AQUILA BIOSCIENCE LIMITED

Their core work

Aquila Bioscience is an Irish biotech SME specializing in glycobiology-based decontamination technologies. They develop bio-decontamination wipes that use glycosylation chemistry to neutralize biological threats, including pathogens like SARS-CoV-2 and CBRN agents. Their core product line addresses the need for safe, non-toxic surface decontamination in healthcare, defense, and public health settings. They also have roots in bacterial sensory biology research, which likely underpins their understanding of microbial surface interactions.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Aquila Bioscience began in 2017 as a participant in fundamental microbiology research (PATHSENSE, bacterial sensing), building scientific depth in how microorganisms interact with surfaces. By 2018-2020, they had pivoted decisively toward applied biotech — developing and scaling a commercial decontamination product through the SME Instrument pipeline. The COVID-19 pandemic clearly accelerated their trajectory, with their largest project (ABwipe, EUR 1.94M) expanding the scope from general decontamination to pandemic-grade biothreat response.

Moving from lab science toward market-ready decontamination products for biosecurity and pandemic preparedness — expect continued focus on CBRN and health security applications.

How they like to work

Aquila Bioscience primarily leads its own projects, coordinating 2 out of 3 H2020 projects. Their SME Instrument projects are single-company efforts typical of the scheme, while PATHSENSE placed them in a larger training network as a third party. With 14 consortium partners across 7 countries, they have a modest but genuinely international network despite being a small company. They appear to be a focused technology developer rather than a serial consortium joiner.

Connected to 14 partners across 7 countries, primarily through the PATHSENSE training network. Their SME Instrument projects are largely self-driven, so their collaborative network is relatively concentrated in the microbiology research community.

What sets them apart

Aquila Bioscience occupies a rare niche at the intersection of glycobiology and practical decontamination — most biotech SMEs focus on diagnostics or therapeutics, not surface decontamination chemistry. Their successful progression from SME-1 feasibility to SME-2 scale-up (a 40x funding increase) signals strong commercial validation by EU evaluators. For consortium builders in biosecurity or pandemic preparedness, they bring a concrete, product-stage technology rather than theoretical research.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ABwipe
  Their flagship project at nearly EUR 2M — a COVID-era bio-decontamination technology that represents the commercialization of their core glycobiology expertise.
• Glyco-DeCon
  The EUR 50K SME-1 feasibility study that validated the glycosylation wipe concept before scaling up to ABwipe — shows a disciplined innovation pipeline.