This competition is open to single applicants only. To apply your organisation must:

• be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized business (SME)
• carry out its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

An SME can only submit one application into this round of the competition.

For experimental development projects:

• your total grant funding request must be between £250,000 and £2 million, which can cover up to 45% of costs depending on business size
• the project duration must be 24 months

For experimental development projects Innovate UK will fund:

• up to 45% of eligible project costs for micro or small organisations
• up to 35% for medium sized organisations

The remainder of the funding does not need to be provided directly by the investor, as long as their investment in the business is at least double the grant funding received from Innovate UK. E.g. if the project costs are £4m and the Innovate UK grant is £1.8m, the investment must be at least £3.6m.

The aligned investment led by the investor partner must always be at least twice as much as the grant funding.

You must agree the private investment through a lead investor and reach heads of terms by 29 July 2027.

The aligned private investment:

• must provide you with suitable capital at least twice the amount of the grant requested to complete your project, support company growth and scale ambitions
• can be directed for use in your company, whereas the grant is to support the project only
• can be used to fund additional costs typically ineligible for support by Innovate UK
• must be provided under commercial terms negotiated with the lead investor and not Innovate UK

The investment can be in the form of either direct equity investment or a convertible loan. It must come from a lead investor from the pool of investors associated with this programme. The lead investor may decide to syndicate with other investors from within or outside of the pool.

The aim of this competition is to support:

• the development and adoption of engineering biology technologies
• commercialisation of late stage experimental development projects that are close to market, and ultimately market adoption

Your proposal must have a clear route to market, a clear link to innovation and evidence that you can create a team to deliver your proposal.

You must be:

• registered in the UK as an SME by the time the award is contracted
• able to complete the aligned investment led by the investor partner needed to qualify for the award, through the issue of new shares or convertible debt

You must also demonstrate that if your project is funded, it will:

• have significant market impact
• be scalable
• be attractive to equity investors

Innovation and ideas can come from anyone and anywhere. We want to see investments unlocked for the diverse and extraordinary talent in the UK.

We encourage innovation involving communities that are typically under-represented, including:

• from regions that have historically accessed lower levels of investment, outside London, Oxford and Cambridge
• ethnic minority groups
• women and other marginalised genders
• disabled people
• people with non-traditional education backgrounds

The primary innovation and competitive advantage underpinning the project must arise from, or enable, engineering biology.

For the purposes of this competitions engineering biology is defined as the purposeful engineering of biological systems. These will create new or enhanced functions that do not occur naturally, or that 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.

Your solution can focus on one or more of the following technologies in which the core innovation is in engineered biological systems, for example, built on synthetic biology techniques:

• 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

Elements of project work that predominately focus on the viability or the scale up of the technology, such as validation, manufacturing or regulatory progression as appropriate, will be supported through this competition.

This is providing that they are directly enabled by, and derive value from, the underlying engineering biology innovation.

Evidence to support the projects primary innovation being based on engineering biology will be required as part of the application, and may include:

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

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

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

Innovate UK will hold an online briefing event at 2pm on Wednesday 7 October: click here for the joining link (Zoom required). A recording and slides will be available afterwards.

If you would like help to find an investor partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Engineering Biology team.