Get Up to £35,000 to Test the Market for Your Bioscience Idea: BBSRC ICURe Explore 2026 Grant Guide

You know that moment in a lab meeting when someone says, “This could be huge,” and everyone nods… and then you all go back to pipetting because nobody has time to figure out who would actually buy it, use it, approve it, or pay for it? That’s the gap BBSRC ICURe Explore is built to close.

ICURe Explore 2026 isn’t a research grant in the traditional “more experiments, more data” sense. It’s funding for a different kind of work: getting out of the building (politely, productively) to test whether your bioscience-based idea has a real market and a real customer problem behind it. Think of it as a structured reality check—with cash attached.

The programme is designed for bioscience PhD students, researchers, and technicians who already have something promising—maybe a tool, method, platform, assay, software, therapeutic angle, synthetic biology approach, or enabling technology—but need evidence that the outside world cares. Not your supervisor. Not your collaborators. The outside world: clinicians, pharma, food producers, diagnostics labs, regulators, procurement teams, and the people who sign purchase orders.

Here’s the kicker: you must have completed ICURe Discover to apply. That prerequisite is doing you a favour. It means you’re not walking in cold—you’re building on earlier training and momentum, and reviewers can assume you understand the basics of market exploration rather than treating “customer discovery” like an exotic new species.

At a Glance: ICURe Explore 2026 Key Facts

What This Opportunity Actually Pays For (and Why That Matters)

The headline number—up to £35,000—is useful, but the structure is what makes ICURe Explore unusually practical.

First, it includes up to £20,000 for the Entrepreneurial Lead’s salary. Translation: someone gets paid to do the unglamorous, high-value work of talking to potential customers, mapping routes to market, and stress-testing assumptions. This matters because commercial exploration is time-consuming in a way that doesn’t show up on a CV. Without dedicated time, it becomes “something I’ll do after I finish this experiment,” which is academic code for “never.”

Second, there’s up to £15,000 for assumption testing and customer discovery activities. That phrase can sound like consultant-speak, so let’s pin it down. Assumption testing is simply identifying what you’re currently guessing—about the user, the problem, the performance requirements, the regulatory path, adoption barriers, pricing, competitors—and then gathering evidence to prove or disprove those guesses.

Customer discovery is the engine that powers that evidence. It might include travel to visit stakeholders, attending a targeted industry event (not the generic conference buffet circuit), developing simple prototypes or demos, paying for small bits of market research, or running tightly scoped validations.

In other words, ICURe Explore funds the work that turns “this is interesting science” into “this solves a painful problem for a defined group of people, and here’s proof.”

What ICURe Explore Is Not (So You Do Not Waste Your Time)

Let’s be blunt because deadlines are real: this is not a grant to extend your research project. If your plan is “run more experiments and then maybe someone will want it,” you’ll struggle.

It’s also not a blank cheque for building a polished product. ICURe Explore sits earlier than that. You’re testing demand, use-cases, and feasibility in the market sense—before you spend a year building something nobody asked for.

And it’s not a solo hero mission. Even if you’re the Entrepreneurial Lead, your project should show signs of being anchored in an institution that can support translation: tech transfer, business engagement, an innovation office, or a credible pathway to the next stage.

Who Should Apply (with Real-World Fit Checks)

ICURe Explore is aimed at bioscience researchers and technicians based in eligible UK organisations—UK universities, BBSRC-funded institutes, and UKRI-approved public sector research enterprises—who have already completed ICURe Discover.

If you’re wondering whether your idea is “commercial enough,” here’s a more helpful question: Can you point to a specific group of people who have a recurring, expensive, regulated, risky, or time-draining problem—and explain how your idea improves their situation? If yes, you’re in the right neighbourhood.

This programme is a particularly good fit if:

You’re a PhD student with an invention hiding inside your thesis. Maybe it’s a faster screening assay, a new bioprocessing method, a smarter microbial engineering workflow, or a diagnostic concept. You don’t need a finished company. You need credible market evidence—and ICURe Explore is built for that.

You’re a postdoc or research staff member sitting on a platform technology. Platform technologies are notorious for being “applicable to everything,” which is another way of saying “hard to sell to anyone.” ICURe Explore gives you a structure to pick the strongest initial wedge: one customer segment, one urgent use-case, one set of proof points.

You’re a technician or research specialist who knows how the work really happens. Technicians often see operational pain points that PIs miss: bottlenecks in sample handling, QC failures, workflow gaps, instrument downtime, compliance headaches. Those are often the exact problems customers will pay to solve—if you can document them properly.

