Life Sciences Transformational R&D Investment Fund (TRIF) Pilot

Your Company

To be considered eligible for the TRIF Pilot, your company must meet the following requirements:

• Be a UK-registered and wholly private sector business. 

• Operate as a product developer, contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), or generics manufacturer. 

• Provide two years of audited accounts for the applicant company or parent entity. If unavailable, you must demonstrate that the remaining project funding has been secured. 

• Show a track record of successfully developing or manufacturing medicines or medical devices, either in the UK or internationally. 

Your Project 

To be eligible for the fund, your R&D project must: 

• Have a total cost (including eligible capital and non-capital costs) of at least £100m. 

• Be located in the UK. 

• Be primarily a capital investment.

• Be a single company investment (as opposed to forming a partnership between companies or other types of organisations)

• Be dependent on the grant to proceed. Projects that would otherwise not occur, be delayed (by three years or more), scaled down, or relocated overseas without the grant may be eligible. 

R&D Focus Areas

Applications are invited to support projects that are engaged in R&D activities within the following key areas:

·       Human Medicines: This includes projects that focus on the development and innovation of pharmaceuticals, encompassing both active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and finished drug products intended for human use.

·       Medical Diagnostics: Projects aimed at advancing tools, systems, or methods for the identification and monitoring of diseases. This area covers the R&D of diagnostic technologies that support timely and accurate disease detection.

·       MedTech Products: This covers the creation and enhancement of medical devices specifically related to human health. Eligible projects may involve the design, testing, or improvement of medical devices.

 Ineligible Projects:

Projects relating to the following are not eligible for funding from the TRIF Pilot:

• Veterinary medicines

• Herbal medicines

• Nutritional supplements or vitamins

• Raw ingredients (e.g solvents, buffers and cleaning agents)

• The production of single-use consumables that are not integrated into a larger product (e.g manufacturing syringes independently from diagnostic kits)

• Secondary packaging for products or materials (e.g package inserts, labelling and boxes)

Objective 1: Health Resilience and Innovation

Health resilience is defined as the ability of the UK to withstand and recover from health emergencies, including pandemics, long-term healthcare challenges, and system shocks such as disruptions to supply chains. In this context, innovation refers to the development and implementation of new technologies, processes, and products that serve to improve health outcomes, enhance manufacturing capabilities, and accelerate access to clinical trials for UK patients.

Your R&D project should support or demonstrate how it will strengthen health resilience and foster innovation in the UK by achieving one or more of the following:

·       Drive the creation of new or expansion of existing UK R&D capacity, supporting innovation in Life Sciences and ensuring the UK is better equipped to respond to emerging healthcare challenges. This could include areas such as: drug discovery and development; medical device design and feasibility; preclinical or clinical research; enhancing manufacturing processes and production efficiency.

·       Enhance flexibility in R&D facilities, capabilities and technologies, enabling rapid redeployment or scaling during health emergencies. This could be through investment in areas such as: optimising or accelerating clinical research or product testing; deploying new AI or digital research approaches; testing or deploying innovative materials or technologies; advancing manufacturing.

By focusing on these impact areas, your project will help reinforce the UK's health resilience and drive forward innovation in Life Sciences, supporting both immediate and long-term national health and economic priorities.

Objective 2: Creating Economic Opportunity

To ensure the impact of R&D initiatives extends beyond healthcare improvements, projects should clearly demonstrate their contribution to the UK economy. This can be achieved through several key avenues:

·       Substantial Contribution to Gross Value Added (GVA):

Projects are expected to deliver significant economic value by engaging in high-impact R&D activities that enhance the overall productivity and output of the UK economy.

·       Creation of High-Wage, High-Skilled Jobs:

Efforts should focus on generating employment opportunities that require advanced skills and offer competitive wages. Special emphasis is placed on creating such opportunities across the UK, particularly in regions that have untapped potential or that already host established Life Sciences clusters.

·       Generating R&D spillover benefits:

R&D investment often generate economic benefits by enabling knowledge transfer across firms, sectors and regions. These spillover effects enhance productivity, stimulate new business formation and strengthen the UK’s innovation ecosystem, particularly when linked to collaborative clusters and high-potential technologies.

The TRIF Pilot will run until 31 March 2028 or until all of the funding has been allocated.

The TRIF Pilot is now open for EOIs. Please click the button above to complete and submit your EOI form. If you have any questions, please contact TRIF@officeforlifesciences.gov.uk. 

The application process has three sections:

Section 1: Expression of Interest (EOI)

We will use the EOI to evaluate your eligibility and identify projects that align with the Fund’s objectives. Eligible projects will be invited to the next stage via email.

Section 2: Health resilience and innovation assessment

We will assess the health resilience and innovation benefits of your project:

(a) Application Form 1

• You will need to describe the health resilience and innovation benefits of your project. This stage is assessed by a panel of cross-government officials.

