Area of investment and support

Area of investment and support: Engineering biology

Engineering biology is a strategic priority area of research for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). It is an interdisciplinary field that spans the innovation ecosystem from breakthrough synthetic biology research to translation and application.

Partners involved:
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Innovate UK, Medical Research Council (MRC), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl)

The scope and what we're doing

Engineering biology is an evolution of synthetic biology. It encompasses the wider capabilities of the biosciences, engineering and the physical sciences to support the exploitation of synthetic biology knowledge for economic and public benefit.

As engineering biology matures and moves closer to application across a wide range of sectors, it increasingly draws on insight from a broad range of disciplines such as environmental science, biomedicine, economics and social sciences.

To maximise the full potential of engineering biology, UKRI’s research councils work hand in hand with national and international partners across governments, academia and industry to drive this critical technology forward.

Investments

National Engineering Biology Programme

Recognising the rapid evolution of engineering biology and its potential for even greater impact across a wider range of sectors, in 2020 UKRI collaborated with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory to deliver a series of stakeholder engagement events.

These events brought together key stakeholders across academia, business, government and funders to establish an overarching vision for engineering biology in the UK.

This led to the development of the National Engineering Biology Programme. which aims to create a coherent engineering biology community and ecosystem, building on the UK’s capabilities and accelerating them to the next level through a coordinated and integrated programme.

NEBP has informed all of our recent investments in engineering biology, and continues to provide the strategic framework for future funding and partnerships.

Technology Missions Fund

Jointly funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and UKRI, the Technology Missions Fund (TMF) is a £320 million programme designed to accelerate technology development, adoption and diffusion, and cement the UK’s global leadership in five technologies of UK strength and opportunity.

Through £60 million of TMF, plus a further £65 million of UKRI core funding, UKRI has developed an extensive programme of engineering biology research and innovation that aims to tackle specific missions informed by the themes and challenges identified by NEBP.

The fund includes the following investments.

Mission Hubs in engineering biology

£70 million investment, five years duration.

An integrated network of six ‘hubs’ in engineering biology will act as centres of critical mass, skills development and expertise, securing the foundational activity while also driving research and innovation towards commercial impact and opportunity.

Mission Awards

£30.4 million investment, 24 months duration.

These 22 awards will enable the expansion of engineering biology disciplines and communities, building on existing strengths and emerging opportunities.

By encouraging engagement, diversity and connectivity across and between disciplines and communities, they will broaden research and innovation activity towards newer and novel translation and commercialisation opportunities, while enhancing resilience and responsiveness for the future.

Find out more about the Mission Hubs and Awards.

Collaborative research and development

£13.5 million investment, 18 months duration.

Innovate UK has awarded funding to 48 business-led collaborative research and development (R&D) grants focused on industrial research that will lead to new engineering biology products, processes or services. Lasting up to 18 months, these projects will de-risk the adoption of new technologies that offer high market potential.

Read more about the projects: £13.5 million for 48 engineering biology R&D projects

Seed corn funding

£4 million investment, two years duration.

This funding will support great science answering urgent commercial needs and helping to build and grow sustainable businesses in engineering biology. This proven model aims to address a key market failure at the early-stage investment level. It bridges the gap between public sector research and innovation investments and venture capital equity funding, through a range of approaches.

Proof of concept activity

£3 million investment, two years duration.

The proof of concept funding aims to deliver next-generation engineering biology projects that feed the innovation pipeline by trialling high-risk breakthrough ideas, fuelling game-changing research and innovation programmes to underpin economic growth.

Accelerator Feasibility Awards

£2 million investment, two years duration.

Innovate UK has worked with Science Creates to deliver the engineering biology accelerator. The accelerator is open to entrepreneurial candidates with innovative ideas that use engineering biology to help solve global problems such as protecting the environment, advancing healthcare or improving quality of life.

Read more about this project: UKRI and Science Creates launch engineering biology accelerator

Find out more about the UKRI Technology Missions Fund

Key national and international partnerships

UKRI works with a number of key national and international partners to help advance UK engineering biology.

We have a long-standing partnership with Defence Science and Technology Laboratory with which we have co-led several key strategic investments. We work closely with DSIT and, increasingly, other government departments, to help realise the UK government’s National vision for engineering biology.

UKRI also works closely with many countries across the world, both in direct collaboration and through multilateral programmes, to maximise our access to world-leading talent and create a reputation as being a go-to partner for engineering biology projects.

Recent international collaborations are outlined in the following section.

