BBSRC Strategic Longer Larger Awards (sLoLa)

BBSRC sLoLa

Supports United Kingdom large-team bioscience projects through collaborative grants for high-impact innovation.

The BBSRC Strategic Longer and Larger Awards (sLoLa) programme funds transformational, team-led bioscience research that delivers conceptual advances and fundamental biological understanding at a scale and ambition beyond what is possible through standard project grants. The 2026–2027 cycle is an active two-stage process: outline proposals were accepted from 16 April to 25 June 2026, with shortlisted teams then invited to submit full proposals between 5 November 2026 and 9 February 2027. Anticipated award starts fall in the second half of the 2027–2028 UK financial year.

Awards carry a minimum of £2,000,000 full economic cost, with no stated upper cap, funded over up to five years at 80% BBSRC / 20% institution. BBSRC typically makes approximately four sLoLa awards per year, implying an annual investment of at least £8,000,000. Eligible institutions include UK higher education institutions, RCUK institutes, approved independent research organisations (IROs), and publicly funded research establishments (PSREs). One researcher must be designated as project lead and primary BBSRC contact. No prior experience of holding a comparable large grant is required.

The outline stage is assessed by the Strategic LoLa Committee without external peer review and requires no cost information — only a vision statement (750 words), outline approach (1,500 words), strategic case (500 words), team capability (1,650 words), and brief research area and methods descriptors. Only teams shortlisted at outline stage may submit a full proposal with detailed budgets. The programme explicitly targets cutting-edge, multimodal approaches to biological systems and rewards genuine scientific transformation over incremental research — applicants whose work substantially advances understanding of complex biological processes are the intended beneficiaries.