Give your feedback on our ideas

Welcome to the UKRI Engagement Hub.

Open Activities

  • Summer Science Exhibition 2025: The Quantum Zone Volunteer Form

    Thank you for volunteering to support "The Quantum Zone" at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition! The landing page for the exhibit can be found here: https://www.nqcc.ac.uk/summer-science-exhibition-2025-the-quantum-zone/ This form captures information for logistics and planning...

    Closes 25 June 2025

  • Evaluation form for Public Partnerships in Research webinar, 5 June 2025

    Thank you for attending the Medical Research Council’s Public Partnerships in Research webinar on 5 June 2025. We are really interested in your feedback on this webinar, and how to shape future webinars. Please complete our online survey to tell us your thoughts.

    Closes 26 June 2025

  • Quantum Technologies Early Career Forum Expression of Interest 2025

    EPSRC is seeking applications from early career researchers (ECR’s) to join our Early Career Forum (ECF) for the Quantum Technologies Theme. The ECF will act as an informal advisory stream to EPSRC. Members will be advocates for EPSRC within the community and provide a broad perspective on the...

    Closes 27 June 2025

  • NQCC's Quantum Hackathon 2025: Provider Form

    Thank you for your interest in participating in the NQCC’s annual UK Quantum Hackathon for 2025! The Hackathon will provide an exciting opportunity for developers to explore industry-provided use cases using Quantum Computing (QC) platform(s) provided by your organisation. ...

    Closes 30 June 2025

  • ESRC IAA COLIF Annual Report 2025

    Please use this survey to complete and submit your ESRC IAA COLIF Annual Report. This report should include all ESRC IAA COLIF spend and activities that took place in the financial year 1 April 2024 - 31 March 2025. Activities may be in progress or completed. All participating...

    Closes 30 June 2025

  • MRC Reviewer Selectors Areas of Expertise

    Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey to better understand your areas of expertise as an MRC Expert Reviewer Selector. We anticipate the survey will take around 10 minutes to complete. Data Protection UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will use the...

    Closes 1 July 2025

  • NQCC's Quantum Hackathon 2025: Attendance confirmation form

    Congratulations on your successful application to take part in the NQCC's UK Quantum Hackathon 2025! Please confirm your attendance at the hackathon by completing this form. The hackathon will be held at the University of Edinburgh from 21 to 23 July 2025. Please note that you...

    Closes 1 July 2025

  • MRC Reviewer Selectors Recruitment

    Thank you for taking the time to apply to be an MRC Expert Reviewer Selector In the survey we will ask you to provide information, as outlined in the person requirements for this role. Please check that you have this information to hand as you begin: Experience of...

    Closes 1 July 2025

  • SharePoint Project Survey 2025 (TFS Opportunities > Onboarding Documents)

    This proposal aims to introduce a unified file structure within SharePoint to improve governance and standardisation. Additionally, it will serve as a discussion framework to help define roles, responsibilities, and oversight mechanisms for the platform’s effective use. To ensure...

    Closes 4 July 2025

Forthcoming Consultations

Closed Activities

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