Engineering Biology in Canada 2025
Innovate UK in collaboration with UK Science and Technology Network (UK STN) delivered a Global Expert Mission (GEM) to Canada in 2025. This Expert Mission brought together a team of UK industry experts to assess the engineering biology industry in Canada to identify key areas for collaboration and potential programmes needed to enable UK innovators to collaborate with Canadian partners.
Project
Engineering Biology
Location
Canada
Abstract from outcome report:
This Global Expert Mission (GEM) forms part of this ongoing collaborative agreement and was focused on understanding the potential opportunity for Canada and the UK to collaborate to apply engineering biology technologies to address challenges across application areas and to drive economic growth. The areas of focus for the GEM were: agri-food (novel food products and crop protection alternatives); clean technology (alternatives to petrochemical feedstocks for material and fuels); and environmental solutions (using microbes for plastic contamination and critical mineral recovery in mining and water).
The GEM found a Canadian ecosystem very receptive to expanding on collaboration with the UK, and actively engaged in the idea of using each country’s own expertise in the space for mutual and wider benefit. Through a combination of internationally renowned universities, federal and provincial support mechanisms, and private companies and networks, the Canadian engineering biology sector is well placed to continue its growth.
Watch Global Insights webinar recording and download slides
About Global Expert Missions
Global Expert Missions (GEM) is funded by Innovate UK and designed to build international collaborations with governments, societies, enterprises, institutions, and people from every corner of the globe. With global challenges requiring international perspectives, the programme aims to support the UK government’s ambition to be the international partner of choice and a global hub for innovation by 2035.