Planning permission has been granted for the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) to build a new facility that will enable UK businesses to develop innovative products and processes in formulation science.
The new £14.4m centre, based at NETPark in Sedgefield, County Durham, has been funded as part of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, and integrates with the UK government’s £28m investment in The National Formulation Centre, which is managed by CPI.
Ground will be broken at the site in August this year, with the Centre fully operational from December 2017, however the centre is already open for business with interim facilities at NETPark’s Discovery 2 building.
Projects already started include work on continuous processing for high value pharma (in collaboration with AstraZeneca) and the development of a non-invasive treatment for diabetes in a nanofacturing project in collaboration with Midatech.
Our goal is to develop a sustainable, state-of-the-art facility to complement and enhance current UK capability
The National Formulation Centre will be located with CPI's Printable Electronics and Graphene Centres, to enable a joined up approach to the development of formulated products and their applications across markets including healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
The Centre will bring together cutting-edge cross sector expertise, technology and infrastructure, and provide the environment for innovation, which aims to increase productivity and accelerate the commercialisation of next-generation formulated products.
Working with the Centre, companies will be able to join consortia to deliver projects that will create a sustainable open access capability.
Centre Director Graeme Cruickshank said: 'We are delighted to receive the go-ahead to build. Our goal is to develop a sustainable, state-of-the-art facility to complement and enhance current UK capability which will be useful for multiple formulating industries.'