Engineering Biology Collaborative R&D: Round 3
Engineering Biology Collaborative R&D: Round 3 supports business-led teams developing and scaling engineering biology products, processes and services to reduce adoption risks and drive UK commercial growth.
Funder: UK Research and Innovation
Due Dates: November 3, 2026, 11:00am UK time (Application deadline)
Funding Amounts: Up to £8.5 million total fund; £750,000–£2.5 million eligible project costs; 12–36 months
Summary: Supports business-led collaborative industrial research to develop and scale engineering biology platforms, products and services.
Key Information: A UK-registered business must lead, with at least one UK-registered SME claiming funding and a named end user involved.
Description
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), runs this competition under UKRI’s Engineering Biology Programme. It supports business-led collaborative research and development that creates new engineering biology products, processes or services and de-risks adoption of technologies with high market potential. Engineering biology means purposefully engineering biological systems to create new or enhanced functions unavailable naturally or inefficient through conventional approaches.
The primary innovation and competitive advantage must arise from, or enable, engineering biology. Projects should address real UK commercialisation constraints, demonstrate a route to UK scale, and create growth and value in UK supply chains. Translation, validation, scale-up, manufacturing, regulatory progression and commercial deployment are supported when directly enabled by the underlying engineering biology innovation—not as generic advanced manufacturing projects.
