerships between the research community and wider society.

You said

We received 354 responses to the consultation. These responses came from a variety of individuals, groups, and organisations from the research community, the voluntary sector and wider society. The consultation responses were overwhelmingly positive. 87% agreed with the strategy overall, and 81% said that the strategy was written in clear language.

Respondents welcomed specific aspects of the strategy, including its inclusiveness, the focus on non-clinical research and the ambition to build long-term sustainable partnerships between the research community and wider society. Respondents highlighted specific initiatives which they considered vital to the success of the strategy such as, having a clear payment policy, appointing a new MRC programme director for public partnerships, and setting up a public advisory group at MRC.

Respondents recommended that MRC publish the new strategy in a variety of formats, alongside clear delivery (action) and evaluation plans.

We did

We used findings from the consultation to inform the final MRC public partnerships strategy. Key changes included:

  • Clearly stating that this strategy is an initial three-year commitment to our long-term ambition
  • Clarifying that the strategy has been co-developed
  • Specifically mentioning the involvement of international researchers, public partners, and public involvement and engagement professionals
  • Making clear that the consultation informed the final strategy
  • Emphasising that this strategy is intended to be inclusive, and will be aligned with MRC’s Embedding Diversity in Research Design policy
  • Acknowledging the importance of sharing power
  • Making clear that we will implement our new payment policy for public partners, and that other rewards and recognition are additional to payment
  • Emphasising that we will support public partners to take on leadership roles and responsibilities, such as chairing groups or co-leading projects
  • Committing to publish our action and evaluation plans

The consultation findings have been summarised in an infographic and are detailed in full in our consultation report. 

Next steps:

The final MRC public partnerships strategy will be published on the MRC website in summer 2024.

We asked

For opinions on the definition and scope of a categorisatino of UKRI funding as either 'Investigator-led' or 'Directed'.

You said

Only 8 responses were received, and there was no clear consensus on many questions. Most respondents were from universities.

We did

In the absence of opinion to the contrary we will continue to develop and apply the indicator to all UKRI funding. It will be applied as a binary indicator.

We asked

In April 2022, we asked for feedback on the new MRC expectations on the inclusion of sex in experimental design of studies involving animals, tissues, and cells. We also asked what MRC could do to aid researchers in implementing these requirements.

You said

We received 91 responses from researchers and research staff, with many constructive and detailed suggestions. We also received a written submission from the Academy of Medical Science, on behalf of their fellows.

We were pleased that many were already using both sexes in their experiments or were ready to begin doing so (32% and 5% of respondents, respectively). We recognise that many (57%), even though they were very often supportive in principle, felt barriers existed to implementing this in their research.

One of the most commonly mentioned concerns was a likely increase in grant costs. Respondents sought clarity from MRC as to how this would be handled. Ensuring animal welfare standards and the logistics of single housing male animals were also mentioned as barriers.

Roughly a third of respondents had questions about the changes, particularly around:

  • When the new expectation would begin to apply and how compliance would be ensured
  • How and when MRC would grant exceptions for single sex studies
  • How MRC would handle grants where costs were significantly increased due to using both sexes of animal

The support from MRC that was identified as being most helpful was:

  • Advice from MRC Head Office about applications
  • Training in statistical design and analysis
  • Written guidance
  • Case studies or worked examples

We did

As a result of this feedback, we have been working to make more information available about the upcoming change and to ensure the research community receives the necessary support. We have:

  • Updated our Guidance for Applicants with details about how to comply with these new expectations
  • Made it clear that there is no retrospective application of this requirement for grants that have already been awarded
  • Clarified that the requirement of including both sexes does not mean ‘balancing’ or using equal numbers of both sexes, as for many experiments this would result in unnecessary use of animals, but including both sexes as appropriate for the experimental design 
  • Made the cases where MRC will consider single sex studies clearer both on our website and in our Guidance for Applicants
  • Planned a webinar for applicants together with NC3Rs to be held on 21 July 2022, in which animal handling and statistical design will be discussed, and applicants can ask questions
  • Made it clearer on our website that there is no cap on MRC awards, and researchers should submit grant costings based on the cost of performing the work, and justified by the importance and potential of the work

In the coming months, we will:

  • Update our guidance to Peer Reviewers to ensure proposals submitted to the deadlines starting from September 2022 are reviewed in accordance with the new requirements
  • Develop case studies to show the level of information that would be required in applications, including examples of where single sex studies would be appropriate
  • Ensure that MRC Programme Managers are available to support applicants that have further questions
  • Look into what other support we can provide