Canada-UK: Biomanufacturing of Biologics and Advanced Therapies Round 2

To lead a UK application your organisation must:

• be a UK registered business of any size
• be or involve at least one grant claiming UK registered micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (SME)
• partner with a Canadian registered SME, which must be a separate non-linked entity to the UK project partners
• include at least one further eligible grant claiming partner from either the UK or Canada

All collaborations must include at least three eligible organisations from Canada and the UK as part of the project. Canadian funding applicants must register and submit an expression of interest (EoI) by 2 July 2024.

UK Team – To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:

• business of any size
• academic institution
• charity
• not for profit
• public sector organisation
• research and technology organisation (RTO)

A UK business can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in one further application.

A UK business that is not leading an application can collaborate on a maximum of two applications.

A Canadian SME may only participate in one application either as a lead or collaborator.

Academic institutions or RTOs can collaborate in any number of applications.

Canadian funding applicants are required to register and submit an expression of interest (EoI) before being eligible to apply for this competition. The registration deadline for Canadian micro, small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is 2 July 2024. Canadian funding applicants who do not complete an EoI and have not been invited to proceed will not be eligible for funding through this competition.

Please see the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) call page for more information in English and French on Canadian eligibility requirements and to register.

UK participants must be part of an application submitted to Innovate UK. Canadian partners must submit a parallel application to NRC.

UK applications will be assessed by Innovate UK. Your Canadian partners’ proposal is reviewed by NRC. Innovate UK and NRC are jointly responsible for the decision to fund your project.

In order to receive any grant funding, your project proposal must be successful on both sides of the consortium. If successful, UK participants will receive grant funding from Innovate UK and Canadian participants will receive grant funding from NRC.

Your project must:

• have a grant funding request of no more than £600,000 allocated to UK organisations
• have a total grant funding request for Canadian partners of no more than CA$1 million
• start by 1 April 2025
• end by 31 March 2027
• last between 12 and 24 months

Projects should have a balanced contribution of the total eligible project costs among the partners from the participating partner countries. No one country or project partner can represent more than 70% of the total project cost.

The majority of the project work must be undertaken in the UK and Canada.

Your proposal must demonstrate a clear intention to commercially exploit the results of the project domestically or globally.

This competition will support collaborative research and development (CR&D) in biomanufacturing through Canadian and UK partnerships.

The aim of this competition is to stimulate the development and implementation of innovative technologies in biomanufacturing. The objective is to build the desired flexibility and technical capabilities required for the development and economically sustainable production of the next generation vaccines and therapies.

Your joint Canadian and UK project can focus on one or more of the following:

Enabling technologies for biologics and advanced therapeutics

• discovery, design and high throughput screening platforms, which may include the application of artificial intelligence
• manufacturing systems and methods, for example: centralised, distributed or point‑of‑care; microfluidics‑based devices, new and innovative systems for Good Manufacturing Practice production, fill and finish, automation security
• manufacturing process intensification enablers, for example: hyper productive strains, novel expression systems, continuous production processes, perfusion technologies
• novel analytical characterization, potency assays and real‑time release technologies, biosensors
• other relevant enabling technologies

Delivery systems for proteins and nucleic acids

• viral and non‑viral (for example, lipid nanoparticles) platforms, including their components and payloads

Novel biological products

• vaccines, for example: prophylactic, therapeutic and various platforms
• therapeutic proteins, for example: antibodies, and related production process‑intensification enablers
• advanced therapy medicinal products, for example: mRNA, siRNA, gene therapies, cell therapies engineered tissues
• other biological based therapies, for example: bacteriophage, engineered probiotics

An online briefing event will be held at 2pm UK time on Thursday 16 May 2024: click here for the Zoom joining link.

If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Biotechnology, Health, Materials, Manufacturing or Global Alliance teams as appropriate.