BBSRC 2025 Transformative Research Technologies (25TRT) in Swindon

Opportunity status: Open

Funders: Grant

Total fund: £3,000,000

Maximum award: £225,000

Publication date: 24 November 2025

Opening date: 26 November 2025 9:00am UK time

Closing date: 11 February 2026 4:00pm UK time

Last updated: 5 December 2025

Apply for funding to pursue early‑stage development of cutting‑edge research technologies with transformative potential in the biosciences. You must be a researcher or research technical professional based at a UK research organisation eligible for Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) funding.

You can only apply as project lead (PL) on one submitted application. You can be project co‑lead (PcL) on multiple applications.

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £225,000. BBSRC will fund 80% of the FEC.

Applications must be between six and 18‑month duration.

Who can apply

This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility.

The 2025 Transformative Research Technologies funding opportunity is open to researchers and research technical professionals (RTPs) normally eligible for funding from BBSRC.

The New Investigator Award, Industrial Partnership Award and LINK schemes that feature in BBSRC’s Responsive Mode opportunities do not apply to this funding opportunity. First time PLs should note that, if successful, being the PL on a grant which includes funding for postdoctoral research assistant (PDRA) staff support costs will subsequently make them ineligible for the BBSRC New Investigator Award.

PhD students or student costs should not be included on applications to 2025 Transformative Research Technologies (25TRT).

Individuals based at an international organisation are not eligible to be a member of the core team as they are not eligible for this opportunity. International collaborators can be added as project partners on an application, please see for more information.

Research technical professionals (RTPs)

Building on the and the , we particularly encourage applications from RTPs and research software engineers (RSEs) as either PLs or PcL.

A RTP can be listed as a project lead or PcL, provided that their level of responsibilities and duties is appropriate to a person with substantial research experience. If you are unsure if you are eligible, contact

Equality, diversity and inclusion

We are for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.

We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:

• career breaks
• support for people with caring responsibilities
• flexible working
• alternative working patterns

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) can offer during the application and assessment process.

Aim

Novel technologies continue to revolutionise biosciences research. The 2025 Transformative Research Technologies (25TRT) funding opportunity aims to enable the next generation of cutting‑edge research technologies with the potential for transformative impact in biosciences research. It will support applications for early‑stage development of novel techniques and technologies that have the potential to enable transformative step changes in research capability.

Scope

The funding opportunity aims to support the development of cutting‑edge enabling research technologies, which have the potential for transformative impact and are essential to sustaining the vibrancy of bioscience discovery research in the UK. This includes bioinformatics tools and computational approaches to the biosciences. These technological developments should offer the potential of a step change in the state‑of‑the‑art for the given field.

Awards will support small and short early‑stage pilot studies directed towards the development of a new technology with transformative potential for the biosciences.

The research should have the potential to deliver a substantial improvement versus the current state‑of‑the‑art, rather than an incremental improvement, and therefore enable new avenues of bioscience discovery research.

Being targeted at early‑stage research, the funding opportunity intends to support technology development where little to no preliminary data exists. The outcome of the project does not necessarily need to be a fully‑fledged tool but could be the demonstration of proof‑of‑concept, or the production of a prototype for further development.

For more information on the background of this funding opportunity and on further support later in the lifecycle of technology development, go to the Additional information section.

What makes a technology transformative

Transformative technologies go beyond being just innovative. They fundamentally change how we approach bioscience by:

• revolutionising fields: creating breakthroughs in specific areas or having broad applications across bioscience
• solving challenges: solving longstanding challenges or limitations to discovery in bioscience
• democratising research: making tools and techniques more accessible and allowing effective utilisation of technology
• boosting research productivity: streamlining research and accelerating discovery

Interdisciplinary collaborations

Technology development inherently cuts across the remit boundaries of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) councils and requires collaboration across disciplines and domains to achieve its full potential. We encourage applications that involve interdisciplinary and collaborative working for this funding opportunity.

Your application could adopt a ‘problem owner, solution provider’ approach, whereby a PL and a PcL submit a single application to address a pressing challenge or need within the bioscience community. This could be through an innovative, cross‑disciplinary collaboration, for example between an academic and technical professional.

For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, go to the Additional information section.

Duration

The duration of this award is between six and 18 months.

Funding available

The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £225,000.

BBSRC will fund 80% of the FEC. For example, if the FEC of your project is equal to £225,000, BBSRC will fund £180,000 and your research organisation will be expected to fund £45,000.

The total indicative budget for this funding opportunity is £3 million.

