The project will look to develop solutions for both improving traditional blood products and developing new ones.  

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched a GBP50 million funding opportunity to develop “novel blood products”, a 13 November announcement from the authority has revealed. 

Interested parties are invited to advance the development of blood products – any therapeutic substance derived from human blood – under the project, which will be carried out in conjunction with the Medical Research Council and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl). 

“Novel blood products research aims to improve treatment in emergency and trauma care and address current critical blood product challenges nationally”, the MoD said, with development of these blood products focused on three key areas.  

The first area covers improving traditional blood products by, for example, reducing the requirement for cold storage or developing products that can be administered universally rather than to a specific blood group. 

Other areas include accelerating the development of “laboratory-derived blood” to reduce reliance on donors, and developing products with characteristics that natural blood cannot achieve.  

Development of these types of blood products will help meet the challenges of warfighting scenarios, the MoD said, where handling and shelf-life challenges are heightened and access to facilities may be limited. 

“Protecting the lives of our armed forces is our highest priority. Battlefield injuries involving severe trauma and blood loss often occur in austere conditions, many miles from hospitals”, Dr Paul Hollinshead, the head of Dstl said. 

“[This] funding opportunity offers applicants the ability to work closely with industrial partners and other initiatives to ensure provision of blood when and where it is needed”, he added.  

Outline proposals for this project must be submitted by 4 February 2026, with successful applicants then invited to submit a full proposal in Autumn 2026. The outcome of the funding opportunity is expected by Spring 2027. 

Interested parties are also invited to attend a webinar on 25 November 2025. 

Earlier this year, the UK’s Defence and Security Accelerator announced it was launching a similar, GBP1.5 million competition to discover novel technologies for managing non-compressible haemorrhages, a leading cause of preventable death in conflicts.