Opportunity status:
Open
Funders:
Co-funders:
Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Funding type:
Grant
Total fund:
£12,500,000
Award range:
£3,000,000 - £4,000,000
Publication date:
11 June 2025
Opening date:
11 June 2025 9:00am UK time
Closing date:
16 September 2025 4:00pm UK time
A joint BBSRC-Defra programme aims to fund ‘plug and play’ veterinary vaccine platforms, leveraging transformative technologies, interdisciplinary approaches, and cross-sector partnerships, focusing on entire platform technology pipeline from antigen discovery to delivery and underpinned by immunological understanding to address unmet veterinary vaccine needs.
Projects must be led by UK research organisations eligible for BBSRC funding.
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project will be up to £4 million. BBSRC will fund 80% of the FEC with a maximum of £3.2 million per project over a maximum of five years.
To lead a project, you must be based at an eligible organisation. .
Who is eligible to apply
This funding opportunity invites applicants from UK-based organisations that meet Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)’s standard eligibility conditions, including:
* higher education institutions
* independent research organisations
* * UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-funded labs and facilities
For applicants who do not have a contract of employment for the duration of the proposed project, by submitting an application the research organisation is confirming, if it is successful:
* contracts will be extended beyond the end date of the project
* all necessary support for the project and the applicants will be provided, including mentorship and career development for early career researchers
.
The project team
This funding opportunity aims to embed a One Health approach in vaccine research. We expect the project lead and co-leads of all project teams to reflect this. The intellectual leadership of the project team can be shared with project co-leads.
Individuals can only be project lead or co-lead on one proposal. Only project co-leads who are providing a substantial commitment to the project should be included on the application.
We encourage applications from individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences, either as project lead or co-lead.
The project lead:
* should be the individual who will act as our main contact and coordinator of the research project. The project lead’s research organisation will be responsible for all administration relating to the award
* must have a record of delivering research
Each project should include:
* co-leads that represent a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional and multi-sectorial team. It is strongly encouraged that these investigators span a range of distinct disciplines which can include those not traditionally involved in veterinary sciences to facilitate novel thinking
* experts representing different sectors and organisations have equal status on the project to guarantee principles of a One Health approach are embedded in the project
* true integration of intellectual content from different disciplines and avoid disciplines that appear ‘bolted on’
* a diverse spread of project leads and co-leads. Projects with all co-leads from a single institution will be rejected
* individuals as co-leads who are providing a substantial commitment to the project
* at least one co-lead who must be an early career researcher who has a proven track record of research in their own discipline
Early career researchers
For the purposes of this funding opportunity, an academic early career researcher is an individual who has yet to achieve independence or is transitioning to independence as a current recipient of a newly independent award such as a UKRI new investigator grant or fellowship.
There are no eligibility rules based on years of postdoctoral experience. Early career researchers:
* can hold a lecturer appointment, a junior fellowship, or be in another research staff position, for example, postdoctoral researcher (PDRAs)
* must not have received, or currently be in receipt of, competitively obtained research funding as a project lead (other than current recipients of fellowships and new investigator grants) where such funding includes or included salary costs for research and innovation associates (previously PDRAs) or research technicians
Early career researchers can also be fellowship award holders, but they will:
* need to check the terms and conditions of their fellowship award relating to involvement in other projects
* seek permission from the funder of the fellowship, if applicable
* indicate research organisation support in the application
* not be eligible for salary costs whilst the fellowship is still active
If you are unsure of your eligibility as an early career researcher, email us at
Project partners
Project partners are expected to provide contributions to the delivery of the project, either in cash or in kind, and should not therefore be seeking to claim funds from UKRI.
However, where there are specific circumstances where project partners require funding for minor directly incurred costs, such as travel and subsistence, this will usually be paid at 80% FEC unless otherwise stated by us. These costs will be subject to peer review.
Examples of ways a project partner can support your research project are:
* staff time
* access to equipment
* sites or facilities
* the provision of data
* software or materials
* recruitment of people as research participants
* providing samples for the project
Project partners could include:
* members of the business community
* policymakers and others in the public, private and third sectors
* practitioners such as veterinarians, farmers, clinicians
* representatives from civil society, humanitarian and independent non-government organisations
* local communities
The same project partner can be included on multiple projects.
Each project partner must provide a statement of support.