What we will fund

Applications are expected to focus on one or more of the following:

• transformative technology development that has the potential to result in innovative and disruptive new technological capabilities applicable to the biosciences. This includes technologies with potential broad utility across primarily biological research communities, as well as technologies that may only have utility within one research community
• capitalising on new advances in non‑biological research that aim to establish proof‑of‑concept with a clear trajectory towards a new bioscience research technology in the short term
• innovation that has the potential to deliver a step change in current technological capabilities. This could be aspects such as accuracy, precision, resolution, throughput, or breadth of application to facilitate new research discoveries
• bioinformatics tools. These are specialised software designed to enable large scale or rapid visualisation, analysis, exploration and investigation of biological data
• computational methods, such as modelling techniques to predict and interpret biological systems, as well as AI and statistical techniques to analyse and understand complex biological datasets. These data can encompass a broad range of types including genetic, structure, function, interactions, and environment

We recognise that the potential application of some technologies may extend beyond BBSRC’s remit. Where applicable, please explain how the primary focus of your application falls within BBSRC remit. Applications with a predominant focus outside of BBSRC remit will be rejected prior to assessment. If you are unsure about whether your planned research would be appropriate for this funding opportunity, send an outline (no more than two sides of A4) of what you plan to do to and BBSRC staff will be happy to advise you.

What we will not fund

Types of projects which are ineligible for support by 25TRT include:

• platform technologies that are generically applicable to multiple research domains outside of bioscience research
• applications with a focus on answering a research question, instead of developing cutting edge technology to do so. These applications could be better suited to BBSRC’s standard research grant
• improvements of technologies where previous proof‑of‑concept has already been demonstrated, including applications with existing technologies already in use for comparable areas of bioscience. These applications would also be better suited for BBSRC’s standard research grant
• medical or clinical devices (being developed for end‑point clinical utility rather than basic research purposes) and healthcare technologies (including biomedical engineering for diagnostic or therapeutic application)
• large scale infrastructure, or direct application of off‑the‑shelf technology to research
• community databases and data infrastructures. These applications could be better suited to the Bioinformatics and Biological Resources (BBR) Fund
• technologies for translational applications. The focus of this funding opportunity is on technologies for the discovery research community
• applications that exceed the cost or duration limits described for this funding opportunity
• applications that have already been peer reviewed or are currently undergoing peer review by another research council or funding body

Supporting skills and talent

BBSRC continues to highlight the inclusion of vital technical staff on applications and ensure equity in the assessment of non‑hypothesis‑driven applications on their potential for advancing bioscience research.

BBSRC recognises the talent for innovation, expert knowledge and technical competence that RTPs possess. They are co‑creators in technology development, and they must be empowered and recognised at all stages and by all stakeholders. Therefore, BBSRC particularly supports the provision of relevant training and up‑skilling opportunities, beneficial to the success of the proposed project, to be costed in 25TRT applications.

The potential for staff development and training (including post‑docs, technical and support staff) will also be assessed by the panel.

We encourage you to follow the principles of the and the .

Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)

UKRI is committed in ensuring that effective international collaboration in research and innovation takes place with integrity and within strong ethical frameworks. Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I) is a UKRI work programme designed to help protect all those working in our thriving and collaborative international sector by enabling partnerships to be as open as possible, and as secure as necessary. Our set out UKRI’s expectations of organisations funded by UKRI in relation to due diligence for international collaboration.

As such, applicants for UKRI funding may be asked to demonstrate how their proposed projects will comply with our approach and expectation towards TR&I, identifying potential risks and the relevant controls you will put in place to help proportionately reduce these risks.

See , including where applicants can find additional support.

Demand management

We anticipate that this funding opportunity may receive a high level of interest. Prospective applicants are invited to consider carefully whether their application is within the remit and scope of the funding opportunity and should clearly articulate how the proposed project addresses 25TRT scope. If in doubt, applicants are strongly advised to contact BBSRC to discuss their proposed project.

As an individual, you can only apply as PL on one submitted application. You can still be a member of a consortium on a different application, provided you do not take a leading role as PL. However, as such applications will be in direct competition this is not recommended unless the applications are in very different areas.

We encourage research organisations to consider the scope and eligibility of potential applications to the funding opportunity and prioritise appropriately, prior to submission. In the case of exceptional demand, we reserve the right to ask research organisations to undertake further internal prioritisation.

How to apply

We are running this funding opportunity on the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Funding Service, so please ensure that your organisation is registered. You cannot apply on the Joint Electronic Submissions (Je‑S) system.

