Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what the timetable is for allocating the £184 million Engineering Biology Scale-Up Infrastructure Programme.

UKRI launched a £5m Engineering Biology Access to Infrastructure Pilot competition in September as part of the Engineering Biology Scale-Up Fund, with further rounds planned across the current SR period. The first phase of Tech-Boost funding, to enhance underpinning capability in Engineering Biology, is planned to launch before the end of the year, with spend anticipated through 2027. An Infrastructure Scale-up competition is also being planned for late 2026 / early 2027 to enable companies to access infrastructure to demonstrate the techno-economic viability of their technology ahead of commercial deployment. Future funding opportunities will be published on the UKRI webpages.