Strathclyde launches £50 million manufacturing research hub to boost UK prosperity
A pioneering research hub led by the University of Strathclyde and global industry partners is set to transform the way medicines and high value materials for modern life are made.
The Future Continuous Manufacturing and Advanced Crystallisation (CMAC) Hub has been developed in response to the need for innovative manufacturing processes to develop today’s high-value products, which are estimated to generate £50 billion each year for the UK economy.
Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson announced the new hub – one of just six in the UK – this morning (Monday 5 December.) One fifth of the hub’s funding comes from the UK Government through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), while the remainder is being funded by industry collaborators, university support for studentships and through key innovation system partners.
The Future CMAC Hub will build on the University’s reputation for world-class research in materials manufacturing. The research team is supporting industry in moving from ‘batch crystallisation’, where products are made using large volume tanks, to ‘continuous crystallisation’, a more dynamic process which allows manufacturing to take place within smaller, more cost-effective facilities using smaller quantities of expensive ingredients and less energy, with more control over the final product quality and performance.
Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal of the University, said: “This significant investment will enable our internationally-renowned CMAC centre of excellence to accelerate the development of innovative technology and establish new supply chains for medicines and other high-value products.
“Together with our partners, we aim to provide the UK with the most advanced, integrated capabilities to deliver continuous manufacturing, leading to better materials, better value, more sustainable and flexible processes and, ultimately, better health and wellbeing for people across the globe.
“CMAC is a primary example of established position as a leading international technological University– bringing world-class academics and industrialists together for the benefit of the economy and wider society.”
The Future CMAC hub will develop a collaborative, open innovation network for manufacturers and researchers across the globe to help address major challenges in high-value manufacturing, including personalisation of products.
In addition to the research team at Strathclyde, it brings together leading academic groups at the Universities of Bath, Cambridge, Leeds, Loughborough, Sheffield and Imperial College London, and will develop advanced predictive tools and new flexible, integrated processing technologies to enable the supply chains of the future for new medicines.
It will also accelerate the adoption of next-generation technology and deliver a talent pipeline of future research leaders, industrialists and regulators through targeted training and skills development at masters, doctoral, postdoctoral and professional levels.
Announcing the investment, Jo Johnson, Universities and Science Minister, said: “Developing new innovative manufacturing techniques will help UK industry create new products, explore more business opportunities and ensure the UK becomes more competitive and productive.
“This investment will lay the foundations to allow industry and our world-leading universities to thrive for years to come and is exactly the type of project that our upcoming Industrial Strategy will look to support.”
Hub Director Prof Alastair Florence said: “This announcement is hugely significant. This Hub has the potential to revolutionise the delivery of world class manufacturing research into how medicines are made and critically, accelerate the delivery of positive impacts of research on industry and on wider society.”
The announcement was warmly welcomed by the University’s partners in business and industry today.
CMAC Industry Membership Board Chairman, Dr Clive Badman OBE, of GSK, said: “Over the first five years as an EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing, CMAC has created a global presence in continuous manufacturing and crystallisation. The creation of a CMAC Research Hub affords the opportunity to build on this wonderful platform and deliver more world-class research enabling the embedding of continuous manufacture in the future supply chains of pharmaceuticals and chemicals.”
CMAC Hub Advisory Board Chairman, Prof Paul Sharrat, Institute for Chemical Engineering Sciences, Singapore, said: “I was immensely pleased to hear that the Future CMAC hub is to be funded. The well-considered plans and excellent network of participants will not only support genuinely leading research but will also provide a valuable and accessible source of technological advantage to its industrial stakeholders. “
Professor Philip Nelson, EPSRC’s Chief Executive, added: “EPSRC is pleased to be at the forefront of the drive to keep the UK a prosperous and productive nation.”