(b) Panel interview

• You will be required to give a brief presentation on the health resilience and innovation benefits of your project, followed by a short question-and-answer session.

• The interview will be hosted by a panel of independent experts who will further assess your project’s health resilience and innovation benefits.

Section 3: Financial and economic assessment

(a) Application Form 2

• If you are successful following the health resilience assessment, you will be invited to complete application form 2. Questions will cover eligibility, company and project specifics and financial information, markets and economic impacts and project risks​.

• You will be required to provide further documentation to evidence your company’s financial position, eligibility and project viability.

(b) Due diligence

We will assess whether your grant request offers good value for money, ensure compatibility with subsidy control regulations, validate what would happen without a grant, and confirm the project’s deliverability, employment outputs and your ability to finance it.

You may be required to provide further documentation to evidence your company’s financial position, eligibility and project deliverability.

1. Subsidy control

All grant awards will be made under Section 7 or 8 of the Industrial Development Act 1982 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1982/52/contents.

The scheme provides funding in line with the UK's subsidy control obligations and commitments. Grant awards under this scheme are capped at £25 million.

This scheme is UK-wide. Applications deemed in scope of the Windsor Framework – for example because the projects are located in Northern Ireland or are deemed to affect the trade of goods between Northern Ireland and the European Union – will be subject to European Commission State aid rules, under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.

Other applications will be subject to the UK subsidy regime, as set out in the Subsidy Control Act 2022.

If your application is successful, recovery of funds would be required in the event of non-compliance with subsidy control requirements.

If you are unsure about your obligations under the Subsidy Control Act 2022 or the State aid rules, you should take independent legal advice. You must always make sure that the funding awarded to you is compliant with all current Subsidy Control legislation applicable in the United Kingdom. We are unable to advise on individual eligibility or legal obligations.

DSIT reserves the right to offer less than the amount requested.

2. Data sharing

This competition is operated by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

Any relevant information produced and submitted by you during the application and grant approvals process concerning your application can be disclosed to other government bodies, for that bodies' individual storage, processing and use in assessing applications to the Fund.

This means that any information disclosed by you to DSIT or generated by DSIT in respect of your application may be passed on to other government bodies. This would include, but is not restricted to:

• the information stated on the application, including the personal details of all applicants

• scoring and feedback on the application

• any further information that may be requested by DSIT and provided by you for the purpose of assessing your application

Your Application Form 1 will be reviewed, and applicants will be interviewed and scored by up to three independent external experts, based on the content of your application and their skills or expertise relevant to your project. The scores awarded will count towards the total score used to make the funding decision unless you are notified otherwise. These independent assessors are engaged by the Secretary of State and are required to sign non-disclosure agreements with DSIT and declare any conflicts of interest.

DSIT is directly accountable to you for its holding and processing of your information, including any personal data and confidential information. Data is held in accordance with our own policies. Accordingly, DSIT will be data controllers for personal data submitted during the application.

DSIT complies with the requirements of UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, and is committed to upholding data protection legislation, and protecting your information in accordance with data protection principles.

3. Regulatory Requirements

The fund is open to applications that will support MHRA-licenced medicines, medical and diagnostic devices registered with the MHRA, and products in development where approval to market or manufacture the medicine or device in the UK is intended to be sought for commercial scale-up, for example a manufacturing project for clinical trials or investigational studies.

• Manufacturing facilities are required to work to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and the facility be intended to support clinical and/or commercial manufacture of API or drug products.

• Manufacturers of medical diagnostics and medical devices must confirm that their device meets or intends to meet the requirements of the Medical Devices Regulations 2002.

Projects involving the development, manufacture, or use of investigational medicinal products (IMPs) or medical devices for clinical trials must comply with the following additional regulations:

• Clinical Trials Authorisation (CTA):Applicants must obtain a Clinical Trials Authorisation (CTA) from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) before commencing any clinical trial involving IMPs in the UK.

• Good Clinical Practice (GCP):All clinical trials must be conducted in accordance with Good Clinical Practice (GCP) standards, as required by UK law and monitored by the MHRA.

• Health Research Authority (HRA) Approval:Projects involving NHS patients, staff, or resources must secure approval from the Health Research Authority (HRA) prior to the start of any clinical trial activity.

• Human Medicines Regulations 2012:All activities related to the manufacture, importation, and distribution of medicinal products for human use, including those used in clinical trials, must comply with the Human Medicines Regulations 2012.

• Medical Devices Clinical Investigations:Clinical investigations involving medical devices must comply with the Medical Devices Regulations 2002, including requirements for clinical evaluation, safety, and post-market surveillance.

• Data Protection and Confidentiality:All projects must comply with the UK (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, particularly regarding the collection, storage, and processing of personal health data.

Applicants are responsible for ensuring that all relevant regulatory approvals are in place prior to the commencement of any clinical trial or investigational study funded by this scheme. Evidence of compliance may be requested as part of the application process or during project monitoring.