By Dr. John Gøtze, Chair of the awards jury
As Service Design Lead at UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), Damien Hatton led a transformation that aligned digital delivery with the organisation’s strategic objectives, improved user experience, and unlocked significant efficiency gains. From the outset, Hatton’s team in The Funding Service programme committed to reimagining the entire funding journey. One key improvement was the automation of application validation, which eliminated the need for manual checks on formatting criteria—such as font size and page counts—freeing up internal teams previously dedicated to routine compliance tasks and allowing them to focus on higher-value work.
UKRI is a finalist for IRMUK’s Outstanding Service Design Initiative Award 2025.
Context and Ambition
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) was established in 2018, bringing together nine separate organisations—including the seven research councils, Innovate UK, and Research England—into a single, unified body. This major structural change aimed to create a more coordinated and strategic approach to funding research and innovation across the UK. As part of this transformation, UKRI launched the Simpler and Better Funding programme to modernise its funding systems and replace the outdated legacy platform for the research councils. The new UKRI Funding Service is designed to reduce complexity, improve transparency, and offer a more consistent and accessible experience for hundreds of thousands of users.
The platform now receives over 17,000 applications per year, with applicants seeking funding totaling more than £10.9 billion annually. Built around user-centred design principles, the service is intended to evolve over time, with ongoing improvements guided by feedback and changing needs. While significant progress has been made, further development will continue to enhance the service—and these design principles remain at the heart of how the programme operates. Hatton recalls that
“UKRI embarked on a bold and complex digital transformation initiative to achieve a cohesive operating model that could scale and evolve with UKRI’s mission”.
The Digital Funding Service
At the heart of the programme lies the Digital Funding Service—a new end-to-end platform that:
- Publishes funding opportunities
- Enables universities and research institutes to apply online
- Facilitates assessment, panel review, and award decisions
- Disburses grants and tracks post-award reporting
Replacing a fragmented, document-heavy legacy system, the platform delivers a more transparent and data-driven funding journey. A digital-first solution that significantly reduces the need for attachments. Where data was previously locked away in inaccessible PDFs, now, the majority of applications are submitted through structured digital forms, making the process more efficient, user-friendly, and easier to manage for everyone involved.
Leadership, Governance, and Culture
Service Owner Sarah Vodden assembled a multidisciplinary team empowered to challenge the status quo. Robust yet flexible governance protected strategic aims while allowing agile delivery. Because many stakeholders were wary of change, the team prioritised early engagement:
- Collaborative design workshops
- Extensive user-research cycles
- Shared decision-making forums
This inclusive approach aimed to foster ownership, trust, and a unified vision across the research councils. While that remains the ambition, it’s recognised that building this alignment is an ongoing process.
Design and Delivery Innovations
| Challenge | Legacy State | New Approach | Goal / Impact |
| Service fragmentation | Nine council-specific forms and workflows | Single, cross-council journey mapped through Radical Service Design | One website, one process |
| Unusable reviews | High numbers of review invites rejected, returned or unusable | Simpler and structured online process | Reviewer acceptance increased from 56% to 70% |
| Panel reviews | Offline document sharing | Secure, online workspace | Coordination function reduced workload |
| Data silos | Disparate spreadsheets | Unified organisational data bank | Real-time reporting & insights |
Hatton emphasised that “we created a single organisational data bank to replace the historic sprawl of local files”, and now that we have a central repository of clear data with a data driven taxonomy of research categories, we plan to use AI where the pain is greatest—matching applications to reviewers.”
Measurable Outcomes
- Passed Government Digital Service (GDS) Public Beta Assessment (February 2025)—independent validation of quality, accessibility, and user-centred design.
- Operational efficiency—manual formatting checks eliminated; document handling significantly reduced; panel coordination effort streamlined.
- User experience—application steps cut from 30 to 12; consistent look-and-feel for all councils; greater standardisation of policy and process, “capture once, reuse many times” principle embedded.
- Assessment quality—reviewer acceptance increased due to a simpler and more streamlined online process; The move will improve fairness and efficiency in obtaining reviews.
- Data maturity—central dataset supports strategic portfolio analysis and a live Service Health dashboard for continuous improvement.
Collectively, these gains have created “a smarter, more consistent, and more user-focused way of delivering research funding across the UK,” Hatton explained.
Sustaining the Change
Two product teams now support the service—one building new features, the other refining live functionality in partnership with policy and operations. Analytics from the Service Health dashboard surface issues early, enabling rapid iteration.
Lessons Learned
- Transformation is organisational, not merely technical. “We realised very quickly that technology alone cannot deliver change unless people, processes, and culture evolve too,” Hatton said.
- Embed change agents. Business Partners working with each council bridged day-to-day operations and the programme team.
- Communicate relentlessly. A dedicated communications and engagement function to manage expectations, reduced uncertainty and prepare users for changes, sustain a two way dialogue with users to capture feedback, and maintained momentum.
- Iterate with users. Continuous discovery ensured that every release solved a verified need and met GDS standards.
Conclusion
UKRI’s Digital Funding Service is demonstrating how bold service design and empowered teams can begin to reshape public-sector funding. The programme isn’t just digitising a legacy system—it’s building a data-rich, user-centred platform designed to scale with the ambitions of UK research. While the strategic use of AI is still an ambition, the new platform opens up real opportunities to harness it in the future. As Hatton put it, “we are fundamentally changing how research funding can be delivered: faster, smarter, and fairer for everyone.” The transformation is ongoing, and there’s still more to do.
About the IRM UK Awards and the Conference
UK Research & Innovation’s digital overhaul—led by Service Design Lead Damien Hatton and Engagement Lead Susan Soulsby—is a standout finalist at the IRM UK Enterprise & Business Architecture Conference Europe 2025. Their work on the UKRI Funding Service exemplifies how radical service design can unify complex systems, enhance user experience, and modernise public-sector funding at scale.
This initiative is recognised alongside other transformational efforts—like HMRC’s strategy-led redesign—at a conference that brings together the best in business change, architecture, and service design.
📅 Awards Presentation
Monday, 16 June 2025 | 🕘 09:50 – 10:05 AM
🏆 Finalists – Outstanding Service Design Initiative Award 2025
• UK Research & Innovation – Damien Hatton, Service Design Lead & Susan Soulsby, Funding Service Engagement Lead
• HMRC – Bruce Prendergast, CDIO Operational Strategy Lead
The IRM UK Awards celebrate bold, design-led innovation across the public and private sectors—championing those who bring structure, simplicity, and strategy to complex transformation journeys.
Let’s recognise the teams reshaping how services are designed, delivered, and experienced.
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