Three new rounds of funding have been launched or announced in the last few days which may be of interest to members.
The Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF) – Round 5
Closes: 28th November 2025 at 12 PM
The Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund (LSIMF) is a capital grants fund which aims to build resilience for future health emergencies and capitalise on the UK’s world-leading research and development capabilities. The fund will enhance and accelerate affordable access to mature, new and emerging Life Sciences products for both pandemic and non-pandemic scenarios.
LSIMF will provide up to £520 million in capital grants for investment in the manufacture of human medicines and medical technology (including diagnostics, and MedTech products).
LSIMF is open to all eligible companies, including previous manufacturing grant recipients, as long as the application is for a different project.
Projects with a total cost (including capital expenditure) of at least £8 million are eligible to apply.
The typical intervention rate is between 10-20% of your total project costs. For example, for a project with a total cost of £100m, the typical grant awarded might be £10-20m.
The OLS recently presented to members on the fund, with the slide deck from the webinar available here.
If you have any questions, please email: LSIMF@officeforlifesciences.gov.uk.
Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry led R&D small projects and large projects
Competition opens: Monday 10 November 2025
Competition closes: Wednesday 10 December 2025 11:00am
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will invest a minimum of £25 million from the Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst programme, in innovation projects. This is subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.
The aim of this industry led R&D competition is to support micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop innovative solutions to address health, and healthcare, challenges.
Your proposal can focus on:
- disease prevention and proactive management of health and chronic conditions
- earlier and better detection and diagnosis of disease, leading to better patient outcomes
- tailored treatments that either change the underlying disease or offer potential cures
- transforming the delivery of healthcare
- the development of digital health technologies
- consumer focused self care
This competition is split into two strands (click on the relevant category below to apply):
- Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry led R&D small projects: up to £500,000 grant funding
- Biomedical Catalyst 2025: Industry led R&D large projects: over £500,000 grant funding
Experience from similar competitions suggests that you could have 10% chance of success.