Lead agency agreements with the US National Science Foundation (NSF)

The agreements facilitate international best-with-best collaborations between UK and US academic research groups. Through this lead agency agreement, BBSRC has funded over 20 projects in synthetic and engineering biology since 2015, to a value of £11.5 million for the UK component and approximately $18 million for the US components.

NSF Global Centers 2024 programme

In 2024 BBSRC committed £8.5 million into an NSF-led multilateral initiative bringing together funders in US, UK, Canada, Japan, Republic of Korea and Finland. The total investment of $82 million supports six international and interdisciplinary global centres to advance the bioeconomy.

International Science Partnerships Fund

BBSRC has recently invested £5 million through the DSIT International Science Partnership Fund (ISPF) into a bilateral programme with Japan (with equivalent matched funding) to advance engineering biology discovery research and cross-cutting technologies.

UK-Japan engineering biology for novel therapies and diagnostics research collaboration

MRC has also invested £3 million through the DSIT ISPF into a bilateral programme with the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development to advance engineering biology for novel therapies and diagnostics research.

Why we're doing it

Engineering biology has a huge range of applications, and its products have the potential to revolutionise almost all aspects of modern life, from the protection of crops to novel materials for defence and transport; from plastic-free packaging to improved silk fibres for sports clothing.

Crucially it also has the potential to address and mitigate major global challenges such as:

  • improving health and wellbeing, for example by engineering microbes to produce new vaccines and therapeutics
  • food security, for example through precision breeding of crops to make them more disease resistant
  • clean growth, for example by engineering microbes to produce petrochemical alternatives
  • environmental sustainability and recovery, for example by deploying engineered biological tools for remediation of polluted water systems and a circular economy

As a globally acknowledged disruptive technology of major importance, predicted to add $4 trillion each year to the global economy in the next decade, the emergence of engineering biology also presents a generational opportunity to grow an internationally leading sector. It provides new avenues for economic growth and increased productivity in the UK.

UKRI’s five-year strategy 2022 to 2027 ‘Transforming tomorrow together’ recognises the importance of “securing UK strategic advantage in game changing technologies such as AI, quantum computing, and engineering biology, enriching and improving lives and opening up transformative opportunities for research and business.”

This ambition is further reflected in the detail of the strategic delivery plans of individual research councils, particularly for:

Opportunities, support and resources available

UKRI invests in engineering biology in a multitude of ways, for example by supporting research and innovation projects, training and infrastructure.

You can apply for funding to support research proposals in the area of engineering biology at any time through standard (sometimes known as ‘responsive mode’) research grant schemes offered by BBSRC and EPSRC.

You can apply for funding to support research proposals aiming to apply engineering biology in a medical or environmental context through standard grant schemes offered by MRC or NERC, respectively.

Contact the relevant council to discuss whether your research proposal fits with their remit before submission.

Engineering biology research proposals that transcend, combine or significantly span disciplines may be supported through the UKRI cross research council responsive mode scheme.

We also support joint research proposals in engineering biology with key international partners. For example, BBSRC has an ongoing lead agency agreement with the National Science Foundation in the US with a highlight in engineering biology.

UKRI further supports engineering biology research and innovation projects through strategic funding initiatives that cover:

  • training
  • infrastructure
  • innovation and commercialisation

See the UKRI funding finder for the latest funding opportunities.

Past projects, outcomes and impact

Since 2007, UKRI has invested over £700 million in synthetic and engineering biology in the UK, which has driven the establishment and development of the field. This investment includes flagship programmes such as the £114 million Synthetic Biology for Growth (SBfG) programme.

Synthetic Biology for Growth programme

The SBfG programme was established in 2014 to support early-stage research that could drive future industrial activity and foster a strong, collaborative network of academic and industrial researchers across the UK. It consisted of four streams of investment, outlined in the following.

Synthetic Biology Research Centres

The six centres include:

  • BrisSynBio (Bristol)
  • OpenPlant (Cambridge and Norwich)
  • SBRC Nottingham
  • SynBioChem (Manchester)
  • SynthSys-Mammalian (Edinburgh)
  • WISB (Warwick)

Foundries and centres for DNA synthesis and construct capability

Four foundries and two centres were funded to provide DNA synthesis and DNA construct capability, including:

  • Earlham Institute – Automated DNA Assembly
  • Edinburgh Genome Foundry
  • Liverpool GeneMill
  • London DNA Foundry
  • Synthetic Biology facility at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge)
  • Next Generation DNA Synthesis (Oxford, Liverpool, Bristol, Southampton and Birmingham)

Centres for Doctoral Training

Additional support for two Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT):

  • UCL Centre for Doctoral Training in Bioprocess Engineering Leadership
  • Synthetic Biology CDT (Oxford, Bristol and Warwick)

Rainbow Seed Fund

The Rainbow Seed Fund was allocated £10 million to invest in early-stage synthetic biology companies.

