2026 to 2027 strategic Longer and Larger (sLoLa): closed outlines and invited full applications

2026 to 2027 strategic Longer and Larger (sLoLa): closed outlines and invited full applications

The 2026 to 2027 strategic Longer and Larger (sLoLa) opportunity is closed for outline submissions. BBSRC received stage-one outlines by 25 June 2026 at 4:00pm UK time, and the official page says no outline can be submitted after that point. The opportunity is not discontinued, however: it has a second, full-proposal stage for applicants invited by BBSRC after outline assessment.

The practical deadline shown for this listing is therefore the stage-two closing date, 9 February 2027. The official timeline lists 5 November 2026 as the full-stage opening date and 9 February 2027 as the full-stage closing date. This date applies only to invited outline applicants. A team that did not submit an outline, or submitted one but was not invited, cannot use the February window to enter the competition.

At a glance

What has closed, and what remains open

This is a two-stage opportunity, not a continuously open grant. Stage one was the outline phase. Project leads submitted a detailed summary of the proposed project and team through the UKRI Funding Service, without requesting costs. BBSRC’s Strategic LoLa Committee assesses the outlines and recommends which applicants should be invited to submit a full-stage proposal. The official page says the outline assessment process aims to finish by late October 2026.

Stage two is the full proposal phase. It is restricted to applicants invited by BBSRC following assessment of a stage-one outline. BBSRC’s published timeline gives 5 November 2026 for the full-stage opening and 9 February 2027 for the full-stage closing date. The page also says details will be published in November 2026, so an invited team must follow the stage-two instructions that BBSRC provides rather than assume that every outline field or document requirement carries over unchanged.

This distinction matters for how the opportunity should be used. It is still a relevant 2026 to 2027 funding route for an invited team, but it is not a route for a new applicant to submit an outline now. The passed 25 June 2026 outline date remains useful historical context, while the live action for invitees is preparation of the full application before 9 February 2027.

What sLoLa funds

sLoLa is intended for large, team-based, curiosity-driven bioscience discovery research. BBSRC asks for projects with the potential to make major advances in fundamental understanding of living systems, rather than projects whose primary purpose is an end-user service, a short-cycle implementation, or an incremental product improvement. The proposed research may sit at any scale of biological organisation from molecules to organisms and populations, and the page particularly encourages multimodal and multiscale work that combines experimental and data-driven approaches.

The central test is whether the scientific question genuinely needs longer and larger support. An invited full application should show why the programme cannot be delivered through several smaller awards, either in parallel or in sequence. It should also explain how data and results from the work packages will be integrated so that the overall outcome is substantively different from the outputs of individual components. A large budget or a long list of collaborators is not, by itself, a case for sLoLa. The case rests on a coherent research programme whose combined design enables a major contribution to biological knowledge.

The programme can support projects lasting up to five years. The official page anticipates that awarded grants will start in the latter half of the 2027 to 2028 financial year. That timing may help invited teams plan staffing, facilities, governance, and partner commitments, but it is not a guarantee of an award or a fixed start date for an individual project.

Funding and cost expectations

The project’s full economic cost must be at least GBP 2,000,000. BBSRC will fund 80% of the full economic cost. The official opportunity does not give a fixed total programme budget; it says the total budget is to be confirmed and that BBSRC typically awards up to four sLoLa awards per year, subject to the quality of applications and available budget.

The standard 20% of FEC that is not funded by BBSRC should not be described as a special matched-funding competition. The page states that there is no requirement for matched funding from the institutions hosting the project lead, project co-leads, or other staff beyond the standard 20% FEC. Third-party project partners may still contribute direct cash or in-kind support, such as expertise, staff time, or access to facilities. Hosting organisations must provide the research environment and infrastructure needed for award-specific activity.

Because outline applications did not request costs, an invited team should now coordinate closely with its research office and finance team on the full-stage costings. The budget should follow the stage-two instructions and demonstrate that the requested scale is tied to the research plan, team roles, facilities, data, technical work, and management needs.

Eligibility for the invited full stage

The most important eligibility condition is procedural: only applicants invited by BBSRC after stage-one outline assessment may submit a stage-two full application. Invitation is not implied by having an eligible organisation, a strong idea, or a previously submitted outline. If the team did not receive an invitation, it should not attempt to use the full-stage deadline as a new application route.

For invited teams, the eligible core settings listed by BBSRC are higher education institutions, research council institutes, approved independent research organisations, and public sector research establishments. A single project lead must be designated for administrative purposes and acts as the main contact for BBSRC. Project co-leads may share intellectual leadership and management across eligible organisations, provided that roles are clearly specified.

BBSRC does not require a project lead or co-lead to have held an award of similar size before. The opportunity welcomes early- and mid-career researchers eligible for BBSRC funding as project lead or project co-lead. BBSRC also encourages teams to resource leadership responsibly, include a project or grant manager, and include research technical professionals in the core team where appropriate.

