UK businesses can apply for a share of up to £8 million for
projects that significantly improve the efficiency, effectiveness
and scope of medicines manufacture.
The funding is part of the government’s modern
Industrial Strategy. It is provided by UK
Research and Innovation and delivered through Innovate
UK.
Why medicines manufacturing needs to go digital
Society faces a global challenge in ensuring people everywhere
can age healthily. Infrastructure that supports this need has to
be efficient and fit for purpose.
For this to happen, there needs to be a major change in the way
we manufacture medicines with greater use of digitalisation.
This competition aims to improve manufacture, reduce waste and
costs in the medicines supply chain.
It is part of the government’s Industrial Strategy
Challenge Fund. The £181 million leading-edge healthcare fund
is designed to transform how we develop and manufacture medicines
and other healthcare products, such as digital technologies.
Improving the efficiency of medicines manufacturing
We are looking for projects that address at least 1 of 3 themes.
These are to:
- improve the UK’s capacity and capability to manufacture
small-molecule, biological, or cell or gene-based medicines
- significantly reduce the cost of manufacturing these
medicines
- significantly reduce the waste produced while manufacturing
them
This could include but is not limited to:
- improved commercially viable manufacturing processes
- methods for the reliable and robust scale-up of novel
medicines
- increased access to medicines needing just-in-time delivery,
such as medicines with a short shelf life
- increased yield of active ingredient or final product
- lower cost of production and goods
- improved integration of ordering and delivery, such as,
co-ordinating prescriptions with production scheduling
- a reduction in waste, for example, by manufacturing to order
rather than to stock
Proposals must also show how the project will increase the
productivity, competitiveness, capability or growth of at least
one UK business involved.
- this competition opens on 10 September 2018, and the deadline
for applications is midday on 3 October 2018
- UK businesses can lead a project, working alone or in
collaboration with other businesses
- total project costs can be between £2 million and £4 million
- projects must start by 1 January 2019 and last between 3 and
4 months
- you can register to attend an online briefing
event on 11 September and a London engagement
event on 21 September to find out more about the
competition and how to make a quality application