An independent evaluation undertaken in 2024 illustrates how the programme has led to significant socio-economic impacts. The programme can be considered transformational for the UK, driving innovation, fostering collaboration, and unlocking the economic potential of synthetic biology.

Find out more about the Synthetic Biology for Growth programme.

Transition Awards and breakthrough ideas

In 2022 UKRI partners and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory invested over £17 million across a series of multidisciplinary research and innovation projects.

The Transition Awards aimed to both enable the creation new engineering biology communities pursuing new research programmes and to provide support for existing communities to further develop expertise and impact. Twelve Transition Awards projects were awarded, receiving a share of £14.8 million.

Through the Breakthrough Awards a further £2.2 million was invested in 23 early-stage, high-potential research projects aiming to develop novel breakthrough ideas in engineering biology.

Find out more: UK Engineering Biology receives £20.6 million funding boost

Doctoral training programmes

Engineering biology is a rapidly expanding, cross-disciplinary area, where doctoral training opportunities are essential to train the next generation of researchers capable of developing innovative approaches addressing major global grand challenges including:

  • decarbonisation
  • health and wellbeing
  • energy
  • food security
  • environmental management

Funding in doctoral training in engineering biology aligns with both government and UKRI strategic ambitions, and with the National Engineering Biology Programme vision to “leverage and enhance UK’s national capabilities and support the development of skills and talent”.

Since 2014, UKRI has invested in four Engineering Biology Centres for Doctoral Training across the breadth of the BBSRC and EPSRC remit, with a total investment of approximately £25.9 million. Supporting 207 studentships to date (excluding the new studentships which will be supported through the EPSRC and BBSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Engineering Biology for 2024).

UKRI Engineering Biology Central Doctoral Programmes (2014 to 2024)

In 2014, UKRI funded two Engineering Biology Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT):

Together the centres trained a total of 139 doctoral students and partnered with companies across a variety of sectors (biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and instrumentation).

UKRI Engineering Biology Central Doctoral Programmes (2019 to 2027)

In 2019, ESPRC funded a CDT in Bio-design Engineering led by Imperial College London, with the aim to support 80 to 100 scientists and technologists. The CDT is at the forefront of research that will accelerate the clean growth agenda and the development of a resilient circular bioeconomy.

The aims of the CDT also align with the 2016 UK Roadmap Bio-design for the Bioeconomy. It highlighted the substantial impact that engineering biology can bring to the UK and global economies by developing the highly skilled workforce needed to underpin the growth of an advanced UK bio-economy.

UKRI Engineering Biology Central Doctoral Programmes (2023 to 2032)

In 2023, an EPSRC and BBSRC co-funded Engineering Biology CDT was awarded to the University of Bristol and University of Oxford with a total investment of approximately £8.9 million. The vision of the CDT is to “train the academic and industrial leaders of tomorrow, and to equip them with the skills needed to contribute towards scalable, robust, and transformative engineering of biomimetic and biological systems”.

The EPSRC and BBSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Engineering Biology builds on the success of the first UKRI-funded Synthetic Biology CDT (Oxford, Bristol and Warwick, 2014) which successfully trained 79 PhD students.

The recently awarded Engineering Biology CDT will go towards addressing the National Engineering Biology Programme aspiration in training the next generation of biological engineers, able to translate innovative, cutting-edge science into real-world impact, and support the EPSRC ‘Frontiers in Engineering and Technology’ strategic focus area.

SynbiCITE

SynbiCITE was established as a synthetic biology accelerator in 2013 with a £28 million commitment from EPSRC, BBSRC, Innovate UK and its industrial and academic partners.

Based at Imperial College London, SynbiCITE is the Innovation and Knowledge Centre for Synthetic Biology with the aim of accelerating and promoting the commercial exploitation of synthetic biology research and engineering biology applications.

In 2024, SynbiCITE was awarded £3 million as part of the Technology Mission Fund Engineering Biology Programme to deploy proof of concept awards to the UK engineering biology community. This proof of concept funding aims to support academic-led applied research and translation activities that will drive industry-academic collaborations and partnerships.

Who to contact

Ask a question about this area of investment

BBSRC

Email: engbio@bbsrc.ukri.org

EPSRC

Email: teamengineering@epsrc.ukri.org

Innovate UK

Email: support@innovateuk.ukri.org

MRC

Email: MCMB@mrc.ukri.org

NERC

Email: daniel.knight@nerc.ukri.org

Last updated: 17 October 2024

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