{"id":180575,"date":"2026-09-03T07:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T05:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=180575"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:54:02","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T11:54:02","slug":"funding-boost-to-help-bio-based-innovations-reach-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/funding-boost-to-help-bio-based-innovations-reach-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Funding boost to help bio-based innovations reach market"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Scotland\u2019s industrial biotechnology sector is set to receive a further boost as a new funding competition launches to support promising bio-based innovations move from laboratory research towards commercial production.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applications are now open for the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre\u2019s (IBioIC) BioProcess Scale-up Accelerator Competition, offering up to \u00a310,000 towards scale-up project costs to help companies and academic teams develop their bioprocesses through its FlexBIO facility at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Backed by Scottish Government funding, the competition builds on the successful introduction of Scotland\u2019s first open-access 300-litre fermenter last year. Since becoming operational, the facility has enabled organisations to test and validate manufacturing processes at a commercially relevant scale without the significant capital investment typically required for specialist infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accelerator aims to help businesses reduce the risks associated with bringing new bio-based technologies to market by providing access to FlexBIO\u2019s equipment, technical expertise and process development capabilities. Projects can range from bench-scale processes through to 300-litre production, supporting companies as they prepare for manufacturing, customer trials and future investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initiative addresses one of the biggest challenges facing industrial biotechnology businesses \u2013 translating promising research into viable manufacturing processes. While many innovations show strong technical potential, the cost and complexity of developing processes at a larger scale can prevent businesses from progressing towards commercialisation.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One company already benefiting from FlexBIO\u2019s capabilities is HydRegen, a University of Oxford spinout developing technology that replaces the heavy metal catalysts traditionally used in chemical manufacturing with cleaner enzymes powered by hydrogen gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To support a demonstration with an industrial manufacturing partner, HydRegen required a much larger batch of enzyme than it could produce in-house. Working with FlexBIO, the company successfully transferred its established five-litre laboratory process to the 300-litre fermenter, producing material at a 200-litre working volume while generating valuable data that confirmed the process remained viable at a larger scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project also demonstrated that HydRegen\u2019s fermentation strategy could be maintained during scale-up, providing the evidence needed to support future commercial production and creating a documented, repeatable process for further manufacturing runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Neil Renault, director of bioprocessing scale-up at FlexBIO, said: <\/strong>\u201cOne year on from the launch of the 300-litre fermenter, we\u2019re already seeing the difference this capability can make for companies looking to move beyond the lab. HydRegen is a great example of how 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cScaling up isn\u2019t just about making more product. Every process behaves differently as volumes increase, so it\u2019s essential to understand how fermentation, downstream processing and product recovery perform at scale before making further investment. Through the BioProcess Scale-up Accelerator Competition, we want to help more companies reduce risk and advance the development of sustainable bio-based manufacturing in Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The competition is open to industry and academic-led projects with a credible route to market and plans to secure follow-on investment. Projects must be capable of being completed by the end of March 2027 and demonstrate how they will contribute to Scotland\u2019s bio-based manufacturing sector through business growth, investment, collaborative research and development, or strengthened supply chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applications close on 1 September 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scotland\u2019s industrial biotechnology sector is set to receive a further boost as a new funding competition launches to support promising bio-based innovations move from laboratory research towards commercial production. Applications are now open for the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre\u2019s (IBioIC) BioProcess Scale-up Accelerator Competition, offering up to \u00a310,000 towards scale-up project costs to help companies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":180598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"The accelerator aims to help businesses reduce the risks associated with bringing new bio-based technologies to market by providing access to FlexBIO\u2019s equipment, technical expertise and process development capabilities","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[16380,17299,5796,5840,16171,15511],"supplier":[28449,10205,28448,6780,9530,2802],"class_list":["post-180575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biobased","tag-biomanufacturing","tag-biotechnology","tag-enzymes","tag-fermentation","tag-greenhydrogen","supplier-flexbio","supplier-heriot-watt-university-edinburgh","supplier-hydregen","supplier-biotechnology-innovation-centre","supplier-the-scottish-government","supplier-university-of-oxford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180575"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180608,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180575\/revisions\/180608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180575"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=180575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}