Guidance

Biosecurity Frontiers: Competition Document

Published 15 April 2026

1. Introduction

This UK Defence Innovation (UKDI) Themed Competition is run by the Cabinet Office on behalf of the UK Government. The Cabinet Office coordinates policy across the UK Government to deliver the 2023 UK Biological Security Strategy (BSS), and as such, the proposals shared by industry will be used by a number of government departments, sectors and front line users (e.g. police, military, NHS/public health).

The Cabinet Office is seeking innovative proposals to assist in delivering the ambitions of the 2023 UK Biological Security Strategy and 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS).

The 2023 Biological Security Strategy was published to set out the vision, mission and plans to ensure that by 2030 the UK is resilient to a spectrum of biological risks and a world leader in responsible innovation. We define biological security as the means to protect the UK and UK interests from biological risks whether these arise naturally; through an accidental release of hazardous biological material; or by a deliberate biological attack. These risks could affect humans, animals, plants or the wider environment.

Since 2023, the risk landscape has continued to shift, and the biological threats we face have continued to evolve and grow in complexity, driven by a range of global factors. Rapid developments in AI and engineering biology offer significant opportunities for drug discovery and vaccine development, but also have the potential to introduce new risks of misuse. New methods for biodetection and biosurveillance - including those that can bridge One Health and National Security - are necessary to ensure that the government can detect new threats quickly and accurately. The UK sees One Health as referring to two related ideas: first, it is the concept that the health of humans, animals, plants and the environment we live in are inextricably linked and interdependent. Second, it refers to the collaborative and sustained effort of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, regionally, and globally to attain optimal health for all living things and the ecosystems in which they co-exist.

The evolving risk picture, new technologies and a persistent requirement for frontline users to be protected, means that the government is looking to diversify and strengthen the supply chains of non-pharmaceutical protective systems to help ensure those who look after us, as a society, remain protected. 

This call provides an opportunity for companies to provide solutions across the following priority areas:

• Challenge 1: Biodetection and Biosurveillance
• Challenge 2: AI and Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Vaccines
• Challenge 3: Non-pharmaceutical protective systems

This competition is funded by the Integrated Security Fund (ISF), which tackles the highest priority threats to UK national security, both at home and overseas. The fund aims to accelerate integrated, catalytic, high risk and agile delivery of projects that directly support priority national security themes in the 2025 National Security Strategy. In 2024/25, the ISF invested £965 million through integrated programmes across more than 20 government departments and agencies.

2. Competition key information

Key Information	Competition Details
Submission deadline	12:00 Midday on 10 June 2026 (BST)
Total funding available	Up to £2 million (excluding VAT) funding is available. We expect to fund 5 to 7 proposals across the 3 challenges, in the region of £100,000 to £500,000 each. We reserve the right to fund proposals at higher and lower values than these amounts.
Technology Readiness Level	TRL - proposals must address at least one of the challenges and move technologies through Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). Innovations must progress up to a minimum of TRL 4 and a maximum of TRL 6 for Challenge 1 and 3, and a maximum of TRL 7 for Challenge 2. Innovations must progress through at least one TRL during the project, with a maximum project length of 12 months.
Contract start month	Aim to start September 2026
Project duration	Equal to or less than 12 months
Risk Assessment Reference	RAR-SRW65BP
Feedback release date	10 Aug 2026
Pre-sift criteria	See Section 8 Pre-sift Criteria

2.1 Competition Specific Requirements

Please note that this competition has specific requirements as part of its pre-sift criteria. Only those proposals that demonstrate compliance with the UKDI pre-sift criteria will be taken forward to full assessment. For the full list of criteria, please see Section 8.

2.2 Where do I submit my proposal?

Via the UKDI Online Submission Service where you will need to register for an account if you don’t already have one. Only proposals submitted through the UKDI Online Submission Service will be accepted.

2.3 Public facing information

When submitting your proposal, you will be required to include a title, Proposal Value Proposition Statement (PVPS) and a short abstract. The title, PVPS and abstract you provide will be used by UKDI, and Partners Across Government (PAG), to describe your project and its intended outcomes and benefits. They may be included at UKDI events in relation to this competition and in documentation such as brochures. As this information can be shared, it should not contain information that may compromise Intellectual Property (IP).