Project partner eligibility
Any individual included in your application cannot also be a project partner.
Any organisation that employs a member of the application core team cannot be a project partner organisation. This includes other departments within the same organisation.
If you are collaborating with someone in your organisation, consider including them in the core team as project co-lead, or specialist. They cannot be a project partner.
Project subcontractor
A project subcontractor is defined as a third-party individual who is not employed as staff on the grant, who is subcontracted by a participating organisation to deliver a specific piece of work. Subcontractors will be allowed in line with for research grants.
Project partner and subcontractor entitlement to project outputs and intellectual property
Entitlement to the outputs of a project or intellectual property will be determined between the parties involved. However, any access to project outputs or intellectual property must be in line with any relevant subsidy control regulation. Under UKRI terms and conditions for research grants you must always ensure that the grant funding awarded to you is compliant with the. Any entitlements will need to be set out in a formal collaboration agreement if a grant is awarded, as per .
What we will support
We will support:
* applications from research groups that combine a range of talent and expertise from different disciplines, geographies, institutions and that foster a cultural diversity of stakeholders and researchers with novel perspectives
* multi-disciplinary collaborations and partnerships, including the involvement of private sector partners and other stakeholders. However, businesses cannot be funded through this opportunity
Partnerships with relevant government agencies is strongly encouraged, but not mandatory.
We aim to fund ambitious projects that will transform veterinary vaccinology landscape by bringing multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional, and cross-sectoral partnerships, fully aligning with the vision of this programme and ensuring co-leads are fully integrated in the design and delivery of the project.
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) fund veterinary vaccinology research through other mechanisms, for example BBSRC Standard Mode, Please explore those alternative funding opportunities if your research does not align with the scope of this funding opportunity, for example if you are aiming to address only specific aspects of veterinary vaccinology pipeline.
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.
Aim
The aims of the programme are to:
* engineer next generation ‘plug and play’ veterinary vaccine technology platforms by exploiting cutting edge transformative technologies underpinned by deep understanding of host immune response and host-pathogen interactions
* characterise platforms by conducting systematic and comparative evaluation to support the ‘plug and play’ framework for developing safe and cost-effective vaccines
* embed a One Health approach that will foster the development of new vaccine technology platforms suitable for use in animals and humans
Scope
This strategic research programme, funded by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), will catalyse the UK research and innovation community to use multi-disciplinary approaches to engineer next generation veterinary vaccine technology platforms. It will lead to forming a ‘plug and play’ modular design to enable rapid response and large-scale manufacturing associated with a smaller footprint, lower cost, and easier deployment.
The scope of the programme will target areas within the pipeline of platform technologies, from antigen discovery and delivery through to immunological understanding with focus on addressing key unmet needs in veterinary vaccine research and innovation. See the on the STAR-IDAZ website.
This programme will focus on transformative technologies that will offer mechanisms to engineer next generation veterinary vaccines through ‘de novo’ platforms or modifying existing platforms. To enable a step change in the field of veterinary vaccinology, a systematic and comparative evaluation of platforms is required including administration route, pathogen type and the species-specific protective immunity differences relating to vaccine technology platforms and the efficacy of potential products. Such an analysis could include, but not limited to the:
* functionality of the platforms across species
* administration routes, for example, mucosal or intramuscular
* choice of pathogens
* species-specific differences in protective efficacy of the platforms and how these induce different immune responses for effective implementation
* systematic evaluation of vaccine efficacy and safety across species and pathogen
The research funded through this programme will develop vaccines for livestock and aquaculture and to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The scope of the programme is disease agnostic.
This programme will fund research consortia comprising cross-sector partnerships of academia, industry (through subcontracting), and where appropriate government agencies (for example: if working on statutory disease linked to reference laboratories). This is to ensure the ultimately successful development, registration and deployment of novel vaccines through a thorough assessment of their base platform technology.
It is envisaged that this investment will catalyse transformation of veterinary vaccines research and innovation beyond existing capabilities through:
* the engineering of novel and well-characterised technology platforms
* the development and evaluation of new tools, technologies, and approaches for veterinary vaccines up to the proof-of-concept stage in the respective target animal species
* significant research advances in ‘unmet’ needs of veterinary vaccines, such as mucosal and bacterial vaccines
* adopting transformative technologies, such as artificial intelligence or engineering biology, which are underpinned by immunological data to allow for joined up approaches for rational design of veterinary vaccines
* platform technologies which can be shared across veterinary and medical communities
* the development of next generation veterinary vaccine platforms that can be taken into late-stage vaccine development through interest from industry
For more information on the background of this funding opportunity, see the Additional information section.
