DAFNI Fellowship Programme 

The DAFNI Programme is excited to announce the launch our new DAFNI Fellowship Programme, which will start from April 2026. Each Fellow will become an ambassador for DAFNI, including being involved in sustainable research, promotion of your research within the DAFNI Centre of Excellence for Resilient Infrastructure Analysis, building networks across government, industry and academia and inputting into DAFNI’s Roadmap. 

DAFNI is the Data & Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure, part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s world class research programme under the UK government’s UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) initiative. 

What the DAFNI Fellowship Involves 

DAFNI Fellows form a part of the DAFNI programme’s initiative to strengthen Government, Industry and Academia relationships within the strategic theme of Building a Secure and Resilient World, and boost engagement with the DAFNI platform within the infrastructure engineering scientific community. 

Fellows will be supported by the wider DAFNI programme to develop and promote their research. This includes opportunities to develop and present their research and innovation to the wider DAFNI network of academic, government, and business supporters. In addition, Fellows will receive support from the DAFNI team in the integration of their research outputs to this wider audience through use of the DAFNI platform.  

The key responsibilities of a DAFNI Fellow include: 

• Showcase your expertise by leading and contributing to white papers and reports for the Centre of Excellence. Share your innovative ideas, gain visibility within the DAFNI and infrastructure engineering communities.

• Bring research onto the DAFNI Platform, working with the DAFNI team. The platform has a number of datasets and models in its catalogue collections. You will be contributing to a growing body of knowledge around infrastructure research that will be promoted within the community and contribute towards our Centre of Excellence initiatives.  

• Participation in outreach and community engagement. We understand the importance of promoting research and engaging with the community and stakeholders. The funding provided by this Fellowship will be for travel to enable dissemination of research and promotion of DAFNI. 

• Collaborate with the DAFNI team to lead workshops tackling key UK Infrastructure challenges, connecting you directly with influential stakeholders in government, academia, and industry.

• Involvement and input to the DAFNI Conference. Your insights and expertise will help ensure our conference is driven by domain experts. This is an opportunity to build new skills and network within our community whilst driving the direction of our science. 

• Take an active role in shaping the DAFNI Fellows Cohort by sharing your expertise and guidance. As a Fellow, you will help foster collaboration, build valuable networks, share your knowledge, and steer the development of DAFNI in the future. 

Funding available 

To support the work of the DAFNI fellows, particularly with respect to research dissemination and networking, we are funding up to 10 DAFNI Fellowships at £10,000 per Fellow (100% FEC). The funding can be used for staff time and travel. 

This funding of £10,000 will run from April 2026 to June 2027.

To apply 

Applicants will be selected by a panel of experts and researchers within the Centre of Excellence, alongside DAFNI Programme members, based on submissions through an online application form. Applications will be scored against the DAFNI Fellowship Programme high level goals noted below.  

The applications will be equally weighted across the five DAFNI Fellowship programme high level goals; Fostering collaboration (20%), Bridging the Gap between Government, Academia and Industry (20%), DAFNI Innovation (20%), Growing knowledge within the Centre of Excellence (20%) and Sustainable Research (20%). Please see below for the descriptions of each programme goal. 

You will be asked to provide: 

Personal and demographic information. Noting this is collected to help us monitor and improve Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion within the DAFNI Fellowship programme. 

• Research domain, field and/or area of work, publication history. We welcome applicants at all career stages; publication history helps us understand your research background. It is one part of the application and not a requirement for selection. 

• How you will address the DAFNI Fellowship Programme goals 

To date, the types of data, models and research output generated from using the DAFNI platform span across the following research themes: AI, Climate Change, Data, Energy, Environment, Network, Resilience, Transport, Water. These range from application scenarios including flood modelling to mobile network coverage. 

We are keen to explore and expand the knowledge across these research areas further, however we are open to new research areas across different disciplines. If you are unsure if your proposed research domain is suitable, please email info@dafni.ac.uk before applying to discuss.  

To apply: Access the form here

DAFNI Fellowship Programme high level goals 

When completing the application form, please keep in mind programme goals: 

1. Collaboration

The DAFNI Platform is collaborative with a mission to bring researchers together and facilitate the development of modelling frameworks. With this new opportunity of DAFNI Fellows, we are looking to increase collaboration across all regions of the UK (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). 

2. Bridging the gap between Government, Academia, and Industry 

Our goal is to support our academics in their data and evidence-based interactions with Government and Industry stakeholders. We are looking to work with the Fellows to build these relationships. 

3. DAFNI innovation 

One of our missions is to support cross-disciplinary research in infrastructure engineering. We work closely with the community to understand which developments and features we can develop on the DAFNI Platform to enable best use of research output. Working with the Fellows to expand this knowledge is of interest to the DAFNI programme. 

4. Growing knowledge within the Centre of Excellence (Building a Secure and Resilient World Programme)

DAFNI’s long term strategy are to align with the UKRI Building a Secure and Resilient World initiative, to strengthen security and resilience, from individual to national level, across a range of social and economic areas at the heart of daily life, including in the provision, operation, and evolution of National Infrastructure Systems. We are looking to gain insight within this UKRI strategic theme, and the fellowship programme should align with its goals. 

5. Sustainable research

DAFNI is a place to make research outputs available for long-term accessibility. We are looking forward to working with DAFNI Fellows to onboard their research outputs (e.g., data, analytical models, data visualisations) as contributions to this long-term body of research information. We understand the importance of sustainability for research and advocate for reliable, reproducible, accessible, and reusable research outputs being available on the DAFNI platform as a legacy of the programme. 

Submit application 

If you are interested in applying for a DAFNI Fellowship, please access the online form here.

If you have any questions on the application, please contact info@dafni.ac.uk and we will respond within 2-3 working days. 

