Beyond Blood Diagnostics, a NATO DIANA company, is developing portable, cartridge-based blood analysis technologies for point-of-care and defence-relevant applications. Its handheld platform is intended to deliver a full blood count, including a five-part white blood cell differential, from a low-volume finger-prick sample. The system is designed for rapid, battery-powered operation in settings where conventional laboratory infrastructure, specialist operators and cold-chain logistics are unavailable.
For defence radiation biodosimetry, deployable assessment relies on serial leukocyte profiles because more precise laboratory methods cannot be used forward. Repeated counts during the first day are needed to assess the rate of lymphocyte decline relative to the neutrophil count. The cartridge must therefore produce consistent results from run to run, because error in each measurement propagates into the calculated trend.
Selective adhesion can alter both the absolute count and the clinically important ratio. Narrow triage bands mean that an unquantified loss fraction could change the severity category assigned to a casualty.
A successful solution would also strengthen blood-product decision-making in damage-control resuscitation, where platelet measurements can guide transfusion choices before laboratory support is available.
The Challenge
Beyond Blood Diagnostics can reliably detect individual cells that reach the sensor, but a proportion of cells is lost within the cartridge through biofouling and adhesion to microchannel surfaces. Variation in cell position and orientation during flow also introduces positional blurring at the sensing region, affecting cell counts and volumetric measurements.
For red-cell volume, where the evidence base is most complete, the current system coefficient of variation is approximately 7%, compared with a clinical requirement below 3%. Previous investigation of COP, PC, PMMA, COC and glass; surface roughness and wettability; and buffer conditions has established useful operating limits but has not produced a sufficiently robust solution. Material selection and buffer chemistry alone are not expected to close the performance gap.
The challenge is to prevent, tolerate, quantify or correct for cell loss and positional variability within a mass-manufactured disposable plastic cartridge, so that the system achieves a coefficient of variation below 3% for the leukocyte differential under field-operating conditions.
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Entrants to this competition must be:
- Established businesses, academic institutions, start-ups, SMEs, or individual entrepreneurs
- UK based or have the intention to set up a UK base
Your project must:
- Have a grant funding request up to £60,000 (eligible costs only)
- Start in March 2027 and complete by 31st May 2027
- Carry out its project work in the UK.
- Intend to exploit the results from or in the UK.
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Any solution proposed should:
- Reduce, tolerate, measure or computationally correct cell adhesion, biofouling and positional variability through the microfluidic pathway.
- Preserve the relative representation of different leukocyte populations so that differential ratios are not distorted.
- Deliver repeatable results across serial tests, cartridges and relevant operating conditions.
- Be compatible with a compact, handheld, battery-powered analyser and a mass-manufactured disposable plastic cartridge.
- Use finger-prick, low-volume blood samples and support rapid point-of-care analysis.
- Avoid additional reagents, cold-chain requirements, laboratory-grade optics, specialist facilities or extra operator steps.
- Minimise impact on cartridge complexity, manufacturing scalability and unit cost.
Beyond Blood Diagnostics is open to individual technologies or integrated approaches, including:
- Advanced anti-fouling coatings, surface treatments or cartridge-compatible materials.
- Novel passive or active microfluidic architectures that control cell transport, position or orientation.
- Compact sensing or imaging methods that map cell behaviour, identify adhesion or improve positional resolution.
- Calibration, reference or quality-control methods that do not add significant consumable cost or operator burden.
The proposed solution must remain suitable for field deployment and volume manufacture.
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The following are out of scope for this challenge:
- Solutions that depend on conventional laboratory infrastructure or laboratory-grade optical systems.
- Approaches requiring cold-chain storage, substantial additional reagents or multiple new manual steps.
- Solutions that cannot be integrated into a low-cost disposable plastic cartridge or compact handheld platform.
- Material or buffer substitutions with a shelf life of 24 months or below at room temperature.
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Successful applicants will be given an opportunity to pitch to Beyond Blood Diagnostics. The winning applicant, as selected by the company, will then be eligible to apply for up to £60,000 grant funding to kickstart the development of the proposed solution through a 3 month project. Selected solutions will be trialled by Beyond Blood Diagnostics with potential for further adoption if trials are successful
The benefits package for a successful applicant may also include:
- Support from Innovate UK Business Connect
- Support in the development of a prototype or pilot
- Technical support
- Invitation to attend or present at Innovate UK Business Connect events
- A potential business collaboration
- Investor introductions (if investment is required)
- Support if any Innovate UK or similar competitions are relevant.
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- Challenge launch: 5 October 2026
- Deadline for applications: Friday 6 November 2026
- Review of applicants: Monday 9 – Friday 13 November 2026
- Selection and notification of finalists: Friday 13 – Tuesday 17 November 2026
- Pitch Day: Wednesday 25 November 2026
- Confirm selected solution provider: By Friday 4 December 2026
- Submission to Innovation Funding Service (IFS): December 2026
- Project length: 3 months. (Starting by 1 March 2027 and complete no later than 31 May 2027)