Biocatalysis involves the use of one or more enzymes to catalyze chemical reactions. The benefits of exquisite selectivity matched with mild conditions enable an entirely new and complementary approach to synthetic chemistry. Biocatalysis has developed enormously in the past decade and now offers solutions to many intractable chemical problems in the pharmaceutical, fine chemical and lower value industrial sectors. The science underlying these industrial developments is built around protein engineering. The 2016 GRC will focus on creativity, expanding both the underlying scientific developments as well as new process concepts for industrial implementation. Such creativity is also opening whole new fields such as biocatalytic retrosynthesis, enzyme cascades and systems biocatalysis. The 2016 GRC will again enable the very latest developments in biocatalysis to be discussed in depth, with a view to defining the future of this expanding field and identifying new applications.