Leeds helps secure £9.9m funding to help build medicine factory of the future
The University of Leeds has secured new funding to help develop the medicine factory of the future, joining a significant national effort to modernise and decarbonise UK pharmaceutical manufacturing.
“A Sustainable Future Factory”, a £9.9 million government-backed project bolstered by an additional £3.9 million from industry, will be led by AstraZeneca UK under the Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Programme (SMMIP). The initiative brings together robotics, automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and advanced data-driven methods to develop the next generation of sustainable, efficient, future-ready medicines manufacturing.
Researchers at the University of Leeds, led by Professor Richard Bourne and Dr Gilian Thomas from the School of Chemistry, will play a key role in advancing self-optimising systems for manufacturing, enabling production processes that can continuously adjust and improve in real time.
The Leeds team will focus on integrating sustainability metrics directly into optimisation platforms, ensuring that environmental impact becomes a core driver in process design and decision-making. Researchers will also develop real-time monitoring technologies and feedback loops that enable factories to respond rapidly to changes, reduce waste and energy use, and improve process reliability.
These advances will contribute to the broader project's ambition to build medicines factories that are cleaner, smarter, and more adaptable, which are essential for improving the sustainability and resilience of the UK’s life sciences sector.
Dr Thomas said: “We’re thrilled to be part of this major national effort to transform medicines manufacturing. Collaborating with 18 partners, including Professor Bourne’s spin-out Coretech, allows us to bring our expertise in self-optimising and sustainable manufacturing systems to the table, while working together to tackle the complex challenges facing life sciences.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity to combine innovation, collaboration, and real-world impact, helping to shape the factories of the future.”
A UK-wide push
The award was announced as part of more than £74 million in new government and industry backing for the UK’s life sciences innovators, supporting the national Industrial Strategy’s goal of strengthening the country’s global competitiveness in health and life sciences.
A Sustainable Future Factory is one of eight major R&D projects funded through the Sustainable Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Programme, delivered by Innovate UK and supported through the 2024 Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG).
Collectively, the projects aim to accelerate greener, more efficient approaches to medicines manufacturing, including from recycling anaesthetic gases to converting spent nuclear fuel into next-generation cancer therapies.
Science and technology secretary Liz Kendall said: “The life sciences sector is a core part of our Industrial Strategy for good reason: it turns over £150 billion a year, supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, and is a magnet for investment. Its success will be critical to the economic growth we need, to deliver this government’s mission of national renewal.
“Life sciences are also fundamental to our health and wellbeing. It is only thanks to the brilliance of doctors and scientists that so many diseases of the past can now be treated, prevented, and cured. We are backing Britain’s life sciences innovators to keep pushing forward, to find new and better ways to improve and save lives.”
