UK-HyRES & Royce SPRINT Funding Call

Funding for early career researchers to advance research in the production, storage and distribution of hydrogen or ammonia.

The UK Hub for Research Challenges in Hydrogen and Alternative Liquid Fuels (UK-HyRES) is led by the University of Bath and aims to become an international leader in hydrogen research and to deliver practical hydrogen and alternative liquid fuel technologies that are safe, acceptable, and environmentally and economically sustainable.

The UK National Institute for Advanced Materials Research and Innovation – known as the Henry Royce Institute (Royce) – supports world-leading excellence in UK materials research, accelerating commercial exploitation of innovations and delivering positive economic and societal impact for the UK. Both institutes are funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

UK-HyRES and Royce are jointly providing this opportunity to support talented early career researchers (ECRs) to advance research in the production, storage and distribution of hydrogen or ammonia. The fund will foster recipients’ fundamental research, provide seed funding to develop ideas, or develop a proof of concept or prototype/demonstrator with the aim of incorporating a company in future.

The research must be about the production, storage, distribution or use of hydrogen or ammonia. Examples of research that could be funded include the following:

1. Improving supply chain resilience and lower cost of producing, handling, storing and using H&ALFs – Reduced use of rare earth minerals, novel membranes, novel manufacturing techniques, sealing and permeation reduction, increase efficiency, mixed feedstocks, recycling materials, proton conduction ceramics.
2. Improving energy consumption and existing catalyst performance for production of chemicals and fuels which use green H&ALFs – SAF, marine fuels, chemicals (eg, ammonia, methanol), carriers (eg, ammonia, methanol, LOHC, etc).
3. Understanding and improving reliability and durability of materials involved in producing, handling, storing and using H&ALFs – Life prediction, materials discovery, accelerated testing methodology and materials selection
4. Improve safety and monitoring when producing, storing and handling H&ALFs – Low-cost sensors, hydrogen getters, H2 purity.

The application should include mentoring (academic and/or industrial) to support the research and skills development of the project lead.

Projects should last no longer than eight months, starting between 20 April 2026 and 1 June 2026 and completing no later than 31 December 2026.