Announcing the Engineering Biology SPARK Award winners

The Engineering Biology Innovation Network aims to drive the development of a joined-up UK innovation ecosystem to ensure synthetic biology tools, technologies and processes can be more easily developed and adopted by a variety of industries.

These collaborative projects, led by an academic organisation or a research and technology organisation and an SME, are focused on an engineering biology solution and fall within at least one of our thematic areas:

• Agriculture and food production: projects include boosting drought resilience in crops; improving plant-based meat alternatives; and gluten-free food production.
• Health: projects include AI powered bioproduction; and engineering next-generation cancer immunotherapy.
• Materials and chemicals: projects include optimising towards carbon negative mineral materials; and unlocking high-performance, sustainable microalgae.
• Energy and low carbon fuels: one project will focus on unlocking value from grain waste by creating innovative, sustainable, scalable agriculture manufacturing processes.
• Waste recycling: one project will focus on engineering next-gen fibres from textile waste.
• Development of novel synthetic biology tools and technologies: One project will focus on accelerating biopolymer innovation.

This funding is part of the Engineering Biology Innovation Network, led by Innovate UK Business Connect in collaboration with Innovate UK and UKRI’s Technology Mission Fund. The network’s goal is to progress innovations, create a commercially focused community and foster new consortia to advance innovations towards commercial applications.

If you would like to connect with a project partner, please get in touch with us at engbio@iukbc.org.uk.