Environmental Biotechnology Network

Welcome to EBNet

GOOD NEWS:  EBNet was originally due to finish on 18 March 2025 but has now been extended to 31 January 2026.  See the News items for more updates on our activities!

The Environmental Biotechnology Network (EBNet) is one of 6 Phase II Networks in Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy funded primarily by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) with additional support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), and builds on the successful Anaerobic Digestion Network, one of 13 Phase I NIBBs.

Our community of academics and industry is dedicated to engineering microbial systems for environmental protection, bioremediation and resource recovery. These include, for example, microbes in anaerobic digestion, waste water treatment and those that bio-degrade plastics, oil or other emerging pollutants. Our remit includes terrestrial environmental biotechnology (EB), aquatic EB, organic resources and life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) approaches to EB. Click on the video below to find out more about what we do.

If you are interested in these environmental biotechnologies which are or potentially could be deployed at scale, our Network is free-to-join. Find our most important activities on the ‘Don’t Miss‘ panel on the left of this page, on our Twitter (now X) feed on the right of the page or in the menus above.

We:

  • facilitate partnerships, networking and knowledge transfer between academia and industry
  • provide support for Working Groups to carry out activities in specific areas of environmental biotechnology
  • have funded Business Interaction Vouchers (BIV) of £5,000-£20,000 for projects lasting up to 6 months
  • provided Proof of Concept (PoC) funding of up to £100,000 for projects of up to 12 months’ duration
  • support the next generation of researchers with opportunities for training, travel and practical experience in academia and industry

For more on selected aspects of Environmental Biotechnology, take a look at our YouTube channel or selected animations (below).

Microbes in Wastewater Treatment and subtitled version Anaerobic fermentations: A sustainable approach to everyday products by turning waste into value and subtitled version Innovation in slow sand filtration: A sustainable solution for clean water and subtitled version
The application of microbubbles for wastewater treatment and more and subtitled version Check out our whole YouTube Channel for these animations and much more! Aerobic Granules and subtitled version

For lots more information on our activities, see our #EnvBiotechAware week which ran from 3-7 March 2025, and our individual Working Group pages. More details of resources, outputs and outcomes are also available on the tabs above.