Opportunity status:
Open
Funders:
Funding type:
Grant
Minimum award:
£2,000,000
Publication date:
16 April 2026
Opening date:
16 April 2026 9:00am UK time
Closing date:
25 June 2026 4:00pm UK time
Apply for funding to undertake large team-based curiosity-driven bioscience discovery research projects.
Your project should demonstrate:
* the potential for major breakthroughs in our fundamental understanding of living systems
* a fully integrated team science approach
* the need for longer and larger scale funding
* enhancing the capability and capacity of UK biosciences
The full economic cost of your project must be over £2 million. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) will fund 80% of the full economic cost.
Projects can be up to five years in duration.
Who can apply
This funding opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility.
Who is eligible to apply
This funding opportunity is open to teams of eligible researchers at:
* higher education institutions
* research council institutes
* approved independent research organisations
* public sector research establishments
A single project lead, who will be the main contact for BBSRC, must be designated as the project lead for administrative purposes.
Project lead and co-lead eligibility
There is no requirement for project leads nor project co-leads to have held a similar sized award before. We regard this programme as an important means for developing research careers and we welcome applications which involve early and mid-career researchers eligible for BBSRC funding as project lead or project co-lead.
We expect the leadership of the project for this funding opportunity to be adequately and responsibly resourced. The intellectual leadership and overall management of the project (including work packages or staff) may be shared with any number of project co-leads at any number of eligible research organisations as part of a team science endeavour, with roles clearly specified in the application.
Project or grant managers
We encourage the inclusion of a project or grant manager in the core team of all sLoLa applications. This is to provide support to the leadership team in day-to-day project coordination, tracking of progress and resource management. Please see ‘Project or grant manager guidance’ in ‘Additional information’ under Supporting documents for further information.
Research technical professionals
Building on the and the, we encourage the inclusion of research technical professionals in the ‘Core team’ section including as project co-leads where appropriate.
Project partners
You do not need to list project partners and their contributions for outline submission. If invited to submit a full stage application and if applicable, you should add them in the required section to your application.
A project partner is a collaborating organisation who will have an integral role in the proposed research. This may include direct (cash) or indirect (in-kind) contributions such as expertise, staff time or use of facilities.
Project partners may be in industry, academia, third sector or government organisations in the UK or overseas, including partners based in the EU. Please see for more information.
Who is not eligible to apply
Multiple applications with the same project lead are not permitted within the same funding round.
Project leads of currently active sLoLa awards may not apply as a project leads in this funding round, unless their grant is in its final year.
Individuals based at an international organisation are not eligible to be a member of the core team as they are not. International collaborators can be added as project partners on an application, please see for more information.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
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
for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.
What we're looking for
Demand management
Demand management is not currently being applied to this funding opportunity. However, should the level of interest exceed what can be managed within the assessment process, UKRI may introduce limits on the number of applications that can be submitted. Further details will be clearly communicated where this is the case. UKRI encourages organisations to support applicants in preparing well-planned, high-quality applications that are competitive for funding relative to the funding opportunity.
Scope
Bioscience discovery research
Projects must be focused on delivering conceptual advances and fundamental understanding of biological systems.
Projects are expected to generate new fundamental biological knowledge of broad and long-term significance, changing how we think about bioscience within and likely transcending their immediate fields. They should have the potential to make transformational, not incremental, contributions to our understanding of the principles which govern biological processes and systems, thereby contributing to our understanding of important ‘rules of life’.
Projects must be primarily within BBSRC remit and can investigate ideas within or across any scale of biological organisation from molecules to organisms and populations. We particularly encourage applications which take multimodal and multiscale approaches, integrating data-driven and experimental approaches from different bioscience disciplines.
Projects will typically use cutting-edge technologies, methods and approaches to explore the frontiers of the topic under investigation. We encourage applications that incorporate development of state-of-the-art technology that will unlock new opportunities to revolutionise the discovery of novel biological knowledge.
Applications that are not principally designed to deliver new fundamental bioscience knowledge are unsuitable and likely to be excluded at outlines (stage one). Examples of unsuitable applications include those where the primary aim is to apply knowledge to tackle contemporary socio-economic challenges related to end-user driven objectives from within industry or sustainable development goals.
Longer and larger scale
Through an original and fully integrated research project, your idea must have the potential to lead to a major new contribution to biological knowledge, commensurate with the longer and larger scale of support provided.
Your application must provide a clear justification for the necessity of the longer and larger scale of funding through the sLoLa scheme, to the extent that the work could not be undertaken through several separate smaller awards, either in parallel or in series.
Your application must include a clear strategy for the integration of data and results generated such that the overall outcomes of the project are substantively different than the outcomes of individual work packages.
Your application must demonstrate overall coherence, connectivity, coordination and integration of the work to be carried out. This includes how the team will deliver substantively different and synergistic outcomes than could be achieved through the efforts of individual members or their research groups working in isolation.
Applications that lack a clear case for the need of longer and larger scale funding will be at a competitive disadvantage and may be excluded at outlines (stage one).
Team science
Your application is expected to assemble a diverse and distinctive team of researchers and other specialists drawn from the full breadth of expertise available across the UK with the collective capability of delivering the proposed work. Typically, this will span several research organisations or departments, or both.
Consideration of equality, diversity and inclusion is important for all applications to UKRI-BBSRC for funding, and we expect particular care to be taken for larger projects involving multiple co-applicants such as those supported through the sLoLa scheme. You are expected to evaluate and consider these issues from the earliest stage of building your teams through to the delivery and outcomes of awarded projects.
