The UK government has allocated £5.5 million in funding to establish a Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence.
The Government says the move will help to ensure UK life sciences sector “has the right talent to drive innovation and deliver its high-skilled that will help the UK respond to future health emergencies’.
This £5.5 million grant funding forms part of the £650 million ‘Life Sci for Growth’ war-chest to fire up the sector, as launched by the Chancellor in May. A competition to allocate funding, led by Innovate UK, will officially open on 26 September.
The Centre will build on existing infrastructure and best practice, and deliver sustainable, end-to-end training provision, all of which the industry needs to continue growing.
Minister of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, George Freeman MP said: “From breakthroughs in genomic medicine to agile new approaches and disease diagnostics, the £94 billion life science sector is central to our ambitions for the economy, as well as playing a fundamental role in our health. But it is only possible for the sector to stay at the front of an accelerating global race if they have a world-class workforce at their disposal.
“We already have a formidable skills base, and as home to four of the world’s top 10 universities, the infrastructure to keep growing it. The Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence will help ensure that we add to the more than 280,000 high-skilled jobs the Life Sciences sector already delivers right across the UK.”
The grant competition will launch on 26 September. The recipient of grant competition funding for the Medicines Manufacturing Centre of Excellence will be awarded by Innovate UK, the UK’s national innovation agency, as part of their Transforming Medicines Manufacturing Programme. Innovate UK supports business-led innovation in all sectors, technologies, and in every region of the UK.
Sarah Goulding – executive director, Healthy Living and Agriculture Domain at Innovate UK said: “Innovate UK is pleased to be working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to establish a Medicines Manufacturing Skills Centre of Excellence through this UK Government funding.
“Talent and skills are fundamental to successful innovation and industry growth. This investment will strengthen the UK’s medicines manufacturing skills and training ecosystem and make a real difference to the talent and skills pipeline for UK business innovation.”