2.4 Further guidance

For further guidance on what to expect during the submission process and how your proposal will be assessed, please see the following GOV.UK pages and forms:

• Submit a proposal
• Assessment process and criteria
• UKDI: ethical, legal and regulatory guidance
• MODREC Guidance for Suppliers
• Competition Terms and Conditions
• UKDI Standard Terms and Conditions
• Cyber Security Model
• How to get in touch with your local Innovation Partner

3. Supporting activities

3.1 Presentation Slides

Will be made available following competition launch on 15 April 2026. The presentation slides will give an overview of the Biosecurity Frontiers competition.

3.2 One-to-ones

Book a slot using the links below – a series of 15-minute one-to-one teleconference sessions, giving you the opportunity to ask specific technical questions to the competition team in a closed forum. Registration for these sessions will be available on 17 April 2026 via the Eventbrite page. Bookings will be on a first come, first served basis until 23 April 2026, or until slots run out.

Link to make a booking for a one-to-one slot on Day 1 – 29 April 2026 - available from 17 April

Link to make a booking for one-to-one slot on Day 2 – 30 April 2026 - available from 17 April

Non-technical questions about the competition process should be sent to the UKDI Help Centre, accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.

3.3 Collaboration survey

We encourage collaboration between innovators for this competition. To support this, we have a short survey to collect details of those who wish to explore collaboration possibilities. If you are interested, please complete the collaboration survey.  

The information (including personal details) you provide will be circulated among the innovators who have completed the survey. The sharing of details will only be done after an initial screening process has taken place, we reserve the right to not share all details.

All collaboration for proposal submissions is on an innovator-innovator basis. It is the innovators’ responsibility to determine the suitability of collaborators.

Inclusion or absence of collaboration will not affect assessment.

3.4 Innovation Outline

An innovation outline (IO) is a brief summary of your innovation that is used to advise whether your innovation is in scope for the competition.

If you are unsure whether your idea is in scope, we strongly recommend that you contact your local UKDI Innovation Partner via the Contact UKDI form. They will explore the suitability of your innovation for the competition and, if needed, advise you on submitting an IO, which must be submitted through the Submission Service.

To submit an IO:

• log in to the submission service
• select the service category UKDI Innovation Outline
• from the service name select Innovation Outline: Biosecurity Frontiers
• complete the form

Your local Innovation Partner will be able to advise you on the IO content.

Submission of an IO for this competition will allow socialisation of the idea across the competition team, and all elements of the IO will be shared. The competition team is made up of UKDI, Dstl staff, the Cabinet Office and representatives from other departments of state with policy responsibility for biosecurity. You should receive a response within two weeks, confirming whether or not your idea is in scope. The competition closes at 12:00 Midday on 10 June 2026 (BST). UKDI cannot guarantee a response to an IO received after 27 May 2026.

All information you provide to us as part of your IO, that is not already available to us from other sources, will be handled in confidence. We will only share the information with those who can establish if your innovation is within scope of the competition. The information will only be used for the purposes for which it is provided to us. It won’t be used for other purposes, without us having obtained the necessary rights and permissions to do so.

Submitting an IO or speaking to your local innovation partner is not a mandatory criterion of this competition.

4. Competition scope

4.1 Background

The 2023 UK Biological Security Strategy sets the overarching strategic response to the management of biosecurity risks to the UK. It sets the vision that by 2030, the UK is resilient to a spectrum of biological threats, and a world leader in responsible innovation, making a positive impact on global health, economic and security outcomes.

The Strategy outlines the four pillars of the government’s approach to countering biological risks - strengthening cross cutting capabilities to:

• Understand the biological risks we face today and could face in the future.
• Prevent biological risks from emerging (where possible) or from threatening the UK and UK interests.
• Detect, characterise and report biological risks when they do emerge as early and reliably as possible.
• Respond to biological risks that have reached the UK or UK interests to lessen their impact and to enable a rapid return to business as usual.