You should also apply if you’ve got the maturity to hear “no” without spiralling. Customer discovery is rejection therapy with a spreadsheet. It’s incredibly valuable, but only if you treat it as data rather than a referendum on your self-worth.

The Big Idea: Market Exploration as a Scientific Method

If “commercialisation” makes you itch, reframe it. ICURe Explore is basically applying the scientific method to the market.

• Your “hypothesis” is your value proposition.
• Your “experimental design” is your interview plan and assumption tests.
• Your “results” are patterns across stakeholders, not p-values.
• Your “conclusion” is a clearer route to impact—whether that’s licensing, a spinout, partnership, or even a decision to park the idea.

This is why the programme is worth your time even if you don’t end up founding a company. The skills travel with you.

Insider Tips for a Winning ICURe Explore Application

1) Write your assumptions like you mean it

Most applicants hide their assumptions in vague language: “There is significant demand for…” No. List the assumptions plainly and make them testable. For example: “Quality managers in mid-size biotech CDMOs will pay £X per year to reduce contamination events by Y%” is scary-specific—and that’s exactly why it’s useful.

2) Pick a customer segment and commit

You can always expand later. For Explore, choosing “healthcare” or “agriculture” is like choosing “planet Earth.” Instead, narrow: hospital microbiology labs, dairy processors, insect protein producers, cell therapy manufacturers, plant breeders, water utilities. Reviewers want focus because focus is how you learn quickly.

3) Make your Entrepreneurial Lead role look real, not ceremonial

The funding explicitly supports the Entrepreneurial Lead salary. Use that fact. Explain what that person will do week-to-week: number of interviews, stakeholder mapping, iteration cycles, validation activities. Make it feel like a job plan, not a title.

4) Show you understand adoption friction

In bioscience, the barrier is rarely “does it work?” It’s “can we validate it, integrate it, certify it, train staff on it, and justify buying it?” Address practical blockers early: regulatory classification, procurement cycles, compatibility with existing workflows, sample requirements, cold chain constraints, data governance, IP position.

5) Treat interviews as an experiment, not a chat

A strong customer discovery plan doesn’t say “we’ll talk to industry.” It says how many conversations, with whom, and what you’re trying to learn from each cohort. Mix your stakeholders: end users, buyers, influencers, and gatekeepers (hello, compliance and IT).

6) Budget like an adult, not like a wish list

The Explore budget categories are clear: salary plus customer discovery and testing costs. Build a budget that matches your learning goals. If travel is central, explain why in-person meetings are necessary (often true in regulated settings). If you need a prototype, keep it minimal and tied directly to validation.

7) Build a bridge to “what next”

Even if the programme doesn’t demand a full commercial plan, your application should hint at the next stepping stone: licensing discussions, seed funding, an accelerator, a translational grant, an industrial partner. You’re not promising a unicorn. You’re showing momentum and direction.

Application Timeline: A Sensible Plan to Reach 6 February 2026

Working backwards from the 6 February 2026 (23:59) deadline, give yourself enough runway to think and rewrite—because the first version of your idea is usually the most academic and the least sellable.

By early January, aim to have your core narrative stable: what the problem is, who has it, why they care, and what you’ll do during Explore to test the riskiest assumptions. Use mid-January to pressure-test your plan with people who aren’t in your lab—innovation office staff, a friendly industry contact, or someone who has done ICURe before. If they can’t repeat your value proposition back to you, you’re not ready.

Late January should be for tightening: sharpening the scope, aligning your budget with activities, and making sure the Entrepreneurial Lead time is credible. In the final week, do a compliance pass—eligibility, prerequisite completion (ICURe Discover), attachments, formatting, and internal sign-off if your organisation requires it. Submit at least 48 hours early; online portals have a nasty sense of humour.

Required Materials: What to Prepare (and How to Make It Strong)

UKRI opportunities often come with specific forms and templates, so treat the official page as your source of truth. In practical terms, expect to prepare:

• A project description that explains the bioscience idea, the proposed application(s), and—crucially—the market problem you’re testing. Your best friend here is clarity: a tight problem statement beats a beautiful paragraph of science.
• A customer discovery and assumption testing plan describing who you will speak to, what you need to learn, and how those insights will change your decisions. Mention numbers. Mention stakeholder types. Mention how you’ll capture and analyse insights.
• A budget and justification that clearly splits salary support and activity costs. Reviewers want to see that the money buys learning, not just motion.
• Evidence of eligibility and prerequisite completion, especially that you’ve finished ICURe Discover.
• Any supporting statements your organisation requires (for example, confirming institutional support or sign-off). Even if it’s not formally required, demonstrating that your tech transfer or innovation team is aware of the plan reduces perceived risk.

