This competition will foster and support collaborative research and development (CR&D) in biomanufacturing through Canadian and UK partnerships. The aim of this competition is to stimulate the development and implementation of innovative technologies in biomanufacturing.

Your joint Canadian and UK project must focus on innovative technologies that enable the development and manufacturing of novel biological therapeutic products and delivery system, which can include:

• vaccines (prophylactic, therapeutic, various platforms)
• therapeutic proteins
• advanced therapy medicinal products, including messenger RNA, small interfering RNA, gene therapies, cell therapies, engineered tissues
• other biological based therapies, such as bacteriophage or engineered probiotics
• viral and non-viral, for example Lipid Nano Particles (LNP) platforms, including their components and payloads, as delivery systems for protein and nucleic acids

This list is not exhaustive.

Portfolio approach
We want to fund a variety of projects across different technologies and themes . We call this a portfolio approach.

Specific themes

Your project can focus on one or more of the following enabling technologies for biologics and advanced therapies:

• discovery, design and high throughput screening platforms, which can include the application of artificial intelligence (AI)
• manufacturing systems and methods, for example centralized, distributed or point-of-care, microfluidics based devices, new and innovative systems for GMP production, fill or finish
• manufacturing process intensification enablers, for example hyper productive strains, novel expression systems, continuous production processes, perfusion technologies
• novel analytical characterization, potency assays and real-time release technologies, biosensors
• other relevant enabling technologies

Research categories

We will fund feasibility projects, industrial research projects and experimental development projects, as defined in the guidance on categories of research.

Projects we will not fund

We are not funding projects that are:

• for nutraceutical product development
• manufacturing process innovations using a non-human medicine as the product

We cannot fund projects that are:

• dependent on export performance, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it exports a certain quantity of bread to another country
• dependent on domestic inputs usage, for example giving a subsidy to a baker on the condition that it uses 50% UK flour in their product