Financial support

We offer a reduced access fee of £500 (+VAT where applicable) for data-only requests from eligible student researchers. 

Eligibility: 

• The application must be from a student or their supervisor for the sole purpose of the student’s research project.
• It must be for a single research project. 
• Collaborators can only join once approved and must have a clear, relevant role. 

How to apply: 

• Register using the UK Biobank Access Management System (AMS) as normal. 
• When submitting your application, select the ‘student tier’ option. 

To ensure equitable access to UK Biobank’s data, this fund covers 100% of the application costs for researchers based at an institute in an eligible lower-income country.

We are grateful to AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, and Regeneron for supporting this programme. 

Eligibility: 

• Open to researchers from approved lower-income countries. See a list of countries eligible. 

How to apply: 

• Register using the UK Biobank Access Management System (AMS) as normal. 
• Our Access Team will automatically apply the funding to eligible applications. 

UK Biobank offers $500,000 in annual Amazon Web Services (AWS) credits to support early-career researchers and those based at institutes in an eligible lower-income country. These credits can be used exclusively on the UKB Research Analysis Platform (UKB-RAP). 

We are grateful to Amazon Web Services for funding this programme. 

Types of credits available: 

• Getting Started Credits – £1,000 to allow you to explore UKB-RAP in more detail (valid for one year, one request per project). 
• Enhanced Credits – Additional funding for ongoing research costs, awarded in multiples of £1,000 (subject to approval). 

Eligibility: 

• Open to early-career researchers and those from lower-income countries. See a list of countries eligible. 

How to apply: 

• For all new applications from students and those at institutes in lower-income countries, a Getting Started Credit will be automatically applied.
• For Early Career researchers, researchers with projects already underway, or those wishing to access enhanced credits, please complete the application form. 

In 2024, UK Biobank moved all research data (with limited exceptions) to the cloud-based UKB Research Analysis Platform (UKB-RAP) to improve security, accessibility, and capacity.

To support researchers with this transition, UK Biobank provides £1,000 in platform credits per project to help with platform costs. Additional funding beyond £1,000 may be considered on a case-by-case basis. All new projects will automatically receive these credits and the programme is available until Summer 2026.

We are grateful to Wellcome for funding this programme.

Eligibility: 

• Open to all researchers who do not qualify for any other funding programme. 

How to apply: 

• For researchers with projects already underway, or those wishing to request Enhanced Credits, please complete the application form.