The project lead is responsible for completing the application process on the Funding Service, but we expect all team members and project partners to contribute to the application.

Only the lead research organisation can submit an application to UKRI.

To apply

Select Start application near the beginning of this Funding finder page.

• Confirm you are the project lead.
• Sign in or create a Funding Service account. To create an account, select your organisation, verify your email address, and set a password. If your organisation is not listed, email
• Answer questions directly in the text boxes. You can save your answers and come back to complete them or work offline and return to copy and paste your answers. If we need you to upload a document, follow the upload instructions in the Funding Service. All questions and assessment criteria are listed in the How to apply section on this Funding finder page.
• Allow enough time to check your application in read‑only view before sending to your research office.
• Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
• Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.

Where indicated, you can also demonstrate elements of your responses in visual form if relevant.

When including images, you must:

• provide a descriptive caption or legend for each image immediately underneath it in the text box (this must be outside the image and counts towards your word limit)
• insert each new image on a new line
• use files smaller than 5MB and in JPEG, JPG, JPE, JFI, JIF, JFIF, PNG, GIF, BMP or WEBP format

Images should only be used to convey important visual information that cannot easily be put into words. The following are not permitted, and your application will be rejected if you include :

• sentences or paragraphs of text
• tables
• excessive quantities of images

A few words are permitted where the image would lack clarity without the contextual words, such as a diagram, where text labels are required for an axis or graph column.

References

References should be included within the word count of the appropriate question section. You should use your discretion when including references and prioritise those most pertinent to the application.

Hyperlinks can be used in reference information. When including references, you should consider how your references will be viewed and used by the assessors, ensuring that :

• references are easily identifiable by the assessors
• references are formatted as appropriate to your research
• persistent identifiers are used where possible

General use of hyperlinks

Applications should be self‑contained. You should only use hyperlinks to link directly to reference information. You must not include links to web resources to extend your application. Assessors are not required to access links to conduct assessment or recommend a funding decision.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI)

Use of generative AI tools to prepare funding applications is permitted, however, caution should be applied.

For more information see our .

Deadline

BBSRC must receive your application by 11 February 2026 at 4 : 00pm UK time.

You will not be able to apply after this time.

Make sure you are aware of and follow any internal institutional deadlines.

Following the submission of your application to this funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and submitted applications will not be amended. If your application does not follow the guidance, it may be rejected.

Personal data

Processing personal data

BBSRC, as part of UKRI, will need to collect some personal information to manage your Funding Service account and the registration of your funding applications.

We will handle personal data in line with UK data protection legislation and manage it securely. For more information, including how to exercise your rights, read our .

Sensitive information

If you or a core team member need to tell us something you wish to remain confidential, email

Include in the subject line : [the funding opportunity title; sensitive information; your Funding Service application number].

• individual is unavailable until a certain date (for example due to parental leave)
• declaration of interest
• additional information about eligibility to apply that would not be appropriately shared in the ‘Applicant and team capability’ section
• conflict of interest for UKRI to consider in reviewer or panel participant selection
• the application is an invited resubmission

For information about how UKRI handles personal data, read .

Institutional Matched Funding

There is no requirement for matched funding from the institutions hosting the project lead, project co‑leads or other staff employed on the application, beyond the standard 20% FEC. Expert reviewers and panels assessing UKRI funding applications must not consider levels of institutional matched funding as a factor on which to base recommendations. Direct and in‑kind contributions from third party project partners are encouraged.

This policy does not remove the need for support from host organisations who must provide the necessary research environment and infrastructure for award‑specific activities funded by UKRI. For example, research facilities, training and development of staff.

Publication of outcomes

BBSRC, as part of UKRI, will publish the outcomes of this funding opportunity at .

If your application is successful, we will publish some personal information on the .

Summary

Word limit : 550

In plain English, provide a summary we can use to identify the most suitable experts to assess your application.

We usually make this summary publicly available on external‑facing websites, therefore do not include any confidential or sensitive information. Make it suitable for a variety of readers, for example :

• opinion‑formers
• policymakers
• the public
• the wider research community

Guidance for writing a summary

Clearly describe your proposed work in terms of :

• context
• the challenge the project addresses
• aims and objectives
• potential applications and benefits

Core team

List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following :

• project lead (PL)
• project co‑lead (UK) (PcL)
• specialist
• professional enabling staff
• research and innovation associate
• technician
• researcher co‑lead (RcL)

Only list one individual as project lead.

UKRI has introduced a new addition to the ‘Specialist’ role type. Public contributors such as people with lived experience can now be added to an application.