Biosecurity Frontiers
Supports United Kingdom innovators building systems to detect and respond to biological risk faster.
⚠This may reflect a past cycle — verify the current call on the funder's site.
Biosecurity Frontiers is a themed innovation competition run by UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) on behalf of the Cabinet Office, seeking technology proposals that advance the ambitions of the 2023 UK Biological Security Strategy and the 2025 National Security Strategy. The competition covers three challenge areas: biodetection and biosurveillance; AI-enabled diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines; and non-pharmaceutical protective systems. The submission deadline is 12:00 midday BST on 10 June 2026, with proposals submitted via the UKDI Online Submission Service after registering an account. The competition was published on 15 April 2026 and last updated 11 May 2026.
The total funding pot is up to £2 million (excluding VAT), distributed across an expected five to seven contracts. Individual awards typically range from £100,000 to £500,000, though UKDI reserves the right to fund at higher or lower values. Eligible applicants are UK-based innovators from academia, sole traders, SMEs, and large companies. International organizations must have a UK-registered business at Companies House and conduct project development activity in the UK. Technical contact for the competition is accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.
To be competitive, proposals should map explicitly to one of the three stated challenge areas and demonstrate a clear pathway to improving the UK's ability to detect, prevent, or respond to biological risks — whether naturally occurring, accidental, or deliberate. The Cabinet Office framing signals that dual-use civil-defence applications are in scope alongside pure military biology. Applicants are advised to review the full Competition Document and FAQs published on GOV.UK before submission, as the PDF slides and example terms and conditions contain scoring criteria and deliverable specifications not captured in the top-level competition notice.
Biodetection and biosurveillance, AI-enabled diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, and non-pharmaceutical protective systems to strengthen the UK's ability to detect, prevent, and respond to biological risks.
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