Near-£6m boost to technologies capable of transforming healthcare

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has invested £5.8m in the engineering biology sector in a bid to transform healthcare and turbo-charge the economy.

The UK Government defines engineering biology as “the design, scaling and commercialisation of biology-derived products and services that can transform sectors or produce existing products more sustainably”.

The organisation has set up two multi-million funds to accelerate the commercialisation of discoveries, which is understood could range from new vaccines and therapies to plastic-free packaging, sustainable fuels and disease-resistant crops.

Funded via UKRI’s Technology Mission Fund, both initiatives will help researchers move their breakthroughs from proof-of-concept onto the marketplace, driving growth in the engineering biology sector, which is expected to be worth almost £55bn by 2026, according to research by tech consultancy The Data Lab.

Science minister Lord Vallance said: “Engineering biology is a technology with transformative potential for our health, the economy and national resilience.

“From the development of new medicines to creating sustainable fuels, it could significantly help us in our missions to improve healthcare, grow our economy and become a green energy superpower.”

A £3m proof of concept programme will aim to create new collaborations between academics and industry and is now open to application.

Successful candidates will have access the SynbiCITE Innovation and Knowledge Centre based at Imperial College London, which is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities.

A second £2.8m seedcorn fund will aim to drive the commercialisation of engineering biology discoveries and the creation of new ventures.

It is understood UKRI will help successful applicants scale-up and develop self-sustaining business models as well as provide them with investor and end-user engagement, and entrepreneurship training.

The fund will support the growth of commercial opportunities arising from the previously funded Engineering Biology Mission Hubs and Mission Awards research programmes, which were announced earlier this year.

The University of Edinburgh is one of the six research programmes. Its project looks into developing gene therapies to help treat or cure disease.

Dr Kedar Pandya, UKRI Technology Missions Fund senior responsible owner and executive, said: “Engineering biology is one of the technologies critical for UK strength and opportunity.

“It has the enormous potential to address global challenges and is predicted to add billions of dollars to the global economy over the next decade.

“Our latest investment through the UKRI Technology Missions Fund will provide support for researchers to seize the economic potential of this transformative technology to drive growth and bring wider societal benefits to the UK.”

UKRI considers engineering biology a “strategic priority area of research” and since 2007 it has invested more than £700m in the sector.  

The new funding comes a month after Angela McLean, the UK Government’s chief scientific adviser, told a House of Lords Science and Technology Committee hearing last month that engineering biology was “a great opportunity for this country”.

She added: “It’s clearly a platform technology that sits underneath a wide range of applications, and we can use it to address major challenges like net zero and plastic pollution.”

It also comes almost a year on from the launch of the previous Tory government’s vision for the engineering biology sector, which set out a roadmap to 2030 for the UK to capture the full economic and societal potential of the “transformative technology”.