Dates:
· Application deadline: 9 April 2025, 13:00 GMT
· Shortlisting notification: 28 April 2025
· Applicant meetings: 30 April-2 May 2025 (informal pitch sessions to engage with ARIA prior to final funding decision).
· Final award decision: 9 May 2025
Scope
· Ideas that sit within the Programmable Plants opportunity space: Your proposal should clearly demonstrate how it aligns with or challenges the assumptions outlined in ARIA’s summary, beliefs, or observations for this space. This could include developing genetically programmable plants that respond to environmental cues, engineering crops to store carbon more effectively, or designing algae that produce high-value biomaterials or medicines. Other ideas might focus on synthetic biology approaches to modify plant metabolism, enabling plants to act as biosensors, or using machine learning to predict and optimise plant functions in real time.
· Both land plants and aquatic plants (incl. green algae);
· Microorganisms influencing plants, provided that they’re being used to alter an aspect of a plant’s form or function.
· Ideas that could change the conversation about what’s possible or valuable.
· Ideas that range from early-stage, curiosity-driven research through to pre-commercial science and technology.
Out of Scope
· Ideas that fall within the scope of the Synthetic Plants programme: Proposals that are already covered under ARIA’s Synthetic Plants programme will not be considered. This includes projects focused solely on artificial or fully synthetic plant-like systems rather than modifying natural plant biology.
· Cyanobacteria
· Ideas that are undifferentiated or are likely to happen without ARIA’s support
· Commercial or close-to-commercial stage products
Eligibility
- Applications from across the R&D ecosystem, including individuals (including those not affiliated with an organisation), universities (including proposals from students, postdocs and staff), research institutions, small, medium, and large companies, charities, and public sector research organisations.
- Collaborative efforts that bring together multidisciplinary expertise are particularly valued, as they can drive innovative approaches within the Programmable Plants opportunity space.
- Primary focus on UK-based applicants, however, funding available to non-UK applicants if proposed project can significantly benefit the UK.
- No minimum project length. Maximum project length is 3 years.
Funding Rates
- Total grant request between £10K-£500K inclusive of VAT (where applicable) and all associated costs (both direct and indirect).
- 100% funding rate (no match-funding required).
How PNO can support you
The UK team has a strong track record in securing some of the most competitive national and European grants on behalf of its clients, with a full understanding of how a project should be presented to stand the highest chance of success. Each year in the UK, we are responsible for the submission of >100 funding applications across all sectors and priority areas. Based on this extensive experience, through careful project selection and using key insight into how a project should be best positioned, we consistently achieve success rates that are more than 5 times the typical success rates for UK national schemes and EU programmes.
For further information or to discuss a project idea please contact PNO Consultants
0161 488 3488 | info.uk@pnoconsultants.com | https://www.pnoconsultants.com/uk/