What Makes an Application Stand Out to Reviewers

Successful ICURe Explore applications feel grounded in reality. Not cynical—just evidence-based.

Reviewers tend to respond well when the problem is urgent and expensive, the customer is identifiable, and the proposed discovery work is designed to reduce the biggest uncertainties fast. They also like teams who don’t confuse “market size” with “market access.” You can claim a billion-pound market in one sentence; getting a first buyer is the hard part. Show you understand that.

A standout application also respects the difference between an invention and a product. Your technology might be brilliant, but the programme is about fit: fit with workflows, incentives, regulation, and purchasing behaviour. If you demonstrate you’re ready to learn—not just to persuade—you’ll read as fundable.

Common Mistakes to Avoid (and How to Fix Them)

Mistake 1: Trying to serve everyone.
Fix: Pick one beachhead market. Name it. Describe it. Make the first use-case painfully specific.

Mistake 2: Writing like a paper instead of a plan.
Fix: Replace literature-style background with a clear set of assumptions, risks, and tests. Market exploration is not a review article.

Mistake 3: Confusing interest with commitment.
Fix: In interviews, don’t ask “Would you use this?” Ask what they do now, what it costs them, what happens when it fails, and what would make them switch.

Mistake 4: Ignoring the buyer.
Fix: End users love things. Buyers buy outcomes. Identify who holds the budget and what they’re measured on.

Mistake 5: Overbuilding too early.
Fix: Build the smallest demo that answers a question. “Can it work in their setting?” beats “Can we make it pretty?”

Mistake 6: Forgetting IP and freedom to operate.
Fix: You don’t need a full patent strategy in Explore, but you should show you’ve spoken to the right people internally and understand what’s protectable and what might be crowded.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to be a PI to apply?

Not necessarily. ICURe Explore is open to PhD students, researchers, and technicians in eligible organisations. The key is that your organisation can support the application and you meet all requirements, including completing ICURe Discover.

Is this only for UK universities?

No. Eligibility includes UK universities, BBSRC-funded institutes, and UKRI-approved public sector research enterprises.

What does completed ICURe Discover mean in practice?

It means you’ve previously gone through the ICURe Discover stage. If you’re not sure whether your participation counts as “completed,” ask using the contacts listed on the opportunity or your local programme lead before you spend hours drafting.

Can the £35,000 be used for lab reagents or new experiments?

This funding is described for market exploration, with budget lines for Entrepreneurial Lead salary and assumption testing/customer discovery activities. If you’re proposing lab work, justify it as essential validation tied directly to customer discovery—not as general research.

What is customer discovery, really?

It’s structured learning through conversations and evidence gathering with the people involved in using, buying, approving, or recommending your innovation. You’re looking for patterns: repeated pain points, constraints, purchasing triggers, and deal-breakers.

How competitive is it?

Programmes like this tend to be competitive because the value is high and the funding is targeted. The upside is that a focused, well-designed exploration plan can beat a flashier technology with a fuzzy market story.

Can this lead to a spinout or licensing deal?

Yes—those are common “next steps” if the evidence supports it. ICURe Explore doesn’t force you into one route, but it should help you make a smarter choice about which path actually fits.

Who do I contact with questions?

You’ve got three listed contacts: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. Use them—asking an eligibility question early is faster than rewriting an application late.

How to Apply (and What to Do This Week)

Start by confirming the two gatekeepers: your organisation is eligible, and you have completed ICURe Discover. If either is uncertain, email the contacts now—today—because waiting until the final week is a classic self-own.

Next, write a one-page “market problem brief” before you touch the application form. Include: the customer segment, the problem, current alternatives, and what would have to be true for adoption. This document will keep you honest when the science tries to take over the narrative.

Then, sketch your customer discovery plan. Aim for a concrete target number of stakeholder conversations, spread across roles (users, buyers, gatekeepers). Decide how you’ll capture learning (interview notes, tagging themes, weekly synthesis) and how you’ll change course when evidence contradicts you.

Finally, map your budget directly to learning milestones. If a cost doesn’t buy information, it probably doesn’t belong.

Ready to apply? Visit the official opportunity page for full guidance and submission details: https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/bbsrc-innovation-to-commercialisation-of-university-research-icure-explore-2026/