Innovate UK Engineering Biology Contracts for Innovation workshop

Overview

The UK government has identified engineering biology as a strategic priority within its Modern Industrial Strategy, recognising its potential to transform sectors from agriculture and food through to chemicals, materials, medicine and the environment. In recent years, there has been substantial investment through the National Engineering Biology Programme and UKRI’s mission‑led initiatives.

To stimulate the development and adoption of engineering biology technologies Innovate UK, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) are preparing for an Engineering Biology Contracts for Innovation (CFI) initiative. CFIs are competitive UK government programmes where public bodies fund innovative companies to develop solutions for specific challenges, providing a route to market, funding for R&D and a chance to work directly with the public sector.

Please note that the Expression of Interest will close at 17:00 on 8 July 2026.

Contracts for Innovation Challenge areas

Low-cost, real-time water quality monitoring for policy, public health, and ecosystem management using genomic monitoring and surveillance

Predicting ecosystem health and resilience from eDNA via AI-driven functional genomics

Accelerating next generation veterinary vaccines through engineering biology

Rapid diagnostics to maintain food standards and regulatory compliance

Why attend?

This event, delivered by Innovate UK Business Connect, is the final stage of a two-stage engagement process for this CFI and follows two previous online workshops. It will help stakeholders understand the direction of the proposed competition, explore the problem statements identified by Defra and FSA, and potential solution areas in more depth, alongside opportunities for partnership building.

Attendees will have the opportunity to engage with Innovate UK, Defra and FSA colleagues to learn more about the competition and the specific challenge areas.

Who should attend?

Innovators from industry that have the potential to develop engineering biology inspired solutions to the problem statements identified – we anticipate that these solutions will be at TRL4+ (technology readiness level).

This event will be managed through an expression of interest (EoI) process. This is an industry focused event and business attendance will be prioritised. Academic attendees will be approved on a case-by-case basis.

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