In response to the growing need for sustainable practices in pharmaceutical manufacturing, our project aims to transform the industry by incorporating cutting-edge technology and data-driven approaches to create eco-friendly factories for the future. Our vision is to revolutionise pharmaceutical manufacturing by integrating robotics and automation, along with advanced data science and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches. This initiative seeks to develop next-generation manufacturing methods and improve downstream processing to promote circularity in the industry, ultimately reducing environmental impact and meeting the demand for innovative and sustainable practices. The pharmaceutical industry has been slower to adopt robotics and automation compared to other sectors. Our goal is to change this by increasing the use of collaborative robots (cobots) and automation in both our research and development labs and manufacturing facilities. By integrating robotics, we will enhance precision and efficiency, leading to reduced energy consumption and waste compared to traditional methods. Additionally, we plan to develop self-optimising reactors using data-driven insights to facilitate rapid scale-up, reducing material and time requirements for process development. In addition to robotics and automation, our project will focus on advancing next-generation pharmaceutical manufacturing techniques. Continuous processing methods offer sustainability benefits, and we aim to overcome associated challenges by developing new reactor types that can accommodate a wider range of drug substance and product processes. This will include downstream processes for continuous purification and waste management, including the exploration of advanced technologies such as membrane-based systems to minimise waste and energy consumption while ensuring the efficient extraction of high-quality pharmaceutical products from complex mixtures. Our future factory will use data-driven approaches and AI based on comprehensive data collection through Process Analytical Technologies (PAT) and analytical science to reduce our environmental impact, improve efficiency, and increase automation in manufacturing. This means creating predictive models to optimise production planning, enhance quality control, and carry out maintenance before issues arise. Putting data at the heart of our future factory allows us to continuously monitor and improve processes, ensuring the best production results and efficient use of resources. We are collaborating with large pharmaceutical companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, and academic institutions, all of which possess the necessary expertise to deliver groundbreaking technologies. Together, we aim to ensure that the outputs of this project are adopted across the medicines manufacturing sector, thereby reducing emissions and minimising waste.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide. Besides established risk factors such as elevated blood pressure, blood glucose or lipid levels, circulating proteomic as well as genetic markers allow further stratification of patients. While some of these markers can be measured routinely in low-threshold healthcare institutions, others require access to highly specialized and costly laboratory environment which usually can be found only within larger tertiary settings. The aim of this project is to advance and tailor a point-of-care (PoC) tool, which was recently developed within the framework of HORIZON 2020. Using cutting-edge lab-on-a-chip (LoC) and microfluidic technology, the tool will be further developed to measure qualified biomarkers and polymorphisms from finger prick blood, in order to help identify, classify and monitor cardiovascular patients at high risk. The clinical validation of these biomarkers and the PoC tool will then be performed in a prospective, randomised multinational trial which will include only existing and approved pharmaceuticals. Based on their specific pattern of qualified biomarkers, patients will be assigned either to standard pharmacological treatment, or tailored intensified treatment. Data derived from the clinical validation study will constitute a rich source for complex AIpowered computational analysis to explore potential predictors for primary and secondary outcome parameters. The trial will further provide the scientific foundation to support regulatory authorities in regard to approval of companion diagnostics, and recommendations for the prescription of drugs, respectively. Overall, this project aims to improve care and treatment efficacy in CVD patients through an advanced biomarker-driven PoC-based personalised medicine. To achieve these aims, a well-balanced consortium of five academic research partners and two SMEs has been brought together.

The RAP-IDD project (Rapid Development of Intracellular Drug Delivery Innovations), led by the UK SME Micropore Technologies (Micropore), supported by SME Labman Automation (Labman) and CPI, aims to develop and validate a new technology platform to encapsulate genomic material (RNA and DNA) in protective nanoparticles and integrate this with high-throughput characterisation. In a game-changing advance over current methods, the platform will be upgraded to continuous production to make it applicable to both high-throughput formulation development and continuous manufacturing - compliant with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP). If successful, this new platform will make a step-change improvement in the efficiency with which new genomic medicines progress from discovery to real application in disease prevention and treatment. The success of mRNA-based vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large increase in interest in other nucleic acid medicines that are delivered to cells via nanoparticle delivery systems. Similar technologies are being researched to enable breakthrough vaccines for other diseases, as well as targeted treatments for cancer, rare diseases and more. However, there remain barriers to successful development and manufacture of nanodelivered intracellular drugs. The encapsulation of the nucleic acids within protective nanoparticles (NPs), such as lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), is perhaps the most critical stage in the manufacturing process. Currently there are two major encapsulation technology approaches used: In research, microfluidic mixing devices are commonly used as they can quickly produce large formulation libraries while minimizing waste. However, these mixers cannot accommodate commercial-scale production volumes. Impingement jet mixing (IJM) technology was chosen as an available means to achieve large scale commercial production during the COVID pandemic, by stacking many units in parallel. However, this approach is less controllable and is wasteful and inefficient for discovery. Micropore is pioneering an alternative and patented micromixing/encapsulation technology called Advanced Crossflow (AXF) that combines the size-control and uniformity advantages of microfluidic approaches with an ability to scale up to commercial volumes, simply by increasing instrument size and material flow. The RAP-IDD project will build on this AXF technology with the aim of achieving the 'holy grail' of intracellular drug production: A single, highly-efficient, but flexible, multi-product technology platform that can span multiple phases of the drug development and production pathway -- from lab scale to commercial scale -- without the need to redevelop and re-optimise processes at different stages. The project will undertake research to de-risk and validate this approach.

To meet both the demands of a growing population and reduce the environmental impact of agriculture, there is an acute need to radically improve crop production systems globally. Vertical farming, where crops are produced in controlled environments with optimised growth mediums, water, air and nutrients, is a highly promising alternative to traditional agriculture especially in urban and/or water stressed environments. The vertical farming market is worth$3Bn globally and is predicted to reach $22Bn by 2026 (Forbes, 2018). Due to the micro-controlled environment, the resulting produce is of higher quality due to receiving the essential nutrients and water required for optimum growth and pesticide-free. The market is driven by out-of-season, year-round demand for fresh salad vegetables, especially tomatoes and leafy salad, the market value of which was £1.1bn in 2017. This project aims to revolutionise food production via controlled environment agriculture and make it globally accessible, including opening new markets in the developing world and capitalising on growing Middle Eastern vertical farming markets. In collaboration with project partners at Crop Health & Protection (CHAP) and Labman Automation Ltd, AEH Innovation Hydrogel Ltd will develop and demonstrate the novel GelPonic system based on an innovative graphene-based growth media that is affordable, long-lasting, re-usable, water-saving, conservative with respect to nutrients, and that filters out pathogens. The proposed vertical farming system will integrate the latest in renewable energy technologies, sensors and controls to significantly improve the precision, productivity and sustainability of controlled environment agriculture practices, whilst reducing carbon emissions to transform and decarbonise the industry.

A feasibility study undertaken by a UK engineering company who are looking to expand their business into the Chinese market. The study facilitates the gathering of the information required to adapt an existing product and bring two new products to market as well as form commercial partnershipes with two Chinese companies. The estimated impact of this study is in the region of £3 - £5 million over the next 10 years.