Engineering Biology Access to Infrastructure Pilot

Overview

Innovate UK will invest up to £5 million to help SMEs scale lab-proven engineering biology innovations towards pilot, demonstration and commercially relevant settings.

The competition is part of UKRI’s Engineering Biology Programme and is designed to improve access to specialist UK scale-up infrastructure, including catapults, biofoundries and contract manufacturing organisations.

Projects should demonstrate that the underlying innovation is rooted in engineering biology and is ready to progress beyond laboratory scale. The focus is on validating whether technologies can be scaled technically and economically, while helping UK SMEs move closer to industrial deployment and commercial growth.

Scope

The aim of this competition is to support projects that enable scaling of lab-proven engineering biology innovations by:

• enabling SMEs to scale innovations to pilot or demonstration scale
• facilitating affordable access to specialised UK engineering biology scale-up capabilities in the public and private sectors, such as catapults, biofoundries and CMOs
• validating technical and economic viability of scaling engineering biology innovations in commercially relevant settings

To be considered within scope, the primary innovation and competitive advantage underpinning the project must arise from or enable engineering biology.

For this competition, engineering biology is defined as the purposeful engineering of biological systems to create new or enhanced functions that do not occur naturally or cannot be achieved efficiently through conventional approaches. This includes the design, modification or creation of organisms, cells, genetic circuits, enzymes, proteins or other biomolecular systems that exhibit novel or enhanced functionality.

Proposals must clearly:

• demonstrate how the innovation focuses on engineering biology as defined in the competition brief
• demonstrate how the innovation fits with one or more of the specific themes for the competition
• deliver robust validation work packages to demonstrate commercial viability, which may include a techno-economic assessment and impact validation
• evidence the robustness of the innovation at lab scale and its readiness to scale
• explain how the proposed work will lead to growth of the company in the UK

Projects must partner with, or subcontract to, a UK registered organisation with the appropriate infrastructure and capabilities to support the technological transition of engineering biology innovations into industrial-scale applications.

Projects should predominantly focus on scaling engineering biology innovations. Supporting work such as validation, manufacturing or regulatory progression is also in scope where it is directly enabled by, and derives value from, the underlying engineering biology innovation.

Key themes and topics

Projects must focus on developing or applying engineering biology solutions to one or more of the following themes:

• Health
• Agriculture and Food
• Chemicals and materials
• Low Carbon fuels
• Waste and environment
• Cross cutting technology, service development

Solutions can focus on one or more of the following technologies where the core innovation is based on engineered biological systems:

• Biosensors and Diagnostic
• Biomanufacturing Systems
• Biocatalysis and Chemical Production
• Engineered Biomaterials
• Metabolic Engineering
• Nucleotide Synthesis
• Engineered Proteins and Enzymes
• Cell And Microbe Engineering
• Synthetic Biology Platforms
• Gene Editing and Genome Engineering
• AI and Computational Biology

Evidence that the project's primary innovation is based on engineering biology may include:

• patents
• proprietary strains
• engineered cell lines
• protected know-how
• software-enabled biological design capabilities
• licences to relevant background IP
• other demonstrable ownership or control of engineering biology intellectual assets

Projects will not be funded if they:

• are not engineering biology focused
• are not partnering or subcontracting with a UK registered organisation with the appropriate infrastructure and capabilities to support transition into industrial-scale applications
• do not include pilot-scale testing, demonstration or commercial validation activities or work packages
• are for infrastructure expansion or involve capital purchases
• do not focus on the competition themes
• include clinical development of a biologic, vaccine or engineering biology-derived small molecule
• involve clinical trials or preclinical evaluation of therapeutics
• involve fundamental research, feasibility studies or discovery-based research

Project duration

Up to 24 months

Must start by 1 February 2027

End by 31 January 2029

Award value

Projects must have total costs between £200,000 and £750,000

Funding rates

For industrial research projects, purposeful research that builds new knowledge and skills to improve or develop products, processes or services, often through prototypes or system components that validate ideas in realistic settings, organisations can receive funding for eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium-sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

Research organisations undertaking non-economic activity can share up to 50% of the total eligible project costs.

Eligibility criteria

• Projects can be collaborative or led by a UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise working alone
• Projects must include either a partner or subcontractor that is a UK registered organisation with the facilities or capabilities to support technology scale-up and validation at scale for engineering biology innovations
• Collaborators can be a UK registered business of any size; an academic institution; a charity; a not for profit; a public sector organisation; or a research and technology organisation (RTO)
• Subcontractors must be preferably UK-based with fully justified and appropriate costs. Overseas subcontractors are permitted where applicants can justify why a UK subcontractor cannot be used
• All funded project work must be carried out within the UK
• Funded organisations must intend to exploit the results in the UK
• Subsidy control and State aid rules apply
• Projects also cannot be dependent on export performance or domestic-input usage.