Insight

Engineering biology is reaching a crucial inflexion point. At the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre Annual Conference IBioIC25, Lord Patrick Vallance highlighted that engineering biology is now at the level of maturity to have a broad impact across a range of industries. What was once a niche, fundamental research-driven field is now evolving into an engine of commercial innovation capable of transforming industries from healthcare and agriculture to manufacturing and sustainability. As the sector matures, collaboration is no longer a choice – it is a necessity.

The Case for Pre-Competitive Collaboration

In engineering biology, competition often begins too early, leading to fragmented efforts, duplicated investment, and slow progress in infrastructure development. Pre-competitive collaboration offers an alternative: companies, research institutions, and policymakers working together on foundational challenges before competing in the marketplace.

Key benefits include:

• Accelerating innovation – joint R&D efforts, best practice sharing, and shared platforms and infrastructure can lower barriers to innovation and commercialisation by reducing duplication of effort.
• Strengthening supply chains – a deeper understanding of bioeconomy supply chains helps to build strategies towards long-term resilience.
• De-risking investment – pre-competitive initiatives can reduce uncertainty for further investment by accelerating technology development and reducing upfront CAPEX demands.
• Creating industry standards – Common frameworks for safety, regulation, and data interoperability promote scalability.

Cluster Development: A Framework for Growth

IBioIC25 showcased several examples of successful pre-competitive collaboration where stakeholders work across regions to unlock new opportunities in their industry. These include geographically clustered organisations, as well as those working in similar industrial sectors across different geographies, for example marine biotechnology leaders.

Clusters, which are geographic or virtual ecosystems of interconnected organisations, have been instrumental in advancing industries. In engineering biology, they provide an essential mechanism for scaling innovation, coordinating supply chains, and driving investment.

Clusters thrive when industry, academia, and government collaborate, ensuring alignment between technological capabilities, workforce development, and investment incentives. At IBioIC25, the £7.5 million UKRI-funded launchpad for biobased manufacturing in Scotland was highlighted as a major cluster development milestone. This initiative, led by Scottish Enterprise, IBioIC, and Forth Valley College, aims to accelerate cluster development in biomanufacturing. Companies that secured funding in the first tranche – including BioMara, HUID, Ingenza, MiAlgae, Prozymi, and NCIMB among others – demonstrate a diverse and growing ecosystem.

Steps in Cluster Development

Drawing from Cluster Navigators’ model, successful cluster development follows a structured process:

1. Relevance – identifying key industry strengths and justifying the cluster’s focus.
2. Building a base – establishing governance structures and initial partnerships.
3. Creating momentum – setting shared strategies and short-term objectives.
4. Extending the base – formalising the cluster, benchmarking progress, and ensuring long-term viability.
5. Sustaining momentum – linking the cluster to broader industry efforts and continuously evaluating impact.

Building on our wealth of research and economic development experience, Optimat has supported public sector organisations by supplying bespoke and targeted research informing cluster development and managing cluster activities across a range of industries. Most recently, we assessed the structure, operations and strategy of chemical clusters across Europe that have demonstrated a transition towards sustainable chemicals manufacture. We compared the strengths and weaknesses of each cluster, evaluated best practice in cluster development and identified lessons learned. These insights informed a series of recommendations for the future development of the industrial cluster at Grangemouth.

Optimat’s work on Location Data Scotland (LDS) exemplifies effective cluster base building and expansion, fostering a dynamic geospatial community that now includes over 120 organisations spanning industry, academia, and government. LDS has successfully connected stakeholders, driven industry-led skills development, and facilitated collaboration to unlock the value of location data. Key achievements include establishing Scotland’s first Geospatial Skills Foundation Programme in partnership with Fife College, the Scottish Government and AGI Scotland, securing investment for geospatial startups, and shaping policy to integrate geospatial technologies into wider economic strategies. By actively engaging businesses and the public sector, LDS has strengthened Scotland’s geospatial ecosystem, transforming it from a fragmented landscape into a coordinated, high-impact cluster.

Finally, the key to the longevity of a cluster is to evaluate and quantify its impact to ensure that the clustering adds value to the member organisations and the industry as a whole. This can be done through formative and summative evaluations, economic impact evaluations, and needs assessments. One of the examples of Optimat-led evaluations in the engineering biology sector was the evaluation of the economic impact arising from the UK research councils’ investment in the Synthetic Biology for Growth (SBfG) programme. The study found that the programme was transformational and established the UK as a global leader in synthetic biology.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Engineering Biology Collaboration

IBioIC25 highlighted the broad range of opportunities that arise from fostering stronger clusters, including accelerated innovation, deeper collaboration, and smarter, more sustainable supply chain management strategies. Moving forward, the sector must prioritise expanding pre-competitive initiatives, scaling up cluster development, and strengthening global partnerships.

Clusters provide the foundation for regional specialisation, workforce development, and infrastructure investment, ensuring that engineering biology continues to scale effectively. However, these clustering efforts should not occur in isolation as the internationalisation potential of engineering biology-enabled products is immense. Interregional collaboration, including sharing best practices and technological advancements, will be essential to build a resilient, globally competitive bioeconomy. Lessons from subsectors such as marine biotech, where international partnerships are helping to unlock bio-based innovations, show how regions with complementary expertise can work together to accelerate progress.

As engineering biology moves from research into widespread industry adoption, success will depend not just on competition but on collaboration that strengthens the entire ecosystem. By embracing a cluster-driven, pre-competitive, and globally interconnected approach, engineering biology can unlock its full potential to drive sustainable growth and transformative impact across industries.