When we launched the Research Software Maintenance Fund (RSMF) back in April 2025, we anticipated receiving around 200 Expressions of Interest (EoIs), allowing us to invite most applicants to submit a full proposal. Instead, we’ve been delighted to receive 360 EoIs, reflecting a remarkable level of creativity, ambition, and engagement from across the community.
This extraordinary response speaks to the importance and timeliness of the fund, and we are grateful for the time and thought applicants have invested. However, it also means we need to make some changes to how we review EoIs to ensure that the process remains fair, manageable, and consistent for all applicants.
Updated process
Each application will be reviewed and assigned to one of three categories based on how well it aligns with the Fund’s eligibility requirements:
- Fully in Scope: Applications that clearly align with the aims and eligibility criteria of the grant. These will receive an invitation to submit a full application.
- Not in Scope: Applications that clearly do not meet the aims or eligibility criteria. These will not be taken forward.
- Partially in Scope: Applications that don’t clearly demonstrate how they fully fit the core eligibility criteria will be entered into a lottery, with a randomly selected portion invited to submit a full application.
To help ensure a representative mix of projects, we may split “Partially in Scope” applications into sub-groups by theme or research area before conducting the lottery. This allows us to preserve diversity while maintaining fairness.
After decisions have been announced, we will publish how the lottery was conducted, how categories were defined, and how sub-groupings were created—so applicants can fully understand the process. Partially in Scope applications which have not been selected during the lottery process will still be allowed to submit an EoI for Round 2.
Despite this change in process, it’s important to emphasise that we will review all EoIs using the same criteria that were published when the fund opened. Revisit the Eol submission criteria below or on the RSMF webpage.