Business

Vince Cable Travels To Scotland To Open New Pharmaceutical Centre In Project Led By The Engineering And Physical Sciences Research Council

Pharmaceutical facilities can only function successfully when they benefit from top-quality equipment.  Luckily for bosses, it is now straightforward to find excellent laminar air flow systems, biohazard safety cabinet solutions and more. 

By heading online, managers can take their pick from an impressive selection of products. As long as they choose reliable and skilled providers that are capable of delivering the necessary standard of equipment, they can ensure they will get the results they are seeking.

EPSRC

One organisation that is acutely aware of the importance of having excellent facilities is the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). It is the main UK government agency for funding research and training in the fields of engineering and physical sciences. Each year, it spends over £800 million on disciplines ranging from mathematics to structural engineering.

It has been involved in a project bringing together leading academics and industrialists from around Britain to find more effective ways of manufacturing products. As part of the initiative, a new pharmaceutical research centre has been developed at Strathclyde University. The facility was officially opened by business secretary Vince Cable.

More details 

Called the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Continuous Manufacturing and Crystallisation (CMAC), it is receiving more than £25 million of government funding, plus industry and charitable contributions of £22.8 million.

The project involves Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Glasgow, Loughborough and Bath universities.

Important role 

Commenting on the role of Scottish institutions in collaborations like this, Mr Cable said: “One of the strengths of Scottish universities is that world-class science and research is done here, but it is strengthened by the fact that it is part of the UK network and very substantial amounts of funding do come from the UK government, they also come from the Scottish government, there is a very strong sense of working together and that’s the way we want to keep it.”

He went on to state: “Scotland not only benefits from strong research investment but the rest of the country also benefits from the excellent innovation and entrepreneurial spirit we see in Scottish universities. The UK is ranked second only to the US in terms of world-class research. The UK’s life sciences sector employs almost 170,000 people in more than 4,500 companies across industries such as health, agriculture, medicine and food science. Our continued investment in this area will strengthen our global position, creating new jobs and maintaining the UK as a world leader in medical research.”

Meanwhile, principal of the University of Strathclyde Sir Jim McDonald stated that the new centre is a good example of how world-class academics and industrialists can collaborate for the benefit of the economy and society more generally. According to Sir Jim, by working together, it is possible to “accelerate the development of innovative technology”, establish new supply chains for medical resources and improve health for people around the world.

Projects like this would not be possible without the impressive range of equipment that is now available to organisations around the world.

About the Author – Anna Longdin is a freelance blogger who has written on the subject of medical and pharmaceutical equipment for a variety of top sites. This piece used the website for Contained Air Solutions as research.