A hands-on, hackathon-style workshop bringing together academics, biotech SMEs, and microgravity providers to form and develop new R&D projects for microgravity experimentation.
Participants will work in teams to shape project concepts and pitch them for IBIC proof-of-concept funding, with additional technical and commercial support from the Satellite Applications Catapult.
Microgravity is emerging as a powerful research environment for biotechnology, enabling new approaches to tissue models, protein crystallisation, biomaterials and bioprocessing. However, many promising ideas never reach space – not because of a lack of science, but because the right partners, platforms and funding pathways are missing.
This workshop is designed to change that.
We will bring together a curated group of academics, biotech SMEs and microgravity specialists to form project teams and develop fundable microgravity R&D concepts in a single day.
At the end of the day, teams will pitch for IBIC proof-of-concept funding (typically around £30k), with selected projects progressing to full applications and further development support.
Participation in the workshop does not guarantee funding or project selection.
This event is intended for participants ready to actively collaborate and develop projects, rather than attend passively.
The session will follow a hackathon-style format:
- Speed networking to identify collaborators
- Team formation around shared ideas and challenges
- Project design sessions to define experiments and feasibility
- Pitch presentations to an evaluation panel, with a decision in principle made on the day
