WBSO for Biotech and Life Sciences: How Your Research Qualifies
Manna Team
For biotech and life sciences companies, the WBSO is often a natural match. Research and development with an uncertain outcome are the core of the sector — exactly what the WBSO supports. This article explains when your research qualifies, both as a development project and as technical-scientific research. Want to apply right away? Start with the complete guide to applying for WBSO.
Two types of R&D for biotech
The WBSO covers two types of work relevant to biotech:
- Development work — developing a technically new product, process or software (for example a new assay, a production process for a biological, or bioinformatics software).
- Technical-scientific research (TWO) — explanatory research of a technical nature to acquire new knowledge, with an uncertain outcome.
Many biotech projects combine both.
When does biotech research qualify?
What matters is that there is technical novelty and technical uncertainty and that you carry out the work yourself within the EU.
Usually qualifies:
- Developing a new diagnostic or analytical assay
- Optimising a production or scale-up process (for example fermentation or purification) with uncertain feasibility
- Developing bioinformatics or models for data analysis
- Technical-scientific research into a mechanism of action
Usually does not qualify:
- Routine analyses or standard tests without a development question
- Purely clinical-organisational activities without technical development
- Merely purchasing and applying existing methods without your own development
Examples from life sciences
- Assay development: a new detection method where it is uncertain whether the required sensitivity and specificity are achievable.
- Process scale-up: scaling a production process from lab scale to production scale, with uncertain yield and stability.
- Bioinformatics: developing an algorithm to interpret biological data, with technical uncertainty about accuracy.
Wage costs, costs and expenditure
Biotech development is often capital-intensive. As a company with staff, alongside R&D wage costs you can also include costs and expenditure (such as materials and consumables for experiments), or opt for the flat rate. Calculate your benefit with the WBSO calculator 2026.
How do you describe a biotech project?
Answer RVO's four questions technically and concretely: what are you developing or researching, why is it technically new, which technical problems or uncertainties do you expect and how will you approach them? If you do TWO, describe the research design. A worked WBSO application example helps you get started.
Get started
See RVO.nl/wbso for the official conditions.
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