This Biological Security Strategy’s vision is complemented by the National Security Strategy 2025, which sees the mitigation and management of biosecurity risks as a key objective. Both strategies highlight the importance of stimulating the UK’s industrial base to build and develop capabilities to manage biosecurity risks and bolster national security.

The government is seeking innovative solutions to some of the UK’s most pressing biosecurity challenges - across One Health and National Security. The competition will seek to catalyse innovation between UK Government departments, agencies, academia and industry and bolster our ability to understand, detect, prevent and respond to biological threats and represents an opportunity to contribute to the aims and objectives of the UK Biological Security Strategy.

Since publication, the UK Biological Security Strategy has delivered impact across all short-term commitments. The first Biological Security Strategy implementation report, published in July 2025, set out this progress including case studies aligned with the ambition to strengthen our ability to understand, prevent, detect and respond to a spectrum of biothreats.

4.2 Scope

This government is committed to going further to get ahead of the risks we face. We are seeking proposals against the following areas:

• Biodetection and Biosurveillance
• AI and Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Vaccines
• Develop non-pharmaceutical protective systems

The intention is to fund innovative solutions which have the capacity or potential to be used on the frontline of managing biosecurity risks. Through engaging with this competition, industry and academia will be able to demonstrate the feasibility or practicality of their solution, as well as meeting the minimum standard of compliance with domestic regulations.

5. Competition challenges

This competition has 3 challenges.

5.1 Challenge 1: Next Generation Biodetection & Biosurveillance

The government is seeking to bolster biosurveillance capabilities to detect and monitor traditional and novel threats that are naturally derived or manmade. Capabilities include:

• Sensitive or low-latency detection of novel outbreaks within communities or particular locations, including technologies deployable outside of the laboratory and potentially in harsh environments.
• Technologies which monitor outbreaks as well as initially detect them.
• Bioforensics and attribution technologies which allow us to understand the characteristics or origin of a threat are also of interest.

Ideas that could help solve this challenge area include (but would not be limited to):

• New environmental surveillance technologies, focused on building capability in the use of portable in-field surveillance technologies and to support the interpretation of complex surveillance data.
• Computational tools, capable of analysing large data sets (i.e. relevant omic data sets) that could aid the identification of notifiable pathogens, emerging pathogens, synthetically derived pathogens and/or genetic anomalies within these complex data sets.
• Computational tools that enable expedient analysis (and fusion) of disparate and large / complex data sets; for example, approaches to interrogate microbial sequencing data, data from non-genomic outputs / sample metadata.
• Producing cutting-edge sequencing technology as well as work on DNA air sequencing and early-stage work to find future sequencing techniques.
• Permanently installed air surveillance systems at high-footfall, private and publicly accessible locations that detect, identify, monitor and quantify biological agents, in the aerosol phase.

Proposals must address at least one of the challenges and move technologies through Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). Innovations must progress up to a minimum of TRL 4 and a maximum of TRL 6, progressing through at least one TRL during the project, with a maximum project length of 12 months

5.2 Challenge 2: AI and Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Vaccines (DTVs)

The government is seeking industry support in harnessing AI to support the identification and development of new diagnostic, therapeutic and vaccine (DTV) candidates. This would likely focus on priority pathogens identified by the UK Health Security Agency and novel biological threats, and the use of predictive AI for structure-based diagnostics and DTV discovery and development.

Ideas that could help solve this challenge area include (but would not be limited to):

• Solutions that reduce diagnostic uncertainty, for example enhanced assays for PCR testing, to include earlier indication of which strains of infection are more likely to become resistant.
• Capabilities to support both the discovery and development of DTVs at pace in response to threats e.g. new tools to produce molecules at speed or at scale, helping to convert AI designs into products that can be tested and used.
• The development of innovative modes of administration to support vaccine and therapeutic accessibility
• Embedding AI into the end-to-end pipeline for vaccine and therapeutic development to support accelerated development timelines.
• R&D related to storage and deployment, such as, extending shelf life or improving stability under different conditions. Ways to detect and attribute man-made AI biological sequences developed from using AI models.

Proposals must address at least one of the challenges and move technologies through Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). Innovations must progress up to a minimum of TRL 4 and a maximum of TRL 7, progressing through at least one TRL during the project, with a maximum project length of 12 months.

