The Geomicrobiology Network is hosting its annual Research in Progress Meeting, taking place at the Natural History Museum, London, on Tuesday, October 7th, and Wednesday, October 8th, 2025.

This meeting provides a vibrant platform for researchers across the broad spectrum of geomicrobiology to share their latest work, network with colleagues, and foster collaborations. The network especially encourages early career researchers to participate and showcase their research in this supportive environment.

Event Highlights

• Date: October 7-8, 2025
• Location: Natural History Museum, London
• Format: In-person and online presentations
• Participation: Open to all geomicrobiology-related disciplines, including biogeochemistry, biomineralization, microbial ecology, astrobiology, and more.

Call for Abstracts
The network welcomes submissions of posters and talks from researchers at all career stages. Abstract submission opens on June 16th and closes on August 15th, 2025.

Find out more about this event here: Geomicrobiology Network – Mineralogical Society of the UK and Ireland.

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) hosted a webinar on 4 July 2025, highlighting the work of the ELEMENTAL Mission Hub. This event was part of a series featuring the six UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Hubs. The webinar was free to attend and open to researchers, innovators, businesses, investors, and policymakers.

The ELEMENTAL Mission Hub, led by the University of Kent in collaboration with institutions including the Quadram Institute and University College London, focused on developing sustainable solutions for the recovery and processing of metals. By employing engineering biology techniques, the hub aimed to address challenges related to metal waste and scarcity, contributing to a circular economy.

During the webinar, attendees learned about the hub’s objectives, ongoing research activities, and opportunities for engagement. A Q&A session followed, allowing participants to interact with the Mission Hub team. For more information, visit the UKRI events page.

Video recording to follow.

This webinar is part of a series taking place over 2025. Each webinar will feature members from one of the six UK Research and Innovation Engineering Biology Mission Hub teams.

Registration is now open for the BBSRC Sparking Innovation Conference taking place in Leeds, 30 April-1 May 2025. Further information and application form can be found here.

The National Measurement Laboratory is offering free online training to Elemental Hub PDRAs and Co-Is.

They have secured BBSRC funding to develop and run a metrology and standardisation course specifically for the Engineering Biology Mission Awards and this will be offered across all the Hubs and awards.

Structure: The initial stage of the training would be online with one of the NML team, typically in a group of ~20 people comprised of members of all the EB Mission Awards (likely to be around 8 or 9 groups of 20). It is envisaged that this training  will take around 6 hours in total but delivered over 2-2.5 days (possibly a morning/afternoon or lunch and learn type sessions). The training will be interactive with the use of polls/chat function and would be recorded with the slides used being made available to attendees afterwards. This is likely to start in February/March 2025 and is **free** to PDRA’s and Co-Is on the Elemental Hub.

For those interested in progressing to advanced training, this will be delivered in person from 2026 and likely to be funded through our seedcorn award.

Content:  Prior to commencing training, attendees will be sent a survey from NML to gauge level of prior knowledge and areas of interest, so that the content can be made relevant. A link to some of the NML existing online courses can be found here if you would like to get an idea of how these look.

The initial stage of training is designed to support TRLs 1-4; the advanced training is aimed at TRLs 5-7 (support for commercialisation), then support via direct discussions with NML scientists for TRL8-9 (see slide 6).

If you are interested in registering for this training, please email elementalmetalhub@kent.ac.uk by week ending 17 January 2025.

The BBSRC ELEMENTAL Engineering Biology Mission Hub held its first annual meeting in Manchester on 15-16 January 2025. Our Hub is focused on developing efficient bioengineering solutions to create a sustainable, circular economy through the recovery and processing of metals from various sources and waste streams. Our PDRAs and Co-Investigators presented their progress across our six research themes – Bioleaching, Biorecovery, Bioprocessing & Industrial Biotechnology, Biosensing, Bioremediation, and the Circular Economy of Metals. Researchers will regularly post updates on their progress to our HUB Research Blog link. Also joining us were members of our Strategic Advisory Board and our BBSRC Engineering Biology Senior Portfolio Manager. We were excited to discuss as a group how to tackle the challenges of implementing bioengineering solutions at scale as we fulfil the Engineering Biology Mission Hub goal of translating research discoveries into commercial benefit across different sectors of UK society.  

We cordially invite you to join us in an interactive workshop on 20 Jan on Biotechnology for metals at the University of Surrey to discuss the successes and challenges learnt from this, brainstorm the next big ideas and develop collaboration. Speakers and participants are expected from the groups undertaking BBSRC-funded biotech for metal circular economy projects. 

Researchers from the US Critical Materials Innovation Hub, together with the UK Science and Innovation Network, academic, Department of Energy and industrial colleagues from the US, visited the UK 2-6 December 2024 for workshops with Elemental Hub members to discuss mutual research interests and potential collaborations.

A visit to Prof. Jon Lloyd in Manchester took place 3-4 December. A workshop with Elemental Hub members, academic guests and representatives from BBSRC, Innovate UK and DSIT took place at the Natural History Museum in London on 5-6 December.

UKUS_EngBio-CM-flyer

Slides from presentations on 5 December may be seen here. Slides from presentations on 6 December may be seen here.

Do you want to find out how your career might develop working for industry, the differences between industrial- and academic-driven research and how the industrial environment matches your career ambitions?

Are you interested? If you are (a) an Early Career Researcher (normally at year 3 or later of PhD training or on your first post-doctoral position in an academic environment but potentially in the early stages of an industrial career) and (b) working in the area of bioprocessing of biopharmaceuticals or novel biological therapeutics then this could be an ideal opportunity for you. It is likely that you are already working on a project that has an industrial collaborator but this is not essential.

The week-long residential programme is co-organised by BioProNET2 and E3B (a BBSRC Network in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy, BBSRC NIBB) and is possible due to funding from the BBSRC. Participation will be limited to 18 attendees. Your accommodation, meals and all training activities will be provided to eligible applicants.  Each participant will be asked to make a £150 non-returnable contribution for registration once their acceptance of a place is confirmed.

Formal REGISTRATION is now open and you can make informal enquiries to Dr Jo Flannelly (joanne.flannelly@manchester.ac.uk).

Sessions form part of an integrated package that culminate in a Dragons Den-type pitch for establishment of a novel business concept:

• Talks on molecular design for development, manufacture and delivery of biological therapeutics and the societal/economic consideration of novel therapeutics  
• Tutoring on the tools for self-awareness in working with others, career development and the entrepreneurial process  
• Industrial site visits (CPI, FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, Iksuda Therapeutics) coupled with presentations from, and discussions with, industrial practitioners.

Details may be found here

Professor Martin Warren introduced ELEMENTAL Metal Hub to the meeting. EngBio slides