We encourage the research and innovation community to work together when developing applications. We expect to fund up to three research consortia, fostering a cohort of projects to address the challenges of platform technologies for veterinary vaccines.
We will take a portfolio approach to ensure a breadth of proposals are supported where the quality of applications allows.
We strongly encourage new partnerships that encompass disciplines not traditionally involved with veterinary vaccinology research to facilitate novel thinking and increase capacity in veterinary vaccinology field.
We expect projects to harness expertise from across the bioscience community and beyond, including but not limited to:
* artificial intelligence specialists
* chemists
* computational and data scientists
* engineers
* immunologists
* industry
* medical scientists
* One Health experts
* policy makers
* social scientists
* synthetic biologists
* veterinarians
We strongly encourage early career researcher and research technical professionals to be involved in funded projects. At least one co-lead must be an early career researcher.
The expected outcomes of research and innovation funded through this initiative include:
* enhanced understanding of optimal vaccine platforms for species and pathogens and optimal delivery routes to develop suitable commercial veterinary vaccine candidates
* better characterised platforms including immune response, optimal delivery route
* a cohesive veterinary vaccine platform community which undertakes knowledge exchange, generating comparative understanding, analysis, and evaluation of candidate platforms across the vaccinology landscape
* building research capacity and interdisciplinary capability where the sum is bigger than the parts
* increase in partnership working between academia, industry and government agencies
* creation of robust and consistent database to enable the optimal selection of future vaccine candidate development options
Duration
The maximum duration of this award is five years.
Funding available
Projects will be selected for funding jointly by BBSRC and Defra.
The 100% FEC of your project can be £3 million to £4 million.
BBSRC will fund 80% of the FEC.
Total cost to BBSRC (80% FEC value) must be between £2.4 million and £3.2 million. We are aiming to fund up to three consortia fostering a One Health approach addressing the unmet need in veterinary vaccinology.
What we will fund
Funded consortia should:
* foster cross-sector partnerships that bring together a range of expertise and disciplines, adopting multi-disciplinary working and a One Health approach
* encompass disciplines not traditionally involved in veterinary vaccinology research to facilitate novel thinking
* focus on veterinary vaccine technology platforms that can have broad applicability
* focus on any pathogens and AMR effecting animal health
* improve the health and welfare of any livestock or aquaculture relevant species
What we will not fund
Funded consortia should not:
* focus on developing a single vaccine for a single disease or pathogen. Aspects of the project can focus on a single disease or pathogen, but tools and technologies should have broad applicability across multiple conditions
* fund commercialisation and deployment of vaccine technology
* develop vaccine tools and technology that solely focus on improving human health and disease burden
* develop vaccine tools and technology that solely focus on improving health or reducing disease burden in non-food producing animals such as wildlife and companion animals
* consist of leads and co-leads from a single organisation
You cannot request funding for costs such as:
* product development costs
* fees or stipends for postgraduate studentships
* publication costs
Applications that are deemed out of scope by the BBSRC will be rejected without reference to expert review.
Supporting skills and talent
We encourage you to follow the principles of the and the .
Trusted Research and Innovation (TR&I)
UK Research and Innovation (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.
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.
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.
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 may 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.
Your application may be rejected if images are provided without a descriptive legend in the text box or are used to replace text that could be input into the text box.
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
BBSRC must receive your application by 16 September 2025, 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 the funding opportunity, your application cannot be changed, and applications will not be returned for amendment. 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. If there is any organisation outside of UKRI that we will be sharing the applications with, even if they are not co-funding the opportunity, then they must be mentioned here.
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), as part of UKRI, will need to share the application and any personal information that it contains with Defra so that they can participate in the assessment process. For more information on how Defra uses personal information, .
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 .
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
* a One Health approach
Core team
List the key members of your team and assign them roles from the following:
* project lead (PL)
* project co-lead (UK) (PcL)
* researcher co-lead (RcL)
* specialist
* professional enabling staff
* research and innovation associate
* technician
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.