Teams must collectively demonstrate a comprehensive range of scientific, technical, leadership, and management expertise to effectively deliver the proposed work’s scale and complexity. Consideration should be given to how a larger-scale team that may be distributed across multiple sites will communicate and effectively coordinate their work. Applications can include dedicated project management support.
We encourage applicants to adopt distributed leadership and management models to share opportunities and responsibilities across the sLoLa team. Each team member’s unique roles and responsibilities should be clearly outlined and justified.
There is no requirement for project leads nor project co-leads to have held a similar sized award before. However, it should be clear how any individual holding significant scientific, leadership or management responsibilities will be mentored, or otherwise supported by the wider team or institutional environment, including through appropriate development opportunities.
This is particularly important where an individual is stepping into a position with a greater degree of leadership or management responsibility than they have previously held.
We encourage you to consider how your project and resourcing approach will support staff development and provide enhanced opportunities for all team members including:
* strengthening long term specialist and technical capacity
* promoting skills development, collaboration and cross-disciplinary working across research groups and institutions
* build high quality leadership and management capability, including inclusive governance
Teams are encouraged to include researchers from the full depth and breadth of the UK’s diverse research and innovation talent pool, including different career pathways and stages. You should follow the principles of the and the .
Most sLoLa projects are expected to generate significant amounts of data, and therefore the key themes outlined in our recent should be carefully considered when assembling a research team.
Strategic position
The proposed work should establish or significantly enhance an exceptional and unique bioscience research capability in the UK. Projects should lead to significant and distinctive improvements to health and vitality of UK bioscience in the area under investigation, raising its international profile to the point of being recognised as world-leading.
Your application should include consideration of how the proposed research fits with and complements other active UK and international research in the area, or areas, under investigation.
We encourage teams to think about public engagement activities from the start of the project and how team members can contribute to this. Within the sLoLa scheme, you may include well designed and strategically aligned public engagement activities that clearly relate to the proposed research area.
You can request the associated costs for these activities, provided they are fully justified and integrated into the overall work plan.
To facilitate the positioning of your application against the wider landscape of research investments, see the list of currently active BBSRC grants over £2 million. This is not an exhaustive account, and you should consult other resources to build and demonstrate your own knowledge of the wider landscape.
We take a strategic approach to investments, considering the overall balance of our portfolio in bioscience research. Applications in areas in which there is already substantial BBSRC, or other UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) research council investment, will be at a competitive disadvantage if significantly overlapping these investments and may be excluded at the outline stages.
Particular attention should be paid to existing sLoLa-scale awards or research in areas covered by our institute strategic programme grants.
Remit
Work principally outside of our remit will be excluded. We encourage multidisciplinary applications, but we strongly advise potential applicants to contact us at before submission if you suspect substantial aspects of the application may be outside of our remit.
Fit to scope
There is no registration stage for this year’s sLoLa funding opportunity. We expect you to consider the fit of your proposed project to the scope of the funding opportunity prior to submitting an outline proposal.
We encourage you to contact us at before submission if there are any concerns or questions whether the proposed project will fit to the sLoLa scheme.
Duration
The duration of this award is up to five years.
It is anticipated that awarded grants will start in the latter half of the 2027 to 2028 financial year.
Funding available
The full economic cost of your project must be at least £2 million.
BBSRC will fund 80% of the FEC.
The total budget is to be confirmed. We typically award up to four sLoLa awards per year, subject to the quality of applications received and the available budget
Supporting skills and talent
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. 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.
, including where applicants can find additional support.
How to apply
Overview of the sLoLa application process
The sLoLa funding opportunity is comprised of two mandatory stages. This is the outline submission phase of the funding opportunity.
Outline submissions – stage one
Project leads will provide a detailed summary application describing their proposed sLoLa project idea and team using the UKRI Funding Service .
Costs are not requested for outline applications.
Full submissions – stage two
Stage two is the full proposal stage.
This is only open to applicants who have been invited to submit following assessment of an outline proposal at stage one. Details will be published in November 2026.
We are running this funding opportunity on the new 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.
1. Confirm you are the project lead.
2. 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
Please allow at least 10 working days for your organisation to be added to the Funding Service. We strongly suggest that if you are asking UKRI to add your organisation to the Funding Service to enable you to apply to this opportunity, you also create an organisation Administration Account. This will be needed to allow the acceptance and management of any grant that might be offered to you.
3. 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.
4. Allow enough time to check your application in ‘read-only’ view before sending to your research office.
5. Send the completed application to your research office for checking. They will return it to you if it needs editing.
6. Your research office will submit the completed and checked application to UKRI.
Please be aware that research office and finance teams undertake checks on hosting arrangements and financial eligibility. The ultimate responsibility for ensuring compliance with all opportunity requirements lies with the applicant.
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.
For more guidance on the Funding Service, see:
* * *
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 policy on the
Deadline
Outlines will open to submissions on 16 April 2026 at 9:00am UK time.
BBSRC must receive your outline application by 25 June 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.
Full applications – stage two
Only applicants who are invited by BBSRC may submit a stage two full application.
Stage two is expected to open in November 2026 and to close in February 2027, details will be published in November 2026.
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 .
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].
Typical examples of confidential information include:
* 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: 5
Guidance for writing a summary
Please write ‘N/A’ in this section as it is not required for the outline stage.
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
* grant manager
* 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.