5.3 Challenge 3: Non-pharmaceutical Protective Systems

The government is looking to diversify and strengthen the supply chains of personal protective equipment (PPE). To address this, proposals could include:

• Ways to increase efficiency and manufacture lower-cost PPE
• Development of universal Respiratory Protective Equipment, seeking adaptations to masks that improve their fit test pass rate. This could be replicated and expanded into a wider cohort.
• Innovative PPE decontamination and disinfection without compromising the material integrity.
• Utilise biodegradable alternatives to polypropylene for PPE production and confirm viability in manufacturing processes.
• Solutions which remove humans from operations in a contaminated area.

Proposals must address at least one of the challenges and move technologies through Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). Innovations must progress up to a minimum of TRL 4 and a maximum of TRL 6, progressing through at least one TRL during the project, with a maximum project length of 12 months.

5.4 For all challenges we are interested in…

Concepts, products or solutions that benefit end-users working in UK defence and security. Your proposal should include evidence of:

• How it addresses the critical capability gap in the UK Biological Security sector
• How it will support the UK industrial sector and strengthen and secure domestic supply chains.
• How it will consider future advancements and remain adaptable to a changing risk picture.
• The potential for your innovation to be translated into a practical demonstration in the future.
• Innovation or a creative approach.
• How the proposed work applies in specific One Health, Defence and/or Security contexts.
• For innovations that are bioinformatic tools or software developments, it is desirable but not essential, to meet the following requirements:
  • have a modular structure, with clearly defined inputs and outputs
  • have a clear specification, validation datasets and documentation to be approved by the technical partner
  • be open-source
  • be developed in a mainstream programming language to be approved by the technical partner
  • can be easily integrated into analysis pipelines running on Linux-based operating systems,
  • be command-line executed, and written in a widely used programming language such as Python or C

5.5 We are not interested in…

We are not interested in proposals that:

• constitute consultancy, paper-based studies or literature reviews which summarise the existing literature without any view of future innovation
• are an unsolicited resubmission of a previous UKDI/DASA bid
• offer demonstrations of off-the-shelf products requiring no experimental development (unless applied in a novel way to the challenge)
• offer no real long-term prospect of integration into one health, defence and security capabilities

6. Critical elements to include

When writing your proposal, ensure you have:

• Focused on the relevant competition requirements but also included a brief (un-costed) outline of the next stages of work required for exploitation.
• Included a list of other government funding you have received in this area, making it clear how this proposal differs from that work.
• Included a detailed project plan with clear milestones and deliverables. Deliverables need to be well defined and designed to provide evidence of progress against the project plan. Your deliverables must include a written final report. Where software is being developed, the software code (object and source code) should be a deliverable, as well as a copy of any software tool generated. This deliverable must meet DEFCOM 705 terms.
• Planned (and costed) attendance at the following meetings, which will all be in the UK:
  • Regular reviews with the appointed Exploitation Manager, Technical Partner and Project Manager. Meetings will be held monthly; they will be online unless there is a specific need to be in person.
  • A close-down meeting at the end of the project. This should include a final report and a final project demonstration. For projects with a lower TRL a lab-based demo is expected.
  • Post project completion showcase event approximately 3 months post competition closure. All funded innovators from this competition are expected to attend. Details to be provided.

These activities may take place virtually. Slides presented at these meetings should be appropriately marked and made available

• identified any ethical / legal / regulatory factors. Associated risks should have been added to the Risk Register in Step 5 of the submission service along with details of how they will be managed, including break points in the project if approvals are not received.
• included any requirements for access to Government Furnished X (GFX). GFX is the preferred non-descript term for anything that the Government provides in which the ‘X’ could be artefacts such as information or equipment and facilities. UKDI cannot guarantee that GFX will be made available. You should have included an alternative plan in your proposal in case it is not available.

7. Accelerating and exploiting your innovation

Your proposal should ensure that deliverables are designed with the aim of making it as easy as possible for assessors to recognise expected development in technology maturity of the potential solution over the lifetime of the project. Specifically, how this demonstrates improved capability against the current known (or presumed) solutions.

