Engineering Biology Access to Infrastructure Pilot

Innovate UK, under UKRI's Engineering Biology Programme and funded by DBIST, offers up to GBP 5M in cash grants to take lab-proven engineering biology to pilot or demonstration scale. Total eligible project costs must fall between GBP 200K and GBP 750K over up to 24 months, funded as industrial research at up to 70% for micro and small businesses, 60% medium and 50% large, with a GBP 3M per-enterprise cap in this competition. Eligibility requires a UK-registered SME lead - academics cannot lead or work alone - and the project must include a UK-registered organisation with scale-up infrastructure as a partner or subcontractor, with work done in the UK and results exploited in the UK. Themes are health, agriculture and food, chemicals and materials, low carbon fuels, waste and environment, and cross-cutting technology or service development; the competition opened 7 September 2026 and closes 21 October 2026.