UKRI Gateway to Research Scraper

UKRI Gateway to Research Scraper

Scrape UKRI Gateway to Research projects by any search term, up to a million per run. Each project comes with its title, abstract, funding, organisations, and investigators. No API key or login. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

The UKRI Gateway to Research holds details on publicly funded UK research projects, but browsing it manually or through its API means rate limits and pagination. This Actor reads the public project feed directly, searching by any term you provide, and returns each match in one fixed schema.\n\nCollect project titles, abstracts, fund amounts, lead organisations, and principal investigators for any research topic.

Who uses it	What they scrape UKRI Gateway to Research for
Research analysts	Mapping which UK institutions are winning grants in a specific field.
University research offices	Benchmarking their grant capture against peer organisations.
Grant writers	Finding past funded projects similar to a proposal they are drafting.
Innovation consultants	Identifying active research clusters and potential collaboration partners.

What it does

This Actor collects UKRI Gateway to Research projects matching a free-text search query and returns each one as a flat row.

• 🔍 Free-text search: query across project titles, abstracts, and organisation names.
• 📊 Flat output: every project returns as a single row with title, abstract, fund amount, and lead investigator.
• ⚙️ Volume control: set a maximum number of projects to collect, from one to a million.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with UKRI Gateway to Research data

📈 Track funding trends.

A policy analyst searches for 'net zero' to see how many UKRI projects address decarbonisation and which organisations lead them.

🔬 Find precedent projects.

A grant writer searches for 'machine learning healthcare' to find previously funded projects and shape a new proposal.

🏛️ Benchmark university performance.

A research manager searches for their institution's name to count active grants and compare with competitors.

🤝 Identify collaborators.

An R&D director searches for 'quantum sensing' to find principal investigators and organisations working in that area.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Reads the public Gateway to Research feed directly, no registration needed.
Full project details	Title, abstract, funding, organisations, and investigators in one row.
Any research topic	Search by keyword, technology, disease, or institution name.

How it compares

This Actor searches the full UKRI project database by keyword, while the watch Actors monitor for new awards to specific investigators, organisations, or programmes.

Feature	ParseForge	UKRI Principal Investigator Award Watch	UKRI Organisation Award Watch	UKRI Project Status Change Watch
Free-text keyword search	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Full project abstract	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Filter by investigator name	Yes, via search query	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
Filter by organisation name	Yes, via search query	Not listed	Yes	Not listed
Monitor for new awards	Not listed	Yes	Yes	Not listed
Status change alerts	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed	Yes

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a single search query, and set a maximum number of projects so only that many matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "query": "quantum",
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "query": "quantum",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0443 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$4.43
1,000 results	$44.30
10,000 results	$443.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the UKRI Gateway to Research Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to UKRI Gateway to Research through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/ukri-gateway-to-research-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Your search query may be too specific. Try a broader term, check for spelling errors, or remove filters like organisation names to see if any projects match.

Why did the run stop before reaching my maxItems?

The Actor stops when it has collected all available results for your query. If fewer projects exist than your maximum, the run will finish early.

Some fields are empty in my output.

Not every UKRI project record includes all fields. Missing abstracts, fund amounts, or investigator details are gaps in the source data, not extraction errors.

The run is taking a long time.

Large maxItems values mean more pages to read. The Actor respects the source website's response time, so collecting tens of thousands of projects will take time.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What is the UKRI Gateway to Research?	It is the public portal where UK Research and Innovation publishes details of funded research projects, including titles, abstracts, organisations, and investigators.
Do I need an API key to scrape it?	No. This Actor reads the public web interface directly, so you do not need to register an application or manage OAuth tokens.
What search terms can I use?	Any free-text string. The search runs across project titles, abstracts, and organisation names, so you can search for topics, technologies, institutions, or investigator names.
How many projects can I collect?	You set the maximum. The Actor can collect up to one million projects per run, limited only by the number of results matching your query.
What data does each row contain?	Each row includes the project title, abstract text, funding amount and currency, lead organisation, principal investigator, start and end dates, and the project status.
Can I filter by organisation or investigator?	The search query runs against organisation and investigator fields, so including a name in your query will narrow results to projects involving that entity.
Is the data exportable?	Yes. You can export your dataset to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML directly from your Apify run.
Does this Actor monitor for new projects?	No. This Actor collects a snapshot of projects matching your query at the time of the run. For ongoing monitoring, consider scheduling regular runs or using a dedicated watch Actor.
What is the difference between this and the UKRI watch Actors?	This Actor searches the full project database by keyword. The watch Actors monitor for new awards to specific investigators, organisations, or programmes and alert you to changes.
Can I scrape all UKRI projects?	You can collect up to one million projects per run. A very broad search term will return a large subset, but the total database may be larger.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by UK Research and Innovation. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.