Over the lifetime of UKDI awarded projects, ideas may mature and accelerate under the guidance of appropriate stakeholders, towards being functional capabilities. How long this takes, and how far towards a deployable capability the innovations progress, will depend on any future exploitation after the completion of the UKDI project.

Low TRL research and development may not be able to articulate exploitation in great detail, but it should be clear that there is a credible advantage to be gained from the technology development.

7.1 Exploitation beyond your project plan

Include the following information within the desirability question in the UKDI Online Submission Service application form to help the assessors understand your exploitation intentions:

• expected additional work required beyond the end of the contract to develop an operationally deployable commercial product (for example, “scaling up” for manufacture, cyber security, integration with existing technologies, environmental operating conditions).
• additional future applications and wider markets for exploitation.
• wider collaborations and networks you have already developed or any additional relationships you see as a requirement to support exploitation.
• how your product could be tested in a representative environment in later phases.
• any specific legal, ethical, commercial or regulatory considerations for exploitation.

The aim of this competition is to provide new technology options for a range of governmental initiatives and capabilities. These include but are not limited to: biosurveillance initiatives / capabilities.

8. Pre-sift Criteria

Before your proposal is assessed, all proposals will be checked for compliance with the UKDI pre-sift criteria. Proposals will be rejected before full assessment if they do not comply.

For more information on how your proposal will be assessed, please read the assessment process and criteria.

The Biosecurity Frontiers Competition pre-sift criteria is as follows:

Criteria	Measure - Within scope (Pass) / (Out of scope (Fail)
The proposal outlines how it meets the scope of the competition	Pass / Fail
The proposal explains how it meets the UKDI criteria (Desirability, Feasibility and Viability) in the relevant questions in Step 3 of the submission service	Pass / Fail
The proposal must contain a financial plan, a project plan and a resourcing plan which demonstrate how the work proposed will be completed	Pass / Fail
The delivery schedule within your proposal includes evidence of a written final report	Pass / Fail
The delivery schedule within your proposal includes an end of project demonstration. Subject to TRL level; could be lab-based demonstration	Pass / Fail
If your proposal is funded, agree to attend a post project completion showcase event approximately 3 months post competition closure	Pass / Fail
Maximum value of proposal is up to £2 million (excluding VAT) funding is available. We expect to fund 5 to 7 proposals across the 3 challenges, in the region of £100,000 to £500,000 each, but we reserve the right to fund proposals at higher and lower values than these amounts	Pass / Fail
The final deliverable month indicated must be less than or equal to 12 months from T0 where T0 is the project start date agreed by both parties	Pass / Fail

TRL requirement at end of project	Pass / Fail
Challenge 1: TRL 4, 5 or 6 at project completion
Challenge 2: TRL 4, 5, 6 or 7 at project completion
Challenge 3: TRL 4, 5 or 6 at project completion

The proposal does not contain attachments that have been used for additional text data over the stated word counts in Desirability, Feasibility, Viability and Additional Information	Pass / Fail
If the proposal is a resubmission of a previous one, it adheres to the resubmission guidelines	Pass / Fail

9. How your proposal will be assessed

Proposals that are compliant will be assessed against the standard UKDI assessment criteria (Desirability, Feasibility and Viability) by subject matter experts across the UK Government, including from the MOD (and Dstl), PAG and the front-line military commands. You will not have the opportunity to view or comment on assessors’ recommendations.

UKDI reserves the right to disclose on a confidential basis any information it receives from innovators during the procurement process, which includes the full proposal, to any third party engaged by UKDI for the specific purpose of evaluating or assisting UKDI in the evaluation of your proposal. In providing such information you consent to such disclosure. Appropriate confidentiality agreements will be put in place.

After assessment, proposals will be discussed at a Decision Conference where funding decisions are made based on the assessments, budget and wider strategic considerations.

Innovators are not permitted to attend the Decision Conference.

10. UKDI Terms and Conditions

Please read the UKDI Terms and Conditions which contain important information for innovators. For this competition we will be using the Innovation Standard Contract (ISC), Terms and Conditions Information on the relevant DEFCONs can be found by registering on the Knowledge in Defence site.

We require unqualified acceptance of the Terms and Conditions. Where innovator organisations have a commercial department, they will need to provide acceptance.

