Key Features
UK registered businesses can apply for a share of up to £8.5 million to develop and scale Engineering Biology platforms, products and services. This funding is part of UKRI’s Engineering Biology Programme.
Programme: Innovate UK
Award: Share of up to £8.5 million
Opens: 8th Sep 2026
Closes: 3rd Nov 2026
Innovate UK will invest up to £8.5 million from the UKRI Engineering Biology Programme.
The aim of this competition is to deliver business led research and development that will lead to new engineering biology products, processes or services or de-risk the adoption of engineering biology technologies that offer high market potential.
Projects must focus on developing or applying engineering biology solutions to one of more of the following specific themes:
To be eligible for this competition, projects must have total costs of between £750,000 and £2.5 million and last between 12 and 36 months. Projects must start before 1st April 2027 and end by 31st March 2030.
Lead Organisation: To lead a collaborative project, organisations must be a UK registered business of any size. Consortiums must contain at least one UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise claiming grant funding on the application. Academic institutions cannot lead.
Project team: To collaborate with the lead, organisations must be a UK registered business of any size, academic institute, charity, not for profit, public sector organisation or research and technology organisation.
Non-funded partners: Projects can include organisations that do not claim funding for their work on the project. These costs will be covered by their own resources and can include UK, EU and other non-UK organisations. Non-UK partners are permitted to carry out project work from within their home countries and exploit results outside the UK.
Subcontractors: Subcontractors are allowed in this competition and are limited to no more than 70% of the project’s eligible costs. Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK. Overseas subcontractors can be used but you must state why UK subcontractors could not be used in your application.
Number of applications: Eligible organisations can only lead on one application. If leading an application, eligible organisations can be included as a collaborator in two further applications. If not leading, they can collaborate in any number of applications.
Previous applications: Previous applications can be used in this competition.
Innovate UK are not funding the following projects:
Innovate UK have allocated up to £8.5 million to fund innovation projects in this competition Funding will be in the form of a grant.
Under the Research, Development and Innovation Streamlined Route rules, no more than £3 million can be awarded in the form of a grant to any one enterprise in any one competition.
If your organisation’s work on the project is commercial or economic, your funding request must not exceed the limits below. These limits apply even if your organisation normally acts non-economically but for the purpose of this project will be undertaking commercial or economic activity.
Category 2: Industrial research projects
Funding available for your eligible project costs of:
Research participation
The research organisations undertaking non-economic activity as part of the project can share up to 30% of the total eligible project costs. If your consortium contains more than one research organisation undertaking non-economic activity, this maximum is shared between them. Of that 30% you can get funding for your eligible project costs of up to:
Eligibility criteria for claiming 80% of FEC funding
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