Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will invest up to £7.5 million in this competition, subject to a sufficient number of high quality applications being received.
The aim of this competition is to support the development and use of digital, automated, and robotic technologies to improve the speed and efficiency of pharmaceutical process development and manufacturing. These technologies will contribute to the vision of the Labs of the Future for medicines development and manufacturing.
This competition aims to contribute to the following objectives:
- promote the commercialisation of digital and automated medicines manufacturing innovation
- utilise data, AI or robotics to improve productivity, reduce time-to-patient, and allow scientists to focus on higher value work
- advance the integration and adoption of automation, digital, and robotics technologies across manufacturing processes and development
- support the development of a skilled workforce to ensure the effective adoption of these technologies
- promote the launch or market acceleration of new and improved products, processes, and services
This competition is open to SMEs, who can work alone or collaborate with other organisations.
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To lead a project your organisation must be a UK registered grant claiming micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME).
To work alone your organisation must be a UK registered SME.
To collaborate with the lead, your organisation must be one of the following UK registered:
- business of any size
- academic institution
- charity
- not for profit
- public sector organisation
- research and technology organisation (RTO)
- Catapult
To be an eligible collaboration, no more than 70% of the total eligible cost can be incurred by any single partner.
A UK registered micro, small or medium sized enterprise (SME) can only lead on one application but can be included as a collaborator in any number of applications. Organisations not leading an application can collaborate on any number of applications.
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The aim of this competition is to support the development and use of digital, automated, and robotic technologies to improve the speed and efficiency of pharmaceutical process development and manufacturing. These technologies will contribute to the vision of the Labs of the Future for medicines development and manufacturing.
Labs of the Future refers to the transition of traditional laboratory environments into highly efficient, intelligent, data driven laboratories where automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, and connectivity will converge to accelerate research, development and manufacture of medicines. These labs will have the potential to operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Your project must:
- develop technologies and solutions that contribute to an integrated and intelligent Lab of the Future for medicines development and manufacturing
- include expected success metrics and highlight the expected value creation, including improvements in productivity, cost, quality, speed, or other relevant metrics
- demonstrate that the innovation will integrate with, or across, existing digital, automation, and data systems to ensure seamless functionality
- consider, where appropriate, how the innovation can be flexible, scaled or adapted across multiple medicine modalities and different workflows
- identify and embed regulatory requirements relevant to the proposed innovation into the design, from the outset
- develop, or align with relevant data standards, ontologies, and interoperability frameworks where appropriate
- have a starting TRL no lower than TRL 4 and progress to TRL 6, or higher, with a realistic demonstrator that validates the technology in representative conditions, either during the project or beyond; this is for your main technology as you may have multiple areas of innovation
- commit to upskilling and reskilling the workforce involved in the innovation, including plans to engage effectively with new technologies and support adoption efforts
This programme is committed to supporting the training, upskilling, and reskilling the medicines development and manufacturing workforce in alignment with innovation, commercial strategies, and technical advancements.
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Your project can focus on one or more of the following:
- artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)
- data driven insights and decision making
- data collection, integration and interoperability
- Internet of Things (IoT) and connectivity
- technologies to enable continuous, 24 hour a day laboratory operations for intelligent labs
- laboratory automation, robotics, co-bots
- digital twins
- AI driven asset management
- predictive and autonomous supply chain management
- process analytical technology (PAT)
This is not an exhaustive list.
We are not funding projects:
- that do not link to human medicines development and manufacturing
- linked to medicines discovery
- where the primary output is specific product development workflow resulting in a new medicine, rather than a technology enabling the workflow
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Innovate UK will hold an online briefing at 11am on Friday 17 April: click here to register for a place. A recording and slides will be available afterwards.
If you would like help to find a collaboration partner, contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Health team.
Innovate UK's application and funding process
If you need more information about how to apply, please read our funding support pages. For additional support, reach out to our team of innovation experts who are ready to help you navigate the application process and maximise your chances of success.
For more information
Accessibility and Inclusion
Innovate UK welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to making our application process accessible to everyone. This includes making reasonable adjustments, for people who have a disability or a long-term condition and face barriers applying to us.
