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UKRI Gateway to Research (GtR) MCP — every grant awarded by the UK's seven research councils plus Innovate UK: recipient, subject, award value, dates.
Five tools with complete, well-structured schemas and strong descriptions (avg 180 chars, well above 10-char minimum). All parameters typed and described. Tool names follow verb_noun pattern (search_, get_, list_). Schemas include enums, limits, and pagination. No critical security issues detected (keyless API, no secrets in params). Main gaps: no output schemas documented, no error handling guidance, no tool annotations (readOnlyHint), and parameter constraints (e.g., limit 1-100) stated in description but not enforced in schema via minItems/maxItems. Composition is clean, each tool has one responsibility. Naming is clear and consistent (gtr_ prefix, action verbs). Descriptions are LLM-optimized with examples and use cases.
Full detail for one UKRI-funded project, looked up by its GtR GUID or by its human grant reference such as EP/T022159/1 or 10045762. Returns the award value in pounds, the lead organisation and its address, the principal investigators, the funding period, the abstract, technical abstract and potential-impact statement, and the research subjects and topics — this is how to answer how much a specific UK grant was worth and who received it.
List the UKRI grants held by one institution, given its GtR organisation id or its name. Returns that institution's grant references, project titles, funding councils, departments, statuses and funding periods together with a total award count — the way to see a university's or company's UK research funding portfolio. Narrow by funding council and by Active or Closed status.
Find UK universities, research institutes and companies that have received UKRI research funding, by institution name. Returns the GtR organisation id, official name, postcode and region — use the id with gtr_organisation_projects to list everything that institution was funded for.
Search UK research grants awarded by UKRI — the seven research councils (EPSRC, MRC, BBSRC, NERC, ESRC, AHRC, STFC) plus Innovate UK — by free text over titles and abstracts. Returns each grant reference, project title, funding council, grant category, lead department, award status and funding period, for questions like which UK grants fund a given topic, how many awards a council made in an area, or what a UK research group was funded to do. Narrow by funder name and by Active or Closed status.
Output schemas not documented. LLMs cannot plan downstream calls or extract fields without knowing what each tool returns. Descriptions mention return fields (e.g., 'grant reference, project title, funding council') but no formal schema is provided.
No error handling guidance. Tool descriptions do not explain what errors can occur (e.g., invalid grant reference, API rate limit, malformed query) or how to recover. Agents cannot self-correct on failure.
Numeric parameter constraints (limit 1-100, page ≥1) stated in descriptions but not enforced in JSON Schema. Missing minItems, maxItems, minimum, maximum properties. LLMs may pass invalid values; validation must happen at runtime.
| Scored | Grade | Overall | Spec posture | Rubric |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-23 | C | 62 | 2026-07-28+ | v2 |
Search journal articles, books and conference papers that UKRI grant holders reported as outcomes of their funded work. Returns title, authors, journal, publication date, DOI, PubMed id, ISSN and the GtR id of the project that produced it — the way to trace UK public research funding through to what it published.
No tool annotations (readOnlyHint, idempotentHint). All tools are read-only and idempotent, but this is not declared in the schema. Agents cannot infer safety properties without explicit hints.
Transport mechanism unknown. Source code shows HTTP fetch calls but no explicit MCP server registration, transport binding, or protocol handshake visible. Cannot verify if this is a valid MCP server or a standalone HTTP client.