CMAC Data Lab: A Digital Medicine Manufacturing Research Accelerator

CMAC Receives £11 Million UKRPIF Award to Advance Research Infrastructure and Accelerate Innovation in Medicines Manufacturing

The University of Strathclyde’s Continuous Manufacturing and Advanced Crystallisation (CMAC) medicines manufacturing research centre are delighted to announce a new £11 million award from UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF) to deliver the CMAC Data Lab: A Digital Medicine Manufacturing Research Accelerator.

This significant capital investment is CMAC’s third award from UKRPIF, continuing our strategic approach to establish world class research infrastructure for medicines manufacturing. The award secures an additional co-investment of £23.73 million from CMAC industry and charity partners.

Prof. Alastair Florence, Director, CMAC and Data Lab lead said: “This new £33M UKRPIF partnership will transform CMAC’s facilities through investment in a suite of innovative technologies that will allow us to address our research goals of human-centric, sustainable and resilient medicines development and manufacture.

This fantastic investment enables us to serve the broader medicines manufacturing community by establishing a new toolbox to drive the digital transformation of Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC) processes. Our objective is to expedite the development, manufacturing and regulatory processes of medicines, fostering faster, smarter, and more efficient operations.

The UKRPIF Data Lab will establish CMAC as a world class data centre for digital medicines manufacturing and creates an integrated cyber-physical infrastructure that leverages data, robotics, digital twins, AI, analytics and advanced process technologies. In doing so, the centre and our partners will be positioned as a beacon for training and developing future CMC scientists and innovation leaders, supporting a sustainable, efficient, digitally driven, and patient-centric pharmaceutical industry.”

The CMAC Data Lab will be a world-first Industry 5.0 research facility that will support a critical mass of new research that will revolutionise the way we design, develop, manufacture, and regulate medicines through the digitalisation of CMC processes. The Data Lab builds on our recent UKRPIF Net Zero pilot and allows us to go further in reducing the emissions generated from our research.

With investment in new capabilities around peptide and oligonucleotide production, this award also enabled CMAC to address challenges in bringing these new medicines to patients. CMAC will work with its partners to fully integrate the benefits of this unique resource into the wider UK research, development and innovation ecosystem.

For more information on the CMAC Data Lab, please contact Prof. Alastair Florence: alastair.florence@strath.ac.uk