The CAKE Retreats programme provides funding for community-led retreats to shape the future of the UK’s Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) and large-scale computing ecosystem.
The programme supports the organisation of retreats that create dedicated time and space for focused collaboration, enabling communities to develop new ideas, build partnerships, identify strategic priorities, and produce shared outputs such as white papers, reports, or journal special issues. We encourage participation and engagement across academia, industry, and the wider research and innovation landscape.
We welcome proposals from the community for themed retreats that address important challenges, opportunities, and priorities for the UK DRI ecosystem.
Application information
We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment that reflects the breadth of the CAKE network and the wider UK Digital Research Infrastructure community. We actively encourage applications from all members of the community, regardless of background, discipline, or career stage.
All participants in the CAKE network are expected to follow the CAKE Code of Conduct, ensuring a supportive and respectful environment for everyone involved.
We invite the community to propose, organise and deliver retreats on themes and topics that they believe are important, timely and beneficial to the UK digital research infrastructure community. These retreats should create opportunities for community building, collaboration and the creation of shared outputs and strategic priorities.
In total, there will be 5 themed retreats, each lasting 3-4 days.
We also welcome suggestions for future retreat themes and topics from the wider community. If you would like to propose an idea or highlight an important area for discussion - even if you are not planning to host a retreat yourself - please get in touch with us at: cake@jiscmail.ac.uk.
If you need support to attend a retreat, please check our Placements and Visits page.
EDI
Considerations around equality, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility are central to ensuring these activities are open to all. All applications will be reviewed in line with the network’s EDI policy, supported by best-practice guidance for reviewers to ensure fair and inclusive assessment. We have ambitions for specific targets, including aiming for around 50% of participants to come from non-academic organisations. In addition, all retreats will be delivered in a hybrid format to support broader participation and reduce barriers to engagement.
Please check our Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Accessibility page on our CAKEbox
Timeline
The programme runs from October 2025 through to April 2028, at which time all retreats must be complete and expenses claimed.
Process
Applications are open with a rolling deadline.
Awards of retreats will be administered through a robust and transparent competitive process overseen by the Review Committee (RC). Please check our Submissions & Reviewing page on the CAKEbox.
Retreat themes will be proposed by the community as part of the application process. These applications should describe the proposed theme, its relevance for the UK DRI landscape and the anticipated outcomes and benefits for the wider community.
Applicants will complete and submit the corresponding application form, which will then be sent to the CAKE Review Committee (RC) for consideration. CAKE will provide review guidance to the RC to ensure a transparent, fair and consistent assessment process. Reviewers will score applications out of 100 using a set of weighted assessment criteria and give an overall funding recommendation (“yes”, “no” or “unsure”). Each application will receive at-least four reviews. Following the review process, the task leader will convene a virtual meeting with reviewers to discuss applications in detail before the final funding decision is made. Applicants will then receive feedback alongside the outcome of their application.
We aim for each review process to take no longer than six weeks to ensure timely decisions.
The current scoring criteria and weightings are:
- Suitability of topic in relation to DRI needs (30%)
- Likelihood in attracting a wide-ranging audience and new communities (30%)
- Importance of planned outcomes (20%)
- Retreat will provide an opportunity that is not available elsewhere (20%)
All awarded funds will be monitored by the relevant task leader, with progress reported regularly to the Steering Group. Awardees will be required to retain appropriate documentary evidence demonstrating how allocated funds have been spent. This documentation must be submitted alongside any expenses claim to the University of Edinburgh Finance team.
Outputs
All funded retreats will be expected to produce a blog post for the CAKE website summarising the retreat activities, outputs and community impact. These blog post will contribute to the yearly UKRI report and highlight the value of the programme for the wider community.
We also expect each funded activity to generate tangible outputs: publications (ranging from a whitepaper to a journal special issue) and, where appropriate, software (ideally open source). Retreat organisers are also encouraged to share resources, outputs and materials arising from their retreat through the CAKEbox, helping to support the knowledge exchange.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out via our Contact Us page.