We will use deliverables from UKDI contracts in accordance with our rights detailed in the contract Terms and Conditions.

10.1 Feedback

Proposals that are unsuccessful will receive feedback in the form of bullet points and a couple of short paragraphs after the Decision Conference.

Where a proposal meets the fundable requirements for a competition, but is not funded, UKDI will continue to seek funding and shall consider your proposal fundable for 12 months from the date of the feedback release.

We will share the abstract, Proposal Value Proposition Statement (PVPS) and title of your proposal with partners across His Majesty’s Government that may express an interest in funding the proposal through UKDI, in accordance with the competition document. We may also share this information on our cross-government Ideas Marketplace platform to foster collaboration and attempt to elicit funding. If partners across His Majesty’s Government wish to read the full proposal to decide if they will fund it, we will share the full proposal with them without seeking your permission if it is within 60 days of the feedback release date. If it is over 60 days since the feedback release date, we will seek your permission before sharing the full proposal with them.

For other potential funders, we will seek your permission before sharing the full proposal regardless of the number of days since the feedback release date.

In the event that funding becomes available, UKDI may ask whether you would still be prepared to undertake the work outlined in your proposal under the same terms. Your official UKDI feedback will indicate if your proposal was deemed fundable but not awarded funding at the time.

11. If your proposal is recommended for funding

Funded projects will be allocated a Project Manager (to monitor the project) and a Technical Partner (as a technical point of contact). In addition, the UKDI team may work with an innovator to support delivery and exploitation including, when appropriate, introductions to end-users and business support to help develop their business.

11.1 Cyber Security Model

The Cyber Security Model (CSM) is how Defence builds cyber security into its supply chain.

On receipt of a FUND decision, successful innovators (and their sub-contractors) must prove cyber resilience before the contract is awarded. The start of this process is the submission of a Supplier Assurance Questionnaire (SAQ). The SAQ allows innovators to demonstrate compliance with the specified risk level and the corresponding profile in Def Stan 05-138, and the level of control required will depend on this risk level.

To expedite the contracting time of successful innovators we ask all innovators to complete the SAQ before they submit their proposal (this is not mandated). The SAQ must be completed using the Risk Assessment number RAR-SRW65BP.

The SAQ will be automatically scored against the Cyber Risk Profile (CRP) and you will be immediately informed of the outcome, compliant or not compliant.

If non-compliant, you will be required to complete a Cyber Implementation Plan (CIP) before the contract is placed which will need to be reviewed and agreed with the relevant project manager. The CIP template can be found here.

Before you start your SAQ you will need:

• the Risk Assessment Reference (RAR) RAR-SRW65BP
• a D-U-N-S number (a unique identifier for your organisation)
• a GOV.UK One Login

11.2 Export control for overseas partners

All relevant export control regulations will apply if a company ultimately wants to sell a developed solution to a foreign entity. All innovators must ensure that they can obtain, if required, the necessary export licences for their proposals and developments, such that they can be supplied to the UK and other countries. If you cannot confirm that you can gain the requisite licences, your proposal will be sifted out of the competition.

Additionally, if we believe that you will not be able to obtain export clearance, additional checks may be conducted, which may also result in your proposal being sifted out of the competition.

12. Points of Contact

During the competition phase all correspondence must be via the UKDI Points of Contact detailed below.

While all reasonable efforts will be made to answer queries, UKDI reserves the right to impose management controls if volumes of queries restrict fair access of information to all potential innovators.

12.1 Innovation Partner

UKDI has a team of locally based Innovation Partners that can provide support in working with UKDI. It is strongly recommended that you contact your local Innovation Partner to discuss your idea for any aspect of this competition.

You can initiate this through the submission of a contact UKDI form by following instructions on the Contact a UKDI Innovation Partner page if you do not already have an established relationship with your local Innovation Partner.

12.2 UKDI Help Centre

Competition queries including on process, application, commercial, technical and intellectual property aspects should be sent to the UKDI Help Centre at accelerator@dstl.gov.uk, quoting the competition title. UKDI cannot guarantee a response to a query after the 20 May 2026, 3 weeks before the competition closes.