Process R&D lab brings academia and industry together
pharmafile | December 3, 2009 | News story | Research and Development | Leeds, chemicals
A newly-opened laboratory at the University of Leeds in the UK will help support the development of ‘greener, cheaper and more effective chemicals’ for the pharmaceutical and fine chemical sectors.
The new lab, which has been funded to the tune of £4.3 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Yorkshire Forward, is part of the University’s Institute of Process Research and Development (iPRD).
The iPRD was set up last year to bring academics in the chemistry and engineering specialties together with their counterparts from industry to work on areas of common interest, such as more environmentally-friendly processes, extraction of compounds from natural sources and improved crystallisation techniques.
The am is to carry out “medium to long-term strategic R&D” that companies may find difficult to devote time and resources to but which can help solve generic problems facing industry, according to the iPRD technical director Prof John Blacker.
To that end, the iPRD operates an industry consortium of around a dozen large pharmaceutical fine chemical and agrochemical companies, with all parties working together on areas of broad interest.
“If we’re tackling the right problems in the right way with the right commercial influences, we’re much more likely to come up with solutions that can be adopted by the industry,” Blacker told Pharmafocus.
To date, the iPRD has already won a mix of research and industry funded projects worth around £5 million, and the addition of the lab space will allow it to take existing projects to a higher level, as well as take on more ambitious work, he said.
The iPRD will also work with companies on specific processing challenges, and plans to provide custom manufacturing services for companies, particular smaller, R&D-focused operations that may find it hard to gain access to chemical research, process development and manufacturing capacity.
Blacker believes the lab is unique in Europe – outside the commercial arena – because of the close collaboration between chemists and engineers and its ability to handle large-scale reactions.
Another unique feature is the use of the lab to train post-graduate students in chemical processing, answering a general shortage in the UK workforce for people with these skills.
Leeds is currently the only university in the UK offering a course in process R&D, and will now be able to give students the additional opportunity to receive hands-on training in an operating process lab, he said.
When fully completed in March 2010, the lab will boast analytical, batch and continuous processing equipment, a 20- to 50-litre testing and production facility, reaction hazard and process testing calorimeters and a suite of on-line process analytical technology (PAT) equipment, together with a training room and offices.
The capital investment in the project amounts to £2.5 million, with the remainder of the funding going to operate the lab over the next five years, according to Blacker. And although the iPRD is not a commercial enterprise, the unit will also be able to raise revenues through specific, one-to-one research projects contracted by industry, he added.
The Leeds project is part of a broader scheme that has also seen the establishment of a contract analytical laboratory at the University of Huddersfield. All told the funding in the project stands at £7.3 million.
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