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UK grant · Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Engineering Biology Investor Partnerships Round 1

£250,000 to £2,000,000 Closes 2 December 2026

Official listing and how to apply

Source: Find a Grant (GOV.UK) · Last checked

Key facts

FunderInnovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
Amount per award£250,000 to £2,000,000
Total funding available£8,000,000
Opens1 October 2026
Closes2 December 2026 (22 days left)
Who can applyBusinesses
Applicant types listedPrivate Sector
Nation or regionNational
StatusOpen
SourceFind a Grant (GOV.UK)
Last checked10 November 2026

About this grant

Summary from the official listing on Find a Grant (GOV.UK):

Description

Innovate UK, as part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £8 million in this Engineering Biology Investor Partnership competition. This competition is part of UKRI’s Engineering Biology Programme.

The aim of this competition is to support:

  • the development and adoption of engineering biology technologies
  • commercialisation of late stage experimental development projects that are close to market, and ultimately market adoption

To be offered grant funding your project must be assessed as eligible for grant funding and you must have secured aligned investment with a lead investor. In the investor pool you can view the areas of expertise and investment preferences for the investors.

You can apply for this competition before you speak to an investor but initiating dialogue with investors is strongly encouraged.

In addition to investment, the lead investors in the pool can provide you with commercial acumen in, for example:

  • leadership
  • market access
  • skills
  • resources

Successful UK registered SME’s will receive:

  • grant funding from Innovate UK
  • aligned investment funding with one of the programme’s pool of investors acting as the lead investor

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.

Our experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have 20% chance of success.

We consider a range of factors when determining whether to provide funding to applicants. This includes an assessment of prior conduct, such as any outstanding payments owed to Innovate UK or UKRI. Such factors may influence the funding decision, potentially resulting in a refusal of funding or an award subject to additional scrutiny.

We also reserve the right to adjust funding allocations for any of our competitions. This may be in response to changes in policy, portfolio funding considerations or broader government funding decisions.

This competition closes at 11am UK time on the deadline stated in this Innovate UK competition brief. We cannot guarantee other government or third party sites will always show the correct competition information.

Project size

Your project’s total grant funding request must be between £250,000 and £2 million.

Accessibility and Inclusion

We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.

You can contact us at any time to ask for guidance.

We recommend you contact us at least 15 working days before this competition’s closing date to allow us to put the most suitable support in place. The support we can provide may be limited if you contact us close to the competition deadline.

You can contact Innovate UK by email or call 0300 321 4357. Our phone lines are open from 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).

Eligibility

Who can apply

Your project

For experimental development projects:

  • your total grant funding request must be between £250,000 and £2 million
  • the project duration must be 24 months

Projects must always start on the first of the month, even if this is a non-working day. You must not start your project until your Grant Offer Letter has been approved by Innovate UK. Any delays within Project Setup may mean we need to delay your project start date.

You must only include eligible project costs in your application. See our overview of eligible project costs.

If your project’s total grant funding request or duration falls outside of our eligibility criteria, you must provide justification by email to support@iuk.ukri.org at least 10 working days before the competition closes. We will then decide whether to approve your request.

If your project does not meet our criteria and you have not requested justification approval, your application will be made ineligible and it will not be sent for assessment.

Your organisation

This competition is open to single applicants only. To apply your organisation must:

  • be a UK registered micro, small or medium sized business (SME)
  • carry out its project work in the UK
  • intend to exploit the results from or in the UK

More information on the different types of organisation can be found in our Funding rules.

Subcontractors

Subcontractors are allowed in this competition.

Subcontractors can be from anywhere in the UK and you must select them through your usual procurement process.

You can use subcontractors from overseas but must make the case in your application as to why you cannot use subcontractors from the UK.

You must provide a detailed rationale, evidence of the potential UK contractors you approached and the reasons why they were unable to work with you. We will not accept a cheaper cost as a sufficient reason to use an overseas subcontractor.

All subcontractor costs must be justified and appropriate to the total eligible project costs

Number of applications

An SME can only submit one application into this round of the competition.

Sanctions

This competition will not fund you, or provide any financial benefit to any individual or entities directly or indirectly involved with you, which would expose Innovate UK or any direct or indirect beneficiary of funding from Innovate UK to UK Sanctions. For example, through any procurement, commercial, business development or supply chain activity with any entity as lead, partner or su

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