Several restrictions remain important at full stage. Multiple applications with the same project lead are not permitted in this funding round. A project lead with a currently active sLoLa award may not apply as project lead unless that existing grant is in its final year. People based at an international organisation cannot be members of the core team for this opportunity because they are not eligible for BBSRC funding under it. International organisations can participate as project partners, and project partners may be based in industry, academia, the third sector, or government organisations in the UK or overseas, including the EU.

How an invited applicant should apply

The application must use the UKRI Funding Service. BBSRC explicitly says that applicants cannot use the Joint Electronic Submissions system, commonly known as Je-S. The organisation should be registered on the Funding Service, and the project lead is responsible for completing the application. Team members and project partners are expected to contribute, but only the lead research organisation can submit the application to UKRI.

For an invited team, the practical sequence is:

1. Confirm the BBSRC invitation and review the full-stage instructions released for this opportunity.
2. Confirm the project lead, co-lead structure, eligible host organisations, core team roles, and any proposed project partners.
3. Sign in to the UKRI Funding Service or create and verify the required account through the organisation.
4. Prepare the full proposal in the Funding Service fields, saving responses as work progresses or drafting offline for later transfer.
5. Develop the detailed costings with the research office and finance team, keeping the FEC threshold and 80% BBSRC contribution in view.
6. Check the scientific programme, integration plan, team capability, facilities, data arrangements, management, and any permitted uploads against the stage-two guidance.
7. Review the complete application in read-only view and allow time for corrections before sending it to the research office.
8. Send the checked application to the research office; the research office submits it to UKRI on behalf of the lead research organisation.

The applicant retains ultimate responsibility for compliance. Research office and finance checks cover hosting arrangements and financial eligibility, but they do not replace the team’s responsibility to meet the opportunity rules. The Funding Service also has specific rules for images: an image must have a descriptive caption or legend, be inserted on a new line, and be smaller than 5MB in an accepted format. Images cannot be used to insert paragraphs or tables into an application, and excessive image use can lead to rejection.

What the full proposal should make clear

An invited team should carry the high-level aims from its outline into the full proposal unless the outline assessment feedback supports a change. The official assessment framework covers the outline vision, outline approach, strategic case, and applicant and team capability; the full-stage instructions should be used to confirm the final questions and limits.

The scientific case should state the unresolved biological problem, the new knowledge the project could produce, and why the work is timely and sufficiently ambitious. The approach should connect objectives to methods, biological systems, facilities, staff, and data. It should identify dependencies between work packages and show how those dependencies create outcomes that separate projects would not deliver.

The strategic case should explain why five years and at least GBP 2,000,000 of FEC are necessary. It should position the programme against relevant UK and international activity, explain how it will establish or extend UK leadership, and set out the lasting value of resources such as training, FAIR data, software, technologies, or other research outputs. The capability case should give reviewers confidence that the team has the scientific, technical, leadership, management, and coordination skills needed for a distributed programme.

Team design should be concrete. Identify who owns each objective, how co-leads will coordinate across organisations, how technical and research staff will be supported, and how decisions will be made when results from different work packages interact. BBSRC encourages distributed leadership, inclusive governance, skills development, and attention to equality, diversity, and inclusion. These are practical delivery considerations for a project with multiple sites and a long period of activity, not separate statements to append after the scientific plan.

Fit and common risks

The strongest fit is a fully integrated fundamental bioscience programme in which collaboration is necessary to answer the question. Projects focused primarily on applying existing knowledge to a contemporary socioeconomic challenge, delivering a service, or making a narrow operational improvement are likely to be unsuitable at outline stage. For an invited team, the full proposal should preserve the discovery focus and explain the scientific contribution in terms that a multidisciplinary panel can assess.

Common risks include treating the full stage as an automatic award, leaving the integration case implicit, presenting a team whose roles overlap, or waiting too long to resolve organisational costings. The passed outline date also creates a timing risk: a team cannot repair a weak or absent stage-one position by submitting a new full proposal in February. The February date is a submission deadline for invitees, not a reopening of the outline call.

For questions about fit, eligibility, or sensitive information, the official page directs applicants to BBSRC at [email protected]. Sensitive information should be handled through the route BBSRC specifies rather than placed in a normal application response. Teams should also follow their own institutional submission deadline, which may be earlier than the BBSRC closing time.

Bottom line for applicants

This opportunity should now be read as a closed outline call with a live, invite-only full stage. The outline phase closed on 25 June 2026. If BBSRC invited your team, prepare the full application in the UKRI Funding Service for the stage-two window opening 5 November 2026 and closing 9 February 2027. If you were not invited, there is no public route into this stage.

For invited teams, the work ahead is to turn the assessed outline into a costed, deliverable programme: preserve the central aims, respond to feedback, document the need for scale, define the interfaces between work packages, confirm eligible roles and partners, and complete institutional checks before submission. The official opportunity page remains the controlling source for any stage-two instructions released in November 2026.

Official source: 2026 to 2027 strategic Longer and Larger (sLoLa) outlines