Demonstrators

FUNDING OPEN NOW – Apply before midday, 27 April 2026

Approach: 

This Demonstrator Call provides the opportunity to prove innovative concepts working in practice through prototypes, pilots, or proof-of-concept demonstrations that promote the adoption of a digitally enabled circular economy.  

We expect demonstrators to build upon prior research work or equivalent proof of concept, creating tangible, working illustrations of potential real-world applications and wider adoption. These demonstrators should move beyond theoretical feasibility to practical implementation, providing evidence of scalability and replication potential across sectors or contexts. 

Areas of focus: 

Applications should include or be led by an early career academic and should involve at least one industrial, third sector or government partner to ensure real world application and impact.​

The DICE Network+ is simultaneously addressing two interrelated challenge areas. 

Embed: Embedding sustainability and circularity within the design of digital and communication technologies.

Enable: Realising the potential of the digital revolution, including advances in digital processes, to enable a circular economy.

Applications are welcomed that align with these challenge areas, with example projects that could include, but are not limited to:  

– Demonstrating how products, processes or systems can use digital technologies to enable innovation in circular economy implementation. 

–  Piloting advances in AI and Machine Learning to accelerate the adoption of circular innovation within one or more industrial sectors.  

–  Demonstrating the application of digital technology to accelerate the widescale adoption of Product as a Service (PaaS) models, including Digital Product Passports. 

–  Piloting the use of digital technologies to gather evidence for implementation of circular economy initiatives in a range of contexts. 

–  Prototyping the socio-technical aspects of new circular digital system adoption, including approaches to address Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in circular digital revolution.  

Application of funds:  

The sum awarded can include both directly incurred and directly allocated costs, covering investigator/ researcher time, travel and subsistence appropriate to delivery of the project, consumables, and equipment necessary for the demonstration.    

The total fund available per project is £50,000 (at 80% FEC).

The duration of each individual project can be between 6 and 9 months from date of award. 

As the grant holder, University of Exeter is responsible for allocating funding to successful proposals and will reimburse the lead institution at 80% fEC. The lead institution must be willing to provide the remaining 20% fEC. Applications where a portion of the project costs are met by industry funding are also welcomed.