Funding competition aims to help industrial biotechnology move beyond the lab
Scotland's industrial biotechnology sector is set to receive further support with the launch of a new competition aimed at helping bio-based innovations bridge the gap between laboratory research and commercial production.
The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) has opened applications for its BioProcess Scale-up Accelerator Competition, offering up to £10,000 towards project costs for companies and academic teams using its FlexBIO facility at Heriot-Watt University.
The competition is intended to address one of the persistent challenges facing industrial biotechnology: translating a promising laboratory process into a manufacturing process that can operate reliably at a commercially relevant scale.
Backed by Scottish Government funding, the initiative builds on the launch last year of Scotland's first open-access 300-litre fermenter. The facility allows organisations to test and validate bioprocesses at larger volumes without the capital investment required to develop their own specialist infrastructure.
Projects supported through the competition can range from bench-scale work through to production at 300 litres, helping organisations prepare processes for manufacturing, customer trials and future investment.
Neil Renault, director of bioprocessing scale-up at FlexBIO (pictured right), said: "Scaling up isn't just about making more product. Every process behaves differently as volumes increase, so it's essential to understand how fermentation, downstream processing and product recovery perform at scale before making further investment."
One company already using the facility is HydRegen, a University of Oxford spinout developing enzyme-based technology intended to replace heavy metal catalysts used in chemical manufacturing.
HydRegen needed to produce a larger quantity of enzyme for a demonstration with an industrial manufacturing partner than it could generate in-house. Working with FlexBIO, the company transferred an established five-litre laboratory process to the 300-litre fermenter, producing material at a 200-litre working volume.
The project also generated data on how the process performed during scale-up and demonstrated that HydRegen's fermentation strategy could be maintained at the larger volume.
Renault said the experience illustrated the role specialist infrastructure could play in helping companies move beyond the laboratory.
"Access to infrastructure can provide not only the quantities of material businesses need, but also the process data and confidence required to take the next step towards commercial manufacturing," he said.
Dr Matthew Hodges, chief operating officer at HydRegen, said access to the facility and technical expertise had enabled the company to demonstrate its technology at a larger scale and provided greater confidence as it moved towards commercialisation.
The BioProcess Scale-up Accelerator Competition is open to industry and academic-led projects with a credible route to market and plans to secure follow-on investment.
Successful projects must be completed by the end of March 2027 and demonstrate how they could contribute to Scotland's bio-based manufacturing sector through areas including business growth, investment, collaborative R&D or strengthened supply chains.
Applications close on 1 September 2026.
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