OCEANIUM is part of a new industry-wide consortium funded by the European Union which will propel the seaweed farming industry across Europe. SeaMark is a consortium comprising 25 international, cross-disciplinary partners which has been awarded a prestigious €9 million grant to upscale seaweed production and market applications across Europe, meet the growing demand for seaweed-based products and attract investment from multiple sectors.

The Biorenewables Development Centre (BDC) is part of two new Hydrogen BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage) Innovation Programme projects which has been funded by the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) that have been awarded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

The Biorenewables Development Centre (BDC) is part of two new Hydrogen BECCS (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage) Innovation Programme projects which has been funded by the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) that have been awarded by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Dr Edward Green has joined NCIMB as Chief Executive Officer. He takes over from Dr Carol Phillips who is retiring after 12 years in the post.

Absolute Antibody Ltd., an industry-leading provider of recombinant antibody products and services, has announced the near doubling of its manufacturing facility in northeast England. The increased laboratory space includes a major investment in new automation for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), expression and purification (HPLC) to enhance recombinant antibody production workflows.

A start-up business which can produce and carry out PCR tests at a fraction of the current cost has won £60,000 of funding through the BioAccelerate programme.

University of Edinburgh startup OGI Bio has secured £1 million of investment to help revolutionise microbial culturing.

Bio-Sep – a sustainable startup converting low-value sawdust into high-value biochemicals – has secured $1.7 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by London Business School’s Enterprise 100 Club (E100 Club) and ACF Investors, with additional participation from a hedge fund that specialises in climate and clean energy technology.

Roslin Technologies offers a portfolio of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) and other cells to the cultivated meat industry globally. Since they started focusing on the development of iPS cell lines in 2018, their main focus has been on the derivation, analysis, and small-scale growth of these lines.

Drochaid Research Services Ltd have been working in conjunction with Natural Scottish Wax in a project funded by Highland and Islands Enterprise, to use Drochaid’s expertise and capability to build an understanding of the suitability of locally sourced vegetable oil as a sustainable and alternative feedstock to replace fossil-based hydrocarbon waxes in the textile industry.

Celignis have launched a new bioprocess optimisation service that reduces the time and financial costs compared with conventional optimisation approaches.

BKW Instruments launched their new Gas Calibration facility in Manchester. The new facility expands on BKW’s existing suit of services which include liquid flowmeter, pressure, and temperature calibrations. The expansion of their calibration capabilities supplements their in-house manufacturing facility in which they design and engineering process instrumentation assemblies for Pressure, Temperature, Flow, Level and Valve applications.

Dundee-based life sciences firm, Cellexus, have partnered with Castleford-based Verder Liquids to provide pumps to be used for the acid / base pump included as standard with their CellMaker Plus and Low Flow bioreactor systems.

Dundee-based biotechnology firm Cellexus are gearing up to approach new markets with the appointment of Fiona Bellot as Sales Director.

TWO independent Scottish companies have come together to speed up the development of medicines, vaccines, and key ingredients for reducing antibiotic resistance.

With six-figure funding support from the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC), Eco Clean is aiming to develop a more sustainable alternative to traditionally petrochemical-based surfactants, which can be produced at scale.

Cambridge-based agritech startup Better Origin will supply 10 insect farming containers to Morrisons’ free range egg farms to reduce the use of soya. The rollout is a big step in helping Morrisons achieve their Net Zero targets and becoming the first supermarket to launch carbon neutral eggs.

The second close of Oceanium’s Seed II fundraise raises further c. $1 million and is 35% oversubscribed for the round, with Green Angel Syndicate investing more than in the first round.

BioAccelerate, AberInnovation’s investment-readiness accelerator programme for early-stage businesses and startups, is back for a fourth time and seeking ambitious innovations to join its 2022 cohort.

Selected by the prestigious EIC Accelerator Pilot, ALTAR secures 10.3 million euros to accelerate its development.