Launchpad: Bio-based Manufacturing, Scotland – Round 2 CR&D

To lead a project your business must:

• be a UK registered business of any size
• be or involve at least one grant claiming micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
• collaborate with other UK registered organisations
• be growing your innovation activities in the bio-based manufacturing cluster in Scotland
• have a demonstrable ambition for business growth

To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

A business can lead on only one CR&D strand application but can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications. If you are not leading any application, you can collaborate in any number of applications.

If you apply to the Minimal Financial Assistance strand of this competition, as well as this CR&D strand, each project must be clearly distinctive and separate. We will monitor closely for this separation if you are awarded funding in both strands.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of between £150,000 and £1 million
• last between 6 and 18 months
• carry out all of its project work in the UK
• intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• not start before 1 May 2025
• end by 31 December 2026

You must collaborate with other UK registered organisations.

The aim of this competition is to support outstanding innovation projects led by businesses. Your business must be growing your innovation activities in the bio-based manufacturing innovation cluster in Scotland.

Your project must contribute to Scotland’s industrial biotechnology strategy and ambitions to grow related company turnover in this sector beyond £1.2 billion by 2026.

Your project must focus on one or more of the following:

• industrial biotechnology
• biomass supply chain development
• sustainable production and manufacturing

Your project must contribute to growing your innovation activities in the cluster, both during and after your project. This could be demonstrated by:

• your local innovation activities
• the value that your innovation activities create in the cluster
• your engagement with other innovation active organisations in the cluster, such as with Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre, this Launchpad’s cluster management organisation

Your project can focus on one or more of the following:

• facilitating innovation in industrial biotechnology and enhancing its adoption across multiple sectors and industries.
• acceleration of biomass supply chain development
• greening supply chains and transitioning industries towards sustainable production and manufacturing
• supporting innovation in skills development

This list is not exhaustive. Where you can show your proposal fits within the scope of this competition you can focus on other themes.

We are not funding projects that:

• are aimed solely at biopharmaceutical or cell and gene therapy markets
• involve the production, processing or servicing of biochar, graphene or bioenergy
• involve primary production in fishery and aquaculture, or in agriculture; meaning the project must be undertaking research and development, the solution must be for exploitation by the wider business community and the funding cannot be used for capital asset acquisition

See the competition page for a complete list of exclusions.

Innovate UK have produced a pre-recorded briefing covering Investor Partnerships, CR&D and MFA for all the competitions running in late 2025: click here to watch the recording. They have also supplied briefing slides which can be downloaded here.

In addition, Innovate UK Business Connect will host an online briefing event on Thursday 14 November, 1pm-2.15pm: click here to register for a place. This will start with a plenary overview of the Launchpad programme, alongside information on how to apply to the competitions. Breakout rooms will then follow for each of the seven Launchpads and their respective competitions where delegates will be briefed on the key areas of interest for each cluster.

If you would like advice about which strand is more appropriate for your project, or help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s biotechnology and/or manufacturing teams.