Glasgow City Region has announced a major £25 million funding call to accelerate the next wave of world-leading innovation, backing high-potential projects that can turn breakthrough research into real-world impact and drive growth across the region’s rapidly expanding health and life sciences sector.

The landmark ‘open call’ invites proposals that can turn breakthrough research into real-world impact – whether through commercialisation, product development, prototyping, tech transfer or patents. The initiative is designed to give high-potential innovators the support they need to scale faster and bring new technologies to market.

The decision to focus on health and life Sciences follows a detailed intelligence-led review of Glasgow’s innovation ecosystem, identifying the sector as one of the region’s most powerful economic growth engines. Industry-validated analysis shows the cluster already employs more than 10,000 people, with jobs surging 47% between 2019 and 2023.

With strengths spanning MedTech, BioTech, Pharma and Biopharma, the sector is seen as a cornerstone of Scotland’s future economy.

Scottish Enterprise forecasts 300% growth in turnover nationally by 2035, and Glasgow City Region already accounts for almost 60% of current Scottish turnover. The call forms a central part of the region’s drive to strengthen innovation across the eight member councils: Glasgow City, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire.

Cllr Susan Aitken, Chair of the Glasgow City Region Cabinet and Leader of Glasgow City Council, said the city is already outperforming international benchmarks.

“Health and Life Sciences is an example of a dynamic sector where Glasgow is at the forefront – one ranked by DSIT as more innovative than comparators in London and the OxCam Cluster, and which is projected to grow by three hundred per cent across Scotland in the next decade,” she said.

She highlighted Glasgow’s combined strengths in innovation and clinical expertise, enabling the city to act as a real-world testbed for groundbreaking health technologies.

“That combination of entrepreneurialism and cutting-edge research is exemplified by Glasgow University spinout Chemify. Having secured support from the Innovation Accelerator programme, Chemify now employs 165 staff.”

Aitken said the new £25m opportunity, backed by government, aims to spark more success stories of this scale:

“I’m delighted to announce our call for ambitious proposals that could benefit from a share of twenty-five million pounds now available through the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund. Led by UK Research and Innovation and administered here in the City Region, funding will be awarded to health and life sciences projects moving research from the laboratory into real-world use.”

The open call is expected to attract a wave of high-impact proposals and provide a major lift to Glasgow’s position as one of the UK’s most dynamic hubs for health innovation.

As digital enabling technologies is already highly integrated within the cluster and already providing the levers to support the Life Sciences sector in Glasgow, proposals from businesses with a further sector – Digital Enabling Technologies, where activity is driving digitally powered innovation and growth in Health and Life Sciences will also be considered. This is in recognition that breakthroughs in health, medicine and biotechnology are often accelerated by data science, AI and quantum computing.

Applications must be submitted by February 20, 2026. For further details visit: https://gcrlipf.co.uk/