The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Pioneer awards are for early-stage research with the potential to transform our fundamental understanding of biological systems.
Proposals should be focused on BBSRC’s Understanding the rules of life theme, and:
- should be original and visionary, challenging current thinking and paradigms
- must focus on exploring and revealing novel insights and theories relating to our fundamental understanding of biological systems
- must be early stage and untested, lacking preliminary data and perhaps involving creative or unconventional approaches to the research challenge
- may involve a high level of uncertainty or require a range of exploratory investigations, such that while there are clear aims to explore, the outcomes are neither predictable nor guaranteed
- can involve any combination of experimental, analytical and theoretical work, potentially crossing disciplinary boundaries, including non-bioscience fields
Applications will be expected to deliver a genuine, distinctive advance. Those demonstrating incremental developments, by way of direct “follow-on from” established discoveries, will not be supported by BBSRC.
The full economic cost of a project can be up to £350,000; 80% of FEC will be funded by BBSRC. Projects are expected to last for up to 2 years (3 in exceptional circumstances).
The application process is two stage:
- Stage 1: Applicants submit a Registration, via the UKRI Funding Service, deadline: 19 November 2025 at 4.00pm. BBSRC will review Registrations to check that they are appropriate for the funding scheme.
- Stage 2: Applicants whose Registration has been judged to be appropriate by BBSRC will submit a Full Application, deadline: 25 February 2025 at 4.00pm
Both the Registration and Full Application must be submitted via the UKRI Funding Service.
Please note that this funding scheme is expected to be highly competitive: only 18 – 20 awards will be made by BBSRC.
Although BBSRC has not imposed an application cap at Registration stage, it is highly possible that they will do so at Full Application: BBSRC did this for the 2023 round of this funding scheme. If an application cap is imposed by BBSRC, Oxford will need to carry out an internal selection process, meaning that some PIs who registered for this scheme will not be able to submit a Full Application - even if their registrations have been approved by BBSRC.
Therefore, departments are asked to only put forward Registrations for proposals that are a strong fit for this funding scheme. We would expect only 1 or 2 Registrations to be submitted per department. Divisional research offices may be able to assist applicants and departments in assessing whether a proposal will be suitable for this funding scheme.
Further information about the BBSRC Pioneer Awards can be found on the BBSRC’s funding page.
