Building an economy powered by biology poses challenges that are shared across the globe. The need for forward-thinking policies and regulatory frameworks is unparalleled in its urgency. We need new and better strategies for streamlining regulations to foster safe and efficient innovation and bring products to market, fast. In this keynote , the Chair of the UK's unique Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO) will lay out the next phase UK's position as a global leader, unlocking synthetic biology's vast societal and economic benefits while setting new standards for regulatory excellence in Europe and beyond.

Transitioning synthetic biology innovations from the lab to commercial scale requires strategic investment, robust infrastructure, and cross-sector collaboration. This session explores the financial and operational challenges of scaling the bioeconomy in the UK and Europe, highlighting key funding mechanisms, investor perspectives, and case studies of successful scale-ups. Join this session to understand the investment landscape, technology readiness, and market adoption and hear insights for startups and stakeholders looking to bridge the gap between research and commercialization.

This panel will bring together leaders across industry, public sector and the community to examine the systemic barriers slowing the bioeconomy’s growth and ask, “What best practices are we seeing to unlock progress?” Despite breakthroughs in synbio—including recent our findings showing 96% of businesses are advancing biosolutions—progress remains stalled by discovery costs, scaling challenges, regulatory uncertainty, and investment bottlenecks. Join this session to understand how these challenges are being overcome to ensure synbio moves from future predictions to large-scale impact. The discussion will focus on tangible actions to accelerate this transition and realize the full economic promise of the bioeconomy.