UK Research and Innovation has opened an £18 million competition for independent research into gambling harms, with individual awards of up to £2 million. The programme seeks multidisciplinary work that can improve prevention, treatment, policy and understanding of how harms affect people and communities.
What research can be funded?
The call is deliberately broad. It invites work on the causes, patterns and consequences of gambling harms, as well as interventions and systems that may reduce them. UKRI encourages teams to combine perspectives such as public health, psychology, economics, data science, law and social research where that improves the question being studied.
How large can projects be?
The total fund is £18 million. Applicants can request up to £2 million for projects lasting up to three years, with eligible research costs normally supported at 80% of full economic cost. The competition opened on 21 September and is scheduled to close on 8 December 2026.
What role does lived experience play?
Proposals are expected to involve people with relevant lived experience in a meaningful and appropriately supported way. That can shape research questions, methods and interpretation. It does not remove the need for ethical review, safeguarding, fair payment and clear boundaries.
How is research independence protected?
The call sets restrictions on direct funding and co-authorship involving excluded gambling-industry entities. Applicants must explain potential conflicts and governance arrangements. Those safeguards are important because credible evidence depends not only on method, but also on transparent independence from interests that could influence the work.
What happens after applications close?
UKRI will assess eligible proposals through its published process. An open call is not a guarantee that any particular approach will be funded, and the research will take time to produce results. For now, the news is the creation of a sizeable, ring-fenced evidence programme rather than a new finding about gambling itself.
Primary sources: UKRI’s funding opportunity and the gambling-harms research programme page.
Reporting basis: official information available on 22 September 2026. Illustrative image: photo by Stephen Dawson on Unsplash.