Engineering Biology Investor Partnerships Round 1

Key Features

UK registered SMEs can apply for a share of up to £8 million to develop engineering biology products and services with selected investor partners.

Programme:     Innovate UK

Award:     Share of up to £8 million

Opens: 1st Oct 2026

Closes: 2nd Dec 2026

TBAT

Interested in applying?

Book a 1-2-1 consultation with our Grant Funding expert today

Click here

Grant Overview

Innovate UK, alongside UKRI’s Engineering Biology Programme, will invest up to £8 million through this Engineering Biology Investor Partnerships competition.

Grant Scope

The aim of this competition is to support the development and adoption of engineering biology technologies and the commercialisation of late stage experimental development projects that are close to market.

Projects must focus on developing or applying engineering biology solutions to one or more of the following specific themes:

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

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for this competition, your total grant funding request must be between £250,000 and £2 million with your project duration being over 24 months.

Your Organisation: This competition is only open to single applicants. To apply, organisations must be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized business carrying out project work in the UK with results exploited from or in the UK.

Subcontractors: Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Number of applications: A farmer, grower or forester can only submit one application per competition round and receive a maximum of two Facilitator Support Grants in total across all rounds.

Previous applications: Previously submitted applications can be used in this competition.

Grant Exclusions

Innovate UK will not fund the following projects:

  • Projects that are not carried out by SME’s
  • Projects that are not original in scope or duplicates someone else’s work
  • Projects that are for clinical development of any biologic, vaccine or engineering biology derived small molecule.
  • Projects that are not engineering biology focused or are fundamental research
  • Projects that are for clinical trials or preclinical evaluation of therapeutics
  • Projects not part of a company’s growth plan or large capital infrastructure
  • Projects that are unable to prove there is a potential for return on investment and growth

Funding Costs

Innovate UK has allocated up to £8 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.

Only Experimental Development projects will be considered for this competition.

Experimental development projects

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

Innovate UK may revoke our decision to provide funding without notice if government commitment for this initiative is withdrawn.

Aligned private investment

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.

 

For further information on this competition, please see full details.

Full competition details