About CMAC Data Lab

Investment

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.

Graphic with a handshake icon and text indicating a £22 million industry partnership co-investment.

Project timeline

A black timeline infographic showing project milestones from July 2023 to 2025. July 2023: Award granted and announced. August 2023: Project team established. September 2023: Procurement process kicked-off. March 2025: Procurement process and equipment installation completed. 2025+: Data lab integration complete and fully embedded within CMAC.

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.

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.

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We will transform our research ecosystem through:

Line drawing of a computer with a laboratory flask, a light bulb, and gears on the screen.

Systems-level transformation spanning development, manufacture and regulation using integrated data & digital infrastructure;

MicroFactories for intensive, sustainable and adaptable, advanced processing;

Intelligent, cyber-physical, DataFactories connecting robots & people with real-time digital twins;
Advanced measurement instrumentation revealing multilength scales functional material characteristics.

A blank white sheet of paper on a white background.

This will underpin a world class portfolio of manufacturing research and establish a unique data centre that will inform scientific breakthroughs and deliver a Digital CMC toolbox. Outcomes include: enhanced R&D productivity; accelerated development and scale-up for new patient-centric products; more sustainable & resilient processes and a unique environment to train the future workforce and establish the new era of Digital CMC.

Laboratory equipment including test tubes, a flask, and a microscope on a computer screen

We will also establish new lines of research with an extended academic team from PAC that includes flow chemistry, peptide and oligonucleotide synthesis and scale-up, creating further growth whilst extending CMAC activities into chemical space associated with increased molecular complexity.

Logos of various pharmaceutical and technology companies, including ALTAIR, AstraZeneca, CDC, Chiesi, Cancer Research UK, Lilly, GSK, Huxley Bertram, KUKA, MG2, Pfizer, Siemens.

Logos of CMAC, University of Strathclyde Glasgow, UK Research England, and Scottish Funding Council