Innovation Breakthrough Projects 2025 Funding Call

Exploring Technical vs. Economic Cost from AI in Sectoral Productivity

Funded by The Productivity Institute’s “Innovation Breakthrough” Fund

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) across economic sectors presents both opportunities and challenges for productivity and competitiveness. While many tasks are technically automatable, the economic justification for automation is often less straightforward. This dual-cost perspective – technical feasibility versus economic attractiveness – is critical to shaping future innovation, policy and investment decisions (see Svanberg et al., 2024).

This funding call invites researchers to explore and adapt this dual-cost framework within sectoral contexts in the UK and internationally.

The Call

The purpose of The Productivity Institute’s Innovation Breakthrough Funding is to allow the Institute to widen its research community and support innovative research beyond its initial core named researchers.

The Productivity Institute invites proposals for innovation research projects that examine how technical and economic costs shape the adoption of breakthrough technologies at sectoral level.  

Projects should apply a mixed-methods approach, potentially including empirical modelling, firm-level or sectoral data analysis, and qualitative methods such as stakeholder interviews or expert surveys. We particularly encourage proposals that integrate or extend the dual-cost framework articulated in recent research by Svanberg et al. (2024).

We are also particularly interested in projects that focus on one or more of the eight sectors identified in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, though proposals addressing other sectors will also be considered.

A detailed description of the call is available to read, along with an application template.

Expected Contributions

• Development of new evidence and conceptual framing related to technical feasibility versus economic attractiveness of AI applications at the sectoral level.  
• Generation of sector-specific insights that inform industrial policy, innovation strategy, or firm behaviour. 
• Delivery of both methodologically rigorous analysis that can deliver practical and implementable insights to industry and/or policy audiences. 
• Strengthening of interdisciplinary collaboration and engagement with underrepresented research communities.  

Project Scope and Budget

• Total funding available: £250,000
• Number of projects funded: 2 to 3
• Project duration: Up to 12 months
• Completion deadline: 31 December 2026

Budgets may include costs related to research assistance, data acquisition, travel for fieldwork or dissemination, stakeholder engagement, and other justified research-related activities. While academic rigour is a priority, we also welcome experimental and boundary-pushing ideas.

Details on the funding criteria, the application process and terms and conditions are provided.

Application Process

1. Applicants must submit a written proposal using the provided application template, including:
   • Research aims, rationale, and alignment with the call
   • Sectoral relevance and methodological design
   • Description of the team and roles
   • Timeline, milestones, and risk management
   • Budget outline and justification
   • Intended outputs and engagement plan
2. Submission deadline: Monday 15 September 2025 at 11:59pm BST. Submit to: tpi-applications@manchester.ac.uk. We encourage submissions from diverse research backgrounds, institutions, and geographies.
3. Projects must start no later than 1 January 2026 and finish by 31 December 2026.
4. The Productivity Institute commissioning panel will review applications in two stages. Applicants whose proposals are shortlisted will be invited to attend an interview which will be scheduled in October 2025. 
5. Successful applicants will be notified by 31 October 2025. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide individual feedback to unsuccessful applicants.
6. A TPI working paper is expected as part of your project deliverables. We also encourage applicants to include blogs and policy or strategy pieces in the delivery plan, where relevant.
7. Applications from early career researchers will be looked upon favourably. 

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be assessed on:

• Originality and clarity of the research idea
• Fit with the call’s objectives and sectoral focus, and project scope. 
• Coherence and feasibility of the research design and methodology
• Capability and track record of the team
• Contribution to knowledge diversity and societal relevance

Terms and Conditions

• Proposals will need to be costed by the applicant’s research support team.  Funds can be used for a range of research costs including researcher time, travel, events and consumables.  
• Proposals will need to show 100% of full Economic Cost (fEC) of the proposed research. Approved proposals will be funded at a fixed rate of 80% of this sum. By accepting the funding, the Research Organisation agrees to find the remaining 20% from their own resources. 
• The proposed activity will at minimum lead to a paper that will be published as a Working Paper by The Productivity Institute. Working papers will be reviewed and authors are required to consider adjustments as requested 
• All award recipients are expected to present their research results during one of the TPI Brown Bag seminars, which are held online on Wednesdays during term time, either in the first or second half of 2026. 
• Funded projects are expected to contribute to other Productivity Institute seminars/events, and to inform The Productivity Institute of any research successes resulting from this award (such as subsequent grants, awards and publications).  
• Applicants are expected to undertake any engagement activities which arise from the project and report on these activities to The Productivity Institute (as per UKRI terms and conditions).  
• Applicants would be expected to demonstrate that the approaches and outputs adopted are robust and any research methods, case studies, data collection and so on, and meet sufficient quality standards to be representative and add to the existing evidence base. 
• Applicants will need to adhere to data protection and GDPR guidelines, and to the UKRI’s guidelines and procedures on research integrity, according to the UKRI’s Policy and Guidelines on the Governance of Good Research Conduct, as well as the ESRC’s ethics policies and procedures. 
• Funds will be paid quarterly in arrears based on actual costs incurred on the submission of a detailed expenditure report of costs incurred. The final payment will be made on completion of the project.  
• The Productivity Institute is unable to arrange for any extension of the funds past the agreed end date (31 December 2026) 

Contact

For further information or clarifications, please contact:
📧 tpi-applications@manchester.ac.uk

About The Productivity Institute

The Productivity Institute brings together world-leading and UK experts from a range of disciplines and backgrounds, working directly with policymakers and businesses to better understand, measure, and enable improvements in productivity across the whole of the UK, with the aim of improving living standards and well-being.