We held a webinar on Wednesday 21st of January, to provide an overview of the funding call and allocate time for questions and answers. We apologise for any inconvenience caused but we experienced a technical issue with the recording and are unable to share. If you have any questions on the webinar please get in contact with info@dafni.ac.uk. We have shared the frequently asked questions to date and from the webinar on this page.

Duration 

The duration of this award is up to 15 months. 

Fellows must start following 1st April 2026 and before 1st July 2026. 

Fellowship will finish by 30th June 2027. 

Eligibility 

This process is open to all, irrespective of career stage.  

We are passionate about creating a diverse workforce and positively encourage applications from all backgrounds. We welcome applications from those from early career researchers, women, and those from underrepresented groups to help increase their representation across infrastructure engineering.  

Who is eligible to apply? 

This funding opportunity is open to all organisations with standard UKRI eligibility and all researchers. Eligibility will be determined at the panel review stage in accordance with UKRI rules. Please check for full details on eligibility. 

Who is not eligible to apply? 

The following are not eligible to apply: 

• Researchers based within a non-UK based Institution.

• Companies, government bodies, and third-sector organisations not eligible under UKRI funding guidelines (see Organisation eligibility – UKRI).  

• Students in receipt of a studentship grant from a UKRI body.  

Fellowship Award 

DAFNI Fellows may utilise their funding in several ways. Examples include:  

• Attendance at relevant conferences to promote research and the DAFNI platform. 
• Attendance at relevant DAFNI events or specific community meetings, with the expectation being that a Fellow would be actively engaged in some form of knowledge exchange or dissemination at the event.
• Academic time spent utilising the DAFNI platform, uploading data and models, and working with the DAFNI User Liaison team if any technical support is required. 
• Time spent involved in workshop organisation alongside the DAFNI programme team, with the goal of growing the knowledge within the Centre of Excellence, exploring focused areas of research that align with the DAFNI Strategy.
• Coordinating and preparing papers and reports on topics of relevance to the DAFNI Centre of Excellence in Resilient Infrastructure Analysis and the BSRW programme. 

Each Fellow will be given a presence on the DAFNI website and visibility through STFC’s impact generation platforms such as DAFNI LinkedIn (posts/case studies) and DAFNI and UKRI/STFC social media. 

Following selection, each Fellow will be awarded a package of financial support up to the value of £10,000 over a 15-month period alongside excellent networking opportunities, professional support, and advice. This funding will be provided on demand to support each Fellow’s proposed activities and in each case will agree an output to be provided back to DAFNI. 

The end of the 15-month term does not mean the end of the Fellowship, DAFNI intends to operate a “Once a Fellow, always a Fellow” approach, building a supportive and engaging environment to encourage future growth and interaction with our Fellows and opportunities to engage and network with future cohorts. 

What we will not fund 

We will not fund research that does not intend to use the DAFNI Platform, in addition to: 

• Research and data that is commercially sensitive.

• Fellows who do not align to the DAFNI Fellowship high level goals.

• Researchers not eligible for this funding opportunity.

Timeline 

19th December 2025: Announcement of opportunity shared

19th December 2025: Applications open

21st January 2026: Webinar held for questions

4th February 2026: Applications close

End of February 2026: Panel review

March 2026: Funding awarded

1st April 2026: Fellows start

30th June 2027: Fellowship ends

FAQs

Our frequently asked questions are available to download here – Frequently asked questions.

About DAFNI 

DAFNI is a digital research infrastructure which supports advanced research into national engineering infrastructure, including transport, water, and energy and city scale modelling. It was initiated by an £8 million investment from the UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities (UKCRIC) to provide world leading infrastructure systems research capabilities and enhance the quality of outputs.   

DAFNI aims to improve the efficiency, reliability, and sustainability of infrastructure through better sharing and use of data and models and engagement with stakeholders through visualisation.  

DAFNI allows researchers to scale and integrate their computational models to explore the social and environmental impacts of changes in infrastructure with greater coverage and detail, and to deposit, share and use data collected in research projects and generated in models.   

Building a Secure and Resilient World (UKRI funding) 

In 2022, UKRI awarded the DAFNI programme funding to contribute research towards tacking large-scale, complex challenges. The Building a Secure and Resilient World (BSRW) theme falls under the UKRI’s 5-year initiative running from 2022-2027. ‘Transforming Tomorrow Together’ aims to strengthen social and economic resilience, enhance national security across virtual and physical spaces, ensure the UK can absorb adversity, deal with change, and respond to emerging threats. 

DAFNI has a proven track record of bringing researchers together across disciplines. The DAFNI platform supports an ecosystem of computational models and data resources, providing a computing platform where the complex inter-dependencies of the real world can be modelled and connected together, fuelling a realistic, cross-sectoral approach to resilience.  

Centre of Excellence 

In June 2023 DAFNI launched the ‘Centre of Excellence for Resilient Infrastructure Analysis’, which fosters research in the area of resilience in the natural and built environment as part of the overarching UKRI programme ‘Building a Secure and Resilient World’ (BSRW)’ 

The aim of the Centre is to foster multi-disciplinary research and DAFNI, as the support computing platform, is bringing together research areas including engineering, data sciences, environmental science, health sciences, and social sciences. 

Using DAFNI, researchers in the Centre of Excellence are collaborating online, scaling research, integrating computational models, building model workflows, depositing, and sharing models and data with the infrastructure research community in the UK and further afield.  

Outputs from the Centre are essential to provide researchers with the capacity to advise policy makers, local councils and private companies with the analysis and scenario-planning vital to ensure the UK is prepared for the sudden impacts of extreme floods, water and food shortages, energy failures, and other challenges.  The Centre of Excellence research to date can be found on the DAFNI Website.