NBIC Funding Call: Industrial Challenge Response Fund

Scope

NBIC’s Industrial Challenge Response Fund is looking for proposals that are a collaboration between: 

• One (or more) NBIC research partner institution

• At least one company (Micro, SME or Large)

• At least one stakeholder from the third or public sector (Such as charities, regulators, the NHS etc)

The company or public/third sector collaborator must be an NBIC Industry Member or be willing to become an NBIC Industry Member if their application is successful.

Proposals 

The fund provides tiered, rapid-access support for projects at different stages of development:  

• Initial funding (£5K–£35K): Feasibility studies, prototype testing, regulatory advice, IP support.  
• Follow-on investment (up to £100K): For partners funded by NBIC (including Proof of Concept (PoC) 1–5, FTMA, core research) requiring additional support to reach critical milestones, ensuring continuity and and amplifying prior investment. Funding is intended to help projects advance toward market readiness, ideally supporting the development of a minimum viable product or enabling a product to be brought to market by mid 2027. Target TRL 5–9, focusing on late-stage development and commercialisation activities. 

Key Dates 

• Call opens: 20 April 2026
• Call closes: 26 May 2026 at 17:00 GMT. 
• 15-minute pitch: (Follow-on fund applications only) date tbc
• Decision and offer letters will be sent within 8 weeks after call end date. 

Instructions

• You must fill in the online application form to apply formally for the award once the portal opens and before 17:00 GMT on 26/05/26. No applications received after this time will be considered. Please do not send us your application via email/mail. 
• NBIC’s Industrial Challenge Response Fund application should be jointly written but must be submitted by the project lead via the online application form.   
• For any queries regarding NBIC’s Industrial Challenge Response Fund, please contact us at nbic@biofilms.ac.uk 

Supporting Documentation and Information 

• Please fill in the application form with as much information and as accurately as you can. The information we asked for will help our assessors and panel to evaluate your project. 
• You are requested to provide your research institution’s financial approval and Letter of Support from collaborators, as attachments after you have completed your application. Please start to obtain these as soon as you can. Please ensure that your costings include a details breakdown rather than headline figures for staffing, materials etc. 

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion  

At NBIC, we believe that diverse perspectives contribute to more comprehensive and robust research and innovation outcomes we are committed to fostering an inclusive environment through an effective Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) framework that benefits our employees, research and industry partners.  

At the application stage, you will be asked to complete our EDI survey. We ask diversity monitoring questions to understand the diversity profile of our Industrial Challenge Response Fund awardees. NBIC will share this data as part of of our post-award reporting process to our funders. The data collected will also be used to help NBIC identify areas for improvement as well as understand the effectiveness of our procedures in eliminating discrimination. Data collection will be carried out in line with relevant Data Protection laws and the University of Southampton’s Data Protection Policy.