Sustainable medicines manufacturing: Expression of interest

Competition opens: Wednesday 14 August 2024
Competition closes: Wednesday 16 October 2024 11:00am

Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to invest up to £1 million in expression of interest (EoI) projects for Grand Challenges in sustainable medicines manufacturing. This funding is part of the Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Programme.

The aim of this competition is to provide seed funding to establish a consortium and prepare a case for a later, full sustainable medicine manufacturing themed Grand Challenge award. A Grand Challenge is a large-scale collaborative research and development (CR&D) award, up to £10 million, involving at least three partners across the medicines manufacturing supply chain.

We define sustainable medicines manufacturing as the process of producing medicines in a manner that minimises environmental impact, conserves natural resources, and ensures economic and social sustainability. This approach focuses on reducing waste, energy consumption and emissions, while enhancing efficiency, safety and cost-effectiveness throughout the manufacturing lifecycle. It also includes the adoption of innovative technologies and practices that promote the long-term viability of the medicines manufacturing industry.

This competition will help unlock potential by giving organisations the capacity to collaborate in developing new innovations, technologies, tools, data sets and approaches that can ultimately contribute to a sustainable medicines manufacturing sector.

This is phase 1 of a 2-phase competition:

• Phase 1: expressions of interest (EoI) phase (this competition)
• Phase 2: full Grand Challenge phase

At this EoI phase we will support projects to:

• build consortia
• complete background information and data gathering
• develop a proposal for the Grand Challenge phase

Only successful applicants at this EoI phase will be invited to apply for the Grand Challenge phase.

In applying to this competition, you are entering into a competitive process. This competition has a funding limit, so we may not be able to fund all the proposed projects. It may be the case that your project scores highly but we are still unable to fund it.

Project size

Your project’s total costs and grant funding request for the EoI phase can be up to £100,000.

Eligibility summary

To lead a project or work alone your organisation must be a UK registered:

• business of any size
• research and technology organisation (RTO)
• catapult centre
• public sector organisation