# UKRI Principal Investigator Award Watch (`nexgenwatch/uk-ukri-investigator-award-watch`) Actor

New UKRI awards to the principal investigators you name. Sourced from the public UKRI Gateway to Research API, logged-out, no key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/nexgenwatch/uk-ukri-investigator-award-watch.md
- **Developed by:** [NexGen Watch](https://apify.com/nexgenwatch) (community)
- **Categories:** Business, News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $134.00 / 1,000 ukri project deltas

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## UKRI Principal Investigator Award Watch

New UKRI awards to the principal investigators you name.

### Source

UKRI Gateway to Research search API (public, logged-out)

- `https://gtr.ukri.org/api/search/project`

Public, logged-out only — no API key, login, cookie or CAPTCHA.

### How the window is bounded, and why it is bounded client-side

The API advertises facet groups — Start Year, Region, Project Status — and none of them can be
applied as a filter. Measured 2026-07-27 under the filter-proof law: `pro.sy=2026`,
`selectedFacets`, `start`, `fundingStartDate`, `region` and `status` each return HTTP 200/202
with an **identical** result set. They are display counts. A cell built on one would report the
whole 174,404-project corpus while appearing scoped.

What is proven to work — control-vs-test, not assumed — is `selectedSortableField=pro.sd`,
`selectedSortOrder`, `page` and `fetchSize`. So this Actor pages newest-first and bounds the
window itself.

Two consequences worth knowing before you buy:

- **There is no recency field.** `created` and `updated` are absent from this endpoint. Recency
  comes from the project start date and the sort, nothing else.
- **The sort head is far-future.** Pages 1–19 are entirely studentships starting 2028–2031. This
  Actor skips them and says how many it skipped; if that head ever grows past its measured shape
  the run says so rather than quietly watching the wrong set.

### One delta type per Actor

This Actor watches **`investigator-new-award`** and nothing else. The other UKRI delta types are separate
Actors, each with its own price and its own baseline — so you pay for the feed you want.

### Unit nouns (Pay-Per-Event)

- `apify-actor-start` — reserved platform event, charged per GB of run memory. This Actor is
  pinned to 1024 MB, so it is one event per run.
- `source-check` — once per run after the source enumeration terminates, seed runs and
  evidenced-zero runs included. Not charged when the source refused the read.
- `ukri-project-delta` — the value event, charged per change emitted in watch mode. Billed
  deltas are capped at 500 per run; any overflow is reported as a withholding and is not
  charged.

### Pricing

| Event | FREE | BRONZE | SILVER | GOLD+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actor Start (`apify-actor-start`) | $0.02 | $0.02 | $0.02 | $0.02 |
| Source check (`source-check`) | $0.10 | $0.09 | $0.08 | $0.067 |
| UKRI Project Delta (`ukri-project-delta`) | $0.20 | $0.18 | $0.16 | $0.134 |

Prices are the filed pay-per-event amounts per plan tier (PLATINUM/DIAMOND match GOLD). Blocked and refused runs do not intentionally charge value events.

### Run it WEEKLY, not daily

Schedule this Actor **once a week**. That is a recommendation about your bill, not about
coverage — a weekly run reads the same window and misses nothing.

Gateway to Research is republished in bursts, not continuously. Measured 2026-07-27:

| what was measured | result |
|---|---|
| the search index's own `lastRefreshDate` | **14 Apr 2026** — 104 days before measurement |
| projects with a 2024 start date | **13,306** |
| projects with a 2025 start date | **5,034** |
| projects with a 2026 start date | **999** |

2024 does not hold thirteen times more research than 2026. It holds thirteen times more
*loaded* research, because it has had two extra years to fill in. **GtR backfills**: a project
awarded today appears here months to years later, in a burst when the corpus is reloaded.

So a daily schedule pays seven `source-check` events a week to look at a corpus that moves a
few times a year. On a weekly schedule the check is a seventh of that and you see exactly the
same changes. Override it if you have a reason — nothing stops you running hourly.

### Honest limits

Gateway to Research publishes awarded projects, not funding opportunities — if you want open
calls, that is a different source. **Awards appear when UKRI loads them, which is not the day
they were made, and the lag is measured in months to years** — see the table above. Absence
from a page is never read as a project being withdrawn. Public logged-out data only. Not
investment, legal or research-funding advice.

# Actor input Schema

## `start_from` (type: `string`):

ISO YYYY-MM-DD. Lower bound on project start date. Defaults to 90 days ago. REQUIRED for the rollup products, because a rollup over a rolling window reports movement caused by the window moving.

## `start_to` (type: `string`):

ISO YYYY-MM-DD. Upper bound on project start date. Defaults to today. Projects starting after this are skipped: the source sorts far-future studentship starts (2028-2031) to the top.

## `investigators` (type: `array`):

Case-insensitive substring match on principal investigator names.

## `organisations` (type: `array`):

Case-insensitive substring match on the lead research organisation.

## `max_items` (type: `integer`):

Maximum records or deltas to emit this run.

## `watch_mode` (type: `boolean`):

Seed a private baseline and emit only confirmed later changes. The first run emits zero deltas by design.

## `baseline_id` (type: `string`):

Named watch baseline. Changing the canonical scope derives a new one.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "investigators": [
    "Smith"
  ],
  "organisations": [],
  "max_items": 500,
  "watch_mode": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "investigators": [
        "Smith"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("nexgenwatch/uk-ukri-investigator-award-watch").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "investigators": ["Smith"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("nexgenwatch/uk-ukri-investigator-award-watch").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "investigators": [
    "Smith"
  ]
}' |
apify call nexgenwatch/uk-ukri-investigator-award-watch --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,nexgenwatch/uk-ukri-investigator-award-watch"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/gKhzbLC2KObQVFXuG/builds/jtLWf5LAEzpauaZFd/openapi.json