BIA update – 16 March 2026
With so many moving parts right now, the BIA’s role in convening our sector around priorities and ensuring that key stakeholders are listening, feels more urgent than ever. The launch of the NIHR Industry hub last week, the launch of UKRI/Innovate strategy this Thursday and a landmark Mansion House event tomorrow all signal forward momentum on Industrial Strategy – whilst we remain acutely aware of the ongoing challenges for innovative life science companies as they start and grow.
Being part of an amazing community provides a lifeline of advice, camaraderie and crucial networks and it was amazing to see the vibrancy of our Community Connects member gatherings last week, member companies celebrating at the Scottish Life Sciences Dinner last Thursday, and so happy to be at The Crick this morning for the kick-off of another inspirational PULSE cohort.
Jane Wall
Managing Director, BIA
Access to finance
A central pillar of our work this week is our involvement in a high-profile event tomorrow at Mansion House in London. We are joining forces with pension funds and life science venture funds in what is a critical step in our long-term campaign to unlock British pension capital.
For too long, the UK has been a world leader in discovery but has lacked the domestic scale-up capital to match. By bridging the gap between institutional investors and the innovators in our sector, we are working to ensure that the UK is the global destination for companies to not just start, but to stay and succeed.
Our Finance and Tax community is also gathering this week on 19 March in Canary Wharf. This invite-only session will explore how we can better support scaling life sciences companies, gathering direct insights from our members to inform and strengthen the BIA’s forthcoming scale-up report. Do get in touch with Jaime Eaton if you are a member and interested in getting involved!
Advocacy and influence
Our advocacy work continues at a pace across several fronts. This week, we submitted the BIA’s response to HM Treasury's Call for Evidence on Tax Support for Entrepreneurs. We are calling for the government to simplify and modernise EIS, VCT, and EMI schemes, while strengthening capital incentives for Knowledge Intensive Companies to ensure the UK remains the premier global destination to start and scale a business.
We were also pleased to attend the launch of the NIHR’s Industry Hub last week at an event hosted by NIHR's Life Sciences Industry Director, Maria Koufali. The NIHR Industry Hub builds on the success of the UK Vaccine Innovation Pathway, scaling the model across all therapeutic areas and phases of clinical development. It represents an important step in delivering the ambitions of the Government's Life Sciences Sector Plan, helping to strengthen the UK’s global competitiveness for commercial clinical trials. We have been engaging with Maria and her team over the past few months to support the development of the NIHR's offer to SME biotechs, including hosting a roundtable with scaling BIA members last month, and we look forward to seeing the launch of this tailored offer later this year.
Looking ahead to Thursday, I will be at the Innovate UK strategy launch. Hosted by Tom Adeyoola (Executive Chair, Innovate UK) and Ian Chapman (CEO, UKRI), this event marks a public reset for Innovate UK and we are eager to hear their new ambitions for supporting the UK's most ambitious innovative life sciences and tech businesses as they start, scale and compete globally. This renewed strategic direction specifically aims to address the ‘valley of death’ by providing more targeted support for companies moving from proof-of-concept to commercial scale, aligning closely with the broader Industrial Strategy.
BIA out and about
It was an action-packed day at the IBioIC conference last week, where Linda and Ekin connected with many of you. It was great to see so many BIA members featured on the main agenda, showcasing the incredible industrial biotechnology work happening across the UK. The momentum continued the following evening at the Scottish Life Sciences Dinner, where Natalie and Ekin hosted BIA member companies for a fantastic evening celebrating the vibrancy of the Scottish ecosystem.
Further afield, our Head of Biosolutions and International Policy, Linda Bedenik, visited Ribbon Bio in Vienna for two days of talks and a tour of their impressive labs. Linda presented on the evolving policy landscape of gene synthesis screening, a topic of growing importance as we move from voluntary to potentially mandatory frameworks. Discussions and panels focused on the diverging views within the sector regarding the benefits and risks of such a shift, both in the UK and globally. Ensuring the BIA voice is present at these regional and international hubs remains central to our mission.
Community Connects
It was great to convene our diverse membership at Community Connects: Regulatory and Access meets BioSolutions, where the Regulatory Affairs and Engineering Biology groups joined for an engaging session on engineering biology regulation. With experts from the MHRA, Nuffield Council on Bioethics, and the National Centre for Social Research, we explored "regulatory sandboxes" as a way to support innovation while maintaining public trust. This dialogue is particularly timely following the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) new Future Foods report, which we were pleased to have influenced through our recent consultation. This work is a core pillar of our upcoming BioSolutions UK conference on 21 April.
We also brought together our Cell and Gene Therapy and Manufacturing communities for a hands-on workshop to map out the future of the UK’s Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMP) landscape. Facilitated by Diana Hernandez, Angela Osborne, Darren Blamire and Kit Erlebach, the session focused on identifying leadership in therapy modalities and the investment needed for the next generation of medicines. Insights from this session will feed into the Medicines Manufacturing Industry Partnership (MMIP) taskforce.
In further committee news, we are delighted to announce the appointment of Will James, Partner at Osborne Clarke, as Vice-Chair of our Intellectual Property Advisory Committee (IPAC). Will has been a long-serving member of IPAC and his deep expertise in patent litigation will be vital as we advocate for the strong IP protections our members rely on.
Nurturing the next generation: PULSE 2026
Today marks the start of PULSE 2026 at the Francis Crick Institute. Now in its ninth year, PULSE has become a cornerstone of the UK biotech start-up ecosystem. Since launching in 2018, the programme has supported over 200 aspiring entrepreneurs and first-time CEOs, many of whom have gone on to raise significant Seed and Series A rounds.
The enduring success of the programme was captured in a report we published a couple of years ago, which outlined how we nurture these nascent ventures. PULSE provides a unique ‘safe setting’ for those moving from academic science to test the robustness of their business propositions with real investors and industry veterans. As Barbara Domayne-Hayman (Entrepreneur-in-residence at the Crick) notes, the bootcamp is famously intense, providing accelerated training through ‘speed dating’ with VCs and high-level panels. Beyond the curriculum, the peer-to-peer network formed during these three days often becomes a lifelong support system for these founders. It is this unique collaboration between the BIA and the Francis Crick Institute that ensures our most promising research is translated into actionable innovations that improve lives.
Supply chain survey
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has launched an important survey to identify services critical to the UK's Industrial Strategy priority sectors, including life sciences. This research will help the government understand supply chain resilience and shape future support for businesses.
Participation is voluntary and anonymous. I strongly encourage you to take 15 minutes to share your insights: Access the DBT Supply Chain Survey here
Celebrity Sports Quiz!
Our charity partner, Muscular Dystrophy UK, is hosting an exclusive Celebrity Sports Quiz on Wednesday 20 May 2026 at the legendary Lord’s Cricket Ground. Hosted by Gabby Logan, it promises to be a fantastic evening of sports trivia and networking. Find out more and book your table here.
