A four-hour outage at a major funder's online submission system affected researchers working right up to a closing deadline earlier this week. The funder has extended the deadline by 48 hours for every scheme affected, and says no penalty will apply to late submissions caused by the fault. An internal review of the portal's capacity is now underway, following similar complaints during a deadline rush last year. Universities are being asked to log any submissions affected through their usual research office channels.

Three regional innovation accelerator sites, delayed by nearly a year, will now open on a staggered schedule starting in the spring. Each site pairs a lead university with a cluster of small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in its region. Officials blame the delay on procurement issues rather than any change in policy direction. Local partners say they remain committed to the original targets despite the shorter delivery window that now results.