Engineering Biology Collaborative R&D: Round 3

Overview

Innovate UK will invest up to £8.5 million through the UKRI Engineering Biology Programme to support collaborative, business-led industrial research.

The competition is focused on developing and scaling engineering biology products, processes and services with strong commercial potential. Projects should either create new engineering biology solutions or reduce the risks associated with adopting emerging engineering biology technologies.

Projects can address applications across health, agriculture and food, chemicals and materials, low-carbon fuels, waste and the environment, as well as cross-cutting technologies and services.

The competition uses a two-stage assessment process. Applications that pass the first assessment stage may be invited to an interview and presentation.

Scope

Projects must deliver business-led research and development that:

• leads to new engineering biology products, processes or services
• de-risks the adoption of engineering biology technologies that offer high market potential

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 can include the design, modification or creation of organisms, cells, genetic circuits, enzymes, proteins or other biomolecular systems with novel or enhanced functionality.

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

• biosensors and diagnostics
• 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

Projects must:

• demonstrate how they address a real commercialisation constraint in the UK and focus on applying engineering biology solutions to one or more cross-cutting engineering biology technologies, products or services
• apply engineering biology solutions to one or more UKRI Engineering Biology Priority Programme themes
• be collaborative industrial research
• focus on solutions that are either new or not yet widely used
• demonstrate how the innovation relates to engineering biology
• explain how the innovation fits with one or more of the competition themes
• address supply chain validation through the involvement of at least one named end user, such as an OEM, Tier 1 supplier or another organisation further downstream in the supply chain

Project activity supporting translation, validation, scale-up, manufacturing, regulatory progression, product development or commercial deployment can be supported where it is directly enabled by, and derives value from, the underlying engineering biology innovation.

Applicants must provide evidence that the project's primary innovation is based on engineering biology. This may include patents, proprietary strains, engineered cell lines, protected know-how, software-enabled biological design capabilities, licences to relevant background intellectual property or other demonstrable ownership or control of engineering biology intellectual assets.

The named end user must have a clear and defined role within the project governance or work plan. This involvement can include membership of a project advisory board or participation as a funded or non-funded project collaborator.

Government organisations, regulators or academic institutions can only act as end users where there is clear justification, such as acting as a system integrator or service provider. Consultancies cannot act as end users.

Applications must also:

• demonstrate and validate a clear route to scale in the UK
• build evidence for the commercial, technical and operational viability and impact of the innovation through a life cycle assessment and techno-economic assessment
• explain how the project will support company growth within future UK engineering biology supply chains

Projects can include experimental evaluation, prototyping, product or service development planning, demonstrations of utility and effectiveness, and demonstrations of safety or regulatory planning.

Innovate UK is particularly interested in projects addressing clearly defined engineering biology scale-up constraints and market-led capability gaps that can demonstrate how the proposed innovation will create growth and value in the UK.

Projects should not be framed as generic advanced manufacturing projects. Where manufacturing is relevant, it should support the engineering biology use case.

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

Projects will not be funded if they:

• are not engineering biology focused
• are not focused on the competition themes
• include the clinical development of any biologic, vaccine or engineering biology-derived small molecule
• involve clinical trials or preclinical evaluation of therapeutics
• are fundamental research, feasibility studies or discovery based

Projects focused solely on the following enabling areas will not be funded:

• regulations and standards
• educational resources
• behavioural science
• policy
• skills and relationships

Projects cannot be dependent on export performance or on the use of a set proportion of domestic inputs.

Project duration

12 to 36 months

Must not start before 1 April 2027

End by 31 March 2030

Award value

Total eligible project costs between £750,000 and £2.5 million.

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% for a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% for a medium-sized organisation
• up to 50% for a large organisation

Research organisations undertaking non-economic activity can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs.

Eligibility criteria

• Projects must be collaborative and led by a UK-registered business of any size
• The consortium must include at least one UK-registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise claiming grant funding
• Collaborators can be a UK-registered business of any size, academic institution, charity, not-for-profit organisation, public sector organisation or research and technology organisation
• Subcontractors must be preferably UK-based with fully justified and appropriate costs
• All funded project work must be carried out within the UK and intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• Subsidy control and state rules apply