Sophie Germain Funding Scheme

Funding is available to support collaborative projects led by French teams with British partners on any of the following broad themes: energy transition and hydrogen; space; artificial intelligence; and research security.

The Higher Education, Research and Innovation Department of the Embassy of France in the UK aims to promote scientific and technological collaboration between the two countries and to promote French scientific and technological achievements within the UK.

Following a meeting of the Franco-British Joint Committee for Science and Technology in February 2024, the French and British governments agreed to launch the Sophie Germain funding scheme, supporting joint research projects on the following four priority themes:

• Energy transition and hydrogen
• Space
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Research security

The scheme is intended to foster scientific and technological collaboration on these four themes. Projects funded through the scheme will be led by French research teams in collaboration with British partners. Initiated on a bilateral level, these projects are intended to lead to broader cooperation on a European scale, as part of an application to the Horizon Europe programme.