Groundbreaking highlights from 20 years of innovation

CPI was born in the North East of England in 2004. It was established as a catalyst to bring together academia, businesses, government and investors with the aim of translating bright ideas and research into real commercial products in the marketplace.

Over the following 20 years, CPI has flourished, harnessing scientific knowledge and skills to ensure that the UK remains competitive in a growing global marketplace.

Our job is to facilitate transformative innovation. Innovation that takes inventions and makes them better making the world a healthier, more sustainable place.

Here are just some of the major highlights from our first two decades in each of the major sectors we work in.

AgriFoodTech

• 2007. Launch of the National Industrial Biotechnology Facility for testing whether ideas born on the lab bench will work at commercial scale, by reducing the risk and cost for commercialising sustainable biotechnology processes.

• 2016. Sustainable, non-animal, high-protein fish feed. Calysta chooses CPI as its base facility for natural methane fermentation to manufacture sample quantities of FeedKind®, a safe, traceable alternative to fishmeal made from wild-caught fish, or agricultural feedstocks.

• 2023. Launch of the Novel Food Innovation Centre to provide world-class, FSSC2200-accredited facilities for developing and scaling up novel foods, animal feeds and nutraceuticals such as alternative proteins and fish feed.

• 2024. CPI, MarraBio and Aelius Biotech awarded half a million pounds in funding from Innovate UK to develop more cost-effective methods for cultivated meat development that cut food production-related emissions.

Energy

• 2007. The world’s first fuel-cell-powered lighthouse. CPI worked with PD Ports, Pelangi, Schunk and Air Products to produce the environmentally friendly hydrogen fuel cell. It powers the industrially important South Gare lighthouse at the mouth of the River Tees.

• 2017. Biggest batch of seaweed harvested in the UK for bioenergy. A milestone in CPI’s work with SeaGas to assess the potential for farming sugar kelp seaweed as a bioenergy option.

• 2020. Successful demonstration of radical next-generation battery technology. LiNa Energy’s novel sodium-nickel-chloride battery could become a viable, cheaper, smaller, safer and more efficient alternative to lithium-cobalt ion batteries for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.

• 2023. Funding acquired for the Advanced Materials Battery Industrialisation Centre to boost British production of sustainable batteries. The Centre will help bridge the gap between academic research and commercialisation as the world continues to transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy.

HealthTech

• 2009. Launch of the National Printable Electronics Centre, designed to accelerate the development and commercialisation of printed and flexible electronics, such as those embedded in fabrics and clothes to track athlete performance or patient health.

• 2012. Pragmatic ​’s flexible electronics printing moves into commercial production at the National Printable Electronics Centre. This serves as a testbed for the device design, process optimisation and circuit functionality of their flexible semiconductor technology.

• 2015. Intelligent packaging for pharmaceuticals. CPI, GSK and the University of Cambridge develop technologies that will spearhead the commercialisation of intelligent pharmaceutical packaging.

• ⁠ 2019. Launch of the National Healthcare Photonics Centre to accelerate the development and commercialisation of new light-based medical technologies used for diagnostics and treatments.

• ⁠ 2022. CPI, ABHI and Innovate UK announce £7 million in joint funding for the Health Technology Regulatory and Innovation Programme. This scheme supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in navigating the HealthTech regulatory process on the way to commercialisation.

Materials

• 2017. National Formulation Centre opens at NETPark in Sedgefield to help companies by providing them with the tools and expertise needed to reduce the risks and costs associated with taking their next-generation formulated products to market.

• ⁠ 2023. Launch of the Centre of Expertise in Advanced Materials and Sustainability, bringing together a consortium of partners to support the development and commercialisation of advanced sustainable materials.

• ⁠ 2024. Reducing emissions by recycling carbon into everyday products. The Flue2chem initiative begins a trial to test using carbon dioxide captured from factory chimney emissions to make products such as washing detergents. CPI is playing a pivotal role in helping convert the captured carbon into the chemical building blocks of surfactants, a primary component of cleaning agents.

Pharma

• 2015. Launch of the National Biologics Manufacturing Centre, which provides companies with expertise and state-of-the-art facilities to develop new biopharmaceutical products and manufacturing processes. This boosts the UK’s manufacturing capability in biologics such as vaccines and RNA therapeutics.

• ⁠ 2018. Developing cost-effective regenerative medicines. CPI begins work with Cobra Biologics and GE Healthcare Life Sciences to pioneer a new way of delivering critical gene therapy treatments to patients through the manufacture of their adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors.

• ⁠ 2019. Making medicines faster, more robustly and efficiently. Work begins on the Continuous Direct Compression line for faster optimisation of oral solid drug formulations, with the aim of getting new medicines into the hands of patients more safely and quickly.

• ⁠ 2020. CPI joins UK Government Vaccine Taskforce. CPI helps combat COVID-19 by helping to identify and produce novel mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidates. In 2021, CPI’s work was boosted by a £5 million investment to develop a ​‘library’ of vaccines for new COVID-19 variants.

• ⁠ 2022. Opening of the Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre in Glasgow City Region. The Centre is a world-leading facility for pharmaceuticals founded by CPI with partners AstraZeneca, GSK, the University of Strathclyde, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Scottish Enterprise that is already delivering on its promised impact.

• ⁠ 2023. Launch of the RNA Centre of Excellence, a first-of-its-kind facility in the UK. It builds on existing expertise and experience to drive UK innovation leadership in pandemic preparedness and RNA therapeutics in this GMP-certified facility and RNA training academy.

• ⁠ 2023. Announcement of the Oligonucleotide Manufacturing Innovation Centre of Excellence for the development of innovative and sustainable oligonucleotide-based therapeutics (medicines based on synthetic fragments of DNA and RNA) to treat cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative and chronic illnesses.

Along the way we’ve undergone some fundamental transformations as an organisation. In 2011, CPI became a founding member of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, a network of centres across the UK that provides access to technical expertise, skills, infrastructure and equipment to help business, researchers and government deliver industrial transformation.

Recognising the increasing needs of innovators, we launched CPI Enterprises in 2020. This venture capital and investor engagement arm of CPI supports high-potential, early-stage deep tech companies that work with CPI.

What we’ve accomplished in our first 20 years has exceeded expectations. We’ve become a leading centre for innovation across several markets. And, while we are immensely proud of our achievements so far, there is no time to rest on our laurels. We will continue to build on this experience and accelerate innovation for the next 20 years and beyond.